Best A&E

The must-see shows, best albums, and people to watch.

December 2008

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The Best:

Holiday Show
Nutcracker
Choral Show
Visiting Act
Orchestral Event
Play
A & E Trend
Concert for Kids

Newcomer to the Arts Scene
Visit from Broadway
Rock Album
Hip-Hop Album
Folk/Roots Album
Jazz Album
Classical Album

Holiday Show

Penumbra Theatre’s Black Nativity. You have to admit it: Lots of holiday shows have their creepy side (ghosts, rats, grinches, et cetera), but Penumbra Theatre’s Black Nativity is all about celebration. The show has continued to evolve over the years and now includes many of the Twin Cities’ finest singers and dancers, all of whom know how to send audiences home smiling. Nov. 28–Dec. 28. Penumbra Theatre, 270 N. Kent St., St. Paul, 651-224-3180 [top]

Nutcracker

Minnesota Dance Theatre’s Nutcracker Fantasy. For forty-seven years, Minnesota Dance Theatre has been pulling out the stops to present its annual feat of fantasy and magic. Featuring more than sixty dancers, the luscious choreography of Loyce Houlton, and a forty-two-piece orchestra conducted by Philip Brunelle, MDT’s Nutcracker Fantasy has always been the undisputed king of Nutcracker s—and this year is no different. Dec. 19–24. State Theatre, 805 Hennepin Ave., Mpls., 612-338-0627 [top]

Choral Show

VocalEssence’s Welcome Christmas! It should come as no surprise that the best choral show of the season is being presented by the best choral group around: VocalEssence. The troupe’s Welcome Christmas! concerts are special because in addition to familiar holiday songs, they introduce listeners to seasonal music no one’s ever heard before. This year’s special feature is the world premiere of “El Niño de los Andes,” written for VocalEssence by Ecuadorian composer Diego Luzuriaga, as well as two new carols from the eleventh annual VocalEssence/American Composers Forum Christmas Carol Contest. Dec. 7–14. Various locations, 612-547-1451 [top]

Best Local Albums 2008

ROCK

First Communion Afterparty, Sorry for All the Mondays and to Those Who Can’t Sing. While it’s important for any young group of musicians experimenting with neo-psychedelica to spend time cultivating an air of languid, acid-drenched debauchery, it was unclear whether this one, FCAP, felt it was as important to, you know, actually make a record. After adding veteran guitar player Joey Werner, Liam Watkins’s band of merry cranksters have capitalized on the promise of their stage show with an album of droned-out psych-pop, highlighted by the opening track, “2CB.” [top]

HIP-HOP

Doomtree, Doomtree. Doomtree, a collective of ten (or more) deejays and emcees straight outta a shared crashpad in Uptown, released another of 2008’s longtime-coming projects, their first full-length group effort, Doomtree. The beats are flecked with loops of jazz guitar, horns, and woodwinds. Each track serves as a minimalist showcase for the competing verbal personalities—Cecil Otter’s smart-ass staccato, P.O.S.’s abstract smolder, Dessa’s R-E-S-P-E-C-T me dignity—executing dexterous verse-to-verse handoffs. [top]

FOLK/ROOTS

New Roots Duo, Roots Run Deep. Finger-style guitarists Ben Woolman and Dan Schwarz traded in their traditional guitars for an acoustic baritone and lap-steel guitar, and the result was a new kind of acoustic music that seemed to grow organically out of these strangely paired instruments. By turns fiery and meditative, their first album was, we hope, a hint of even greater things to come. [top]

JAZZ

Kelly Rossum, Family. Spiky-haired trumpeter Kelly Rossum (Out to Lunch Quintet, NOWNet) branched out on his own (sort of) this year, teaming up with the brothers Bates (JT on drums, Chris on bass) and pianist Bryan Nichols to produce a jazz album that respects, of all things, melody. Taking an almost old-fashioned approach, Rossum starts with simple pieces—two or three notes—and builds the edifice from there, capturing the whole thing with an equally spare use of recording gimmickry. Cool, unpretentious, and accessible, Family is a perfect cocktail-party CD. [top]

CLASSICAL

Minnesota Orchestra, Beethoven’s Symphonies nos. 2 & 7. The Minnesota Orchestra completed its epic Beethoven cycle with two recordings that are, if anything, crisper and tighter than the ones that got Osmo Vänskä and crew so much attention from critics a couple of years ago. Simply put, the orchestra got better at Beethoven, and in classical musical circles, Vänskä’s Seventh is being hailed as quite possibly the best rendition of Beethoven’s no. 7 ever recorded. Who are we to disagree? [top]

Visiting Act

Jazz Master Yusef Lateef. Legendary Grammy–winning jazz master Yusef Lateef plays nine instruments (tenor saxophone, flute, oboe, bamboo flute, shanai, shofar, argol, sarewa, and Taiwan koto) and is a virtuoso on all of them. It’s been more than ten years since he visited these parts, so his concert with Twin Cities–based instrument builder Douglas Ewart and longtime Art Ensemble of Chicago saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell is a don’t-miss affair. (Co-presented with the Northrop Jazz Series.) Dec. 6. William and Nadine McGuire Theater, Walker Art Center, 1750 Hennepin Ave., Mpls., 612-375-7600 [top]

Orchestral Event

Minnesota Orchestra Bernstein Festival. For three weeks in January, the Minnesota Orchestra devotes itself to the legend of the man who made classical music more accessible to more people than anyone, Leonard Bernstein. The Bernstein Festival features a dizzying array of work, including his Broadway music, his Symphony no. 1 Jeremiah, his rarely performed Mass (which includes more than 250 performers), and, in a tribute to Bernstein’s dedication to young listeners, a series of young people’s concerts that only cost $6 a ticket. Jan. 15–31. Orchestra Hall, 1111 Nicollet Mall, Mpls., 612-371-5656 [top]

Play

Pure Confidence, Mixed Blood Theatre. Picking the best play of the winter season in advance is tricky, but Mixed Blood Theatre’s Pure Confidence has more going for it than most. Written by local playwright Carlyle Brown and directed by Marion McClinton, Pure Confidence tells the story of jockey (and slave) Simon Cato, who was one of the finest jockeys ever. This isn’t just a historical retelling, though—it’s a delicate and sometimes humorous examination of the complicated relationship between slaves and their masters in pre-Civil War Kentucky, especially when a race is on the line. Jan. 15–Feb. 8. Mixed Blood Theatre, 1501 S. 4th St., Mpls., 612-338-6131 [top]

A & E Trend

Anniversaries. This year, we learned that more than twenty-five local arts organizations were celebrating an anniversary during 2008 or the 2008–09 season. From the twentieth year of Spoon and Cherry to fifty years of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra to the Schubert Club’s impressive 125th birthday, the Twin Cities arts scene has plenty to celebrate, and even more to look forward to. [top]

Hippest Concert for Kids

Peter Himmelman’s Family Show at the Cedar. The morning after his adult show at the Cedar in December, Minnesota’s most prolific troubador, Peter Himmelman, will do a family show, drawing from his four award-winning children’s albums. Whether he’s singing or just talking, Himmelman is a first-class storyteller who knows how to make kids listen and laugh. Dec. 21. Cedar Cultural Center, 416 Cedar Ave. S., Mpls., 612-338-2674 [top]

Newcomer to the Arts scene

Olga Viso, Director, Walker Art Center. The transition from the Walker Art Center’s previous director Kathy Halbreich to its new chief, Olga Viso, could not have gone more smoothly. Viso has seamlessly inserted herself into the local arts scene and quietly taken charge of our most renegade arts institution. Her most significant achievement thus far: mending the relationship between the Walker and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts by forging a collaborative friendship with the MIA’s new director, Kaywin Feldman. [top]

Visit from Broadway

Spring Awakening. The winner of eight Tony awards in 2007, including best musical, Spring Awakening makes its area debut at the Orpheum in January. Slightly risqué and even a little naughty, the musical is set in the 1890s, but features an indie-rock score by Duncan Shiek. The show includes some rather graphic teen sexuality and includes heavier themes of incest and rape, but has been hailed by critics for its daring and innovation. Jan. 27–Feb. 1. The Orpheum, 905 Hennepin Ave., Mpls., 612-373-5600 [top]