Tommy Jarrell's Sound Makes 'A Kindly Visitation' at UK
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 13, 2014) — As part of a residency with artist James Leva, the life of traditional folk musician Thomas Jefferson Jarrell will come to life in two performances from the play "A Kindly Visitation." Bluegrass audiences can take in the play 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 14, at University of Kentucky Singletary Center for the Arts Recital Hall. Later the same week, Leva and his fellow musicians from the play will present music from the work as part of the "Appalachia in the Bluegrass" concert series. The concert performance will be presented noon Friday, Oct. 17, in the Niles Gallery, located in the Lucille C. Little Fine Arts Library and Learning Center. Both events are free and open to the public.
"A Kindly Visitation," a play by Leva, is based on the stories and music of the legendary North Carolina musician Thomas Jefferson Jarrell (1901-1985). Two narrators, both musicians, recall their own youthful visits with Tommy Jarrell in the 1970s and early 80s. Two other musician/actors use simple props (a fedora, a pair of glasses, for example) to enact flashbacks of Jarrell's stories.
Jarrell learned most of his music before recordings and radio became available. He was of that last generation of musicians who learned from other musicians. Every tune or song he played had a story to go with it, usually including the musicians from whom he’d heard the piece.
The actors recall this cast of characters whose lives reach back into the early 19th century and the frontier culture in early 20th century Appalachia. The play features flashbacks of Jarrell’s telling of these tales and playing the tunes with which they are forever linked for the narrators, who are representative of the large number of visitors who were welcomed into the musician’s home. The music and storytelling is enhanced by over 100 photographs which are projected on a screen behind the four actor/musicians. The play also features several dance numbers.
"A Kindly Visitation" is performed by Leva, Riley Baugus, Danny Knicely and Ira Bernstein. Leva, a native of Rockbridge County, Virginia, is a fiddler, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who began playing traditional Appalachian music as a teen. His visits to, and friendships with such great traditional musicians as Jarrell and Doug Wallin, informed his music with a great appreciation and respect for the deep roots of the music and culture of the mountains.
Leva has used this foundation to explore the Celtic and African roots of the music in projects with Irish guitarist John Doyle and Mande musicians such as Cheick Hamala Diabate and Bassekou Kouyate. He has also experimented with the role traditionally based music can play in contemporary music with bands such as The Free Will Savages, The Renegades, Plank Road, The Hellbenders and his current band, Purgatory Mountain. His CDs with Carol Elizabeth Jones, as Jones & Leva on the Rounder label, consisted of all original material and the recordings won wide praise and rave reviews.
As a musician, Leva has performed at most of the major festivals in North America and Europe, including Telluride, Merlefest, RockyGrass, Strawberry, Wheatlands, Grey Fox, Tonder, Nyon and many others. More recently he has performed at Aulnay All Blues, outside of Paris, and in Tunisia and Morocco on a tour sponsored by the U.S. State Department. Leva has a doctoral degree in French literature from the University of Virginia and was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to Paris after receiving his undergraduate degree from Washington and Lee University.
Riley Baugus, who was born and raised near Winston-Salem, North Carolina, started playing banjo at the age of 10. He was inspired by the traditional Appalachian music that he heard in his family’s community in the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina and on the records played and cherished by his family. He also learned as a young man from such greats as Jarrell, Dix Freeman and Robert Sykes. Baugus has played with numerous old time string bands, including The Red Hots and the Old Hollow Stringband, and currently plays with Dirk Powell, Old Buck and with Ira Bernstein.
Baugus built the banjos that appear in the Academy Award-winning film "Cold Mountain," and his singing features on the soundtrack. He has toured throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe and more recently, in Australia. Baugus can also be heard on the Grammy Award-winning recording by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, “Raising Sand,” and the Willie Nelson release called, “Country Music.”
Danny Knicely comes from a musical family steeped in a mountain music tradition for generations. He first learned music from his grandfather, A.O. Knicely, who has been playing dances and social events in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia since the 1930s. Knicely has used his roots in old time and bluegrass to explore various types of music in the U.S. and from around the world. He has shared his music and collaborated with musicians in nearly a dozen countries spanning four continents, including U.S. State Department tours in Tunisia and Morocco.
As a multi-instrumentalist, Knicely has won many awards for his mandolin, guitar, fiddle and flatfooting expertise, including first place in the mandolin contest at the prestigious Telluride Bluegrass Festival.
Born and raised in the suburbs of New York City, Ira Bernstein began dancing traditional Appalachian clogging and flatfooting and playing the fiddle as a college student in 1978 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where there was a vibrant old time music and dance community. Bernstein's education in these old time traditions was at weekly community-style square dances and numerous weekend and holiday social gatherings that were centered on the music and dance. His earliest group experiences were as a member of the Mill Creek Cloggers, and the Marlboro Morris and Sword team. He later went on to perform with the highly influential, professional companies the Fiddle Puppets, and the American Tap Dance Orchestra.
Bernstein was also the lead soloist in "Rhythms of the Celts," which ran for six weeks at the prestigious Waterfront Theatre in Belfast, Ireland, as well as a guest soloist with Rhythm in Shoes and the Vanaver Caravan. He has performed in concerts and at festivals all across the U.S. and Canada, as well as in 16 other countries around Europe and Asia. Bernstein has shared the stage with many of the world's greatest tap and step dancers, including Gregory Hines, Savion Glover, Honi Coles, Jimmy Slyde and Chuck Green, and has appeared numerous times on television and in theatrical productions. He was also one of the artistic creators and featured soloists in "Mountain Legacy," and is the director of the Ten Toe Percussion Ensemble. Bernstein has repeatedly won first place in the Mount Airy Fiddler's Convention old time flatfooting competition. He lives in Asheville, in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina.
Leva's residence is presented as part of the “Appalachia in the Bluegrass” concert series. The series celebrates the old time roots of American folk music by featuring a diverse range of traditional musical expression. The concert series will showcase 13 different artists, duos and groups from southern Appalachia ranging from artists straight off their front porch to those who have earned international acclaim. The concert series is generously presented by the John Jacob Niles Center for American Music, a collaborative research and performance center maintained by the UK College of Fine Arts, UK School of Music and UK Libraries.
For more information on the “Appalachia in the Bluegrass” concert series or the James Leva events, contact Ron Pen, director of the Niles Center, by email to Ron.Pen@uky.edu or visit the website at http://finearts.uky.edu/music/niles.
MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Hale, 859-257-8716; whitney.hale@uky.edu