Washington detours

Music

last update: Tuesday, 23 November 2004

last link check: Monday 31 March 2003

I don't get out to clubs all that often. But when Baltimore's Lisa Cerbone has a gig at IOTA, I'm there. Lisa writes lyrical, intensely personal pop songs with a unique tilt. Her music has the gritty urban sensibility that, say, Jewel would have if the Alaskan had grown up in Bruce Springsteen's Asbury Park. The sardonic first verse of Lisa's mid-tempo "Close Your Eyes," the title track from the first CD, over a fiddle obbligato, reads:

His hand was large against my breast. I gave him my body but he was never impressed. And when I took off my dress he said, "I guess you haven't lost that weight since your baby." This coming from a man who's balding, a man who'll someday weigh 280.

I tell him to close your eyes, close your eyes, dream of someone pretty from a magazine, from a magazine if you like.

Lisa is a two-time winner of the Washington Area Music Association's WAMMIE award in the alternative female vocal category. Her sweet singing voice is likewise distinctive; it counterpoises the harshness of some of her lyrics, while the backing band provides inventive supporting textures. Both Close Your Eyes and the second CD, Mercy, were released on the Ichiban label. The third album will be on a new label—and it's finally here!

IOTA is part of the strip of restaurants and nightspots in Arlington's ethnic Clarendon neighborhood. The club has a respectable set of beer taps and just the right ambience. A recent expansion left an intriguing section of load-bearing brick wall running down the main axis of the room.

On the art music side, consider either of the two chamber groups led by Christopher Kendall. He is one the Artistic Directors of the Folger Consort, which performs early music in residence at the Folger Shakespeare Library. Remaining concerts in the 2004-05 season include:

• "Feliz Navidad," December, 2004.
• "When Notre Dame Was New," at the Washington National Cathedral, January, 2005.
• "Flauto Dolce," March, 2005.
• "Italian Fantasia," April, 2005.
• "Playing with Fire," May, 2005.

At the other end of the chronological scale is the 20th Century Consort, which performs in association with the Smithsonian Institution. The Consort includes several first chairs of the National Symphony Orchestra. All performances include a pre-performance discussion, often with the composers, and a post-concert reception; they take place in the Ring Auditorium of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

Kendall is Director of the School of Music at the University of Maryland. His programs are always eclectic, instructional, and entertaining, and the musicianship is first-rate.

Reviews of Folger Consort and 20th Century Consort concerts by me:

• 20th Century Consort, "Simple Gifts,", April 2000
• The Folger Consort, "A French Noel," December 1999

My girlfriend Leta sings with Arlington's Metropolitan Chorus, and our friend Les plays trumpet for the New Hots Jazz Orchestra.

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