Outdoor Concert Friday Evening, June 17

Weather's looking great for our outdoor concert in downtown Princeton this Friday evening, June 17. In addition to our trio of sax/clarinet, keyboard and upright bass, we'll have special guest Lars Wendt on trombone and trumpet. A trombonist with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, Lars is heavy into jazz as well, covering the range from serene harmony to gut bucket blues.

We'll be taking a journey in the key of D, greening the blues, waltzing for Ruth, testing the waters along Funky River, and will be on the prowl for some Ruum to Rumba.

Join us, 7-9pm, Hinds Plaza, just outside the library on Witherspoon Street. Thanks to the Princeton Public Library for sponsoring this event.

Original Compositions To Listen To Online

In the 1980s and '90s, I was musical director for a jazz/latin band originally called the Lunar Glee Club. We felt like a club, played with considerable glee, and sang with our instruments, but we eventually changed the name to Lunar Octet, to avoid any expectation that we'd actually launch into a group sing. It started as a composers' workshop, and developed into a working band playing all original music in Michigan and beyond. Some of the recordings, which I would say have aged very well, have been compiled on a website developed by drummer Jon Krosnick, and can be listened to by going to the following links.

Below are lists of tunes I contributed to the recordings. The first three are the 3rd, 4th, and 2nd I ever composed. What a treat to listen back to the talented musicians I had the pleasure of working with through those years.

Scroll down to these 1986 recordings by the 9-piece Ann Arbor-based Lunar Glee Club of

Caged Bird Swings
Sock Shadow Soup
Lefty Gets the Go

Scroll down to these 1994 recordings by the Lunar Octet.

Toote Suite
All In a Day's Dream
Yes!Yes!Yes!
Flugel Tune
Bird of Paradox

GIGS UPCOMING

June 17: Hinds Plaza, next to the Princeton Public Library, 7-9pm
Featuring the trio plus Lars Wendt on trombone and trumpet

June 18: Labyrinth Bookstore, 3-5pm, lower level
Original climate theater sketches interspersed with sustainable jazz, all hatched in Princeton, NJ.

Recent Gigs on the Green Side of Life

This spring, we've been playing our originals and jazz standards on the green side of life, be it a corporate headquarters, a land trust or a church.

On Earthday, April 22, Sustainable Jazz played in the shade of a serviceberry tree at Church and Dwight corporate headquarters in Princeton, for staff and various nonprofits assembled for the occasion. That's Jerry D'Anna on bass, Peter Lauffer on keyboard, and myself on camera. Church and Dwight, makers of Arm and Hammer products, is a big supporter of sustainability initiatives in Princeton.

On Mayday we played for a gala event at one of the east coast's premier land trusts, DR Greenway, where Wade R. Martin was given the 2016 Donald B. Jones Conservation Award. This marked the first time we've performed the Sustainable Jazz original repertoire with two horn players. Lars Wendt covered the range from serene harmony on flugelhorn to gut-bucket blues on trombone. Peter Lauffer laid down a groove on keyboard. Among Pete's credits are traveling internationally with alto-saxophone great, Richie Cole. (Thanks to Sarah Roberts for the photo.) 

Earlier in the year, we transformed ourselves into the Crescent City Jazz Band to play traditional New Orleans jazz at the annual Cajun-Creole Potluck Dinner at Trinity Church in Princeton. They liked our recipe for musical gumbo so much they booked us for the next four Mardi Gras. Phil Orr's in back, making it all happen on the grand piano.

Sustainable Jazz at Communiversity and a DR Greenway Gala

Spring has sprung. Some upcoming gigs:

COMMUNIVERSITY--Sunday, April 17, 2-2:30pm, Paul Robeson Stage
              Pianist Phil Orr and I will be dropped by solar powered helicopter into the midst of the Princeton Arts Council's Communiversity, for a half hour of locally sourced jazz. The stage is on Witherspoon Street, close to the Princeton Public Library and the Arts Council.

DR GREENWAY'S MAY DAY PICNIC FOR PRESERVATION--Sunday, May 1, 4-6pm, Johnson Education Center, 1 Preservation Place, Princeton
           Sustainable Jazz returns to DR Greenway's mission central to play as part of a gala event celebrating the preservation work of Wade R. Martin. Tickets available at this link.

Leap Day Clarinet Anniversary

This Leblanc clarinet came into my life 48 years ago on Leap Day, 1968. The salesman actually showed up at our house--at the end of a deadend street in a small Wisconsin town, surrounded by woods. The number 400 sticks in my mind for the price, a lot of money at that time.

Mardi Gras Potluck in Princeton This Tuesday, Feb. 9

The Sustainable Jazz Ensemble will be transformed into the Crescent City Jazz Band this Tuesday, Feb. 9, at 6pm. Though this annual Cajun-Creole Potluck Dinner is hosted by Trinity Church in Princeton, it is open to the public, but be sure to sign up and bring a homemade dish. Read carefully the info below, and follow the link to sign up.

6pm at Trinity Church, 33 Mercer

(leading off with blessing from Paul Jeanes, Trinity Church rector)

Music and food at 6:30!

 

Church volunteers will supply the rice, grits, bread and Bananas Foster.

Your price of admission: Bring a homemade dish to serve 10.

Needed are big green salads, cabbage slaw and fruit salads and vegetables, in addition to main dishes and favorite libations. Think Red Beans with Sausage, Étouffée, Jambalaya, Gumbo, and Grilled Sausages with Peppers and Onions. 

Sign up here: http://www.sympleapp.com/trinity-mardi-gras 

Onstage Community Theater Performance, Sunday, 3pm

A community theater group I'm in, called Onstage, will perform this Sunday, November 8, in the Princeton Public Library community room at 3pm. We are based at McCarter Theater, under the direction of McCarter's brilliant assistant artistic director, Adam Immerwahr, and perform at many venues in the area. This is one of our few public performances in Princeton during the year.

More info about our mission and the stories we collect and tell, with a different theme each year, can be found at onstageseniors.org. That's John Abrams and Cecelia Hodges in the photo.

And that's me, at Passage Theatre, just as I first noticed the bald eagle swooping down from stage left in the middle of my monologue.

A Piano Piece in Memory of Yitzhak Rabin

Twenty years ago on November 3rd, Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated. When he was shot, I wrote a tune in mourning of the news. It was mourning not only for him, but for the opportunity for peace that may have died with him. I had no particular connection to the Middle East or to any particular side in the perpetual stream of bad news emanating from the region. At the time, as a pragmatic Prime Minister of Israel, he seemed to me the last best chance for peace in the Middle East. There's been little or nothing to suggest otherwise since then.

Below are photos of the two page composition. At the time, I was teaching piano to beginners and intermediates, and composing with the aim of filling a gap in the piano literature for pieces that both sound good and are easy to play. Below the composition are some links and quotes from coverage of the 20th anniversary of this tragic loss.

A google search (not sure how long the link will continue to work) showed significant coverage of the anniversary, including an article in the New Yorker.

NPR's coverage describes the event:"Rabin was standing onstage and singing a Song for Peace with one of Israel's most famous singers," said Linda Gradstein, the NPR reporter that night. "As he walked to get into his car, a young, 27-year-old law student named Yigal Amir ran right up to the prime minister and shot him three times at point blank range, fatally injuring him and slightly injuring one of Rabin's bodyguards."

In the NPR article, Dan Ephron, author of Killing the King, describes Rabin as a pragmatist and former military man aware of the futility of war, interested above all in security, and unburdened by the ideology and religious "sentimental attachment to the land" that has made peace so hard to forge since then.

Ephron goes on: "This was a moment, maybe the last moment for the pragmatists in terms of their ability to garner a majority in Israel," he says. "And that moment ended with the assassination. The assassination triggers a chain of events that leads to this power shift. By about six months after the murder, a young politician on the right, Benjamin Netanyahu becomes prime minister. And he really is the dominant political figure in Israel for much of the last 20 years."

Some Climate Change Theater This Weekend

For some environmental theater, come by this month's Cafe Improv at the Arts Council of Princeton this Saturday, May 23, around 8:40-9pm, for some Climate Change Cabaret. We'll perform three original comic sketches: Complaint Training, Carbon Dating, and Breaking Up With Your Car. The full lineup for the 7-10pm show is at http://www.cafeimprov.com/. Actors will be Basha Parmet, Cheryl Jones, and myself.

The New, Improved Mr. Sustainable

"As long as we must choose between present comfort and future climate, there can be no joy!" So declares Mr. Sustainable, as he searches for a way to feel good while doing good. In this before and after, can new advances in ultra light winter wear and "fresh perspectives on intergenerational relationships" help Mr. Sustainable and his spouse end a long, tense period of thermostat wars? Actors are Steve Hiltner, Basha Parmet and Cheryl Jones. Performed in wintry march at the Princeton Public Library as part of the Princeton Environmental Film Festival.

Crying It Out: At the Bawl

A memorable rendition of a tune I wrote called "Crying It Out: At the Bawl", which reminds me of days spent touring with a bigband in the midwest. The tune (starts at 2:05) is prefaced by some remarks wherein you can learn what a territory band was in the '30s. The territory band I toured with briefly was the Eddie Howard Orchestra, which by the time I joined it in the late 1970s was in its "ghost band" phase, meaning the leader had long since died, but the band could still fill ballrooms in the midwest with dancers. After an endearing rendition of the tune itself, I take questions from the audience, which brings on a story of my quitting the band, but not before getting fired, and the band's dramatic demise soon thereafter, which I hadn't known about until I recently checked out the band's description on Wikipedia.

Around 8 Sings "99 Too Many Cars On the Road"

Princeton High School's a cappella group Around Eight was a big hit at the March 13, 2015 premier of the Climate Change Cabaret at the Princeton Public Library. Here they offer ways both large and small to get from 99 down to zero too many cars on the road. At the beginning of the video, they refuse my offer of printed out lyrics, this being the digital generation. A paperless performance--very sustainable. Around Eight led by Landis Hackett. Lyrics and arrangement by Steve Hiltner.

Climate Theater Returns in This Year's One Minute Play Festival, May 3 and 4

A year ago, I got an email out of the blue asking me to write two one-minute plays for something called the One Minute Play Festival. The plays, along with 50 or so others by various NJ playwrights, were all performed with only seconds inbetween, in two shows at Passage Theater. You can see the whole intense show, or just the two plays (both having to do with climate change) at this link.

This year, they asked for two more, so I wrote "One Day Stand" (about planting a raingarden) and "The Economy Gets Hers", which explores the relationship between the economy, people, and the earth.  Six different directors, each with six actors, converge to bring the plays to life in the course of one zany hour. This year's performance is at the Luna Stage in West Orange, NJ.

Tickets may still be available.

Breaking Up With Your Car

A video for Earthday, as Sustainable Jazz takes on a theatrical dimension:

"It's guys like me driving cars like you that are messing things up forever," says Johnny, as he struggles to come to terms with his car's addiction problem. Will he run off with that "anorexic chick with the two skinny wheels", or will he and his car find a way to work things out? This performance was part of the March 13 premier of the Climate Change Cabaret at the Princeton Public Library, written by Steve Hiltner and sponsored by the Princeton Environmental Film Festival. Actors: Basha Parmet and Steve Hiltner.       

Complaint Training

Friday the 13th was one wild and crazy night at the Princeton Public Library as the Climate Change Cabaret launched, if not into space, at least into the space better known as the Community Room. Seven actors, a Princeton High School acappella group, a jazz pianist, and three singers bearing an uncanny resemblance to Doris Day filled the full house with wonder, joy and laughter--perhaps not the sort of response you'd expect from material dealing with climate change, but there it was.

For those who missed it, the event was not lost in space, but recorded by The Little Camera That Could, tucked off to the side. I'll be posting some of the sketches so that they're accessible to Earthlings everywhere.

The evening began with a piece called Complaint Training, in which The Three Grouseketeers seek to fill any void there might be in instruction to the human race on how to rant higher, rant lower, rant longerrrrrr.

Accidental Background Music

Anyone heading to the exhibit and fundraiser featuring the paintings of Jeanne Calo at the Princeton Senior Resource Center today at 3pm may hear the music of the Sustainable Jazz Ensemble emanating from the adjoining room, where we'll be performing for Community Without Walls. The performance is for CWW members, but the art exhibit and reception is open to the public.

Waltz for Ruth

We had a video camera set up to document our Climate Change Cabaret last month at the Princeton Public Library. Phil Orr played music before and afterwards, and I joined him for a rendition of Waltz for Ruth just before the show began. Google "Waltz for Ruth" and you discover that bassist Charlie Haden wrote a Waltz for Ruth dedicated to his wife. My Waltz for Ruth is part of a trilogy I wrote prior to traveling to Cleveland to be at my mother's bedside during the last day of her life. I played the melody for her on the clarinet I had taken along, not knowing if she could actually hear it because she was unconscious the whole time. Something of her upbeat nature comes out in the melody.

CLIMATE CHANGE CABARET!!

Mark your calendars! March 13, 7pm, at the Princeton Public Library:

It's time to forge comedy out of angst, to take carbon and make carbonation, to have some serious fun with a subject that people feel so strongly about yet talk about so little. Attend the premier of the 

*** Climate Change Cabaret ***

to gain fresh perspectives on Carbon (a seductive renaissance atom, but beware--not all carbons are the same!). Meet the new, improved, and highly lovable Mr. Sustainable. Witness a man's tragicomic breakup with his car. Take an Ironic Ride to the Dinky, and explore Earth Logic in Space. These theatrical sketches were born and raised in Princeton by writer/director Steve Hiltner, better known as me.

The music portion of the evening will be provided by members of the Sustainable Jazz Ensemble, with a special appearance by Princeton High School's fabulous a cappella group Around 8. There may even be a Special Delivery at the end--a surprise solution to all our earthly problems--followed by light refreshments. The event is free! (We're all working on the carbon-free part.)

This trail-blazing, consciousness-raising event is being hosted by the 2015 Princeton Environmental Film Festival, Friday, March 13, 7-9pm, in the Princeton Public Library Community Room.

Photos From Malawi Benefit

The GAIA-Trinity Reception to benefit AIDS victims in Malawi proved to be a classy event. We played our originals, along with filling a request for "something by Stan Getz".

Along with delicious food and a screening of “The Far End Of The Road”, there were a lot of heroes on hand:

Todd Schafer, President and CEO of GAIA, described GAIA's singular focus on eventually eliminating AIDS in a small country in Africa.

Attendees came through with over $5,000 in support for specific on-the-ground needs, including a motorcycle used to get health care to remote villages.

With the greatest heroism being shown by those whose presence was felt through photographs, nurses recruited and trained by GAIA to provide the care.