Author: rakemag

With the exception of 1990’s Goodfellas, the five films in this set are among the more obscure of Martin Scorsese’s works – though in its day, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore did spark the wildly popular spinoff sitcom that made “kiss my grits” the “shizzle my nizzle” of 1976. But in the case of the beetle-browed director, “lesser-known” doesn’t mean lesser, and the DVD extras included here set our hearts racing – all five films come with making-of documentaries and newly recorded audio commentaries by Scorsese, who’s a walking library of cinema. (On Goodfellas, we’re also treated to an audio track featuring Henry Hill, the ex-gangster whose life the film is based on, and an FBI agent.) Also included in this collection: the paranoiac satire After Hours, a Kafkaesque journey through New York’s nightclub scene; and two of Scorsese’s earliest: his first pairing with Robert De Niro, Mean Streets; and the student film that put him on the map, Who’s That Knocking At My Door? Available August 17

Using deadpan realism to mask a deep sense of the absurd, Jim Jarmusch has a mindset unmatched by any other American director (though, as we’ve noted, he’s got a spiritual twin in Finland’s Aki Kaurismaki). Indeed, despite his dryness, he’s awfully quick with the razor-sharp left-field gag: the aging gangster who abruptly launches into a Flavor Flav rap, or the hired killer who carries around a teddy bear. This series gathers six Jarmusch films, starting with 1986’s Down By Law, casting Tom Waits and Roberto Benigni as prisoners on the lam, and winding up with our favorite, the hip-hop Zen noir Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai. Also in the series on Mondays and Tuesdays: Fishing With John, a droll documentary series originally made for the Independent Film Channel, in which host and longtime Jarmusch actor John Lurie goes out trolling for carp with hipster musicians and actors like Waits, Dennis Hopper, and Willem Dafoe. It’s like John Candy’s old SCTV sketch “The Fishin’ Musician” brought to life.

If you’re ever tempted to think that the banjo is an instrument good only for backwoods pickin’ parties by Deliverance types who make their shoes out of tree bark, remember Bela Fleck, who’s done more than anybody to demonstrate conclusively that his chosen instrument is worthy of a virtuoso’s hands. For the past twenty years, he’s cultivated a diverse sound that incorporates bluegrass, jazz, and classical into his innovative picking style. While he branches out for collaborations like his April disc with bassist Edgar Meyer, Music for Two, Fleck is best known for the work with his Flecktones, who join him on this acoustic tour. Singer/songwriter Keller Williams opens on Monday, bluegrass quartet Yonder Mountain String Band on Tuesday. 13000 Zoo Blvd., Apple Valley; 952-431-9500; mnzoo.org

Let’s give it up for old-school divas like Janis Hardy, Maria Jette, and Molly Sue McDonald – the ladies who revere Puccini arias rather than pablum pop. But for Sopranorama, they’ll mix the classical with the contemporary – or at least, the comparatively (and tastefully) contemporary: We’re talking Burt Bacharach and Willie Nelson here. Hardy, Jette, and McDonald are themselves a mix of musical tastes: Hardy’s experience is primarily operatic, Jette’s is orchestral, and McDonald’s most recent performances have been in musicals. Nonetheless, this is the trio’s third Sopranorama collaboration under the direction of Vern Sutton, himself a staple of local opera, theater, and A Prairie Home Companion. 1420 Washington Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-340-1725; www.southerntheater.org

Young, beautiful, and with a silky-smooth delivery, Bebel Gilberto is Brazil’s answer to Diana Krall and Norah Jones. We’re glad somebody asked Brazil the question. Like Jones, she’s the daughter of musical royalty (Joao Gilberto, perhaps the premier bossa nova player in the world), and offers living proof that talent doesn’t always skip a generation. Her new self-titled disc is pure loveliness, with occasional light touches of electronica for flavor, as in the ethereal “Aganju.” But the main dish here is a sophisticated pop-friendly bossa nova confection. (In the song “Jabuticaba,” she even gets in a lyrical reference to Prince: “Isn’t she lovely, like purple rain?”)
612-339-7007, hennepintheatredistrict.com

Ms. Gilberto isn’t the only musician bringing South American sizzle to the Twin Cities stage this month. This funky bossa nova combo – comprised of local jazz guitarist Pavel Jany and an international cadre, including a French violinist, a bassist from the Ivory Coast, and a vocalist and percussionist both from Brazil – has put out two CDs of north-country Brazilian rhythms. The band gigs around town regularly in trio or quartet form, including weekly stands at local restaurants Nochee, Downtowner Woodfire Grill, and La Bodega, but this is a rare chance to see the full nine-piece outfit put down a smokin’ salsa groove.
1360 N. Lexington Pkwy., St. Paul; www.tickettobrasil.com

Local guitar wizard Eason’s been a reliable source of six-string zing for two decades now, both fronting his own projects and backing guys like Chan Poling and Dylan Hicks. Bees Will Bumble, his second disc in less than a year, forms a loose zoological trilogy with last year’s Elephant Garden and the forthcoming The Aching of the Household Fly. As always, he covers a lot of musical ground, from straight-ahead rock to psychedelia to XTC-style pop (and even some country slide on “Hurricane Hill”), and does it well. The title track features guest violin by Prairie Home Companion stalwart Peter Ostroushko, whose brother Taras has played bass with Eason for years. Catch him at the 7th Street Entry July 30. Available Now

You might know A.C. Newman better as Carl Newman, the name he uses as lead songwriter for Canada’s premiere indie-rock power-pop supergroup the New Pornographers. (We’re not sure why the initials, which only served to make us momentarily wonder whether he was one of the many other singing Newmans, perhaps Randy, Colin, or Thunderclap.) His new solo disc The Slow Wonder, partly funded by a Canadian government grant, is a stellar argument in favor of civic sponsorship of the arts. An aggregation of hummable, harmonic pop tunes, its individual songs keep replacing each other on the heavy-rotation chart in our heads. (Right now it’s “35 in the Shade,” a singalong whose dreamy keyboard riff sounds like a transplant from Brian Eno’s Another Green World.) We could grumble that the album is too short, clocking in at just over half an hour. But then we just hit “repeat” on the CD player – problem solved.
629 Cedar Ave., Minneapolis; 612-333-7499; www.triplerocksocialclub.com

When you think of Arthur Miller, you think of Marilyn Monroe and Death of a Salesman – two beautiful, tragic, quintessentially American stories. Both persist as a defining part of our national consciousness. Need we point out the irony that Salesman is about a poor schlub who dies forgotten and unappreciated by almost everyone in his life? But, as Linda Loman says about her unappreciated husband late in the play, attention must be paid. Miller’s message about capitalism and its discontents has never really lost its timeliness since winning the Pulitzer in 1949, and in these days when our president tells the elite they are his “base,” a story about the catastrophes of the middle class seems fresher than ever. Guthrie Artistic Director Joe Dowling brings Willy Loman and family to life again for a month-long run in Minnesota before taking the play to his homeland for the Dublin Theatre Festival.
612-377-2224, www.guthrietheater.org

Barbara Walters has put forth the command with regard to this traveling Broadway musical: “See it!” And who are we to contradict such an esteemed fellow journalist? But we can’t concur without offering a tiny caveat. Babs also called this production – which relates the adventures of an archetypal small-town Kansas girl in New York City – “great for the whole family.” However, in the interest of protecting impressionable young minds, we really must point out that the Millie plot, however absurdly and lovably bubbly, does involve a white slavery ring. What’s more, Millie herself is shown imbibing alcohol – an illegal activity, considering as how her adventures take place in the Roaring Twenties. So, with those details duly disclosed, we’ll join in Babs’ chorus: “See it!”
651-224-4222; www.ordway.org