PERFORMING ARTS

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Jon Rauhouse

Call Jon Rauhouse the world's greatest steel guitarist or just his nickname, Mr. Orchid Fingers, but one thing about the bespectacled, hunched-over sideman extraordinaire is irrefutable: When he digs into a solo, everything else drops away. That was the overriding thing at Iota Thursday night, where Rauhouse led his band, Sestet, through a loose, high-spirited show that slipped fascinatingly between musical eras.

Rauhouse fronted his combo in name, but vocalist Rachel Flotard (of Seattle trio Visqueen) was clearly in control onstage. As well as singing tunes that walked a dewy web from Les Paul and Mary Ford ("Smoke Rings") to the Great American Songbook ("I'll Be Seeing You") to torch ("Harbor Lights"), she kept her band mates on task with the kind of barbs she normally reserves for her other job -- online advice columnist. But without the puffy steel cloud Rauhouse provided, those songs would have been merely pleasant. His fills were transporting, evoking the purest C & W without ever resorting to played-out, "crying" pedal-steel riffery.

For all his skill as a ballad arranger and supporter, though, Thursday's hour-long set was tastiest when the band -- and Rauhouse's main instrumental foil, guitarist Tommy Connell -- got riled up. Whether shimmying through a cheeky take on the theme from "Perry Mason," stomping big-band swing on Alvino Ray's "Idaho" or blasting ping-pong cartoon jive on Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse," Rauhouse perched atop each musical wave with remarkable acuity. All enough to demand that he step from the side to the front a little more often.

-- Patrick Foster

Hank Jones

Last March, illness forced Hank Jones to skip the Living Jazz Legends celebration at the Kennedy Center, but the venerable pianist has returned to Washington this week for the third annual Duke Ellington Jazz Festival. It was worth the wait.

Appearing with his newest protege, Italian-born singer Roberta Gambarini, the 89-year-old Jones presented an intimate recital Thursday at the National Museum of Women in the Arts that proved he is still the unrivaled grand master of jazz elegance.

Midway through an easily swinging "Lullaby in Rhythm," Jones tossed out a two-note phrase, which Gambarini picked up. In the space of a single measure, they switched into "Stompin' at the Savoy," before circling back to the original theme. Spontaneous or not, the moment embodied the sense of discovery and joy that underscored the entire evening.

With a voice so focused that its very tone carries dimension and heft, Gambarini was most effective in ballads such as "Polka Dots and Moonbeams" and "My One and Only Love." Her strongest performance came in Irving Berlin's "Supper Time," a sorrowful lament about a lynching. Reaching down to her deepest register, Gambarini offered a stark, simple reading that left the audience in an awed hush.

Jones, meanwhile, was the steady force who centered each tune in its perfect frame. With his light touch, he could be engagingly spirited and playful, or he could sketch a mood of ominous foreboding with his spare, tolling chords. He is an artist who peers inside each tune, no matter how familiar, to find fresh shades of color.

-- Matt Schudel

India Independence Concert

Several of India's star musicians and dancers appeared at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall on Thursday to celebrate their homeland's 60th anniversary of independence. The performers served as embellishments to an awards ceremony sponsored by the CineMaya Media Group to recognize those who have contributed significantly to U.S.-India relations.

Pandit Shivkumar Sharma first took the floor, sitting with a sizable zither-style instrument. After demonstrating the delicate fine-tuning of his instrument's 100 strings, he opened with an Indian folk tune, using a subtle array of strokes as he unwound a series of complex melodic patterns. Along with accompanying instruments (relatives of traditional Indian long-necked lutes and hand-held barrel drums), the players engaged with each other intensely, as if in a classical jazz band, gradually increasing in dynamics, tempo and emotional levels to the climax. A piece that followed was equally sophisticated structurally but gentler in effect.

Dancer Pandit Birju Maharaj gave a ravishing display of his technical prowess, which centered on the arms, hands and feet. In a fast-paced delivery of myriad gestures and movements about the stage, every action suggested a symbolic representation -- of animals given human feelings, for example, or people locked in spirited conversations. He was joined later by an equally accomplished, but unidentified, female partner.

The voices of Balamurali Krishna, Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty and a small group of instrumentalists ended the evening's stellar performances with classical North and South Indian fusion songs. Prominent features of their music included elaborate echo effects and highly elaborate melodies sliding between micro-intervals foreign to Western ears. The instruments supported the singers with continually droning bass notes -- in bagpipe fashion.

-- Cecelia Porter