music

The Jekyll Island convention center is slated for demolition next year. The 48 year old beachfront facility has hosted millions of visitors, including those who came to the island for reunions, work-related conferences and weddings. Well, among those marking its passing will be a big band that has performed there for 30 years Their sound is Glenn Miller. Their sound is Duke Ellington. But if you had to pick one-sound that defines the Jekyll Island Big Band, it would have to be the sound of foot steps in the dance hall where they've played for 30 years at the Jekyll Island convention center. Today, it's called Atlantic Hall, but locals still call it by its original name, the Aquarama. Until the 1980's, it housed the island's public swimming pool. Hal Crowe is the band's leader. "It's a big, circular room, right on the beach, beautiful view off into the ocean, the terrazo floor," Crowe says. "It's renowed as being one of the best dance halls in the South because it's a terrazo floor." And if you have to ask what's so special about a terrazo floor, you've never fox-trotted, jitter-bugged, waltzed or salsa-danced on one. Mickey Wendel has played trumpet in the band since it started. "We've been to smaller places where they've put a little wood floor up and people bump into each other or go off the floor dancing on the carpet," Wendel says. "And they just like that floor because it's easy to move around on and to do their slides and some people twirl all around and stuff. They can do that on that floor real well." The Jekyll Island Authority will tear down the aging convention center -- and its huge terrazzo floor -- as part of an island-wide renovation. Band members say, the old floor is filled with memories of first dates, family vacations and a lot more. "We've have two or three proposals on the dance floor," Crowe says. "We've have them get down on one knee and pull out that ring and do the proposal right there." The Jekyll Island Big Band itself has a collective memory. It started with some jam sessions, a newspaper ad and about 25-people in its founders' living room in 1979. That founder, Jody Smith, died a few years ago. But those who played with the joking Ole Miss alumnus remember him as a kind of family member with wit and stage presence. "He'd end a song and he'd say, 'And the band was really in a groove on that one!'" Wendell recalls. "He always said, 'Let's play Moonlight in Vrrrr-mont.'" For many decades, big bands projected a kind of hokey nostalic image. Think Lawrence Welk. But, vocalist Jane Ogle says, in recent decades, the audience has changed. It's more like Brian Setzer. "There would be bus loads of high school kids," Ogle says. "And they would get all dolled up. It was like prom night, practically." The popularity of TV shows like Dancing with the Stars also has made the audience more dance-focused. Crows says, he can tell folks have been practicing and has changed the set list accordingly. "These folks that take dance lessons and are members of dance studios, they're very serious about their stylistic dancing," Crowe says. "It's easy to roll through fox-trot after fox-trot, but these dancers, if you don't satisfy them with that style that they've been working on and rehearsing, then they'll come up and tell you about it." The Jekyll Island Big Band's annual New Year's Eve concert will be its last at the old Jekyll Island convention center. The old hall is scheduled to be torn down next summer and replaced with a new convention center. Island officials haven't ruled out the possibility of another terrazzo floor.

A new group infuses the music of electronica with the organic sound of classical instruments. Twenty-somethings Mary Knight, Nancy Shim, Brett Kelly and 30-year-old Mikey Johnson comprise Tealights – an Atlanta-based band formed in the summer of 2008. The band’s official debut EP, Take Us By Sea, was released in September. Tealights has been touring the U.S. this fall and continues this week with dates in Atlanta and Savannah. The band’s members stopped by GPB’s studios recently to chat with Edgar Treiguts. Click here to visit the Tealights' website.

The Athens band Venice Is Sinking has been around for six years, but this year, they've been busy. Their second album is out. They have a new E.P. And they've recorded a tribute to Athen's historic Georgia Theatre, which was destroyed by fire this summer. Venice Is Sinking didn't plan the wait. But it's been a long one for fans of this lush, orchestral quintet that seems to thrive on airy vocals and wistful hooks. Venice Is Sinking's debut record, Sorry About the Flowers, came out in 2006. This year, 2009, they released a follow-up album, Azar, released an E-P, Okay, and recorded a third album due out next year. Drummer Lucas Jensen says, the wait just happened. "There are moments where you can beat your head against a wall trying to write a new record," Jensen says. "And then one day, you're not trying to write a new record and you write three songs. You spit them out." Venice Is Sinking's three years between records isn't entirely a case of writer's block. After their debut, they toured a while and then almost immediately headed back to the studio. One issue was the studio's location. Vocalist Karolyn Troupe says, coming off the sucess of Flowers, they chose to work with North Carolin based producer Scott Solter, a producer of college radio's Mountain Goats. "We hadn't worked with someone like Scott before," Troupe says. "He's very much a proponent of good performance and something meaningful going into the recording. And even if you think that it was a good performance, he will feel that it wasn't what you meant to do." Driving to a town outside of Charlotte almost every weekend for a year, band member say, they nearly lost it. In addition to learning just about every exit on the five hour drive, they also learned just about every way to argue. The band survived the drive, their demanding producer and a failed romance between two of them and out came Azar, easily described as their most nuanced and polished work. Azar continues the band's shimmery pop-rock instrumentalism. Then, just like their three year wait just happened, so did what they worked on next. They got the opportunity to record an album in Athens' historic Georgia Theater. Guitarist Daniel Lawson describes the album as an improbable late-night idea of Georgia Theater owner Wilmont Green. "He kept talking about the Trinity Sessions, that Cowboy Junkies record and how badly he wanted to make a record like that in the theater," Lawson says. "And we wrote it off as, 'It's 3-o'clock in the morning'." Green persisted and it became one of the last albums recorded in the theater and one that captures its enormous sound, reflected from the balcony and its one-hundred year-old wood. "The whole idea of the process is very important to him," Lawson says. "He never wanted it to go into a computer. It hasn't. It went directly from the microphone to the quarter-inch tape. Then it was mastered straight to vinyl." The Georgia Theater album could be out in a few months. The band is having some difficulty with this record, too. This time, it's trying to figure out exactly how to release on vinyl, when everyone these days is digital. They describe it as "an ordeal." Venice Is Sinking fans can only hope it's an ordeal that doesn't take them three years to endure.

The year-long celebration of Johnny Mercer's centennial culminated today with the unveiling of a statue honoring the Savannah-born songwriter. Mercer wrote some of the most popular standards in the American songbook, including "Blues in the Night", "Skylark," "Moon River" and "One for My Baby." Johnny Mercer is to Savannah what James Brown is to Augusta and what Little Richard and the Allman Brothers are to Macon. He is one of the biggest names to come out of the city. Everybody knows a Mercer song. Revered is one way to describe him here. People are recognizing Mercer around the world: Radio stations, theater groups, musicians. There are lots of events today. Here in Savannah, the city unveiled a statue. It's a smiling, hat-wearing, newspaper-reading, likeness of the songwriter, right down to the gap in his teeth. Susie Chisholm, the sculptor, talked about the statue's location as being perfectly suited for Mercer. It's on Ellis Square, which is the heart of nightlife and music in downtown Savannah. "There are a lot of nightclubs and plus a lot of the restaurants have outside music going on," Chisholm says. "I think they're planning on having an area in Ellis Square where they will be able to have music in the square." Planning is the important word there. The construction that has been going on on the square to make it ready for the public isn't entirely done, so we don't have exactly a photo-perfect site for Mercer's statue yet. It'll be a little messy until the end of the year when officials say construction on the square will be completely finished. For Mercer's relatives, this is just the culmination of what has been an exceptionally busy year. Savannah's actually had events all year and just about every local cultural institution that could tie in to Mercer did. There were scores of events to attend and usually, the face of the family at those events was Mercer's niece, Nancy Gerard, who's been all over, with interviews. Her main message during this time has been to personalize Mercer. Here is one of her typical stories: Listen, he sent me to private schools. I had the gap between my two front teeth but he put braces on my teeth when I was a child. He sent me to college and I wanted to pay him back when I graduated. And I got out and I had my first job and I said, 'Okay, I'm ready now. I want to pay you back.' He said, 'No, I don't want you to.' And I said, 'I can't. I don't feel right about it.' And he said, 'Will you do something for me?' And I said, 'Okay, what?' He said, 'When I'm down and out, will you pass the hat for me? There are lots of stories like that about Johnny Mercer's generosity, and his personality, and frankly, his moods, which are legendary. Today, there was a little talk about the potential for Mercer tourism, especially since most biographers emphasize how much his being from Savannah and the South influenced what many have called an "outdoor" or "bucolic" style of writing. But, of course, it's impossible to tell, even after today's attention, how many folks will be coming to Ellis Square for Mercer's statue or to eat at television food celebrity Paula Deen's restaurant, which is right here. So, the lasting impact is a big question, but not the focus of celebration today. There actually was a surprise at today's statue unveiling. Mercer, as some people might know, never actually wrote a song about Savannah. But organizers recently found a poem Mercer wrote about Savannah. It was called "You're in Savannah." Organizers had Academy Award winning composer Richard Sherman, of "Mary Poppins" fame, write music for this poem. Broadway star Michael Feinstein recorded it. And today, that song debuted for the first time anywhere. It very well might become a signature song for Savannah, and one that was written by two Academy Award winning songwriters.

The year-long celebration of Johnny Mercer's centennial culminated today with the unveiling of a statue honoring the Savannah-born songwriter. Mercer wrote some of the most popular standards in the American songbook, including "Blues in the Night", "Skylark," "Moon River" and "One for My Baby." The four-time Oscar winner is one of the city's most famous native sons. This year, just about every local cultural institution that could tie into Mercer did, with concerts, theater and shows. Today, on what would have been his 100th birthday, city officials and Mercer relatives unveiled a statue in his honor in Ellis Square. Susie Chisolm sculpted his smiling likeness. "I wanted the personality, the fun Johnny, the Johnny that Savannah knew," Chisholm says. In addition to the local celebrations, the centennial is drawing some wider attention, from radio stations, musicians and cultural institutions across the globe. Today's unveiling also included the surprise debut of a new song by Johnny Mercer. Mercer never wrote a song about Savannah during his lifetime. But organizers recently discovered a poem he wrote about Savannah. It was called "You're in Savannah." Organizers had Academy Award winning composer Richard Sherman, of "Mary Poppins" fame, write music for the poem. Broadway star Michael Feinstein recorded it. His recording was played at the ceremony, to the surprise of family members present.

The still-blossoming music career of a Georgia native has already included performing at New York's grandest opera venue. GPB's Edgar Treiguts has a conversation with soprano Leah Partridge.

University of Georgia music professor Fred Mills, notable for his performance career off-campus, has died. The university says the 74-year-old Mills was killed in a traffic accident Monday night in Walton County, between Athens and Atlanta. School officials say he was returning to Athens after landing in Atlanta from an overseas trip. Mills joined UGA's faculty in 1996. Along with teaching trumpet, he coached The Bulldog Brass Society, a graduate brass quintet. UGA officials called Mills an "inspiration to all who knew him." Away from the Athens-campus, Mills was noted for a busy professional performance career. It included playing with orchestras and groups across the globe--from Sweden's Brass Nova to Orquesta Sinfonica de Aguascalientes in Mexico. He was a founding member of the American Symphony Orchestra in New York. A native of Canada, Mills also recorded more than 40 albums with the Canadian Brass and nominated for a Grammy award in 1992.

Wycliffe Gordon, a jazz trombonist and singer who grew up in Waynesboro, will perform in a benefit concert for the Jessye Norman School of the Arts on Friday. He talked with GPB's Mary Ellen Cheatham about his career in a segment that aired in 2008. Click the audio link below to hear his interview. For more information about the concert, click here.

The Grammy-winning opera singer Jessye Norman first discovered her love of opera as a child growing up in Augusta. That led to a career singing in some of the world's most celebrated opera houses, making her a beloved international star. She came back home this week to perform in concert. The concert, at St. Paul's Church in Augusta on Friday, will benefit the Jessye Norman School of the Arts. The school provides arts instruction for young people. The concert also features performances by musicians Wycliffe Gordon, Damien Sneed, De'Adre Aziza and Mark Markham. Tickets are available from the Jessye Norman School of the Arts. For more information about the concert, click here. Click the audio link to hear Norman, talk to GPB's Mary Ellen Cheatham about life in Augusta, her rise to international stardom, race and a chance meeting with soul singer James Brown! You can also hear an interview with jazz trombonist and singer Wycliffe Gordon, a Waynesboro native, from 2008 by clicking here.

A community theater in Savannah premieres an original musical honoring the city's most famous musician. "Johnny and Me" looks at the life and music of the prolific songwriter, the late Johnny Mercer. Differing memories of the sometimes troubled lyricist have led to differing views of the sometimes frank production.