Page 24 - the Noise October 2016

JAZZ PHENOM MATT BAKER
CHRISTENS A NEW ERA OF ARTS PROGRAMMING IN THE VERDE VALLEY
When Matt Baker’s fingers walk the ivories on Saturday night, October 22, the award- winning musician will be doing more than bringing Manhattan Club jazz to Camp Verde. His notes will raise the curtain on Yavapai College’s latest effort to scale the moun-
tains and share its fine arts offerings with its sister cities up the 89A.
“This is our initiative to reach the audiences in Cottonwood, Clarkdale, Sedona and the
surrounding communities,” YCPAC Director Craig Ralston explains. “We’re doing it by tak- ing five of our main performances up to venues in Camp Verde and Sedona.”
The five-show Verde season begins with Matt Baker & The Trio, led by a jazz pianist fresh from a gig at Lincoln Center. A native Australian, whose second album, Almost Blue, was just released, Mr. Baker has become a staple of jazz festivals and NYC clubs like Birdland, Le Cirque and Cleopatra’s Needle. Dubbed “the Australian piano whiz” by the New York Times, he spins a bright, energetic melody line through the strings of double-bassist Jim Cammack and the subtle rhythm and cymbal work of drummer Darrian Douglas. “[The trio] swings confidently,” Downbeat Magazine said, “full of clever re-harmonies and hip syn- copation ... the threesome demonstrates seamless group chemistry.”
If Camp Verde seems an unlikely spot for that kind of basement-club Big Apple sound, Mr. Ralston says that’s part of the idea. “These are marvelous performers and I know audi- ences in the Verde will love them,” he says, “it’s about giving those audiences the chance to see them play.” That desire — to increase performing arts access across Yavapai County — led Mr. Ralston from simply marketing YCPAC shows to the Verde Valley to actually pack- ing some up there. By double-booking selected acts from their 22-show Prescott-campus playbill, YCPAC was able to generate “a separate season, with different genres that would appeal to all ages and interests.”
The Verde shows extend through April — with two at the Phillip England Performing Arts Center (a.k.a. the Camp Verde Multi-use Center) and three at the Sedona Performing Arts Center. Matt Baker & The Trio are followed, in November, by Windham Hill in their headlining show entitled “Winter Solstice” in Sedona, featuring three of easy-listening’s most successful artists — Liz Story, Sean Harkness and Barbara Higbie — as they per- form to the most “magical time of year.” In March, China’s Golden Dragon Acrobats will pick up the thread (and tightropes, and chairs, and each other!) before Camp Verde re- turns to a jazz night in April, with songstress Catherine Russell, who’ll apply her distinctive, dusky vocals to a songbook full of ‘20s classics and contemporary tunes. Sedona Ballet is co-sponsoring Ballet West II, a touring arm of the national company, to dance the season off at the Sedona Performing Arts Center, April 29.
Mr. Ralston says the Verde Valley season evolved in response to requests from local resi- dents, and was helped, in great measure, by the quality performance venues there. “The Phillip England Center is a lovely venue of 425 seats in the center of the Verde Valley. And the Sedona Performing Arts Center is a gorgeous 700-seat house in the heart of a commu- nity that enjoys the arts.”
The drawing power of those venues, the hunger of the Verde Valley arts community, and the lure of quality music will all be tested when Matt Baker sits down at the keyboard later this month. “People should be excited about what’s coming,” Mr. Ralston says. “We’re going to continue to program in the Verde Valley and we believe the Verde audiences will become a bigger part of our performing arts community.”
Matt Baker & the Trio • Saturday, October 22 at 7PM
Phillip England Center for the Performing Arts, 280 Camp Lincoln Road, Camp Verde. Windham Hill: Winter Solstice • Sunday, November 20 at 3PM
Sedona Performing Arts Center, 995 Upper Red Rock Loop Road, Sedona. Golden Dragon Acrobats • Saturday, March 4, 2017 at 7PM
Sedona Performing Arts Center, 995 Upper Red Rock Loop Road, Sedona. Catherine Russell • Friday, April 21, 2017 at 7PM
Phillip England Center for the Performing Arts, 280 Camp Lincoln Road, Camp Verde.
Ballet West II • Saturday, April 29, 2017 at 7PM
Sedona Performing Arts Center, 995 Upper Red Rock Loop Road, Sedona.
For tickets and information, (928) 776-2000; YCPAC.com . 24 • {www.thenoise.us} OCTOBER 2016 | THE BEST OF ARIZONA | the Nöísẽ
BY MICHAEL GRADY
PHOTO BY KATZ