The John G. Shedd Institute for the Arts@@http://ofam.org/@@ will present the 2oth Annual Oregon Festival of American Music on Tuesday, Aug. 7, focusing on the period in which Parisian and American music heavily influenced one another.
In the past, the festival has focused on all forms of American music, especially from the 1920s-1940s era. This year, the Shedd Institute will put on eight concerts in five days, all depicting music from a time when American artists flocked to Paris.
“Music doesn’t stay neatly within national boundaries,” said Jim Ralph, executive director of the Shedd Institute. “And Paris in the 1920s and ‘30s is a really clear cut example of that.”
He and others at the Shedd Institute are dedicated to drawing connections between musical genre and historical context. This festival will study a time when American artists such as Cole Porter, Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald lived and worked in Paris.
One example of Paris’ influence on American music is Billy Holiday’s song “My Man,” according to Ralph. Holiday covered the song from a 1920s jazz singer, Fanny Brice, and Brice’s song was the American version of French singer Mistinguett’s “Mon Homme.”@@all names checked@@
The concert series will focus on French and American music affected by the intercultural exchange of art and culture. The festival kicks off Tuesday night with “A Moveable Feast: Around Midnight in Paris.”
“The phrase has great baggage and should give a sense both of the idea of ambling all over Paris both in time and space, taking in various dimensions of the rich musical stew,” Ralph said of naming the concert after Ernest Hemingway’s memoirs of Paris. “But also, the sense that Hemingway focused on that of an experience that remains with you wherever you go.”
The Shedd Institute wants this night to feel like a midnight walk through the Parisian bars and clubs in the 1920s and ‘30s and will feature music from the likes of Cole Porter and Dorothy Fields. “A Moveable Feast” will be followed by Wednesday’s Ça, C’est Paris and Thursday’s Ode to the Ada “Bricktop” Smith, who facilitated the Paris Jazz age at her night clubs.@@all checked@@
The Shedd Institute conceptualized Le Jazz Hot in 1992. They did a version of this festival in 2006 and have been working on the current version for the last year. The planning, however, does not stop with the end of the festival.
“We just came up with next year’s theme last week,” Ralph said.
The Shedd Institute will start planning for next year’s Hollywood-themed festival next week. Le Jazz Hot begins Tuesday, Aug. 7, and tickets can be purchased at the Shedd Institute and Hult Center ticket offices.