Tumatoe Catch-Up

For a guy with the blues, Duke Tumatoe is remarkably upbeat. In a recent phone interview, the musician observed, "Life is inherently taken too seriously," and he's spent most of his career - the last 20 years headlining Dr.
• Need a fix of that old-time tent-revival rock-and-roll religion? Come join the sweat and grind manic art-rock of the Make-Up in its new live CD, and raise your hands high as the nervous spirit whips the Black Cat nightclub crowd into an epileptic frenzy.
From the jungle of Puerto Rico to America’s heartland, the Quad City Symphony Orchestra transported the audience with its renditions of several very different yet similarly influenced composers on February 4. Guest conductor Harvey Felder invited the audience at the almost-packed Centennial Hall to experience the art of three fairly modern composers who wrote music based on their heritage.
• I've been waiting for a songwriter to succinctly sum up the universal sorrow of the Iraq war without pointing fingers like a self-righteous lunatic. So God bless Graham Parker, one of the world's greatest songwriting treasures, for getting it right in a new song that I think everyone can agree on: "2,000 Funerals.
The new band Patio has never played a public show. Yet it's fair to say that a large number of people will be interested in the four-piece outfit. Patio features singer-guitarist Pat Willis, drummer-singer Erik Wilson, bassist Dan Olds, and sax player Derrick Reid.
• Elliott Smith gets a posthumous salute next week with To: Elliott From: Portland as fellow sons and daughters of his hometown interpret their favorite songs from this tortured singer/songwriter, who left this world under mysterious circumstances in 2003.
On ICYC Live 2005, there's a track by the Iowa City world-music ensemble Euforquestra called "Tramba" that illustrates what's so great about live recordings: In a live setting, anything can happen, and strange things often do.
Cellist Wendy Law, currently in the area as part of the Quad City Arts Visiting Artist Series, has received the sort of plaudits - both in America and abroad - that most professional performers would kill for. Benjamin Zander, conductor for the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, raved that "Wendy Law is one of the best young cellists of her generation," and called her playing "riveting and profoundly artistic.
• Three terrific new tribute projects are due next week, saluting two superstars and the unique talents shared by a father and son. Failure to Communicate Records is releasing 2. Contamination, a two-CD collection of darkwave artists covering the songs of David Bowie.
Over the weekend, the City Opera Company of the Quad Cities presented several events celebrating the musical genius (and the 250th birthday) of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The opera Cosi fan tutte and the Mozart Gala Concert integrated delicate ballet, raucous theatre, talented chamber orchestra, and a cast of soloists, who together gave us a taste of what Mozart did best: pleasing his audiences.

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