Plus Savor Borgata 2012, the Album of the Week (Billy Joel with a Philly twist) and DrewToonz on Furthur.
An Evening of Jazz, Poetry and Prose
On Wednesday, Nov. 16, the Somers Point Jazz Society (SPJS) will present a unique collaborative of poetry, prose and music featuring author and poet Rina Terry of Cape May County and musician/composer Jon Pruitt, a jazz pianist and 20-year Atlantic City resident. The event will take place at Sandi Pointe in Somers Point from 7:30-9pm. “It seemed natural to create an event that highlighted jazz and literature — novel, short story, poetry,” says Terry, an ordained minister serving the Cape May United Methodist Church. “I’ll be reading excerpts from a jazz novel, Oh, Play That Thing by Roddy Doyle, short stories that speak both about the influence jazz can have on the dailiness of life, and how life can influence the music and the musician. The poems are primarily on, and for, particular musicians written by poets who were profoundly touched by the musicians and their music.” One of the poems will be “Elegy for Thelonious,” a work that focuses on the life of legendary jazz pianist Thelonious Monk (pictured) that was penned in 1984 by Yusef Komunyakaa, a renowned artist raised in the jazz- and blues-rich New Orleans area. Each reading will be accompanied or accentuated by a specific jazz piece. Admission is $5. For more information visit spjazz.org. — Ray Schweibert
Savor Borgata Returns Nov. 12
For the first time, the star-studded fourth annual Borgata culinary concept Savor Borgata (Sat., Nov. 12, 8-10pm) was prefaced with a Savor Borgata Restaurant Week this year (Nov. 6-11), featuring $33 three-course and $44 four-course prix-fixed menus at all of Borgata’s fine-dining restaurants. All of Borgata’s fine-dining extablishments will be represented at this year’s foodie feast ($125 or $175 for VIP package), including Old Homestead, the steakhouse recently named the best restaurant in Atlantic City by Zagat. Also special this year, joining the Borgata’s arsenal of celeb chefs, including Bobby Flay, Ron Ross, Thadeous DuBois, Wolfgang Puck, Michael Schulson, Michael Mina, Stephen Kalt, Tony Luke Jr., and the Sherry Brothers, for the one-day event will be Philadelphia chef Marc Vetri (Vetri Ristorante; Osteria; & Amis Trattoria). Dubbed “A Taste of American Classics,” this year’s Event Center extravaganza will have another cool twist this year as one of the participants, Geoffrey Zakarian, is also competing on the fourth season of Food Network’s The Next Iron Chef, which premiered on Sunday, Nov. 6. The event, hosted by Food Network’s Claire Robinson, will also feature an exhibition kitchen for each chef to demonstrate their Savor Borgata recipe on-stage. “Izakaya will be doing Maine lobster rolls and mini chicken pot pies,” says Schulson of the modern Japanese pub and eatery. “It’s going to be a blast and it’s also a day when every single chef will be together having some fun, so come on out and enjoy the night!” Tickets can be purchased at theborgata.com. — JS
Billy Joel
‘Piano Man’ (2-disc Legacy Edition)
Prior to Billy Joel’s breakout album on Columbia, Piano Man, released Nov. 7, 1973, William Martin Joel performed a live concert, which, according to the liner notes in the new two-disc Legacy Edition of the album, was “arguably just as important” as that record. Recorded at Philadelphia’s famous Sigma Sound Studios, owned by Joe Tarsia — who just was in Atlantic City for a GRAMMY event at Resorts — and “show-cast” on Philly’s WMMR on April 15, 1972, the live show featured tracks from Joel’s poorly received 1971 debut Cold Spring Harbor, in addition to tracks from his upcoming Piano Man album. The live show has been available as a bootleg for years but is finally getting an official release here, with some remastering. One song from the ’MMR show was so good that the revolutionary FM station’s late-night DJ and Philly Daily News entertainment writer Jonathan Takiff (who also penned the liner notes for this set) “located” the two-track master of the live Sigma session, “secretly ran off a cart tape copy of ‘Captain Jack,’” and began playing it on WMMR. The live version, warts and all, would become (and remains} the most requested song in WMMR’s history. Further, it is rumored that Columbia officials, instead of using the version of “Captain Jack” cut in North Hollywood, Calif., with the rest of the Piano Man tracks, went to Sigma for the live ’MMR version and it wound up (touched up and uncredited) on the official album. You can listen to both in this set. — Jeff Schwachter
Drew Toonz (See more comics here)
(Read this week's Furthur feature)
This year marks the 17th year of the Academy of American Poets’ launching of April as National Poetry Month.
The South Jersey Poets Collective has hosted its monthly World Above Poetry Night series at Dante Hall since September, and intends to continue the original poetry readings through 2013.
"This year the theme is American, so expect some great American classics."
A funeral viewing will be held this Saturday, Dec. 4 (from 9–11am) at St. Monica’s Church on 108 N. Pennsylvania Ave. at Arctic & Baltic avenues in Atlantic City.
"Dr John's forward is worth the price of the book alone," says Warren. "When he tells you how he met Art, that is worth the price of the book. It's too funny to be fiction; it's got to be real life."
When Art Blakey, the legendary jazz drummer (and 2005 Grammy lifetime achievement award recipient), lived in Northfield during the late 1970s and early '80s, he could not help running his bicycle into the side of the 507 NJ Transit bus, which, at the time, stopped right in front of the home he shared with his longtime companion, Sandy Warren, and son, Takashi, at the intersection of Mill and Shore roads. "The bus driver would just sit there and look at him," remembers Warren. "He just never really learned how to ride his bike. But he kept trying because he thought, you know, that's a nice thing that you can do in Northfield--you could ride your bike. "It's so weird because you think of someone talented enough to be the world's greatest drummer, who can close his eyes and throw the sticks up in the air and catch them with his eyes still closed and never miss a beat - that he should be able to ride a bicycle and do some other things that require a bit of dexterity. He couldn't. Drumming was the only thing that required dexterity that he could do!" Thank heaven for that. In the decades after the Pittsburgh-born...
This is the first year the Borgata is blending an "outside" chef into the mix. It is also the first-year that the Borgata will preface the Nov. 12 celebration with a Savor Borgata Restaurant Week, which will run from Sunday, Nov. 6 to Friday, Nov. 11.
The evening’s longest lines, throughout the event, belonged to Austrian-born, California-based Wolfgang Puck. Snaking almost halfway across the spacious room, we wondered why? Obtaining visual range, things became clearer ...
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