By Kevin Downey

If a cool (air-conditioned) breeze coupled with icy drinks sounds good this time of year, it’ll sound even better accompanied by classical tunes played on a grand piano. That’s just what’s happening every other Wednesday evening through August 20 at Steinway of Phoenix in Scottsdale.

The piano store is holding its first-ever summer concert series inside its elegant shop on North Scottsdale Road. The six-part event, “Steinway Sizzling Summer Series,” is intended for showcasing local and world-class talent, and hopefully will inspire kids to remove iPod ear buds for a few minutes to listen to live music.

“We’re trying to keep live music alive,” says Janet Sandino, event director at Steinway of Phoenix. “We’re trying to get families and children involved in live music. It’s about getting out of the heat and being exposed to a little bit of culture.”

The event is well timed because live music events dry up during the hot summer months, and many families with kids on school break are often hard-pressed to find events that’ll keep every age group entertained. Sandino also emphasized that Steinway of Phoenix is holding the free concerts to showcase talent, not lure in people with the hopes of selling pianos.

“Steinway Sizzling” began on June 11 with local performer and composer Jay Steinberg, and continued on June 25 with Note by Note, a full-length documentary about the making of Steinway pianos.

Thus far, several local kids billed as Little Maestros and 40-year piano veteran Rich Mancini have performed. ASU professor of music Caio Pagano is scheduled for on August 6, followed by the Ritz-Carlton Resort’s house pianist Dan Delaney on August 20. Performances are free, and light snacks and beverages will be served. Each performance will last roughly two hours, with one intermission.

Seating is limited, so Sandino suggests that those wishing to attend make reservations.

Steinway Sizzling Summer Series: Free. Steinway of Phoenix, 14418 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale. (480) 951-3337. Wednesdays, 6:30 p.m.

By Kevin Downey

Take a little Dave Matthews Band, toss in some Hootie and the Blowfish and Ben Harper, mix with influences ranging from jazz, classical music, and hip-hop, and you’ve got Three Ugly Guys, a Valley band making a name for itself playing around town.

“We get compared a lot to Dave Matthews and Ben Harper—more of a jam-band type of feel,” says Ugly Guy Joe Cea. “Those guys have sold a few CDs, so we don’t mind being compared to them.”

3UG, as they’re known, actually consist of six nice-looking musicians: Cea on bass; Mike “Leif” Erikson, vocals/guitar; Nick Rivette, guitar; Kenny Leslie, sax; Craig McVey, percussion/guitar; and David Drew, drums. The band released its first CD last year—The Pursuit of Uglyness—and also opened for Hootie at the Jobing.com Arena. They regularly play clubs like Martini Ranch in Scottsdale and Skye in Peoria. Their music consists mostly of original feel-good tunes that attract crowds in their thirties with songs that, as Cea puts it, don’t have lyrics about hating your parents screamed into a microphone.

The band, which got its start playing churches around the Valley, has all the ingredients for an explosion onto the national scene. But it’s a local band—each of its members has a day job. For now, they’re playing to increasingly large crowds at clubs like Red Owl in Tempe, on May 9.

“The draw of this band is that we’re not doing it to become famous,” says Cea, who’s married with two young kids. “When you come see Three Ugly Guys, you see six guys who genuinely enjoy being around each other. The product you get is authenticity from the first chord to the last.”

The band’s biggest break came last year in a competition held by Mix 96.9 FM. 3UG won, and was subsequently billed as the opening act for Hootie. But no matter how big 3UG gets or how far across the country it eventually wanders, it’s a Valley-based band that will always play venues here.

“We get some pretty good sized crowds locally,” says Cea. “That’s probably a pretty good indicator that we’re doing something right.”

By Kevin Downey

There are dozens of reasons people fall in love with the North Valley, but for many residents and visitors, it’s the pristine stretches of the Sonoran Desert now in full bloom that top the list.

Like other areas around town, many beautiful parts of the Valley, such as the Jewel of the Creek Preserve in Cave Creek, would have been swept away long ago by developers if not for determined residents working hard to preserve the very thing that draws many people here. On a similar note, so to speak, everyone gets a chance to help save these areas during one night when great music and gourmet food come together under the stars.

The Thirteenth Annual Sonoran Symphony takes place on Saturday, April 26. Proceeds benefit the nonprofit charitable organization Desert Foothills Land Trust, which since 1991 has preserved some 530 acres of open land. One of the newest spots for visitors, thanks to the trust, is the Richard E. Rudolph Memorial Garden at the Caroline Bartol Preserve at Saguaro Hill.

Each year, the Sonoran Symphony generates the vast majority of DFLT’s annual fund-raising. This year’s event is called “Lasso a Dream.”

“‘(I’m Gonna) Lasso a Dream’ is a classical Roy Rogers tune,” explains Melanie Williams, event chairperson. “That’s what we’re all about—dreaming about preserving these places.”

The Symphony of the Southwest will perform music from classic western movies with Cody Bryant and the Riders of the Purple Sage, an upbeat Western group that mixes a slew of styles, including Cajun, folk, bluegrass and western swing. Food will be provided by Tonto Bar & Grill, with an open bar available. Dress is casual or Western wear.

“The music over the past few years has become an interesting mix of a western group playing classical western music with a formal orchestra,” says Williams, who expects about 750 people to attend this year’s event. “So it’s kind of a mix between classical music and classical western music.”

In the hero spirit of cowboys (and girls), come help lasso a dream for the Valley. Keep the spirit up.

The 13th Annual Sonoran Symphony takes place on Saturday, April 26 at 5:30 p.m. at the Rancho Manana Golf Resort in Cave Creek. Tickets are $250 per person. Tables for 10 people and sponsorships are available for $3,000 to $15,000.

By Kevin Downey

Listen up, music fans: A garage band with an increasingly rabid following is making its first stop ever in the Valley. Wait. Scratch that. Listen up, classical music fans…

Time for Three is playing Arizona Musicfest 2008, the seventeenth annual winter music festival featuring some of the top classical, opera, Broadway, and jazz musicians in a series of concerts across the North Valley. And, while a trio of two violinists and one bassist isn’t often big news, tf3’s gig in the Valley is. As classically trained twentysomethings based in Philadelphia, tf3 performs some 120 concerts each year to a fast-growing fan base.

The band has released two well-received CDs, and a third will come out when tf3, and not the music labels, decides which company is the best match for its music. And that’s a bit of a pickle. Time for Three (bassist Ranaan Meyer and violinists Nick Kendall and Zachary DePue) isn’t easily classified. It’s part garage band—jamming on original compositions until polished—and part classical trio. The group often plays straightforward classical music such as Brahms’s “Hungarian Dance No. 5,” but also mashes up classical elements with tunes like The Beatle’s “Blackbird.”

“We mess with these pieces to make them our own,” says Meyer. “None of these sounds exactly like people know them. But, at the same time, people will recognize them.” They also perform original songs, which Meyer describes as a hodgepodge of styles.

Tf3’s reputation has been building over the past several years, notably through segments on National Public Radio and through performances around the country. The band also recorded the soundtrack for The History Channel’s “Spanish-American War.”

The Valley hasn’t yet been on tf3’s tour schedule. But that will change with tf3’s performance at Musicfest on Feb. 26 and 27 at Fairway House at Grayhawk in Scottsdale.

“We have some music on the back burner [that] we’re working on that’ll make its way up to the front burner and, eventually, into our performances,” says Meyer. “We’ll probably have two or three new original pieces circulating by then.”

The band will be jamming their new tunes in the North Valley and, if the audience reception is anything like it’s been elsewhere in the country, this’ll be the first of many tf3 gigs here.

For more information on Arizona Musicfest 2008, visit azmusicfest.org. For more information on Time for Three, visit timeforthree.com.

By Kevin Downey

There’s one day each year when just about everyone feels a bit Irish, no matter how distant their ancestry. Of course, that’s St. Patrick’s Day, and this year it’s going to be a bigger deal than usual in the Valley.

The St. Patrick’s Day Parade & Faire is celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary on Saturday, March 15. The parade begins at 10 a.m. at 3rd Street (between Virginia and Moreland) and goes to Margaret T. Hance Deck Park. The Faire begins immediately afterward (until 5 p.m.) inside the park at the corner of Central Avenue and Culver Street.

More than 20,000 people show up each year for the parade, and about 5,000 people attend the family-friendly Faire.

This year’s theme, in honor of the anniversary, is “Silver on the Green,” and music’s going to play a big part in the celebration, as it always has in Irish culture since Paddy O’Donnell first picked up a beer and discovered a fiddle (bunch of blarney, but you get the idea). There will be plenty of Irish step dancing and music to liven up the mood, from straightforward Irish folk tunes to Irish rock bands. Performances will take place throughout the day on two stages.

Among this year’s performers are Flagstaff-based Irish folk band The Knockabouts and Irish rock group The Brazen Heads. Students from the Irish Cultural Center’s Academy of Irish and Celtic Studies will also perform.

The parade is free. Tickets for the Faire are free for kids under 6, $1 for kids 6–12, and $10 for adults. Free parking is available in decks on the 2600, 2700, and 2800 blocks along Central Avenue. A free shuttle will pick up Fairegoers in front of 2600 Central Ave. Want to go Gaelic? Find out more about the St. Patrick’s Day Parade & Faire at phxirish.org

By Kevin Downey

North Phoenix-based husband and wife team Matt Gould and Beth Ilana Schneider of Duo46 aren’t your average musicians. The classically trained duo, named for the four strings on a violin and six on a guitar, are constantly performing to sold-out crowds around the world and recording CDs, including the highly acclaimed Aires de Sefarad.

But Duo46 takes an uncommon approach to classical music that makes the pair appealing to teenagers and college kids as well as classical aficionados. They play only contemporary classical music, often beautiful and melodic, and occasionally plunging deep into avant-garde territory, where violin bows are pulled along guitar strings and trios perform with computer programs.

“It’s all written for us, which is what we like to do and like to play,” Gould says. “Whatever it is, it has to be from living people. That’s something we feel we have to do as musicians for classical music to continue on.”

Gould and Schneider spent some years in Europe and now teach at Paradise Valley Community College. They also focus on reaching audiences in rural areas. The couple launched a ten-day instructional music festival four years ago near Milan, Italy, called Soundscape. A similar festival planned for the United States is in its early stages. Travels often keep the couple from Valley stages, but they occasionally play gigs with Crossing 32nd Street.

“We’re starting to play with this group around town, really avant-garde stuff,” Gould says.

Duo46 is recording a new CD with music written for them by Arizona composer Daniel Asia, and is gearing up for the February 2008 Fiftieth Annual Grammy Awards. Their work as a trio with pianist Nathanael May is in contention for four nominations. And, as always, they are traveling the world playing to fans, young and old.

For more information on Duo46, including their schedule, visit duo46.com. Grammy nominations will be announced December 6.

By Cassaundra Brooks
Photo courtesy of Dolan Ellis

Are you aware that Arizona has an official state balladeer? Since Governor Sam Goddard appointed Dolan Ellis Arizona’s official state balladeer in 1966, every subsequent Arizona governor has reappointed him to the position, making Ellis not only the first state balladeer in the country, but also Arizona’s first-and-only state balladeer. Ellis, who won a “Best Group” Grammy in 1963 with the New Christy Minstrels, has written over 300 songs about our beloved state that he proudly calls home. The Scottsdale resident not only accompanies his original songs with his baritone voice and twelve-string guitar, but also with his photography. The endless miles he has traveled throughout Arizona have provided numerous sources of inspiration for his songs, and he uses his onstage photographs to add a little something special to his music.

Ever concerned with preserving Arizona history, this first Arizona Culture Keeper, with some help, unveiled the Arizona Folklore Preserve in 1990. The converted ranch house is situated in Ramsey Canyon, south of Sierra Vista, and is now maintained by the University of Arizona South. Filled with memorabilia and information pertaining to Arizona folklore, it is, as stated on the official Web site, “where Arizona’s songs, legends, poetry, and myths are collected, presented for audiences today, and preserved for the enrichment of future generations.” Many Arizona artists, including Ellis, have graced the preserve with their talents as guests.

Ellis has received a number of honors, including the 1996 Citizen of the Year award, and has represented Arizona in twenty countries. He has thoroughly enjoyed his forty-one year as Arizona’s esteemed official state balladeer, but is concerned that there are too few young people interested enough in his line of work, and wonders to whom he might eventually pass the torch. For, despite the many responsibilities that demand our time and energy, preserving Arizona’s culture is not a burden—especially when using music.

For more information on Dolan Ellis or how to become Arizona’s second official state balladeer, visit dolanellis.net. For more information on the Arizona Folklore Preserve, visit arizonafolklore.com.