Berklee's island festival gets huge.

By Margot Edwards
Berklee.edu Correspondent
August 25, 2004

Bruce Cockburn '65 opens Vineyard Vibes at the Hot Tin Roof.
Photo by Margot Edwards

Berklee and BR Creative launched Vineyard Vibes four years ago as a one-night event, but it grew quickly this year, both in terms of the roster of performers and audience size. In addition to increasing awareness of the wide diversity of talent the college produces, Vineyard Vibes offers a rewarding music and social experience for the students, who were able to stay on the island during the festival thanks to the generosity of several Vineyard families who welcomed the young musicians into their homes. "We wanted them to travel somewhere they might not otherwise go, and have the opportunity to open for established acts. Students are now fighting to get on the bill," says Vineyard Vibes producer Steven Lipman, Berklee's assistant vice president for student affairs/enrollment.

Bruce Cockburn kicked off the festival on Thursday, July 22, with a solo-acoustic guitar performance for an enthusiastic sellout crowd at the Hot Tin Roof. Cockburn opened with "Postcards from Cambodia," a song he described as "a landscape piece, an attempt to paint a portrait of a place in time." Throughout his mesmerizing set, he played several politically charged tunes from his latest album, You've Never Seen Everything, including "Wait No More," "Trickle Down," and "Put It in Your Heart," a composition inspired by the September 11 attacks. Toward the end of the show, Cockburn, who has earned 20 gold or platinum albums in his native Canada, gave thanks to Berklee "for putting this on and for getting me started. Berklee was a great place to have gone for the time that I went there."

The festival continued the next night at the Martha's Vineyard Performing Arts Center with a duo performance by Gary Burton and Makoto Ozone. After the opening number, "Afro Blue," Burton spoke with reverence of the "great vibists," and then dedicated the concert to superstars of the instrument, from Milt Jackson to Lionel Hampton. Burton and Ozone's virtuosic performance featured an educational element as the pair essentially told the entire history of the vibraphone through music and words. The set included Milt Jackson's "Bags' Groove," Oscar Peterson's "Wheatland," and Mitch Foreman's "Gorgeous." After the performance, Larry Bethune, vice president for student affairs, made a presentation to Burton in appreciation for his decades of work at Berklee. Burton, a five-time Grammy Award winner, is retiring on August 30 after 33 years at the college, where he was a teacher, dean of curriculum and, since 1996, executive vice president.

Before Burton and Ozone stepped onto the stage, the vocal jazz group Syncopation warmed up the crowd. Featuring faculty member Christine Fawson '02 and recent graduates Christy Bluhm, Jeremy Ragsdale, and Tsunenori "Lee" Abe, Syncopation performed an original, "I Can Fly," written by Abe, the group's arranger; and the beautiful "Photographia," sung in Portuguese. The group woke up bright and early the next morning to appear on Vineyard Plum TV, performing "Route 66."

Trombonist Phil Wilson and his quintet—vocalist and trumpeter Fawson; recent graduates Evan Gregor on bass and Jordan Perlson on drums; and faculty member Mark Shilansky on piano—performed two electrifying sets in a crowded room at the Offshore Ale House in Oak Bluffs on Saturday night. Wilson, who has worked with jazz greats from Woody Herman and Louis Armstrong to Herbie Hancock, launched the set with "What Is this Thing Called Love?" and continued with "I Could Write a Book," featuring Fawson. Wilson explained that many of the songs in his repertoire came out of Hollywood and were originally written as ballads for film, including the Charlie Chaplin tune "Smile."

Wilson is one of the college's most popular and longstanding teachers, having mentored many stellar musicians since joining the faculty in the mid-1960s, including Roy Hargrove '89, Cyrus Chestnut '85, John Scofield '73, and Danilo Perez '88. "One of the things that keeps me young is playing with great young musicians," Wilson said after the concert.

Major "Choirboy" Johnson (right) leads the Reverence Gospel Ensemble in concert at the Old Whaling Church. Photo by Margot Edwards

Former Berklee students were in abundance during the weekend, drawn by the concerts and by an alumni reception, held on Friday night at the Mansion House Hotel, host hotel for the festival. The event gave alumni an opportunity to wine and dine with faculty, artists, and other alumni, and attendees also received a sneak preview of the college's new recruitment video, featuring music written and performed entirely by Berklee students.

Vineyard Vibes came to a rousing close on Sunday night with a concert by the Berklee Reverence Gospel Ensemble, a student group directed by Dennis Montgomery III, assistant professor of ensemble, in a packed house in the Old Whaling Church on Sunday night. The group was introduced by composer Walter Robinson who said, "We as Americans need to recognize [gospel music] as our national treasure."

The opening number featured soloist Renese King '90, who passed up an invitation to perform with the Boston Pops the same night. Other tunes included the up-tempo "Rejoice" and "I Still Say Yes," featuring Montgomery and student conductor and soloist Major "Choirboy" Johnson '05, a professional music major. Other soloists included Navinthran Ramasamy and Belinda McIlvane. The hour-plus performance brought the house down, ending the show—and the Vineyard Vibes festival—with deafening applause and a standing ovation.

For festival coproducers Barry Rosenthal of BR Creative and Steven Lipman, Vineyard Vibes is clearly a labor of love. The pair were busy managing an event that had grown fourfold since last year, a fact that made the series a one-of-a-kind event for Martha's Vineyard.

"It's unique because the island had never seen four days of such diverse, world-class music," Rosenthal says.

The festival organizing team is already putting together possible combinations of performers for next year, and has approached several artists. "The college is such a well of creativity and there's so much to choose from, that it becomes an embarrassment of riches," Lipman says.

Other initiatives the festival coproducers are considering include bringing in artists to give workshops for high school students and further developing a relationship with Adventures in Rock, which offered music-travel packages this year. With a world of exciting options to explore, it will be interesting to see what's in store for Vineyard Vibes 2005.

Margot Edwards is a publicist in Berklee's Office of Public Information.