CONCERT COMMENT
by JAMES PERRIN
Interfaith, Inter(con)textuality
I recently had the privilege of attending
one of the most beautiful and complex events that I can remember. The event
featured the Barclay Martin Ensemble, a band of musicians with extraordinary
talent and individual virtuosity, at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church,
on April 18th. That’s not true — the event featured the Center for Religious
Experience and Study (CRES) and the Interfaith Council. No, no, the event
featured the trailer for the upcoming documentary, Zamboanga: Poverty
/ War / Music, with all of the previously mentioned parties coming
together to announce the film. Scratch that — this was the “capstone” of
interfaith work and ministry by the Reverend Vern Barnet, DMn, founder
of both CRES and the Interfaith Council. Barnet has been doing interfaith
work for over 30 years, and CRES, the Interfaith Council, the Barclay Martin
Ensemble, and the Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) threw
a wonderful party for each other in celebration.
There was more to it than that. Zamboanga
was produced by the CFCA, with Barclay Martin himself creating the soundtrack.
This explanation is just as inadequate as the others, as the documentary
focuses on a concert in the Philippines that Barclay helped organize, a
concert featuring 13 youths who had been (re)introduced to their ancestral
music. To make the evening more deliciously complex, it was announced as
“a Concert - Conversation,” which meant that at certain points in the event
the Reverend David E Nelson, DMin, held conversations with Barclay Martin
on stage, while at other times he invited the audience members to share
their experiences of the event with each other.
The evening built up first to the trailer
for the documentary, and from there to the premiere performance of a “Suite”
of three songs by BME, commissioned by CRES as “a musical expression of
the wisdom of the world’s primal, Asian, and monotheistic traditions as
we face crises in the environment, in what it means to be a person, and
in how society should govern itself.”
So whose event was this, and what or whom
did it “feature?”
There I was, at a Concert-Conversation
hosted by a large number of organizations for each other, featuring an
amazingly talented band, a participating audience, and 13 children who
had already performed a monumental concert. We were celebrating the past
30 years of Vern Barnet’s interfaith work, looking forward to the release
of a documentary, hearing the first performance of a suite of three brilliant
songs in honor of these things, and “performing” our part in the dialogue
first by listening and then by discussing our experiences of the present
event amongst ourselves.
When we remember that the Philippines is
an area dealing with Christian-Muslim-Indigenous conflicts in the wake
of Spanish and then subsequent American colonialism, and that in this setting
Barclay Martin and the CFCA were teaching these children ancestral music
that had not been transmitted to them until Martin (an American) arranged
instruction for them, it becomes clear that that concert in Zamboanga
was one in which the intersection of past, present, and future (as well
as Philippines/ Spain/ America) played a powerful role in its spirituality.
To have that concert figuring so prominently in this one
ensured that every song, every improvised note, every reply in the conversation,
was drenched in cosmic and spiritual importance.
It was that absolute richness of context,
the intertextuality between past, present, and future, combined with the
interlocking of numerous diverse communities, some of which were on the
other side of the planet (approximately 8500 miles between Kansas City
and the city of Zamboanga) which provided for the perfect place and time
to experience what these interfaith groups strive for.
The Barclay Martin Ensemble’s music and
lyrics were focused on a kind of spirituality that is refreshing, heart-breaking,
and challenging. Their lyrics display just this kind of contextual awareness
and complexity that I have been describing, one that is keenly open to
the “paradox in a paradise” as Vern Barnet described it in The Kansas
City Star. Add to this the supreme beauty of their music, and all I
can say is that this event was a truly amazing gift, for all of us.
James Perrin holds a BA in Religion
from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas (the social construction
of religion, focus on Jewish Studies and Queer Studies,) and a Masters
in Biblical Languages from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley,
California (focus on Hebrew Bible and the relationship between Christianity
and Empire). He currently resides in Kansas City with his partner, Kent
McKusick, who serves as the Intern Student Minister at All Souls UU Church
where the concert-conversation was held. He works with KAPLAN Test Prep
and Admissions while he decides what to do with the rest of his life. |
"Faith
Matters" Blog entry
with
photo by Bill Tammeus
|
|
IMAGES OF THE PRINTED PROGRAM —
TEXT BELOW
|
To benefit CRES and the Greater Kansas
City Interfaith Council,
we present an event for all faiths and those with none:
A Concert-Conversation
with the Barclay
Martin Ensemble
premiering a new song commissioned by
CRES
to recognize the wisdom of the world’s
faith traditions
as we face crises in the environment,
in what it means to be a person,
and in how society should govern itself.
April
18 Saturday 8 pm — All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church, 45th and Walnut,
KCMO
Cosponsors: The Christian
Foundation for Children and Aging, Cultural Crossroads, HateBusters,
Diversity Coalition, the Human Agenda, House of Menuha, and the Friends
of Jung.
Thanks to All Souls Unitarian
Universalist Church for the facility.
A hot link to the current
PITCH full-page story is available from cres.org/bme.
Please see NOTES inside.
ENSEMBLE MEMBERS
 Barclay
Martin, who won the recent musician of the year award from KC Magazine,
has also written the music for the soundtrack of a movie documenting work
in the Philippines of the Christian Foundation for Children and Aging where
he helped realize a concert attracting an audience of 10,000 in an
extremely poor area of the country with Christians, Muslims, and indigenous
folks threatened by terrorism.
Formerly a member of Potato Moon, his solo record, “Promise on a String,”
combines homegrown music with influences from his domestic and international
travels. Martin has been heard on “Up to Date” with Steve Kraske on KCUR-FM
Radio, and articles about him have appeared in The Kansas City Star, Present
Magazine, Ink, The Pitch (see the 1400 word story in the Apr 16-22 edition,
page 30 and on line), and other publications.
The Barclay Martin Ensemble held its CD “Dawn” release concert at the Helen
F Spencer Theater at the University of Missouri Kansas City in June, 2008,
and has performed at The Record Bar, Jardine’s, Bar Natasha, JP Wine Bar,
Blayney’s of Westport, Crosstown Station, Czar Bar, Prospero’s Books, the
Overland Park Rotary Club, and other venues here and around the country. |
 Mark
Lowrey is a pianist/bandleader based in the Kansas City metro area. Although
his roots are in jazz music, Mark performs solo piano and in a wide variety
of highly acclaimed ensembles, such as Shay Estes, the Mark Lowrey Trio,
Tango Lorca, the New Order Big Band, and the Lonnie Mcfadden Quartet, and
the Barclay Martin Ensemble.
Mark also occasionally performs with the likes of Bobby Watson, Dave Stevens,
Angela Hagenbach, and the McFadden Brothers. Mark frequently performs cabaret
shows with some of Kansas City’s finest actors including Missy Koonce,
Jessica Dresler, and many others.
In Nov/Dec 2007 he was the pianist for the Coterie Theatre’s world premiere
of the Harry Connick Jr musical “The Happy Elf.”
Mark performed with Tango Lorca at the Argentine Consulate in New York
City at the First Annual Tango Ensemble Competition. (2005). Tango Lorca
received the second highest honor. In 2006, Mark was included in The Kansas
City Star’s “30 under 30.” Most recently, he was nominated in The Pitch
Music Awards in the category “Best Jazz Musician” (2007). |
 Rick
Willoughby grad-uated from the University of Missouri Kansas City Conservatory
of Music with a jazz performance degree in 2004. Rick has been studying
string bass since the age of 11.
Throughout his career, Rick has studied and taught various styles of bass
technique. He has served on the faculty of the Kansas City School of Music.
Most recently he studied with Gerald Spaits, a Kansas City native and one
of the area’s foremost bass players.
For the last ten years Rick has served as a band leader and a side man
around greater Kansas City. Rick is also the bass player and a composer
for the performance art group, Quixotic Performance Ensemble.
Rick played bass for the recent Kansas City Repertory Theater production
of the Winesburg, Ohio show at the Helen F Spencer Theater at UMKC.
In addition to playing bass with the Barclay Martin Ensemble, he also does
vocals. |
 Giuliano
Mingucci, a duel US and Brazilian citizen, is not only a professional drummer/percussionist
but also an audio engineer/videographer. He studied both at the University
of Missouri Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance. While he
began drumming when he was three years old, he also studied piano and guitar
but settled on drumming because of its physical and rich emotional possibilities.
In addition to the Barclay Martin Ensemble, he has played since 1998 with
Slanted Plant, Bixby Lane, Julia Othmer, Bar Natasha Singers, Government
Cheese, Jessica’s Box, and various small jazz ensembles and the UMKC jazz
big bands.
His current assignments include being video technician at Kansas City Royals
Game Entertainment. His freelance audio engineering includes work
at Studio City KC. His life-long love of sound has developed into a philosophy
of recording and engineering with acute appreciation for tonal characteristics
as both a technical skill and an art form.
Perhaps
because of his unique combination of musical and engineering facilities,
he approaches drumming not to be a flashy player but to listen well so
as to enhance the music the group produces. |
Zamboanga: Poverty,
War, Music is a documentary film produced by Christian Foundation for
Children and Aging. The film tells the story of 13 CFCA scholar students
who learn to play traditional instruments and become the headlining act
at a five-hour concert for an audience of about 10,000 people. Through
the film, CFCA celebrates the dignity, talent and beauty of the people
of the Philippines’ Mindanao region. To bring the story to the screen,
CFCA enlisted the talents of John Nosack, filmmaker and editor, and Barclay
Martin, composer and music director.
CFCA is a Kansas City-based international organization that aids the poor
through sponsorships. Founded in 1981, CFCA now works with more than 311,000
persons living in poverty in 24 developing countries, and with about 274,000
sponsors.
Recognizing the God-given dignity of every human being and grounded in
the Gospel call to serve the poor, CFCA is a lay-Catholic organization
working with persons of all faith traditions to create a worldwide community
of compassion and service.
text from page
2 below:
A Word
of Welcome
All good music is
“spiritual” in the sense that it lifts and enlarges our spirits. The lyrics
and music of Barclay Martin and the Ensemble are extraordinary in their
capacity to help us experience the world afresh.
While this concert is a benefit for the Greater Kansas City Interfaith
Council and CRES, it also aims to create and present a musical expression
of the wisdom of the world’s primal, Asian, and monotheistic traditions
as we face crises in the environment, in what it means to be a person,
and in how society should govern itself. (See chart on page 4.) The
commission premiered tonight is a “capstone” gift, especially to younger
people, as I move toward concluding my interfaith work. I am grateful to
Barclay, a remarkable person as well as a great musician, for accepting
the commission.
This evening also features conversation about the words, the music, the
creative process, and the things that matter.
We’ll also be uplifted by the trailer of a documentary to be released shortly
of Barclay’s work with youth in the Philippines in a very poor community
of several faiths under severe threat who find ways of living as if they
were in paradise. —VERN BARNET
|
THE
PROGRAM
PART ONE
GREETINGS
David
Nelson, Master of Ceremonies
Kent
MuKusick, All Souls
Shannon
Clark, Interfaith Council
Members
of the BME
Barclay Martin — vocals, guitar
Mark Lowrey — piano
Giuliano Mingucci — drums, percussion
Rick Willoughby — bass, vocals
SONGS to be announced
such as
Queen
of This Town
Speed
of the World
Please
NEIGHBORLY CONVERSATION:
Why are you here?
SONGS to be announced
such as
The Devil Can’t Kill Me
Are You Listening
Breathe
The River (lyrics, page 3)
PART TWO
DAVID ASKS BARCLAY
about Zamboanga
The
Wheel (lyrics, page 3)
TRAILER: ZAMBOANGA:
POVERTY WAR MUSIC
Miracle
(lyrics, page 3)
NEIGHBORLY CONVERSATION:
1. What did you see and hear in the trailer?
2. What emotions did you recognize?
What emotions did you experience in yourself?
3. What does the trailer say to you about global spirituality?
DAVID ASKS BARCLAY
AND VERN about the commission and
the creation of the song
NEIGHBORLY CONVERSATION:
Questions from the audience
Suite, premiere
performance, commissioned by CRES
(lyrics,
page 3)
CLOSING with an
invitation to . . .
CONVERSATION AND
COFFEE in the lobby |
Co-sponsor NOTES:
Have coffee and visit their
tables in the lobby
and purchase “DAWN,” BME’s
latest CD
Barclaymartin.com
Next show: Apr 28 Tuesday
7p Jardine’s
April 24 Friday 7:30p — Sacred
Sounds: a free interfaith concert co-sponsored by the Greater KC Interfaith
Council and Alliance of Divine Love, at All Souls UU Church.
The Christian Foundation
for Children and Aging’s Larry Livingston, director of church relations,
will be at the CFCA table or visit cfcausa.org.
Shannon Clark is executive director of the Greater Kansas City Interfaith
Council.
Kent McKusick is Intern Minister at All Souls. We are also grateful to
the staff, especially senior minister, the Rev Jim Eller and administrator
Jenny Bonawitz.
John Story and Jack Phillips are our sound engineers.
Jamie Rich of OpenCircle has provided management advice for the event.
Anne Canfield has assisted with our promotional efforts.
The Rev David E Nelson, DMin, is CRES associate minister, past convener
of the Interfaith Council, and president of the Human Agenda, humanagenda.com.
The Rev Vern Barnet, DMn, is minister emeritus of CRES and founder and
convener emeritus of the Interfaith Council. Dr Barnet writes the Wednesday
Kansas City Star “Faiths and Beliefs” column.
|
text from page
3 below:
A Sampling of Barclay Martin
Song Lyrics,
Including Tonight’s Commissioned
Work
© Barclay Martin,
2009
The Wheel
It's midnight again
Lonely, but hardly the end
of the day, this prayer
that I pray
for our children to grow
And we'll call this town
the end of the line for
now
My family tries, but never
finds
a way out
I know that
learning is all we have
to break the chains
while the wheel of poverty
remains
Late night boys
running through streets
of noise
the market is closed and
I feel like a ghost
in the rain
And those good night girls
dreaming of baby's curls
wishing they knew, just
what to do
they're getting crushed
by the wheel
(ch) Kalingkawasan kapit-os
(hangtud tanaan)
Miracle
Won’t you take the time to
know me well?
The constant music mission
bell
And you decide
As days go by
Won’t you take the time to
know me well?
Can you see a mother’s hands
get worn away?
The balance and the beautiful
array
And her bones
Can’t bear the cold
Can you see a mother’s hands
get worn away?
The miracle lay sleeping
in the dark
And the soldiers in the
checkpoints all remark
No one can see
We still believe
The miracle lay sleeping
in the dark
Ooh….
Won’t you step inside my
humble home?
Till kindness is the only
thing we know
My father’s face
A mother’s grace
Won’t you step inside my
humble home
Did you hear the sound of
crying in the night
The solitude of monumental
light
And in us all
Do you recall?
The sound
Can you hear the song of
children all around?
And the messages of mercy
still resound
A mother’s prayer
Suspends the air
Can you hear the song of
children all
around?
The River
Dropping tears in the river
In the age of forgiveness
Send a word up to heaven
Through the silver-paper
cover
Of the mountains and the
angels
Though her days are nearly
over
For the masquerade to cover
up
The silence of her laughter
And I come to you a cryin’
About justice and the weather
Though you never seem to
hear me
You just keep on hesitating
And maybe there’s a bedroom
With steel-embroidered curtains
That holds your love inside
it
Until you’re prepared to
give it
And it feeds into the river
Like all the times before
it
Though you think you may
be drowning
You know you can’t refuse
it
But it’s alright….it’s alright
Now you’re crying on the
shoulder
Of the angel’s silky nightgown
Which is frayed and worn
from flying
Through the cradles of creation
And you look to her for
guidance
And you look to her for
wisdom
And you grab a hold of something
That you think you should
have given
But she barrels down the
highway
Flying just outside of reason
And she hangs her disposition
On the pearly gates of heaven
And maybe there’s a bedroom
With steel-embroidered curtains
That holds your love inside
it
Until you’re prepared to
give it
And it feeds into the river
Like all the times before
it
Though you think you may
be drowning
You know you can’t refuse
it
But it’s alright….it’s alright
Now the hurricane’s a comin’
You can feel the world a
shakin’
So just board up all the
windows
And you’ll barricade the
kitchen
But the pacifist inside
you
Has an heir of meek resistance
To the rain against your
window
That flows right into the
river
Like the tears that you were
crying
That washed your face while
you were sleeping
And the love that you once
gave her
Is released into the river
And maybe there’s a bedroom
With steel-embroidered curtains
That holds your love inside
it
Until you’re prepared to
give it
And it feeds into the river
Like all the times before
it
Though you think you may
be drowning
You know you can’t refuse
it
But it’s alright….it’s alright
Suite
Fields of Rain
I’ll steer this lonely vessel
To the safety of the harbor
But the passages are littered
With the artifacts of progress
The water’s laced with poison
and
It’s pulsing through my
veins
As the mother of the mystery
Lays down in fields of rain
In the scattered streets
the
Sleepless burdens of their
worth
The bougainvillea blossoms
line
The confiscated earth
For endless is the warning
And the messages remain
Deeper than the ripples
That blow through fields
of rain
Delicate as branches
Fragile as the frost
We become the measure
Of all that we have lost
In the long forgotten night
She opens up her hand
Her gown of rags is slivered
By the blade of our demands
As I reach to join her
I see her bracelet on a
chain
That shines like God above
the grace
That grows in fields of
rain
Delicate as branches
Fragile as the frost
We become the measure
Of all that we have lost
As I reach to join her
I see her bracelet on a
chain
That shines like God above
the grace
That grows in fields of
rain
The Alchemist
The Alchemist ties you up
tighter
Arraigned by the wires
Of justice and pain
And these visions of envy
That brought your surrender
Has everyone doing the same
He’s back there mixing potions
To cure your bad allegiance
To a long forgotten prayer
Or a night without the moon
It’s got a hold of me
A shimmering and precious
thing
All I ever wanted was
Just a little more
The water flows deeper than
you’ll ever know
Just let go
The silver thread will tow
you home
My God, the prize is endless
The drive through blind
ambition
To rise above the rest
So high above the hunger
But it’s too dangerous to
mention
I’m drunk on his concoction
Someday my obligations
Will release me to my own
The water flows deeper than
you’ll ever know
Just let go
The silver thread will tow
you home
Ooh…
The Alchemist ties you up
tighter
Arraigned by the wires
Of justice and pain
And these visions of envy
That brought your surrender
Has everyone doing the same
The Tower & the
Teacher
Look out below I’m dropping
stones
It’s too dangerous now,
got to go it alone
This one is major, I’m raising
the rent
But for those on the ground
it’s as low as it gets
And I’ll build my religion
from stones that I’ve thrown
Hoping those I don’t know
will just leave me alone
Keep me secure may it all
stay the same
‘cause I learned to get
mine at the start of the game
And I will build it up so
high I can’t come down
I’ll shine my light so bright
I can’t make out the message on the ground
Teacher, the people below
in the streets
Are too far removed from
the tower to see the
Almighty engine of prosperous
might
That grinds through the
night and deprives you of sight
But the teacher is murmuring
words from below
Sentiments those in the
tower should know
That the bones of our hist’ry
were lost in the greed
By the lessons that rendered
their game to its knees
And I will build it up so
high I can’t come down
I’ll shine my light so bright
I can’t make out the message on the ground
Keep up the pressure continue
to rise
‘cause everyone knows that
you grow or you die
But how lonely it gets with
this power I twirled
‘round this tower I built
to the top of the world
Maybe someday you will finally
recall
That the wealth of a nation
resides in us all
May you wish for compassion
You’d lost out at sea
That was buried beneath
an anchor of peace
text from page
4 below:
|
The Kansas
City Star, September 24, 2008
Faiths and Beliefs
— VERN BARNET
The
paradox in a paradise
Two minutes after
I met local singer/songwriter Barclay Martin at a party before I ever heard
him play, he was talking about paradox. The logo on his business card is
a lion with butterfly wings, a rather paradoxical creature.
Paradox
is a key theme in many religions. For example, the paradox of the incarnation,
God become human in Jesus the Christ, is at the heart of Christianity.
But
what did Martin mean about paradox?
I listened
to his new CD, “Dawn,” and began attending performances of the Barclay
Martin Ensemble around town.
One
paradox is that, like much great art, his folk-jazz-world music transforms
the ordinary thud of life, or even its horrors, into beauty and healing.
Take
his song, “Are You Listening?” One of my friends said the song could have
been written for President George Bush, but I think it addresses the paradoxical
and confused energies in all of us.
Except
for the musical frame around its text, the song’s questions about the “religion
of war” would be too much to bear. It pleads, “Please won’t you say there’s
a better way to lead the world to freedom?” and hints at the paradox
of singing hymns” while the world is being destroyed.
Which
takes me to a paradoxical phrase that appears in a preview of the documentary
for which he is creating the sound track: “This is paradise in hell.”
The
movie is “Zamboanga: Poverty/War/Music,” filmed in a poor region of the
Philippines where terrorist groups are active. While the film still being
edited, you can see the preview at zamboangathemovie.com.
Martin
was invited to go to the Philippines by the Christian Foundation for Children
and Aging, the agency producing the film. Founded locally by lay Catholics,
CFCA helps impoverished people of all faiths in 25 countries.
Martin’s
assignment was to help create a concert to celebrate the beautiful community
spirit that paradoxically is found among the people of the Zamboanga area,
with its mix of Christian, Muslim and indigenous religious practices.
At
an early call for musicians, some teens showed up with electric guitars.
Martin connected them with Filipino folk musicians who taught them traditional
instruments.
A year
later, ten thousand people showed up for the concert.
The
ultimate paradox is too big for this column and all the volumes of theology,
but Martin’s music hints at it, that even in the hell we have made, we
may make a heaven if we listen and see what we have done, and help one
another.
Vern Barnet does interfaith work in Kansas City. Reach
him at vern@cres.org |
CLICK
HERE FOR THE CHART
ON
PAGE 4 OF THE PRINTED PROGRAM
|
