Busy Nights in July (part 1)

Neely Bruce is a fine pianist, intrepid interpreter of the music of Charles Ives and quite a composer. He's been friends with fellow composer William Duckworth for over 4 decades; in fact, he debuted Duckworth's "The Time Curve Preludes"  in a solo piano recital at Wesleyan in 1979.  The "Preludes" have been called one of the most impressive works of "Post-Minimalism."

This Tuesday evening at 7:30 p.m.,  Professor Bruce revisits the program once more, a concert that will also include a performance of the "Thoreau" movement of Ives' "Concord Sonata" (in honor of Henry David Thoreau's birthday on 7/12) and "Duckworth's "Walden Variations."  The concert is free and takes place in Crowell Concert Hall. 

Perhaps, you'd rather take in a classic flick - head over to the Goldsmith Family Cinema at Wesleyan (Washington Terrace) for week #2 of "Bogie & Bacall."  This week, it's the 1944 Howard Hawks' adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's "To Have and Have Not."  The screen writers include William Faulkner and Jules Furthman who work hard to tell the story of an American expatriate Humphrey Bogart) hired to bring a Free France Resistance Fighter and his wife to Martinique (Cuba in the book.)  He is also friends with the beautiful singer (Lauren Bacall) and her piano player (Hoagy Carmichael) and does his best to avoid a slew of bad guys.  Lots of adventure, cigarette smoke and the occasional kiss plus the snappy dialogue make this a great piece of "escapist cinema."  This was the first time the couple met; they married a year later and stayed together until Bogart's death in 1957.

The screening is free and open to the public.

The "Summer Sounds" series on the Green at Union Park continues Tuesday with Elite Syncopation performing jazz and ragtime from the turn of the 20th Century up to the "Great Depression." Led by bassist and Music Instructor at Wesleyan Roy Wiseman, this band has been together almost 2 decades, playing throughout the country.

If the weather is as ugly as the meteorologists predict it might be, the concert moves inside to Soth Church.  Sponsored by the Middletown Commission on the Arts, the show is free and open to the public.