ON the Beat | A Lot of Night Music, Both Sides of the Street

Stephane Wrembel | Photo: Lawrence Sumulong

It is a self-evident truth, from many perspectives, that Mozart’s music, as a whole, is good for what ails us and an illuminating soundtrack for life affirmation and reality re-entry programming. With that recipe in mind, the Santa Barbara Symphony rose to a mighty occasion with last weekend’s “Mozart Marathon” — two separate servings of beautifully realized, entirely Mozart programming.

The weekend’s fare proved to be a fine way to launch the new year in the local classical calendar and a balm/affirmative force amid the tragic L.A. wildfires and their devastating toll. As it happens, those fires directly affected SBS’s orchestral ranks, much of it drawn from the rich Los Angeles musician pool.

The Mozart-ian feast, on its own profound musical terms, should have ruled the stage, but there was a late-breaking edition of narrated texts and anecdotes about the naughty genius, written by former Ensemble Theatre Company head Jonathan Fox and read by comic actor Tim Bagley. What must have been an attempt at crowd-baiting and lightening the serious music load for newcomers in the audience, unfortunately backfired. Maybe it would have worked as a separate pre-concert event, rather than in prime symphonic time.

Any attempt to set the record straight about the deceptive play/movie Amadeus had the opposite effect of diluting and distracting from the pure power of the music. So much for focusing on the art versus the artist.

And the music was undeniably powerful, in terms of an earful of sublime scores and the impressive finesse of the ensemble and the soloists, all drawn from the symphony’s ranks. Maestro Nir Kabaretti designed a double-dosed program with both familiar favorites — the Haffner symphony, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and beloved violin and piano concertos — and lesser-heard gems.

I had to miss the Sunday afternoon concert, but Saturday night’s program was a model of balanced intensities. An unassuming and delicate opener, the overture to The Impresario, led into a rare showcase for instruments deserving more soloist spotlight love. Mozart’s lithe Concerto for Flute and Harpsichord in C, with harpsichordist Michelle Temple and flutist Amy Tatum offered up sleek, incisive performances in tandem and individually.

Concertmaster Jessica Guideri dazzled with technical fluency and grace, taking center stage on Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 4, and the concert closed with the Haffner, juiced up with a faster-than-usual tempo to bring a long evening to a brisk closure. Mozart, the music-maker, won out.

Nerdherfer Sighting

Nerfherder performing at SOhO on January 18, 2025 | Photo: Robert Redfield

Post-symphony, we hoofed it across State Street and up to SOhO, following Amadeus with Andrew. That would be Andrew Broomhead, Nerf Herder leader Parry Gripp’s pseudonym when he briefly wrote a music column for this paper. Gripp is a man of at least two or three distinctly different identities: One as the Emmy-winning creator and star of kid culture music and videos (“Raining Tacos” is one of his super-hits) and as the wily and sometimes naughty geek punk Nerfherder leader.

The tight, punchy, and often hilarious band — sometimes given the anagrammatical nickname Nerd Herder — is one of Santa Barbara’s great rock and roll success stories. In a rare local show, the fearsome and smirking foursome (also with bassist/harmony vocalist Ben Pringle, founding drummer Steve Sherlock, and wizardly guitarist known as Linus of Hollywood) seized the room with an array of tunes, from their ’90s heyday forward. Gripp opened with his customary mock rock star bluster, saying “We’ve come all the way from Dos Pueblos High School to kick your asses!” Asses were, in fact, kicked, and funny bones palpated.

(Incidental note: The show was opened by Pulsars, but not the planned Ridel High, two of whose members lost homes in the L.A. fires.)

The Herder setlist powered through a cool pile of short songs, kicking off with “High Five Anxiety” and capped off by the biting and bite-sized “Doing’ Laundry.” Along the way, they name-checked local institutions Haley Street and the Sportsman Bar, jokily tapped pop culture in “Mr. Spock” and “Van Halen,” served up ironic bragging rights in “We Opened for Weezer” (making an unexpected hook from “Motherfuckin’ Wisconsin! Motherfuckin’ Wisconsin!” and again offered due apology for, among other things, when the protagonist “crashed through your window on acid,” in their hit “Sorry.” Oh, and insistent requesters got their genital-obsessive due with the closer “I’ve Got a Boner for Christmas.”

Speaking of juggling classical and rock ‘n’ roll matters, Pringle deserves a “Local Hero” award for his rare ability as both a classically trained singer in the refined acapella group Quire of Voyces and a cheeky punk ranger with Nerf Herder. Apparently, he didn’t get the memo about selectively choosing your musical direction. Ditto Gripp/Broomhead. Praises be.

Moral and Musical Arcing

The MLK program, hosted by Isaac Garrett, began with native prayers, chants, and songs shared by the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation. | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom

As our demonic clown-in-chief made his pompous and circumstantial way into the White House across the country, Santa Barbara’s always impressive MLK day celebration took place on Monday. More aptly reverential and peaceable tones were in order, along with some music-coated moments of joy.

As is the custom, the celebration began at De la Guerra Plaza and collectively marched its way up State Street to an elaborate Arlington Theater presentation. Young poets and essayists (including the moving peacemaker essay winner Husna Balaven) took to the stage, as did inspiring keynote speaker Dr. Lisa H. Sederis, who lavished praise on activist troublemakers MLK and Rachel Carson. She also urged action and vigilance, referring to MLK’s famous dictum, “The arc of the moral universe may lean towards justice, but it needs our help in fueling its progress.”

Due respects were also paid to the late great Sojourner Kincaid-Rolle, a pivotal poet/activist in Santa Barbara who passed away last year. And yes, all important musical sources punctuated the event, starting with the David Gorospe Trio (with bassist Santino Tafarella and drummer Tyler Hammond) supplying funk in the foyer and Rosalyn Collins’s stirring singing and backgrounding of the classic James Weldon Johnson 1900-vintage hymn “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” (Collins, a k a Sister Roz, whose KCSB show “The Experience,” is an airwave-blessing beacon of hope and gospel music goodness.)

In the event’s second half, we heard the be calming/spiriting sound of the West African–rooted Ewe Drummers of Santa Barbara, led by Sese Ntem, and a soulful take on Billie Holiday’s “God Bless the Child” by vocalist Tony Maddox, with Gorospe on keyboard.

Wendy Sims-Moten, president of the MLK Day board and leader of ceremonies, summarized the voices-lifted spirit of the day: “Let’s not get caught up in the irony of the day. We need to focus and get fired up.”

TO-DOINGS:

One of the finest jazz guitarists around, especially as one normally associated with the Django Reinhardt/Hot Club–inspired scene, is the French Stephane Wrembel. Wrembel, who canceled his would-be SOhO gig last year, circles back through the 805 next Thursday, January 30, at the Ventura Music Club. At the moment, Wrembel is riding high in the wake of a special project with jazz pianist Jean-Michel Pilc (who has played SOhO in the past and won plenty of friends and fans here).

The pair’s new album Triptych is an impressive example of how early French jazz can be married to contemporary impulses, but the Wrembel album which most won my love was his solo 2019 album Django L’Impressionniste (check it out here). Here, Wrembel pays deep respects to the looming influence of Django but improvises and finds personal expressive routes in the process of reconsidering historical precedents. It wows, artfully.

Catch young ascending classical piano prodigy, Alexander Malofeev, at Hahn Hall on Friday, January 24, as part of UCSB Arts & Lectures’ “Hear & Now” series.

I’m not a big fan of tribute bands and projects, preferring the original music imperative, but there are exceptions. Take the case of a good Steely Dan tribute project, a sophisticated subject necessarily requiring exacting musicianship and passionate fandom. For your consideration, get thee to a SOhO on Sunday, January 26, when the respected 11-piece Dan tribute confab Dr. Wu takes the stage and does it up right. They’re not just a shadow of the band that we once knew.