Festival photos by David Michael Miller
Marquette Waterfront Festival, 2014
Whether you’re a festival veteran, a newbie or a visitor looking for some free outdoor entertainment, there’s no denying that summertime rocks in Madison. Every weekend, some park, street or field is pumping out the jams, and everyone from toddlers to seniors seems to be shaking their groove thing, balancing lemonade, beer, brats and pad Thai.
Much of this entertainment bonanza is due to the hard work of platoons of neighborhood volunteers, who keep the festivals running on beverage, food and merch sales (Spin the wheel! Buy the raffle tickets!). And long before you shimmy your way through a crowded, grassy field, festival bookers are scouring the local, national and international music scenes to create killer lineups.
We asked Isthmus music writers to share their picks for the best of the free offerings at festivals this summer. They scoured the lineups and talked to the bookers, arriving at this “best of the fest” guide, which encompasses a vast range of genres from sultry jazz to blistering cow-punk and up-tempo Afro-Cuban. We’re confident that this guide will inspire you to get to a festival to enjoy some of the finest music you can hear anywhere. Viva summertime!
— Catherine Capellaro
RODNEY BURSIEL
Jon Dee Graham
Marquette Waterfront Festival, Yahara Place Park, June 11-12
My pick for this fest is the uncontrollable tilt-a-whirl that is Austin ass-kicker Jon Dee Graham. The three-time inductee to Austin’s Music Hall of Fame currently fronts the fearless cow-punk trio the Fighting Cocks.
Graham is a guitarist with the soul of a songwriter and a songwriter whose lyrics are rendered like short stories on fire. Graham plays two shows at the Waterfront. His Cottonwood Stage set at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday will be comparatively intimate. He’ll open the bomb doors with the Cocks on the main stage at 4:15.
Graham loves Madison. His basement shows at Kiki’s House of Righteous Music are legendary. “Jon Dee Graham is heavily armed with a Shoreline gold Stratocaster, the wisdom of the ages and a seemingly endless supply of love, and should be considered extremely deep and awesome,” says Freedy Johnston, a sometimes Madisonian and current New Yorker, who recorded with Graham as a member of the Hobart Brothers.
Isthmus recently caught up with Graham and asked him what he was up to and what Waterfront fans should expect.
You’ve been generous in your praise of Madison. What is it about our city that turns you on?
Kiki’s is my second favorite gig in the world, right after [Austin’s] Continental Club. And Madisonians are a hardy, funny, highly intelligent audience. I know people who compare this city to that city to another city, but there is no city like Madison — beyond compare.
I asked Freedy Johnston to describe you. So I’ll ask you to describe Freedy Johnston.
Well, wait. What did Freedy say about working with me? This feels like a question with a trap-door hidden under the rug. Freedy has written and continues to write some of my very favorite songs. He’s sort of a songwriting superhero. And he’s my friend, too. I taught him how to hug. It’s true — ask him.
You’ll be doing two Waterfront Fest shows. What can festival-goers expect at the two programs?
The early set will be smaller, more scaled down. But just as uncomfortably intense. The later set will be the main show, and it will be loud/quiet, big/small, dark and luminous. And there’ll be drums and bass, too, so, more action.
— Andy Moore
Lisa Piernot
Sharón Clark
Isthmus Jazz Festival, June 17-18 & 22
Twelve-year-old headliner Joey Alexander will certainly turn heads at the 2016 Isthmus Jazz Festival, but jazz fans can expect “Body and Soul” from the stunning vocalist Sharón Clark, who joins the UW Jazz Orchestra on the Memorial Union Terrace on Saturday, June 18, at 8 p.m. Ahhh, jazz at sunset!
Under the direction of UW jazz studies director Johannes Wallmann, Clark will sing love songs from the Great American Songbook arranged for big band.
In February, Clark, who’s been called “an absolute triumph” by the Wall Street Journal, became the primary vocalist for the Duke Ellington Orchestra.
Clark performed at UW-Madison’s Music Hall this past February. At that concert, her repertoire included tunes associated with Ella Fitzgerald: “A Foggy Day,” “They Can’t Take That Away From Me,” and Cole Porter’s “Night and Day,” my personal favorite. After a toe-tappin’ version of “Mack the Knife,” Clark continued the Ella tribute with “How High the Moon.” Arrangements by Dave Wolpe showcased her fluid runs, dynamics and wonderful phrasing.
“Sharón has a big voice and a commanding presence, so when we talked about guest vocalists for an outdoor performance, everyone agreed that she would be a wonderful fit for the Terrace,” says Wallmann.
Isthmus spoke with Clark, who has traveled the world, to ask about her influences and background. “Like most African American singers, I started singing in church, and soon my father encouraged me to join the school choir,” Clark says.
Her “Big Six” influences are Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Carmen McRae, Nancy Wilson, Billie Holiday and Shirley Horn. “They shape what jazz is. We take part of it and make it our own.”
Jazz Fest audiences can expect another fabulous, soulful performance, a perfect vocal match with the UW Jazz Orchestra all-star band and four new charts selected by Clark (a gift from arranger Tom Husak worth $10,000). She is mighty excited about the evening, including having some Babcock Hall ice cream with her daughter: “It’s going to be so much fun! With that music flowing, right on the water...and those kids are so enthusiastic!”
— Chuck France
Kid Koala
Kid Koala and Tab Benoit
La Fête de Marquette, Central Park, July 14-17
Since moving the Cajun-blues-funk-themed La Fête de Marquette festival to the friendly confines of Central Park two years ago, organizers have been looking for the best ways to grow into the space. This year it looks like they’ve hit upon a winning formula, with a Sun Stage on Ingersoll Street and a Moon Stage on Brearly. Each will offer a different aspect of the festival’s musical identity.
The beer- and sun-soaked fans looking for something a little less funk-rocky and a little more musically contemplative are gonna find it on the Moon Stage in the musical stylings of multiculti DJ/turntablist Eric San, aka Kid Koala (Friday, 9:30 p.m.). The Montreal-based San takes sounds you can hear elsewhere at the Fête — the squawk and smooth stretch of a jazz saxophone, the plunk of a blues piano, a funk-based guitar riff — and sends them through the DJ funhouse, building new aural architecture out of loops, scratches and scribbles. Expect a diet of deep cuts from his 2012 release 12-Bit Blues, and, if the moon’s just right, some “Skanky Panky.” If you miss his free gig at the Fête, he’s also on tap for an after-party gig at the High Noon Saloon that night.
The Fête’s Sunday culmination is the other can’t-miss: a platter of stone-cold blues served up by the legendary Tab Benoit (8:15 pm). It’s been rare in recent years for the dyed-in-the-Bayou Louisianan to grab his Fender Thinline and gig further north than, say, Virginia. It’s also been a few years since Benoit recorded new material — 2011, to be exact — but the personable guitarist has kept his name in headlines (if not on radios), both as a headliner on major Southern blues festivals and as a wetlands warrior, using his celebrity to help his local environment. Benoit’s got several swamps’ worth of songs to draw from in his Grammy-nominated catalogue, so when he tears into “Shelter Me,” don’t be surprised if he sends the Sun Stage into supernova. And when he tees up “New Orleans Ladies”? It’s totally legit to just close your eyes and sway.
— Aaron R. Conklin
La Fête de Marquette, 2015
Alan Rand
Jane Lee Hooker
Jane Lee Hooker, Buffalo Killers and Kwame Bediako
AtwoodFest, Schenk’s Corners, July 30-31
“We definitely went large, to bring in not only some of the biggest and best local acts, but regional and out-of-town acts that really pack a punch,” says Rökker, the man in charge of booking music at AtwoodFest, which keeps music running on two stages.
Among the national headliners coming to the neighborhood are Jane Lee Hooker, a scorching blues-rock-punk band from New York City that takes inspiration from John Lee Hooker, natch, and is supporting its debut CD, No B!, released earlier this year.
With twin lead guitarists named “T Bone” and “Hightop,” plus throaty vocals courtesy of Dana Danger, this raw and rowdy quintet brings hard-rock interpretations to classic blues songs by the likes of Muddy Waters, “Big Mama” Thornton and Johnny Winter. Jane Lee Hooker is rounded out by “Hail Mary” on bass and “Cool Whip” on drums, and every one of these women have paid their dues in bands like Bad Wizard and Nashville Pussy.
Jane Lee Hooker will play a 90-minute set on the Alchemy Stage on Sunday at 5:45 p.m.
If the blues ain’t your thing, check out AtwoodFest a day earlier for Buffalo Killers, a vintage-sounding psychedelic-stoner rock band out of Ohio that High Times brilliantly called “heavy on the heavy.” Sounding and looking like faded hirsute time travelers who just played Woodstock — with fat guitars, carefree harmonies and summertime vibes — these veteran rockers have ties to the Black Crowes and the Black Keys.
Buffalo Killers, who released Fireball of Sulk in 2014, will perform a 90-minute set starting at 8:15 on Saturday on the Alchemy Stage.
Chicago’s Kwame Bediako is returning to AtwoodFest after a rousing 2014 set of reggae roots music infused with modern sensibility. Originally from Ghana, Bediako incorporates African heritage into performances with his five-piece band Kwamekaze, and he calls himself the African Roots Ambassador.
Bediako will perform Saturday at 4 p.m. on the Harmony Stage.
As of this writing, one final headliner was expected to be announced on June 12. Rökker remains tight-lipped, revealing only that “the Saturday night closer is a big deal.”
— Michael Popke
Jeffrey Braverman
Ricardo Lemvo & Makina Loca
Africa Fest, Central Park, Aug. 13
There’s no better place to experience live music from the motherland than at Africa Fest. And one of the best dancing opportunities this summer might be headliner Ricardo Lemvo & Makina Loca, a band from Los Angeles known for a mix of smooth, uptempo Afro-Cuban rhythms and innovative pan-African styles.
Congo-born Lemvo, who is of Angolan descent, and his band blend the quick-paced sounds of African soukous, kizomba, samba and Cuban salsa, creating a dance party both on and off stage.
Soukous is a popular dance music from the Congo Basin similar sounding to rumba music; kizomba is slower, with romantic rhythms that are perfect for close dancing. Samba and salsa are Latin America-based styles known for driving drum lines and a flurry of different instruments.
Described by critics as “seamless” and “infectious,” the group’s live shows are full of energy, vocal duets and horn solos. The lyrics are uplifting, with Lemvo often singing about the celebration of life and love, inspiring the audience to join him in dancing their worries away.
The day-long festival — which starts at 10 a.m. — will feature performers from Guinea, Mali, Senegal, Ghana and other countries playing both traditional and new variations of African music, as well as dance groups from Nigeria, Rwanda and elsewhere.
Playing earlier in the day is the Madison-based Atimevu Drum and Dance Group, which performs traditional Ghanaian folk drum music, and the local Afro-Pop band Kikeh Mato, as well as Tani Diakite, who strums the kamale n’goni, a West African ancestor to the banjo. Lively dance groups such as Jam Ak Jam will also perform.
Music is the event’s primary focus because it “portrays the traditional means of communication in Africa,” says Ray Kumapayi, president of the African Association of Madison, which puts on the festival, now in its 18th year.
The day is about cultural education, and attendees are encouraged to reach out to the members of the African community, says Kumapayi, adding that many of the performers “are Africans who reside here in Madison and who may be your neighbor.”
— Steven Potter
Sara Bill
GGOOLLDD
GGOOLLDD and Fringe Character
Orton Park Festival, Aug. 25-28
When the triumvirate of Maggie Weiser, Katherine Davie and Dan Hobson inherited Orton Park Festival music booking duties from longtime honcho Bob Queen three years ago, they looked around the neighborhood and saw a population in flux. They thought the music at Orton should evolve accordingly.
“This is such a gray-hair festival,” says Hobson. “That’s not a bad thing, but we wanted to stretch the boundaries a little more this time.”
Weiser adds, “We were really committed to having some genre diversity this year, diversity in the age of the people on stage, and having women on stage. There are a lot of younger people who live in the neighborhood, and we need to keep them interested in these festivals.”
So while there will still be plenty of music for the “gray hairs” at this year’s festival, some genres that have not been heavily represented at Orton in the past have prominent slots this time around.
Milwaukee-based GGOOLLDD hits the stage at 6:30 pm on Saturday. GGOOLLDD is perhaps best described as synth-driven power pop. Their sound is a little like what ABBA might have been if they’d had access to the modern tools of techno. It’s catchy and hypnotic, but still manages to rock. As evidenced by their videos, they pay attention to the visual and theatrical parts of the job as well. Frontwoman Margaret Butler knows how to put together an eye-catching costume, and she has clearly put in time in the film room studying pop icons like Debbie Harry and Madonna.
Hitting at 4 p.m. on Sunday is Madison’s own hip-hop collective Fringe Character, though the phrase “hip-hop collective” does not do this group’s eclectic style justice. They call what they do “nuelectrosoulhop,” combining elements of soul, hip-hop, dub, jazz and electronica. What started out as primarily a solo project of producer/multi-instrumentalist Ben Sholl has grown into a 10-piece juggernaut featuring multiple MCs and a full-blown horn section. The grooves are groovy as hell, and the hooks are earworm-inducing.
Ironically, the band that will probably excite the younger crowd the most doesn’t play the latest electronic sub-sub-subgenre. Saturday night’s headliner is a very young, fast-rising modern garage rock band that should appeal to aging fans of the Stones, Replacements and Pixies as much as to their college-age kids. Unfortunately, we can’t tell you who they are, because their contract prohibits the Orton folks from naming them until mid-June. So stay tuned for that big announcement soon!
— Bob Jacobson
Note: This article was changed to reflect the correct date for Kid Koala's performance at La Fête de Marquette.He performs Friday, July 15 at 9:30 p.m.