Beth Skogen
Lovers of live music, from left: Joe Meisel, Gene Delcourt, Thistle Pettersen, Al Ames and Dave Foss, playing hammered dulcimer, rehearse for the East Side Accoustic Ensemble’s next show.
Never mind the bright lights of Broadway, the basement lights of the Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center are doing just fine tonight. It’s weekly rehearsal time for the East Side Acoustic Ensemble, and Anne Katz is the first to arrive. You can hear her vocals when you step in the front door.
“I wanted to be a Broadway singer when I was little,” says Katz, who grew up to be executive director for the statewide advocacy group Arts Wisconsin. But she rehearses at the Wil-Mar once a week for a showcase performance with the Ensemble, an auditioned group of performers under the direction of east side singer-songwriter Ritt Deitz, who seems to be getting as much as he is giving.
“I like the idea that others can challenge me to play on a song that I didn’t think of myself,” Deitz says. “It’s also just great to meet regularly with neighbors who might be different from you but who do this thing called live music.”
About a dozen people are in the Ensemble, including seasoned performers who play out regularly like local rocker Jonathan Zarov, as well as people like Gene Delcourt, a fiddle player with a performance itch to scratch. “On my 49th birthday I decided to learn the fiddle,” Delcourt says. Now, 10 years later, the Ensemble is enabling his desire to perform live.
Deitz auditioned musicians with an eye toward pairing people together with different instrumentation. The group was broken into smaller sections of trios, quartets, and duos. Songs were selected and an eight-week rehearsal period was established and a show date assigned. The Ensemble will perform a showcase at Mother Fool’s Coffeehouse on Nov. 4.
Deitz runs a tight ship. Tonight, clipboard in hand, he keeps practice moving at a fast clip.
Steph Stringer, a social worker for a nonprofit, is a veteran of open mics and host of WORT-FM’s Her Infinite Variety. The Ensemble was a way for her to get back to performing. She saw the poster for the auditions and decided to go for it. “The kids are finally taking care of themselves and I’m going to do this for myself,” she says.
The short framework of practices leading up to a live performance seems to bring an urgency to a group that otherwise might lack focus. Yet there is a communal, improvised work style that keeps things fresh. Deitz encourages the players to listen to each other’s small groups and duos and be alert to the opportunity to recruit another voice or a different instrument to join in.
Given the range of players’ ages, backgrounds and musical abilities, there’s a combined feeling of confidence and vulnerability as the big show draws closer. This is a supportive crowd first and foremost.
Laughter erupts as Katz comes in late on a kazoo solo during one group’s rendition of an old folk song. Dave Foss, hammer dulcimer player by night, programmer at American Family Insurance by day, plays through the moment’s breakdown and keeps the song on track. Local filmmaker Shelby Floyd plays a solid rhythm on a beautiful old Gibson hollow body electric guitar. Sebastian, his school-aged son, cheers and claps between songs.
Deitz’s idea for the group was hatched by a former project, a “micro-cinema” movie-making endeavor called Wis-Kino that he co-founded in 2002 with Madison comics/filmmakers Aaron Yonda and Matt Sloan. Nowadays he’s also inspired by his son, Wilder, who also plays in the Ensemble.
“I have borrowed techniques from my own kid in terms of how groups of musicians critique, challenge and support each other. It’s sort of all about community and challenging each other to do our craft better.”
First song Deitz learned to play: Either “Leaving on a Jet Plane” or Foreigner’s “Hot Blooded”
Number of songs to be performed at ESAE concert: 21
Number of group rehearsal hours: 16
Next East Side Acoustic Ensemble session commences: February
