Annapolis Maritime Museum’s 11th annual Summertime Maritime Concert series presents the Rob Levit Trio on Thursday, June 30, from 7 – 8:30 p.m. The free concert will feature one of the best loved jazz groups in the mid-Atlantic region, anchored by acoustic bassist Amy Shook, one of the few women acoustic jazz bass virtuosos in the world, and master drummer Frank Russo.
Led by renowned multi-directional artist, guitarist and award-winning community leader Rob Levit, the Trio performs classic jazz and Latin classics with plenty of originals tossed in for good measure. Rob has been chosen twice by readers of What’s Up Annapolis Magazine as Best Jazz Musician and received the 2011 Martin Luther King Peace Maker Award and the 2010 Rotary Club Service Above Self Award for his community service. This summer Rob proudly premiers a series of original works inspired by the Chesapeake Bay.
The series runs every Thursday evening from 7 to 8:30 p.m. running through August 11. All the concerts feature traditional songs or original material written by the artists.
The concerts take place in the Cap’n Herbie Sadler Waterman’s Park on the Museum campus at 723 Second Street in the Eastport neighborhood of Annapolis, or inside the McNasby Oyster Company building in the case of inclement weather.
The Museum is a 20-minute stroll or a fun and inexpensive water-taxi ride from City Dock. The eCruisers electric shuttles provide a free, fun and “green” way to visit the Museum and the many restaurants nearby. Call 443-481-2422 for shuttle pick-up information. Boaters who are Museum members can dock for free at the Museum piers while attending the concerts on a space-available basis.
“You can make a delightful evening out of visiting the Museum for these concerts,” says series producer Janie Meneely. “Be sure to stop by one of the neighborhood restaurants for crab cakes or other local delicacies, then enjoy the music while you watch all the boats go by. Bring your own lawn chair, but leave your own bottle behind,”
The Museum will provide beer, wine and soft drinks for a minimal donation, and take-out is available from several nearby Eastport restaurants and eateries, including Wild Country Seafood, the Leeward Café, Davis’ Pub and the Boat Yard Bar & Grill.
Admission is free, thanks to the support of Museum members, the City of Annapolis, the Eastport Civic Association, Land Shark Beer, Free State Press, the Maryland State Arts Council and the Arts Council of Anne Arundel County. However, a suggested donation of $10/person is greatly appreciated. For more information or directions visit www.amaritime.org or call the museum staff at 410-295-0104.
Upcoming concerts:
July 7 Deanna Dove
“Island Girl” Deanna Dove has been entertaining all her life. She was born on Broomes Island on the Potomac River, and when she wasn’t listening to music, she was crabbing or fishing on the river and the adjacent Chesapeake Bay. At an early age, Deanna and her sisters formed the Dove Sisters Trio, singing popular southern gospel hymns. Her lifelong experiences on the Chesapeake Bay contribute to her compositional writing style. Her powerful, earthy vocal style earned her the accolade of “musical Nirvana” in a 1998 review of her band Deanna Dove and Blues Power. Dove’s solo debut album entitled Chesapeake was released in May 2003. The title track, “Chesapeake,” is featured on the 2005 compilation disk entitled Songs of the Chesapeake Bay.
July 14 Calico Jack
Calico Jack is comprised of Janie Meneely and Paul DiBlasi, whose music celebrates the people, places and history of the Chesapeake. Singer/songwriter Janie Meneely delves deep into the well of Chesapeake lore to produce songs evocative of the waterman’s way of life. Paul DiBlasi adds his powerful vocals, including a penchant for harmony, plus a strong hand on the guitar. “Sometimes serious, sometimes saucy, they slide easily between old and new,” says Annapolis Maritime Museum Director Jeff Holland. Janie’s strong regional roots have led her to develop a hefty list of Bay-inspired songs that trace the history of the oyster industry or capture the tales told round a country store liar’s bench, but her ditties are just as apt to poke fun at time-honored traditions. The duo’s first album Oyster Wife includes “Toadfish,” a humorous take on tournament fishing on the Bay, and, in the title song, a poignant telling of what it was like for a waterman’s wife to hear the Oyster Navy’s guns firing on the Potomac River. Their second album You Don’t Know Jack reflects a more general maritime theme. The duo is currently working on a third album, due out come summer (they’re not saying which summer . . .).
July 21 Dramtreeo
Dramtreeo (dram-TREE-oh) is an acoustic folk group based in Norfolk, Virginia, featuring the traditional music of North America, the British isles, and the seven seas, in an eclectic mixture of songs that reflect the joys and sorrows, the hard work and hard luck, the high spirits and low humor of ordinary people around the world.
Dramtreeo was named for the historic “Dram Tree” in the harbor at Edenton, North Carolina, where 18th-century sailors kept a cask of rum available for good-luck rations–a dram per man before outbound voyages. The inbound vessels would refill the cask and keep the tradition going.
July 28 Tiki Barbarians
The Tiki Barbarians play an eclectic mix of material which includes blues, Caribbean music, boogie-woogie, roots-rock, swing, and Dixieland among other genres. The Barbarians are known for creating a fun atmosphere, with Tom Guay on guitar, Andy Fegley on trombone, Keith Manuel on drums, Rurik Reshetiloff on bass. Mike Lange plays piano and sings most of the tunes at the Tiki Barbarian performances. Many of Mike’s original “Eastport-orican” tunes are typically included in the set list.
Aug 4 Ocean Trio
With their soaring Celtic vocals and high-energy instrumentals (button accordion, fiddle, guitar and keyboard), the three-woman OCEAN Trio offers their audience “the softer side of sea music.” Jennifer Cutting (accordion, keyboard, artistic director), Lisa Moscatiello (voice, guitar, whistle), and Cheryl Hurwitz (fiddle) are internationally known, collectively and solo, for their goosebump-raising performances and surprise-filled repertoire exploring the mystery and magic of the sea. Composer/ethnomusicologist Jennifer Cutting culls through the Library of Congress’s Folk Archive to find nautically inspired ballads and tunes, transforming them into an ethereal banquet unlike anything else in the “tradtitional” sea music canon. Woven into the mix is some of Cutting’s original material, which celebrates the rich symbolism, mythology, and folklore of the sea. Vocalist Lisa Moscatiello has a voice that Billboard magazine called “one of the most gorgeous vocal instruments in all of folk-tinged pop.” Fiddler Cheryl Hurwitz brings her soulful playing to OCEAN from critically acclaimed group Trapezoid. The Washington Post calls OCEAN “Nothing short of spellbinding…” You’ll find out why when you fall under the spell of these three sultry sirens.
August 11 Raw Hands
The Raw Hands quartet is comprised of Lloyd Fowlkes on bass, Geoff Rohrbach on keyboard, David Queen on drums and George “Chicky” Johnson on guitar. Their original soul style is inspired by the music they performed in the 1950s and 1960s at Carr’s Beach, the renowned African-American beachfront resort located right across the creek from the Museum.
Fowlkes and Seay both performed with the Pipe Dreamers, the house band at the resort, backing the likes of Stevie Wonder, Patti LaBelle, Mary Wells, Chuck Berry, Jackie Wilson, Otis Redding and many other superstars. “Back in the day, there were buses full of people coming to Carr’s Beach to hear the music,” Fowlkes recalls. “The buses would be lined up for miles, all through the City.”