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Otago Daily Times
31-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Twin wins make Stewart's Oamaru excursion worthwhile
Satin Doll wins at Oamaru on Sunday. Photo: Tayler Strong Leonard Stewart had been looking forward to Sunday's Oamaru meeting with a big team of representatives, and he got the results he was after, collecting a winning double and several other placings. His run of success began in the opener, where Koyama started a narrow second favourite behind Proserve over 2200m. In the hands of Yogesh Atchamah, the son of Almanzor settled into a good rhythm in the trail of Vino Valentino, who looked the one to beat. Atchamah had started his run early on Koyama and swiftly caught the leader, who could not match him as he powered clear to score by two lengths to a late-closing Proserve. Stewart was delighted to get a third win for the season with Koyama, who had not been the easiest to manage since his arrival in the stable in February last year. "He'd had a couple of rough runs where he'd been interfered with, but he got a nice clear run and he came through," Stewart said. "He can be a bit ignorant, this horse, and Yogesh gets along with him well." The 4-year-old had been a $1001 purchase through Gavelhouse after beginning his career in the North Island, and Stewart's other victor, Satin Doll, was sourced for $1432 on the online platform. A mare by Dissident, Satin Doll had shown promise with placings in the north and was on debut for the Stewart barn at Oamaru. Starting at a quote of $20, Satin Doll far exceeded market expectations when she burst through the middle of the pack to salute ahead of her stablemate, Tranquil Eyes. "She's been with us for three months and . . . we've just been cautious of putting her out on a really testing track and flatten her first-up," Stewart said. "She's a very compact little horse and we are still learning about her, so with Gosen's (Jogoo, jockey) experience, he could encounter any problems and work it out in the race. I think he got a bit of a surprise when he asked her to go, and she reacted so well. "She'd been working well and showed potential, so it was great to see her do that." Jogoo, who is also in the ownership of Koyama, piloted Queen Of Kings and Lise Paree into second placings. Based just up State Highway 1 at Washdyke, Stewart was able to appreciate the condition of the Oamaru track, despite constant rain through the winter period. "Oamaru have got a great committee and they've done plenty of work with the track. They've put a big drain in along the bend out of the straight, and over by the hill, which I think has made a big difference." — News Desk By Jess de Lautour
Boston Globe
27-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Jason Moran heads to Berklee for a solo showcase honoring Duke Ellington
Moran, who is also an accomplished composer, bandleader, educator, and 2010 MacArthur Foundation 'genius grant' recipient, has previously honored other heroes: Thelonious Monk, Fats Waller, and, most recently, Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'I took a walk through the Muir Woods in the Bay Area,' he explains. 'One of the things they showcase is how to preserve the forest. They do this by preserving the understory of the forest.' Advertisement Moran seeks to do likewise with Ellington and those other historical figures he's built performances around, so that 'we continue to tend to those roots,' as he puts it. 'That's why I've devoted myself to these projects where I just devote myself to somebody's catalog for a while.' The Kennedy Center show was touted as Moran's 'solo climb up 'Mount Ellington,'' but there's a more personal reason for Moran's decision to focus on Ellington. Moran often acknowledges Thelonius Monk as his musical lodestar, calling him his own 'big bang moment.' Monk's own lodestar was Ellington. 'The way Ellington attacks the piano — [Monk] learns that attack directly from Ellington,' Moran says. 'It's just a very distinct touch that almost pulls notes from the piano. And Ellington, though he's so graceful in his image, we sometimes underestimate how much edge and precision he's slicing into the piano key.' Advertisement Two Ellington compositions with special resonance to Moran date back to his high school days. One is tied to his interest in hip-hop, and the first 'Here we have a new band from the 1990s sampling Monk from the 1950s playing Ellington from the 1920s,' Moran says. 'Ellington was showing up everywhere. We have him to cherish, because he kept laying something into the music that would always be timeless.' The other special piece is from the Ellington album 'The Queen's Suite,' recorded as a gift to Queen Elizabeth of England and released posthumously in 1991. ''Single Petal of a Rose' is maybe my prize,' Moran says. 'It's probably the first Ellington song that I learned when I was in high school that was outside of the standards that you would play on jazz gigs when you're first learning songs, like 'Take the A Train,' 'Satin Doll.'' Both pieces show up in Moran's solo sets. 'I keep the repertoire quite narrow,' he says. ''What are the ones that I want to hear every night?'' Among the other pieces that make up his set list in these solo shows are compositions that Ellington recorded solo ('Melancholia,' 'Reflections in D,' et al). These include Billy Strayhorn's 'Lotus Blossom,' which allows Moran to tell his audiences about the Strayhorn-Ellington connection. Moran will also revisit a piece he recorded on the debut album with his Bandwagon trio: 'Wig Wise,' which Ellington recorded on 'Money Jungle' with Charles Mingus and Max Roach. Advertisement Moran has also been a New England Conservatory faculty member since 2010, and has a long history of playing with his students when he performs with a big band. He'll oversee another student concert on March 6, this one focused on boogie-woogie pieces by the likes of Mary Lou Williams and Count Basie. 'I always use NEC as a kind of a lab, to try some of the ideas out,' says Moran, who featured Ellington in last year's concert. 'It's an ongoing relationship, and these students know that I'm testing material on them.' Dean, a 2019 NEC graduate, sang with Moran and other students at a 2018 residency concert featuring music by Moran's wife, 'He says it's like breaking down the fourth wall,' she recalls. '[Audiences] are always invited into this experience beyond just the history. It's like experiencing this whole world and this time continuum.' Sometimes the experience is felt more bodily by the audience than consciously. And that, says Moran, is Ellington's doing. 'On the piano, it is a feeling that he pulls in the room. He's not just composing a song; he's making a set of frequencies that changes people's chemistry,' Moran explains. 'He's not doing just a song for you to snap your fingers to or dance to or listen to in the background on the elevator. He's making a song that'll change your body, and he's writing it down and passing it on to others. It's one of his most important characteristics for me.' Advertisement JASON MORAN 'DUKE ELLINGTON: MY HEART SINGS' At Berklee Performance Center, 136 Massachusetts Ave., Boston, March 1, 8 p.m. $39 to $109. JASON MORAN RESIDENCY CONCERT At Williams Hall, New England Conservatory, 30 Gainsborough St., Boston, March 6, 8 p.m. Free.
