Features

May 21, 2010

And a musical fusion sets a mood

Pick your pleasure: modern rock, jam and reggae, Middle Eastern melodies or Jimmy Buffett favorites.

All of the above and more will make up the musical menu this weekend at the Fine Arts Fiesta on Wilkes-Barre’s Public Square.

And all will impress those in attendance, if you ask Kathleen Godwin, of the Fiesta’s performing-arts committee, who said she and a fellow committee member selected acts from e-mailed submissions and by conducting searches.

“We try to bring a lot of local favorites in because they volunteer,” the executive director of ArtsYOUniverse said. “Then we spend a little bit of money here and there while still being cost-effective.”

Tonight’s headline entertainment is The George Wesley Band, which starts at 7:30.

“He’s a favorite,” Godwin said, adding he brings a big crowd and she’s thrilled to have him play again.

“It’s a blast,” said Wesley, who has performed at Fiesta in the past and was delighted to play a country/reggae show with his son James, fianc�e Annette Miraglia, Miraglia’s son Angelo and bass player Peter Fritz on Thursday afternoon as part of Hank Wesley’s Old Time Family Band.

That show intertwined country, reggae and polka tunes, which Wesley said people had never heard him perform together.

Tonight, the scenario will be a bit different, because fans can hear the four-piece George Wesley Band play its normal jam and reggae show.

Before Wesley performs, Phyllis Chapell, a Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour roster artist, goes on at 5 p.m. and will play music “from around the world.”

“She sings in different languages,” Godwin said.

Visitors can expect to hear African, Brazilian, Latin, contemporary American and Middle Eastern tunes accompanied by the sounds of wind instruments that her four-piece group, Siora, plays.

“What we like to do is take people on a little journey, although we do American songs as well,” Chapell, who lives outside Philadelphia, said.

While the singer speaks Spanish fluently, she isn’t quite so familiar with the other languages in which she sings so, after hearing a beautiful song, she learns the words, practices the enunciations and is fortunate to sound authentic most of the time, she said.

“Somehow, you know, I’ll hear a song, and it’s just the right combination of music and sound and rhythm,” Chapell said. “I’ll say ‘That song has got me now, so I’ve got to learn it.’ ”

Next up after Chapell, the United Community Center from Camden, N.J., will perform African music and dance at 6:30.

“They’re 30 African drummers and dancers,” Godwin said. “They go all over the world, and they’ve played for several inaugurations.

“What I’ve seen on video of them has just blown my mind,” she added.

The same strong roster of musicians continues tomorrow and Sunday.

Parrot Beach, a Jimmy Buffett tribute band booked at 7 p.m. every Wednesday this summer at Trump Marina in Atlantic City, is due in Wilkes-Barre at 8 p.m. tomorrow.

“People think they’re at the beach,” singer and guitarist Remy St. Martin said. “We do the whole island thing. We do the whole island stage set. We bring torches, palm trees.”

The popular group has been around about 15 years now and regularly plays Fager’s Island in Ocean City, Md.

“We travel all over the place,” said St. Martin, who has never played the Fine Arts Fiesta before. Another Jimmy Buffett tribute band, The Landsharks, played downtown Wilkes-Barre last year at the Summer’s Cool party on the Square.

Also on tap tomorrow are NEPA modern-rock group Plus 3 at 3:15, African Drum Ensemble Ewabo at 5 and three-piece female group Bluegrass Angels at 6.

If none of these appeals to you, however, stop by on Sunday for the fiesta’s finale, when the Freilox and Bagels klezmer band delivers gypsy music at 1 p.m. and The Poets, a well-known and long-loved local band, serve up party music at 6.

In between, Godwin said, will be ideal for families because children can enjoy a special presentation by The Give and Take Jugglers from Philadelphia.

The show, which combines theater, music, comedy, skilled juggling and audience involvement, will start at 3:30 p.m.

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