Smithsonian tribute honors Mildred Bailey
Are we seeing a Mildred Bailey revival?
First, a four-CD box set of her career, “Mildred Bailey: Sunday, Monday or Always,” is out on the Quadromania label.
Also, word comes from Washington, D.C., that local jazz singer Julia Keefe has been booked to perform a tribute concert, “Thoroughly Modern: Mildred Bailey Songs,” at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian on April 11.
Bailey, born in Tekoa, Wash., and raised in Spokane, was a hit-making jazz star from the 1920s through the 1940s. You could easily make an argument that she was the second-most famous singer ever to come out of Spokane, next to her young pal, Bing Crosby.
Bailey was a member of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe; Keefe is a member of the Nez Perce tribe.
Local musician Tom Molter is developing the Smithsonian show with Keefe, a 2007 Gonzaga Prep graduate who’s a sophomore vocal jazz major at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami.
Word has it that Keefe and Molter might even do a warm-up show in Spokane. Stay tuned for developments.
Festival parties
Feel bad about not getting to party with the film crowd at Sundance? Here’s a chance to do so closer to home.
The Spokane International Film Festival, Feb. 5 through 15, will include two film-and-party events.
On Feb. 5, there will be an opening party in conjunction with the screening of Rodrigo Pia’s “The Desert Within.” The screening will be followed by champagne and hors d’oeuvres at the Spokane Club.
Then, on Feb. 12, the Romanian film “The Rest is Silence” will be followed by a Valentine’s-themed gathering with champagne, dessert and roses for the ladies, also at the Spokane Club.
Tickets for each party (including the movie) are $35, through the festival Web site, www.spokanefilmfestival.org.
Beatlemania!
The KPBX Kid’s Concert on Saturday may appeal to boomers as much as to kids.
KPBX-FM host John Johnson will host a screening of the Beatles’ 1964 movie, “A Hard Day’s Night.”
It’s at 1 p.m. at the Bing Crosby Theater, 901 W. Sprague Ave., and it’s free.
Live from The Q?
KHQ-6’s new local channel, called “SWX, Sports and Weather Right Now,” will soon be coming to you directly from The Q.
The Q?
That’s the name of the Northern Quest Casino’s new sports restaurant and lounge. As odd as it might sound, the restaurant was built with a full-fledged TV studio. Northern Quest calls it “one of the only permanent broadcast television studios inside a casino in the United States.”
So once the studio gets up and operating, you can sit in The Q and watch KHQ’s sports and weather teams broadcast live on SWX.
Or you can watch SWX at home on Comcast digital cable channel 115 or over the air on digital channel 6-2.
Piano times two
88 Squared, the duo made up of Washington State University piano professors Jeffrey Savage and Karen Hsiao Savage, makes its Carnegie Hall debut in New York on Feb. 16.
Meanwhile, you can catch a sneak preview a lot closer to home. They will perform the same program – Mozart, Rachmaninoff and others – in a concert at the Steinway Piano Gallery, 13418 E. Nora Ave., in Spokane Valley, on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
It’s free. Call (509) 327-4266 for more information.