Weekly early evening Open Mic. A place where you can do it

Join us at Unity of Bloomington for Golden Slippers Chi Gong led by Elisa Pokral on Monday evenings. Whether you are a young adult, thirty something, middle aged, or elderly, Elisa’s vision for this class is for all to practice together an ancient art of health maintenance and healing with whatever flexibility level you have. The class welcomes those who exercise regularly, those who don’t, those with limited mobility, and some who may only be able to do the exercises sitting down. The class costs $10 and drop-ins are welcome at any time.

Join Building Thriving Compassionate Communities Bloomington in an American Education Week special screening of this riveting and profoundly important story of one school’s unlikely success story.

Paper Tigers captures the pain, the danger, the beauty, and the hopes of struggling teens – and the teachers armed with new science and fresh approaches that are changing their lives for the better.

About the Directors

Michael Spiro

Michael Spiro is a world-renowned percussionist, recording artist, and educator, known specifically for his work in the Latin music field.

Spiro’s formal education includes a bachelor’s degree with honors in Latin American Studies from the University of California, and three and a half years of graduate work in ethnomusicology at the University of Washington. His practical education consists of a seven- year apprenticeship with Francisco Aguabella (a relationship which continues today) and extensive study throughout Latin America. He has studied annually in Cuba since 1984 with musicians such as Jose Luis Quintana (“Changuito”), Esteban Vega Bacallao (“Cha-Cha”), Daniel Diaz and Juan “Claro” Blanco of Orquesta Ritmo Oriental, Regino Jimenez, Los Muñequitos de Matanzas and Grupo Afro-Cuba de Matanzas. In addition, in 1986, he spent two months training at G.R.E.S. Portela, the famous Escola de Samba in Rio de Janeiro.

Spiro currently resides in San Francisco, Calif., where he is an integral part of the Bay Area music scene. He records and produces with groups throughout the West Coast and still tours world-wide with the percussion trio Talking Drums, which he co-leads with David Garibaldi and Jesus Diaz. In June 1996, his recording Bata-Ketu was released on Bembe Records to international critical acclaim, including being voted one of the top 50 drum records of all time by Drum Magazine.

In 2004, Spiro received a Grammy nomination for his work as both producer and artist on Mark Levine’s Latin/jazz release Isla, and, in 2005, he released BataMbira, which he wrote and produced with Professor B. Michael Williams. The CD received rave reviews around the world for its fusion of Afro-Cuban folkloric music with the mbira music of Zimbabwe, and that same year, he was voted runner-up in the jazz/fusion category in Drum Magazine’s Reader’s Poll Awards. In 2006, Chuck Sher Publications released his book, The Conga Drummer’s Guidebook, and it has already become the standard in the field for intermediate/advanced instruction.

He is a frequent visiting artist at universities worldwide. In addition to the position he held in the Jazz Department at the University of California, Berkeley, Spiro has taught at numerous colleges throughout North America and Europe, and continues to be a presenter at national and statewide conventions of the Percussive Arts Society and the International Association of Jazz Educators.

Spiro’s recording and performing credits include such diverse artists as David Byrne, Cachao, The Caribbean Jazz Project, Dori Caymmi, Changuito, Richard Egues, Frank Emilio Flynn, Ella Fitzgerald, David Garibaldi, Gilberto Gil, Giovanni Hidalgo, Ray Holman, Toninho Horta, Bobby Hutcherson, Dr. John, Mark Levine and the Latin Tinge, Machete Ensemble, Bobby McFerrin, Andy Narell, Ray Obiedo, Chico O’Farrill, Eddie Palmieri, Lazaro Ros, David Rudder, Carlos Santana, Grace Slick, Omar Sosa, Talking Drums, Clark Terry, McCoy Tyner and Charlie Watts. In addition, he has recorded on soundtracks to such major motion pictures as Soapdish, Henry and June, True Stories, Sworn To The Drum, Walker, Eddie Macon’s Run and Dragon-The Life of Bruce Lee. He also wrote several arrangements for the Tony Award-winning Broadway show BLAST!, which was released on video by PBS in 2002.

Wayne Wallace

Wayne Wallace is professor of practice in jazz at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.

A five-time Grammy nominee, he is one of the most respected exponents of African American-Latin music in the world today.

Wallace is known for the use of traditional forms and styles in combination with contemporary music and has earned wide critical acclaim, including placement in both the trombone and producer categories of the DownBeat Critics Poll.

He is an accomplished arranger, educator, and composer with compositions for film and television. He has received grants from the Creative Work Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Lila Wallace Foundation, and the San Francisco Arts Commission.

Wallace has performed, recorded, and studied with many acknowledged masters of the Afro-Latin and jazz idioms, such as Aretha Franklin, Bobby Hutcherson, Earth Wind and Fire, Pete Escovedo, Santana, Julian Priester, Conjunto Libre, Whitney Houston, Tito Puente, Steve Turre, John Lee Hooker, Con Funk Shun, Francisco Aguabella, Manny Oquendo and Libre, Max Roach, the Count Basie Orchestra, and Orestes Vilató. This experience has provided a solid foundation for Wallace’s current explorations of the intersections of a wealth of cultural styles and rhythmic concepts.

Born and raised in San Francisco, Calif., Wallace was exposed to blues, country and western, R&B, jazz, and Afro-Caribbean music at an early age. The fertile musical environment of the San Francisco Bay Area shaped his career in a unique way. His studies of Afro-Latin music and jazz have included several trips to Cuba, New York City, and Puerto Rico.

Widely respected as a teacher and historian, Wallace has taught at San Jose State University, Stanford University, and the Jazzschool in Berkeley. He has conducted lectures, workshops and clinics in the Americas and Europe since 1983.

In addition, he is a member of the advisory committees of the San Jose Jazz Society and the Stanford Jazz Workshop.

As the head of the critically acclaimed Patois Records, Wallace has created a unique record label with a passionate mission of developing and chronicling the multi-lingual styles of the San Francisco Bay Area music scene.

Under his direction the label has released 13 recordings to critical acclaim, including recordings by Wallace, Marc and Paul van Wageningen, and vocalists Kat Parra, Alexa Weber-Morales, and Kristina.

Recently, the label released Wallace’s Latin Jazz-Jazz Latin, an album that displays all of the thrilling interplay, melodic invention, and blazing improvisational flights that distinguish his music.

Salsa De La Bahía, a compilation showcasing Bay Area salsa and Latin jazz, produced by Wallace and Rita Hargrave, will be released Aug. 6.

He is an endorser of Conn-Selmer trombones.

Bruce Kell – BruceKellDesings.com – is an entertainer – a man who enjoys getting and keeping his Audience’s attention. His music is Blues – Country by nature, until he breaks out his flute and goes off into another dimension. Kell can get around on that flute! His lyrics are often humor-filled and this is what Bruce enjoys most – making people smile. The QUEEN of Indiana Bluegrass – Misty Stevens – MistyStevensBluegrass.com – will be in the house tonight with her hubby, Mark Stonecipher, accompanying her on banjo. This Duo is always a crowd pleaser and they never leave a showcase without selling CDs – a rarity these days. Misty’s beautiful alto voice lends itself perfectly to her songs – both are just beautiful. Jesse Lacy – jesselacy.com – has become an audience favorite with his wall-to-wall smile, uplifting lyrics, and general pleasant demeanor. Lacy’s music is more Pop / Americana than not – and he is a writer who could easily become a commercially successful writer with his thumb on the pulse of today’s listener. Jesse writes a weekly blog that features a weekly Singer-Songwriter (Fridays) and is getting into the business end of world of Singer-Songwriter than most. Lewis Ricci is a Contemporary Songwriter – with a bit of a Jazz edge. Along with his sons, Lewis can be found performing all over the region. When not writing and performing his own songs – Lewis Ricci can be found working as the director of the Indiana Arts Council. Ricci is entrenched in the arts and it shines through his music.
NO COVER CHARGE and ALL AGES welcome.

Michael Spiro and Wayne Wallace, directors