Page 68 - Sonoma County Gazette - January 2018

Dinner Jazz
As we confront a new year, hoping for better, a pleasant place to relax and expand is Guerneville’s Main Street Bistro, where you can enjoy artful décor, food and drinks, and live music most nights. Especially conducive for evening contemplation is pianist Susan Sutton, who has played there for a decade.
Jan 10 ~ Let’s Talk About Death - Film and discussion: Death at a Funeral (2007), followed by discussion. $5-$15, 6:30-9p, Sebastopol Grange Hall, 6000 Hwy 12, Sebastopol, 707-824-0268, finalpassages. org, info@finalpassages.org
Jan 24 ~ Family Movie Night - Join the Smurfs on their journey through the forbidden forest. Free, 6-8p, Rohnert Park-Cotati Regional Library, 6250 Lynne Condé Wy, Rohnert Park, 707- 584-9121, sonomacounty.libcal.com/ event/3619820
Jan 25 ~ “Before the Flood” Film Screening - Leonardo DiCaprio account of the changes occurring around the world due to climate change. After the film, Woody Hastings will facilitate discussion. Pre-registration required. $6-$20, 6:30-8:30p, Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation, 900 Sanford Rd, Heron Hall, SR, lagunafoundation.org
Jan 26, 28 ~ “California Typewriter” opens Sonoma Film Institute Season - Doug Nichol’s take on a humble, outdated composing machine. $5 plus $5 parking fee; Jan 26, 7p; Jan 28; 4p, Sonoma State University, 1801 E. Cotati Ave, Warren Auditorium, Ives Hall, Rohnert Park, 707-664-2606, web.sonoma.edu/sfi/
Feb 2 ~ First Friday Film Series - Rebel Without a Cause (1955), starring James Dean and Natalie Wood. Free-$5, 7p, Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center, 2301 Hardies Ln, Santa Rosa, 707-579-4452, schulzmuseum.org
Sutton, Brooklyn-born, moved to Berkeley at age three or four. During a
recent interview, she describes coming from a family of musicians and artists,
listening to relatives and their friends play music in her home, sometimes from
under the piano while playing with her toys. She wrote “pretend” songs on
little pieces of paper. Sutton considers classical music a gift from her mother. “I Popcorn and snacks served. Free,
flat-out fell in love with the piano and playing music.”
In Berkeley, which she calls
4-5:30p, Healdsburg Regional Library, 139 Piper St, Healdsburg, 707-433-3772, sonomacounty.libcal.com/event/3625947
“a cello mecca,” she studied that instrument and guitar “because you can’t carry a piano around.”
Jan 19 ~ Friday Night Movie “Babe” - A pig raised by sheepdogs, learns to herd sheep. Popcorn, cookies and drinks available to purchase. Free, 7p, Forestville United Methodist Church, 6550 Covey Rd, Wiebe Hall, Forestville, 707-887-2020, handlebarsmike1367@sbcglobal.net
Leaving Berkeley in the mid-1960s, Sutton made friends in Big Sur, referring to them as “a little Bohemian family.” She gave piano lessons to David Crosby and speaks of playing piano from the back of a truck
DVD Review: Kedi
Jan 13 ~ Matsuri! Film Festival - 10-4p, Central Santa Rosa Library, 211 E St, SR, 707-545-0831, sonomacounty.libcal.com/ event/3477129
Jan 19 ~ Friday Flicks! - Check listings at the library for movie title and rating.
with a format or skeleton from which to improvise. It’s a window of freedom and expression,” she says.
However in Medieval times felines fell into disfavor as they were superstitiously thought to be associated with witchcraft. They were mercilessly hunted and killed. Hence, the rodent population exploded. Rats carried fleas. Fleas carried the plague. Millions of people died. We learned a lesson. Sometimes worshiped, sometimes disdained both revered and
Along her way, Sutton got a scholarship to Dominican University and attained degrees in Music Composition and Performance (on cello). She has written numerous modern chamber pieces and jazz songs and recorded eight albums.
reviled cats will always be with us.
There have been many films about cats
In 1981, she organized her own band and started Sutton Sound, a publishing company. Sutton describes her band, which varies in size from a duo to a quartet, as being “a family for me,” one that has included many people over the years. “I like the variety,” she says, “I want it to be unique.”
from Puss in Boots to the The Cat from
Outer Space but the documentary, Kedi, is
unique. In its sparse 80 minutes it gives us
a most compassionate overview of a great
city, Istanbul, and its furry inhabitants
each with their own habits, routines and
personalities. Thousands of cats wander the city as they apparently have for thousands of years. They are not quite domesticated but neither are they feral. Their lot lies somewhere in between. They are, in every aspect, an integral part of the city. When Obama toured Turkey his itinerary included Hagia Sofia and a visit with the site’s famous cat, Gli. Locals say the animals are community building, warm and calming. Any national political turmoil is dispersed with their presence even though there are cat fights. There are also cat romances. One cat does not enter an upscale deli for his handout but signals manically
Birdsongs are an inspiration. She can “easily” reproduce their sounds in her music. There are a lot of birds near her home, and sometimes they respond
to her music through the window. A particular mockingbird, who can play multiple riffs on other birds’ notes in perfect time, inspires her.
Though Sutton’s music is largely instrumental, she enjoys singing. “I also like to improvise singing,” she says. “I’ll make a different melody.” She memorized the Robert Frost poem “Stopping By Woods,” and wrote a song on which she sings the poem.
One of the best of her albums is 1995’s “Da Me Cinco/Give Me Five,” recorded by her trio at Hoffman Studios in Occidental, with Sutton delighting in birds, sambas and mambas, sitting in the sun, and summer walks.
at the window. Another enters a second story apartment by climbing a tree. Another restaurant puss earns his keep by being a resident mouser.
In closing, Sutton talks about feeling compelled to play. “It’s who I am. It leaves a legacy, a footprint.”
The director has kept the camera at cat level so the audience can experience what the cats are experiencing. A pop Turkish soundtrack accompanies their antics. Kedi reveals portraits of the many vibrant neighborhoods in the city and although the cats are never sentimentalized. Tip jars on shop counters provide funds for veterinary bills. One need not be a cat lover to enjoy this film but it will be catnip for those who have pets. And, yes, I have three whiskered companions of my own.
susansutton.com/schedule
68 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 1/18
at San Francisco’s Human Be-In in 1967. She met jazz musicians and traveled with them to New York
By Diane McCurdy
Everyone knows that cats own the Internet.
in a schoolbus, where she sat in at shows. Later, she toured the country with jazz combos.
It is a strange phenomenon. There 6.5 billion pictures and 2 million clips on You Tube. Ever since we mortals passed through the Neolithic period and evolved from hunter gatherers and opted for a more stationary
Currently, her focus is on jazz without much classical, “though I sometimes sneak it into my jobs,” she says. “I love improvising, working
existence, we have enjoyed a comfortable relationship with felis catus because as natural
predators they guarded the grain that was now stored. Mummified pets have been found in the tombs of pharaohs in Egypt.