6E — Fall 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Joe Hertler & The Rainbow Seekers at the Pig

Like it or hate it, the holiday 
season is undeniably upon us. A 
walk down Main Street offers 
proof of this: bright lights wrap 
themselves 
gracefully 
around 
trees, Christmas carols ring from 
inviting Kerrytown shops and 
couples walk hand-in-hand with 
a seemingly newfound sense of 
happiness.
If you’re like me and love the 
spontaneous 
comradery 
that 
springs up during this time of year, 
or just need a way to escape the 
mounting stress of finals, you’re 
in luck. The classic holiday special 
“The Nutcracker” will make a 
reappearance this Saturday at the 
Michigan Theater.
This performance of “The 
Nutcracker” is presented by the 
Academy of Russian Classical 
Ballet, 
based 
in 
Wixom, 
Michigan. The Academy is made 
up of talented ballet students from 
Michigan and Ohio who learn the 
traditional Vaganova (Russian) 
style of classical ballet. The 
Academy also holds a Professional 
Trainee Program for students 
intending to pursue ballet as a 
profession.
This is the third time the 
Academy 
will 
perform 
“The 
Nutcracker” 
at 
Michigan 
Theater, and they intend to keep 
the performance as close to the 
Russian Bolshoi Ballet Company’s 
rendition as possible.
As a way to follow the original 
ballet, this particular rendition 
doesn’t “have a specific wooden 
Nutcracker doll. We have a 
younger dancer who performs 
the role,” said co-director of the 
Academy Jessica Morschakov in 
an interview with the Daily.
The dancers are excited that 
their version of “The Nutcracker” 
stands out from other modern 
interpretations. “For the Spanish 
(corps), it’s really interesting to do 
the original choreography rather 
than something newer,” said Nina 

Schotland, a dancer in the Spanish 
dance sequence. Schotland, an 
LSA freshman, performs in the 
Waltz of the Flowers and in the 
Spanish corps as a soloist, in 
addition to other roles.
Professional 
ballet 
dancers 
from Moscow Ballet in Russia 
will join the cast of local ballet 
students on Saturday. “Our young 
Clara and young Nutcracker are 
Michigan students,” Morschakov 
said. After Clara, the main child 
protagonist of the play, enters 
her dreamland, the Nutcracker 
is transformed into a handsome 
prince. The Russian professionals 
will perform “the grown-up 
version of Clara and the Prince.”
Tchaikovsky’s score for “The 
Nutcracker” is timeless, even for 
the dancers who’ve performed it 
many times before. “I listen to it 
a lot. I wake up to it,” said Luke 
Eller. Eller will play the role of 
the Fritz, Clara’s mean brother 
and the Nutcracker in the first act, 
among others.
The 
Oakland 
Homeschool 
Choir, a local children’s choir that 
gives homeschooled children a 
chance to participate in musical 
education, will provide live music 
as per the original. “The music 
of Tchaikovsky ... was written 
with the Children’s Choir of St. 
Petersburg singing during the 
Snow scene,” Morschakov said. 
They aim to parallel this effect 
with the Oakland Homeschool 
Choir.
“To let people enjoy the beauty 
and artistry of classical ballet 
is a really unique experience,” 
Schotland said. The performance 
boasts 
beautiful 
backdrops, 
intricate hand-sewn costumes 
and 
a 
mystical 
ambiance 
combined 
with 
that 
of 
the 
Michigan Theater.
The passion of the Academy is 
sure to whisk the audience away 
to a wonderful winter dreamland. 
Saturday’s performance of “The 
Nutcracker” promises to add 
a magical touch to the holiday 
season.

TRINA PAL
Daily Arts Writer

Chick Corea to bring an electrifying performance

Few artists have electrified 
Ann Arbor audiences like Chick 
Corea. His 2015 performance 
with Herbie Hancock was one 
of the most recent University 
Musical Society performances 
of the past couple of years. His 
historic performance at Hill 
Auditorium during the Great 
Blizzard of 1978 (again with 
Herbie Hancock) was released 
as part one of “An Evening 
with Herbie Hancock & Chick 
Corea: In Concert.”
This 
coming 
weekend, 
Corea partners with the Jazz 
at Lincoln Center Orchestra to 
present an evening of Corea’s 
music 
at 
Hill 
Auditorium. 
The concert will also feature 
the Jazz at Lincoln Center 
Orchestra, another ensemble 
that has proven to be extremely 
popular among Ann Arbor 
audiences.
This concert also marks 
the end of the Jazz at Lincoln 
Center’s first tour without 
Wynton 
Marsalis, 
the 
accomplished leader of the 
ensemble who is currently 

taking a brief hiatus to pursue 
other projects.
“This was a good first foray 
into touring without Wynton,” 
said Jason Olaine, Director 
of Programming and Touring 
for Jazz at Lincoln Center, in 
an interview with The Daily. 
As they enter their last couple 
days of performances, “the 
band and Chick have been 
really happy.”
Jazz at Lincoln Center is a 
notoriously busy organization. 
I interviewed Olaine as he 
arrived back to New York 
from 
Shanghai, 
and 
as 
the 
ensemble 
moved 
from 
Arizona 
to 
Chicago. 
With 
this hectic schedule, it’s easy 
to understand why Marsalis 
might have stepped away from 
the ensemble for a little while.
“Usually our Jazz at Lincoln 
Center Orchestra with Wynton 
Marsalis tours between 13 and 
18 weeks every year,” Olaine 
said. “Wynton scheduled a 
short sabbatical and our agent 
happens to be Chick’s agent.”
While the Jazz at Lincoln 
Center Orchestra and Chick 
Corea go on tour all the time, 
Ann Arbor is lucky to have 

hosted 18 previous Jazz at 
Lincoln 
Center 
Orchestra 
concerts and five previous 
Chick Corea concerts.
“This concert does speak to 
your in-house-programming to 
have been able to secure this 
date,” Olaine said.
Corea is perhaps best known 
today for his versatility. He 
has performed throughout his 
career with a huge number 
of artists, collaborating with 
everyone from Miles Davis 
to Bobby McFerrin. He has 
worked frequently in the past 
with the Jazz at Lincoln Center 
Orchestra and is quite popular 
among the members of the 
ensemble.
Last time he worked with 
the orchestra, “Chick had a 
great time and we loved it,” 
Olaine said. “Victor Goines 
has been working with Chick 
as 
co-music 
director,” 
he 
continued, 
and 
there 
has 
been “lots of great energy all 
around.”
Corea and the ensemble 
have gone on to develop a close 
relationship, performing not as 
soloist and orchestra but as a 
coherent ensemble.

“It’s a little bit different than 
coming up with a new setlist 
every 
night,” 
Olaine 
said. 
“Chick is such a grandmaster, 
and it’s been to be pretty 
special (to work with him).”
In the past, the ensemble 
has collaborated with Corea to 
perform newer compositions. 
They 
also 
worked 
quite 
extensively on the music of 
Thelonious 
Monk. 
During 
this tour, however, they’re 
“primarily 
focusing 
on 
(Corea’s) 
music,” 
Olaine 
explained.
Saturday’s 
performance 
marks the end of the tour that 
started in Provo, Utah on Mar. 
20. Given what he has heard 
of the first portion of the tour, 
Olaine seemed confident that 
it will be a magical event. The 
Final Four basketball game on 
the same night recently pushed 
the concert back a half hour, 
and he predicted that this 
would only add to the energy of 
the performance.
“The concert in Michigan 
on Saturday is gonna be a 
great one,” Olaine said. In 
their previous collaborations, 
“Chick has had a great time 
and we absolutely loved it.”
As for future performances 
of both the Jazz at Lincoln 
Center Orchestra and Chick 
Corea in Ann Arbor, Olaine was 
hesitant to make any promises. 
“When it works out next, we’ll 
see,” he said.
As for the end of the tour, 
however, he predicted a great 
performance. 
Saturday’s 
performance will mark the 
end of a fantastic tour and 
(hopefully) the beginning of 
a new collaboration between 
artist and ensemble.
“Chick has been having a 
great time, and our guys love 
Chick,” Olaine said. All in 
all, it promises to be another 
exciting evening for these two 
ensembles in a city that has 
played host to some remarkable 
concerts from them over the 
past 40 years.

ECM Records

SAMMY SUSSMAN
Daily Arts Writer

“You 
can 
have 
these 
really crazy, intense shows 
there. That kind of grungy 
environment just propagates 
intimacy; 
it’s 
a 
special 
kind of intimacy. Some of 
my favorite shows of all 
time have been at the Blind 
Pig,” said Joe Hertler in an 
interview with The Daily.
Fresh, funky and a little 
far-out, the pop band Joe 
Hertler 
& 
The 
Rainbow 
Seekers is set for a two-
night 
return 
to 
the 
Pig 
this weekend. I’m dancing 
already.
“We probably met, I want 

to say, five, six years ago. 
We were all in college. Half 
the band went to Central 
Michigan and half went to 
Michigan 
State,” 
Hertler 
said. “We were kind of just 
jamming 
in 
college 
and 
playing co-ops and stuff like 
that, and it slowly developed 
into something that was a 
little more involving.”
The 
group 
consists 
of 
Hertler (vocals, guitar and 
lyrics), 
Micah 
Bracken 
(keyboard), 
Jason 
Combs 
(bass), 
Aaron 
Stinson 
(saxophone), 
Rick 
Hale 
(drums), 
Ryan 
Hoger 
(guitar) and Kevin Pritchard 
(producer, bass).
Despite echoes of Edward 
Sharpe’s soul and Vulfpeck’s 

funk, Hertler’s songs often 
blossom from alt-rock. He’ll 
write a demo, then give it to 
the band, at which point the 
groovier elements start to 
bubble up as they work their 
Rainbow Seeker magic on it.
“Growing 
up 
in 
the 
’90s, that was the music 
I connected to. It was the 
music that I first engaged 
with, which is kind of how 
it is for everyone from age 16 
to their mid-20s. You know, 
those formative years where 
the music you listen to is 
what you tend to identify 
with,” Hertler said. “I guess 
that’s where the love affairs 
really started.”
Never having skyrocketed 
in popularity, the Rainbow 
Seekers have been gradually 
expanding their fervent fan 
base over the years. Each 
show is bigger than the last, 
and the group is driven by 
pure passion.
“It’s 
just 
really 
fun,” 
Hertler said. “All of us do 
other things, but so much 
of it is just part of your 
identity.”
On the band’s off-months, 
he works for the American 
Cancer Society and teaches 
English. 
To 
keep 
their 
experiences 
colorful, 
the 
Rainbow 
Seekers 
try 
to 
revamp a couple tracks each 
year.
“I’ve 
never 
been 
more 
excited to play ‘Jetski,’ of 
all 
songs,” 
Hertler 
said. 
“I’m always thankful that 
people like certain songs and 
respond well to them, but to 
redo them — while the core 
of the song is still the same 
— to have some things that 
have been changed is a fun 
challenge,” Hertler said.
Michigan-bred 
and 
Michigan-based, 
JH+TRS 
love, 
love, 
love 
their 
Michiganders. They’ve built 
a 
rainbow-seeking 
family 
through the band, and they 
carry pieces of home with 
them wherever they go.
“We’ve had opportunities 
to leave the state, and we’ve 
thought about it, as every 

band does … but this is our 
home. A couple years ago, 
we decided to stick it out 
here. If it doesn’t work out, 
that’s alright,” Hertler said. 
“One of the nice things 
about Michigan is that a lot 
of people leave and go to 
other places. When we go to 
Denver or LA or NY — just 
a lot of big cities — there’s 
always a couple hundred 
Michiganders.”
JH+TRS radiate a certain 
warmth that lets them exist 
in a lane of their own within 
the 
funk-pop 
landscape. 
They don’t take themselves 
too seriously, and every inch 
of their success is welcomed 
with nothing but gratitude. I 
met Hertler at the Espresso 
Royale on State, and it felt 
more like catching up with 
a friend than an interview. 
They’re 
a 
groovy 
bunch, 
and everything from their 
earnest lyrics to their smooth 
rhythms to their name itself 
is just one massive bear-hug.
The 
Rainbow 
Seekers’s 
most recent album, Pluto, 
is stunning in its existence 
as both heartbreaking and 
dance-inducing. I’m not a 
fan of using the word “real” 
to describe music, much less 
people, but this album — this 
band — is real in every sense 
of the word. They’re genuine 
in their joy and human in 
their heartache, and they’re 
all about connecting with 
people 
through 
unsullied 
authenticity.
“I 
think 
the 
focus 
of 
the music has always been 
the 
live 
show,” 
Hertler 
said. “Music is this form 
of 
communication, 
and 
when that communication 
is locked in, there’s a buzz 
you get. It’s in those tender 
moments where the magic 
is. I hate to be like, ‘It’s 
magical! It’s spiritual!’ But it 
is, in a way.”
Welcoming Ann Arbor like 
a second home, Joe Hertler 
& The Rainbow Seekers will 
play the Blind Pig this Friday 
and Saturday.

ARYA NAIDU
Senior Arts Editor

‘The Nutcracker’ brings 
its magic to Michigan