Chris Cortez at Blue Bamboo

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Blue Bamboo Music Center for the Arts has become an amazing new venue that features top musicians. Blue Bamboo is part
venue, part recording studio, and part art gallery!  Located at 1905
Kentucky Ave in Winter Park, Fl, just off Fairbanks between Formosa and
Clay, this unique new space offers live performances most evenings,
state of the art recording studio, and gallery space.  More concert
hall than night club, they’re open to all ages and present all kinds
of music, theater, dance, and spoken word events.  They’re also available
for private parties.  Browse the schedule for tickets or call
 407-636-9951 for more information.

The venue has limited seating so you are encouraged to purchase tickets in advance or make reservations.
 Tickets are also available at the door, based on availability.  Most
shows begin at 8PM and the doors open at 7.  They offer beer and wine,
soft drinks, and light snacks. 

Chris Cortez is a talented local acoustic guitarist and I have sketched him before. In the low light, I got to play with my digital drawing tablet to try and capture the light and mood of the evening. On Tuesday nights there are ongoing acoustic guitar sessions that feature Chris Cortez. Best of all there is now cover, so this becomes a great sketch opportunity.

Blue Bamboo Fundraiser

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I went to Cavanaugh’s Wines for a Blue Bamboo Music Center for the Arts fundraiser back in 2016. Since that time, the venue has changed to Digress Wine (1215 Edgewater Drive, Orlando, Florida 32804.) The evening was a happy hour that featured Robotman plus Chris Cortez and Danny Jordan. Chris and Danny are featured in this sketch.

Blue Bamboo is
part venue, part recording studio, and part art gallery, located at 1905
Kentucky Ave in Winter Park, Fl, just off Fairbanks between Formosa and
Clay. This unique new space offers live performances most evenings,
a state of the art recording studio, and gallery space.  More concert
hall than night club, they are open to all ages and they present all kinds
of music, theater, dance, and spoken word events.  The venue is also available
for private parties.  You can browse the schedule for tickets or call
 407-636-9951 for more information.
 

Seating is limited so they encourage guests to purchase tickets in advance or make reservations. Tickets are also available at the door, based on availability.  Most
shows begin at 8PM and the doors open at 7.  They offer beer and wine,
soft drinks, and light snacks.  Check the schedule at their calendar link.

Living Room Screening – Short Film Program.

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Living Room Screenings showcased a handful of films (each under 20 minutes). The theater was Tisse Mallon‘s living room (736 Boardman St., Orlando, FL 32804). Banks Helfrich and Tisse Mallon presented independent local films in real, live living rooms. Living Room Screening events go beyond movie night and into an intimate shared experience which includes the films, a discussion with the the creators and the reflections and thoughts of the audience.

One short stop motion film featured a matchbox car that dreamed of flying and morphed into an airplane. Another film looked like black and white surveillance video from a factory at night. There was some activity in the background but I couldn’t make out what was happening. Another film had the characters interacting in a run down apartment, it was perhaps the truest representation of what life is like in Orlando. Darlyn Finch showcased a short film titled Sewing Holes which is based on one of her books. It had a mother sitting on her daughter’s bed, contemplating shooting herself as her daughter slept.

My own short film, Finger on the Pulse was shown at the Living Room Screening prior to this one. My sketchbook at the time was filled with Pulse related documentary sketches, so it was nice to take a night off, relax and soak in some thought provoking entertainment. These Living Room Theater screenings seem to have moved to the new Blue Bamboo Music Center for the Arts.  The Elar Institute, which branched off from Living Room Theater, has been offering more educational seminars as of late. Periodically, the Institute posts quotes on Facebook, “Our emotions are communication from that part of ourselves which is connected to the truth of the universe.”

On Saturday, September 16 from 11 AM to 12:30 PM, Banks Helfrich is hosting Life Screenings – One Minute Film Festival at the Orange County Library (101 E Central Blvd, Orlando, Florida 32801). The festival looks
“Outside the Lines” at what happens when a film festival and library
mash-up. The purpose is to create a library beyond a library and a film
festival beyond a festival. Preceded by donuts and coffee, one
minute films will screen back to back; post exhibit, filmmakers will be
on hand to participate in a lively talk back. Films are chosen on the basis that they show a world we love to live in.

Robot Man at Cavanach’s.

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Blue Bamboo Center for the Arts, a new performing art center, held a social hour fundraiser at. Cavanaugh’s Wines (1215 Edgewater Dr, Orlando, Florida 32804). The proprietor offered everyone a free cup of wine to start out the evening. I found a table close to the stage and started drawing. Musicians Chris Cortez and Danny Jordan started out the evening. 1 t started to rain outside and it felt safe and comfortable to be sipping wine with several dozen patrons, and enjoy and the live music.

Robot Man definitely livened up the evening with their unique blend of music. I was in the midst of boxing up my life and moving to Winter Park. This evening was a reassuring reminder of why I needed that independence. The storm might be raging, but I could find peace of mind by documenting inspiring and creative performances. I usually do one sketch a day so I could keep the peace at home. This was my second and therefor a decadent sketch. I didn’t think I would have time to finish it, but I took the chance anyway. It is time to take more chances and to stay longer at events like this to get the whole story. In this case, we all had to wait for the storm to pass.

The Blue Bamboo Center for the Arts (1905 Kentucky Ave, Winter Park, FL 32789) is now open and hosting performances and workshops regularly. Blue
Bamboo Center for the arts is part venue, part recording studio, part
art gallery.  This
unique new space offers live performances most evenings, state of the
art recording equipment, and gallery space.  They cater to jazz,
classical, and world music, theater, dance, and spoken word. 

Blue Bamboo has limited seating so they encourage guests to purchase tickets in
advance.  Most shows begin at 8PM and our doors open at 7.  They offer
drink service, including beer and wine, but no food.  This is the hot teens new music hot spot in town. I hope to sketch there soon.

The Inbetween Series brings cutting edge music downtown.

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On the third Monday of every month, The Gallery at Avalon Island (39 S Magnolia Ave, Orlando, Florida) hosts the In-between Series. It is called the In-between Series because the art gallery is in-between shows. Soon after the concert, new art is loaded into the gallery and hung. Steven Head was listed on the invitation, but the trio consisted of, Doug Mathews on base, Mark Piszczek on sax and Chris Cortez on Guitar. Mark explained that one of the pieces was autobiographical having to do with his childhood growing up on the space coast. Mark’s father was a devout fan of classical music and it played
daily on the family phonograph. This early exposure to concert music and
the presence of highly competent music teachers, instilled a love of
music that later turned into a life long passion.

The music from this Jazz trio was both soothing and cutting edge.  The low resonant base contrasted the energetic searching melody of the sax. There was a yearning to the music, an endless reaching out. There is no better music to sketch too.

Mark and Chris have been working on opening a new music venue called The Blue Bamboo Music Center for the Arts at 1905 Kentucky Avenue just south of Fairbanks in Winter Park. He showed me plans for the 4,000 square foot warehouse which will become a studio quality performance space. The venue will feature state of the art sound, grand piano, back line equipment, stage lighting and a large projection screen, it will also be set up to record concert and performance video in high definition. The Center will also serve as an art gallery featuring local and international artists.

Unfortunately City codes and ordinances have tied up the construction and renovation. Creating a new arts venue in Orlando is not an easy task. The Center will hopefully open in 2016. It is a sure sign that the arts continue to grow in Central Florida.