- [Kabir] Production of Applause on Ideastream Public Media is made possible by funding by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.

(upbeat music) - [Kabir] Coming up, sax man Bobby Selvaggio, looks to his dad and to his son for musical inspirations.

Plus, this hot shop manager is making art out of molten glass in Cincinnati.

And meet Columbus artist, Blakk Sun, who started writing poetry in prison.

It's time for another round of Applause, my friends.

I'm Ideastream Public Media's Kabir Bhatia.

(bright upbeat music) As Director of Jazz Studies at Kent State University, Bobby Selvaggio is committed to the next generation of jazz musicians.

Recently, he released his 12th album dedicated to another college student he's committed to, his son, Julian.

Ideastream Public Media's Amanda Rabinowitz, welcome Selvaggio to our Idea Center Studios for the latest edition of Applause Performances.

(gentle jazz music) - This is your 12th album, "Stories, Dreams, Inspirations for My Boy," which is dedicated to your son, Julian.

Can you tell us a little bit more about him and your relationship with him, and how he inspired this album?

- I was very fortunate to have the type of life that I could spend time with him, because before I got the full-time Kent State gig, I was, as I am today, a full-time working musician.

And I was private teaching a little bit in part-time college.

And so it really allowed me to be able to spend time with him.

That, to me, was everything.

You know, being able to build that bond from his birth to today, and really be able to spend quality time with him growing up and playing with him and not just seeing him after work, but seeing him throughout whole days.

And to me, that was important.

So we just have a really good relationship.

We're good friends.

He goes to Kent State, and him being a creative too, so he writes, you know, he wants to be like a writer and director of anime film, right?

- [Amanda] Wow.

- So he's like, he's kind of building his own degree at Kent State because, you know, free tuition, he gets to go for free.

So he is taking all these classes, understanding digital animation and doing all this.

And you know, it's like he understands what he wants, you know, and he's doing it, he's putting it together.

And to me, I look at that and think, you know, that makes me proud because although we will talk, and especially as he is older now, he'll ask questions about life and this and that.

But like it's, I'm proud to see that he's become a creative that knows what he wants and he's doing what he wants.

And on top of all that, you know, he's a good person that wants to help other people, and, you know, so that's kind of my relationship with him.

(gentle jazz music) - [Amanda] The album is inspired by your son, Julian.

- [Bobby] Yeah, mm-hmm.

- And it kind of brings you full circle because another inspiration in your life is your dad, the late jazz accordion and piano player, Pete Selvaggio.

- [Bobby] Yes, absolutely.

- [Amanda] Can you tell us a little bit about him?

- Yeah, my dad really has a legacy in this town.

He did a lot of playing with the early Cleveland Jazz Orchestra.

He toured when he was younger with Guy Lombardo, when he played piano, that's actually accordion, that's where he picked up the piano, was playing with Guy Lombardo, which was really crazy.

I just remember as a kid, I didn't necessarily wanna play music when I was younger, you know, pre-high school and that, that wasn't something that I thought I was gonna do.

But we would go out in here and play all the time, 'cause he was the kind of musician, he played seven nights a week.

I mean, he literally played every day, played jazz gigs, played restaurant gigs, just was constantly playing.

So just being around music, it was part of who I was.

But it wasn't really until in the high school and when I really started playing college that I understood really what he did, and what it took to do what he did.

And it was understanding that through growing up around him really helped me, you know, gravitate and grab onto the work that it takes to be a musician.

And so, you know, for me, that's the legacy he gave me was just kind of seeing what he did as a professional.

- [Amanda] Yeah.

- It was pretty cool.

(gentle jazz music) - [Amanda] Since 2013, you've been the director of Jazz studies- - [Bobby] Yes, yeah.

- [Amanda] At Kent State University.

How has the jazz department there grown, since you've been there in the last decade?

- We have a jazz major degree that's only six years old.

- [Amanda] Wow.

- You know, yeah, so when I came on board, I helped create with my predecessor Chas Baker, the jazz minor degree.

But then I wanted to have a jazz major and the school was interested in that.

So we created one and it's six years old.

And it's interesting, you know, we were really growing and then that pandemic hit.

- [Amanda] Right.

- And you know, put everybody back.

But these last couple years, we're seeing growth.

We just had our concerts and students are writing music, students are creating their own music.

You can see students creating a voice.

You know, you hear somebody like Jonah playing, and he has his own voice and writing music and playing gigs and creating music.

Honestly, that's all I care about as an educator, that they can figure out who they are, they can work, they can create and do the things that they want.

And I've been very lucky to see students go out in the world and do that.

(gentle jazz music) - You're very immersed in this scene, both as an educator and as a performer and player.

- [Bobby] Yeah.

- Talk about the scene now.

- The word I used a minute ago, this idea of collaboration, everybody collaborates with everybody else.

There's a great core of modern new music, jazz musicians, that are all creating together, and collaborating together.

And you see everybody on each other's records, and you see everybody playing gigs with each other.

And I tell this to my students all the time, the most important thing you can do when you go out in the world is create community together with people, right?

And that's what I feel we have done here in Northeast Ohio, right?

It's been, the jazz scene is we have created community together.

And through that, you now see all this wonderful music that's coming out of this scene.

And that's what I see today that it's really exciting to see where that's gonna go, 'cause you see all these young musicians like Jonah, coming up and entering this scene, and doing the same thing and working together and collaborating together and creating together, and creating community together.

And it's really wonderful.

(gentle jazz music) - [Kabir] You can watch the entire Applause Performances session featuring Bobby Sevalggio, with the PBS app.

In Cincinnati, Nate Freeland runs a hot shop where molten glass is his artistic clay.

He shapes it and styles it with finesse and control, creating artistic vessels of light.

(gentle music) - The type of glass blowing that I specialize in is furnace work or off-hand glass blowing.

So basically, we start with a fresh ball of molten glass on the end of a blow pipe or a solid rod that we can transform into many different forms.

(bright upbeat music) We can add colors, we can add designs.

Actually, the possibilities are probably limitless in what we can do.

We're just limited to our skill sets.

And we're limited to the equipment and tools that we have on hand.

I got started in glassblowing in college.

I got interested in glassblowing as a teenager, saw it on public television.

Yeah, found a university that taught glassblowing and moved to Cincinnati.

It's unlike any other art form, and it's not something that you can just start a piece, put it down, go to lunch, come back.

You kind of have to get everything you need to get done within that one setting, done within that one setting.

Not to say you can't revisit pieces later, under certain techniques, but really the idea of getting that one shot at it, that one shot at it.

Glass has its own fluidity, its own motion.

And one of the biggest misconceptions with glass is that it's kind of a testosterone-driven event.

You need to be strong, you need to be manly.

When, in fact, if you get the glass at the right heat, it's a finesse game.

And it can almost turn into a very, almost poetic dance with the glass.

And you see someone just the motion of that glass swinging around as they're making their move.

You have to have a lot of finesse, a lot of finesse to handle this material.

You can't really let it control you.

Oftentimes, the glass will control you, and you need to take charge and control that glass.

(bright upbeat music) Glass has been dated back, you know, they found examples of it in ancient Egypt.

Mesopotamia became kind of a lost art form.

And while the bulk of everything that was being made historically had some sort of a function to it, we saw glass late 19th, early 20th century.

And it was a lot of manufacturing.

And it wasn't until the '60s or '70s right here in Ohio that studio glass movement started.

And it was an experimental thing, started in a garage.

Some of the things that I really like to incorporate into production work, or any of my own everyday work, is just old Venetian techniques that had been kept secret for hundreds and hundreds of years.

And you know, somebody leaked the secrets.

And these United States artists are picking up on it, and really capitalizing on these techniques and kind of tweaking them and making them their own.

But when we deal with color, we often have to consider the light source in which this is gonna be viewed under that is possible to make something that doesn't resemble glass, that you don't have to be concerned about light.

Something I'm attracted to is how the light reflects, refracts, penetrates, shines back through pieces, can reflect these colors on the walls, on the surfaces.

I find that a very dynamic and a very appealing aspect to glass.

It's an art form unlike any other.

And there's a very calculated process to making your pieces.

And each piece is different.

It's a surprise to a lot of people.

It's a surprise to a lot of people about what really goes into making a piece of glass.

(gentle music) The bulk of our business here at Neusole is community education.

So we teach workshops seven days a week.

And the process is allowing as much hands-on possible to that client.

We wanna make them feel like they get the most out of their money.

So we do offer them a chance to hold those blow pipes to walk around and feel that pipe in their hand with liquid glass on the end.

It's a team effort even when we get into the production of pieces.

Glassblowing is not a sole sport.

You need people around you that you trust.

You need people around you that you trust their skill sets.

I'd never make anything with less than one assistant.

Very rarely will I work solo.

And I've worked on production teams of 10 plus people to make a piece.

The most satisfying thing people take away, for me, is when they see the price of the glass, and "Wow, why does that cost so much?"

And then they do it, and they realize this isn't four cups for $4 from the superstore.

You know, this isn't machine-made glass, and that there is a craft behind it.

There's definitely a craft, definitely a skill set that it takes to achieve a final product.

- [Kabir] Ruth Bader Ginsburg, inspired many during her lifetime, and now, she's inspired a play.

On the next Applause, meet the artist with Ensemble Theater, bringing the late Supreme Court justice to the stage.

Plus meet the team bringing Sojourner Truth back to the city of Akron.

And hear the soaring clarinet of Franklin Cohen, and a performance from ChamberFest Cleveland.

All that and more on the next round of Applause.

(bright jazz music) You can watch past episodes of Applause with the PBS app.

Now we travel to Columbus, where artist, Michael Powell, also known as Blakk Sun, uses the spoken word to tell his story.

Formerly incarcerated, Blakk Sun shines a light on the challenges that people like him face today.

(upbeat music) - My name's Michael.

Most people call me Blakk Sun.

I'm a spoken word artist, rapper, actor, improvisationally, a friendly neighborhood black man.

(Michael laughs) It started with rap, you know, crisscrossing when I was little.

Wear my clothes backwards, and wanna record my little brother on a Barbie tape recorder, you know what I'm saying?

Just a like Mac 10 instrumentals.

So that's where it started at.

But the poetry came in from a friend of mine actually.

I wasn't able to create with music at the time.

And he was like, "Well, why don't you try poetry?

You got a lot to say.

Why don't you try it that way?"

And I'm glad I did.

I'm glad I listened to him, 'cause at first, I didn't want to.

But it helped me expand my writing capacity.

I figured I'd compensate by doing what other people did, you know, following the lead, whatever conflicting deeds.

I just did the things I seen, hoping someone would feel my presence, and welcome me with arms outreached like a present and a smile that said welcome, even if just for a second.

But it never came.

And with poetry, I could slow down, I could speed up, I could go in depth.

And you know, it helped me to enhance my creativity of how I wanna capture what I'm trying to say.

I'm not a man of many words per se.

So, and if I was, my words probably wouldn't be in depth about me.

So with my music, I'm able to create a mood with it.

So this song is a song that I wrote, while the song I was telling you about while I wrote.

It's "Mad Dark," but it's just a question.

It's not like I'm actually trying to do it or thinking about.

It's just a question, and the reasons why.

♪ Maybe I'll never know ♪ ♪ What the meaning of life is ♪ ♪ I ask for signs they never show ♪ ♪ I ask to be cultivated, but purpose in me doesn't grow ♪ ♪ And if I don't have it then it's life worth living ♪ ♪ I don't know ♪ ♪ So I flirt with thoughts of ending it ♪ ♪ I don't think it matters much ♪ ♪ I ain't had too many things invested ♪ ♪ My bank account of time spent was reckless ♪ ♪ I ain't really loving enough ♪ ♪ Memories of me must feel like burden ♪ ♪ So if I checked out ♪ ♪ They probably wouldn't know this or be happy that I'm gone ♪ ♪ Sweat off of they brow ♪ ♪ Maybe ending it my own way ♪ ♪ Would be the thing to make them proud ♪ ♪ Like I was a man again ♪ ♪ Still not a father on enough to my responsibilities ♪ ♪ I didn't bother ♪ ♪ I made too many mistakes ♪ ♪ No give, I just take ♪ ♪ Placed another on my weight ♪ ♪ Banking on they backs to break ♪ People receive stories different ways.

So, you know, that's why I do so many different things.

I act to play a character, 'cause people identify with characters.

If you wanted to identify with me, you would listen to my poetry, and you would get a chance to hear my emotions laid out in front of you.

But it's all about connectivity though.

And those are the ways that I used for me to seem human to everybody else.

If I'm talking about me, that's when I do the riffing thing.

Like, you know, I just play with sounds, the way my voice sounds, how I'm feeling at that time.

And it'll probably start with just a few little words.

And, you know, I might say something that I like, and I'm like, "Okay, that's the topic."

Or if I'm writing about something, sometimes I'm asked to write poetry or something about stuff, and I wouldn't wanna mislead the people through the message.

So I fact-check, you know, I do research.

you know, my Google hand is crazy.

I gather as much as I can and then write about it, you know?

And I don't really like to revise a lot, so I wanna make sure that I get it right pretty much the first time.

♪ Struggling to find my path ♪ ♪ To show me some things that I wanted ♪ ♪ But when life started getting bad ♪ ♪ You ain't wanna help me confront it ♪ ♪ And in the back of my mind ♪ ♪ I knew you were always gonna leave me ♪ ♪ 'Cause everything is temporary ♪ ♪ And that's why every time that you call ♪ ♪ Every time that you called ♪ ♪ Every time that you called ♪ ♪ I always came running ♪ ♪ There was no discussions.

♪ ♪ And every time that you called ♪ I got speakers in my car, and the base, when it hits your heart, man, it make you feel different, and nobody else can hear me.

You know, sometimes I'm a little shy with my voice, and especially when I don't know what I'm doing with it.

So I'm in the car, I got a couple things playing, or you know, might be in my head about something, and I just start making noises, and whatever comes out, comes out.

That's how I try not to reject anything because I mean, obviously I was feeling it.

And I try to bring whatever is sticking the most to the forefront.

I started doing poetry while I was in prison.

That's why I couldn't do music.

Before that, when I was a teenager.

I got locked up when I was 18.

So when I was a teenager, I didn't do poetry at all, 'cause I was only doing music.

As a way for me to continue to create, I was challenged with the poetry thing.

It turned into something that was really good for me.

And when I got out here, I really was doing more poetry than anything, that was great for me because that's like, that's my therapy.

So, you know, I did that, did the music, and I'm like, "All right, now, that's dabble in the beats.

Let's make some beats."

Try to do, just try to enhance everything that I can while I'm doing it.

And it's a process.

But yeah, I started while I was in prison, man, I was there for a long time.

The song that I'm creating a beat for right now is a song that I wrote in prison.

I did something to get here, and you have to pay the consequences for that.

But knowing that I'm done with the life that I was living in and I still can't leave, and I have to wait.

So it's a waiting game, and the song is really about like, I don't wanna wait anymore.

People tell me all the time, like, "You're a leader."

Back then though, I was a very good follower, and I was following the wrong things.

I'm still figuring me out a lot.

I know I'm a good writer, I know I can write about a lot of things, but I don't necessarily know if I found my sound yet.

You know what I'm saying?

We all got influences, and I can still hear my influences.

You might not be able to, but I know where they're coming from.

So, like my sound, which is a challenge I don't feel for every artist, but that's where I'm at with it now.

And you know, other than that, I'll still be, I'm still out here, like not in the streets, I'm out here in the capacity of, actually, I'll take it back.

I am still in the streets because I was just at Barnett Library yesterday, mentoring some young people.

So I am still in the streets, but in a much, much better way now.

And I'm happy with it.

I'm going to your honest aid, we're detrimental to your reign, more than a paragraph or page.

And when people read those chapters, they'll see that your claim to fame was just a new way to oppress us by changing the rules to your own game.

And the shrills and shrieks of people just like me keep my dreams haunted, and thinking about tackling this battle justly, can be daunting.

But if you gave us freedom just to exercise your power, trying to flaunt it, then thanks, but no thanks Mr. Lincoln.

I don't want it.

(audience applauding) - [Kabir] Would you like a healthy dose of Northeast Ohio arts and culture to magically appear in your inbox each week?

Well, truth be told, we just email it to you, but you gotta sign up first for the to-do list.

Please do so at arts.ideastream.org.

Thanks for watching Applause, gang.

I'm Ideastream Public Media's Kabir Bhatia.

We send you off with a new tune written by Bobby Selvaggio.

It's dedicated to another important person in his life, his wife, Chelsea.

If music be the food of Love, play on.

(gentle jazz music) (gentle music) Production of Applause on Ideastream Public Media is made possible by funding by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.