{"id":98700,"date":"2023-05-05T21:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-06T05:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/music-for-the-missing-woman-in-red\/"},"modified":"2023-05-06T15:25:38","modified_gmt":"2023-05-06T23:25:38","slug":"music-for-the-missing-woman-in-red","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/music-for-the-missing-woman-in-red\/","title":{"rendered":"Music for the missing woman in red"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t

A “music minus one” concert featuring an empty red dress at one end of the stage, in recognition of a national day calling attention to missing and murdered Indigenous women, was performed by a 16-member big band whose tribal influences span the Americas to open this spring’s Juneau Jazz & Classics<\/a> festival Friday night.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

The Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band took the stage at Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall about an hour after hundreds of people gathered a short distance away<\/a> in front of Alaska State Capitol in observance of the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. The dress hanging near a loudspeaker was a somber reminder of the occasion during the largely playful two-hour concert where, at one point, Keefe quipped “it’s really fun being Indigenous. I like it.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

\"A<\/a>

A red dress hanging at one end of the stage serves as recognition of the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls during a concert by the Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band on Friday night at Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall. (Mark Sabbatini \/ Juneau Empire)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

Keefe, a New York musician who grew up on a reservation in Idaho, is also performing a free concert with her big band at the University of Alaska Southeast on Saturday afternoon, as well as with a quintet of the band’s musicians at Crystal Saloon on Saturday night and a jam session Monday night. She opened Friday’s concert with the song “Water” by Native American sax legend Jim Pepper, one of a few tributes to legacy musicians during a show featuring originals mostly by the band members.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“A huge part of what we try to do is honor those folks whose shoulders we we stand on as musicians,” she said, introducing the song.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

\"Tenor<\/a>

Tenor saxophonist Rico Jones wears a Tlingit Tin’aa, given to him and other band members by local students during a visit to Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School, as he introduces a song he composed during a concert by the Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band on Friday night at Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall. (Mark Sabbatini \/ Juneau Empire)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

All of the band members were wearing Tin’aas (cooper shield in the Tlingit language) made by local students for the visiting musicians who performed and answered questions Friday morning during a workshop at Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t