From Broadway To 52nd Street
Do-Re-Mi opened at the St. James on December 26, 1960 and starred Phil Silvers, Nancy Walker and John Reardon. Jule Styne, Betty Comden and Adolph Green composed the music and lyrics for the musical that ran 400 performances and gave the world the jazz standard Make Someone Happy.
The Story: A raucous satire on the music industry – with emphasis on the jukebox industry. Hubie Cram, a would-be big shot, induces three retired slot machine mobsters to muscle in on the jukebox racket. Though this does not make him the fawned upon tycoon he has always dreamed of becoming, Hubie does succeed in turning a waitress into a singing star.
Broadway History: The history of Black theater dates back to the turn of the century between 1890 and 1910 when the Black musical comedy was booming with the development of the Black musical theater. In 1903 composer Bert Williams and George Walker wrote “In Dahomey” and is considered the first all Black show on Broadway. The show returned a 400% profit to producers shattering the myth that Black shows were unprofitable. This was followed by a string of shows such as Shuffle Along, Showboat, How Come, The Chocolate Dandies, Africana and Keep Shufflin’. The rise of Black actors would make prominent stars of Ethel Waters, Pearl Bailey, Leslie Uggams, Bill Robinson, Josephine Baker, John Bubbles, Diahann Carroll, Ruby Dee and Sammy Davis Jr.
Over the following decades such shows as Porgy and Bess would come to Broadway along with Purlie, Raisin, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Golden Boy, Dreamgirls that would ultimately culminate in the establishment of the August Wilson Theatre, continuing the legacy of nearly a century of Black theater and inclusion in the Broadway lexicon.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Lawrence Elliott Willis was born December 20, 1942 in Harlem, New York. He first got into music as a voice major at New York’s High School of Music and Art for gifted students and in his senior year he recorded an opera with the Music and Arts Chorale Ensemble under the direction of Leonard Bernstein.
Due to the barriers presented to Blacks in finding work in the classical arena, Willis changed directions, replacing voice with piano and concentrating on jazz. He taught himself to play piano and by the end of the winter was playing in a jazz trio with two of his classmates, Al Foster and Eddie Gomez.
He then entered and studied music theory at the Manhattan School of Music, was heard by Hugh Masekela and sent to John Mehegan for his first piano lessons ever, and by 19 began gigging regularly with altoist Jackie McLean and after graduating made his jazz recording debut on McLean’s “Right Now!” for Blue Note that featured two of Larry’s compositions.
Throughout his illustrious career pianist Larry Willis has performed and recorded as a leader and sideman on more than 300 recordings of bebop, avant-garde, jazz-fusion and rock with a wide range of musicians, Dizzy Gillespie, Lee Morgan, Carmen McRae, Clifford Jordan, Art Taylor, Shirley Horn, Stan Getz, Cannonball Adderley, Art Blakey, Woody Shaw and a stint of seven years beginning in 1972 as the keyboardist for Blood, Sweat & Tears.
He has composed and arranged for orchestras, big bands and symphonies for the Brooklyn Symphony with the Grammy-nominated Fort Apache Band, Roy Hargrove’s Grammy-winning Crisol Band, Vanessa Rubin and Joe Ford among others. He received the Don Redman award in 2011, and the Benny Golson Jazz Master Award at Howard University in 2012. He is currently still recording and touring around the world.
From Broadway To 52nd Street
Camelot opened at the Majestic theatre on December 3, 1960 and ran for 873 performances that starred Richard Burton, Julie Andrews, Robert Goulet and Roddy McDowell. Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe composed the music that gave the world the jazz standard If Ever I Would Leave You.
The Story: The legend of King Arthur has been retold several times and it follows the exploits of his rise to power and his bringing his country under one monarch, falling in love with Guinevere and making her his queen, the illicit affair with Lancelot and the plot of Arthur’s destruction by his bastard son, to the fall of Camelot is set to music in this enjoyable portrayal of royal English life.
Jazz History: In the 1960s Afro-Cuban jazz grew as an extension of the movement that began in the 50s after bebop musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie and Billy Taylor started bands influenced Xavier Cugat, Tito Puente and Arturo Sandoval. The natural progression to Latin jazz combined the rhythms from Africa and Latin American countries that incorporated various instruments as conga, timbale, guiro and claves with jazz and classical harmonies. Though Afro-Cuban was after the bebop period, Brazilian jazz became extremely popular in the Sixties pioneered by Joao Gilberto, and Antonio Carlos Jobim. The rhythms of bossa nova, which were derived from samba, were first adapted to jazz by Charlie Byrd and Stan Getz.
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Mark Elf was born in Queens, New York on December 13, 1949 and started playing guitar at the age of 11. He attended Berklee College of Music from 1969-71 when his first professional jazz gig came as a sideman with Gloria Coleman and Etta Jones at the Club Barron in Harlem, New York that was double billed with the George Benson Quintet.
During the 1970’s he toured with Lou Donaldson, Jimmy McGriff, Richard “Groove” Holmes and Charles Earland and recorded a number of albums with them, his first with McGriff and Holmes in 1973 on the Giants of the Organ Come Together. In the late 1970’s Mark worked and recorded with Junior Cook and Bill Hardman. By the 80’s he was touring Europe with Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry and other jazz luminaries. In 1986 he recorded his first album as a called the Mark Elf Trio Volume 1.
He continued to record as a leader over the next two decades with Hank Jones, Jimmy Heath, Ray Drummond and Ben Riley, Jon Hendricks, Wynton Marsalis, Benny Golson, Al Grey and Red Holloway. He also inked his first overseas record deal. In 1995 Mark established Jen Bay Records and stunned the record industry with hit recordings. From 1996 to 2004 all 10 of his recordings had finished in the top ten on national jazz radio with eight of them going to #1 consecutively from 1997 to 2004.
From 1970 to the present, guitarist, clinician and educator Mark Elf has taught guitar and theory at independent studios, colleges and universities across the United States and abroad, and his clinics are recognized as some of the finest in the world. He is sought after for his lectures on “How To Succeed As An Indie”. He owns his own successful record label and publishing company. He continues touring with his trio at festivals, colleges and clubs.
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From Broadway To 52nd Street
Bye-Bye Birdie opened at the Martin Beck Theatre on April 14, 1960 with Lee Adams and Charles Strouse composing the music. Running 607 performances the musical starred Dick Van Dyke, Chita Rivera, Dick Gautier, Kay Medford, Susan Watson and Paul Lynde. Two actors, Van Dyke and Lynde would go on to star in the film version. A Lot Of Livin’ To Do and Put On A Happy Face are two compositions that would go on to become jazz standards.
The Story: A popular rock star, Conrad Birdie, is about to be drafted and his agent, Albert, arranges a coup he hopes will keep revenues coming in during Conrad’s stint and allow him to marry Rosie. They pick a girl in a small American town to represent girls across the country to be sung to one last time before Conrad enters the service. Albert’s mother is against the marriage and breaks it up. Conrad goes off to have a wild night, Albert wins back Rosie but everything is turned upside down in the small town.
Broadway History: An Off-Off-Broadway production that features members of Actors Equity is called an Equity Showcase production, however, not all Off-Off-Broadway shows are Equity Showcases. The union maintains very strict rules about working in such productions, including restrictions on price, the length of the run and rehearsal times. Professional actors’ participation in showcase productions is frequent and comprises the bulk of stage work for the majority of New York actors. There has been an ongoing movement to revise the Equity Showcase rules, which many in the community find overly restrictive and detrimental to the creation of New York theatre.
The term indie theatre, or independent theatre, coined by playwright Kirk Bromley, has been adopted by many as a replacement for the term Off-Off-Broadway, and is used by groups such as The League of Independent Theater and the website nytheatre.com.
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