From Broadway To 52nd Street
Finian’s Rainbow opened on January 10, 1947 at the 46th Street Theater starring Albert Sharpe, Ella Logan and David Wayne. Burton Lane and E.Y. Harburg composed the score for this stage production that ran 725 performances. The musical would be made into a movie some twenty-one years later to star Fred Astaire and Petula Clark. From this musical came the encores with the jazz classics Old Devil Moon, Look To The Rainbow and How Are Things In Glocca Morra.
The Story: An Irishman named Finian seeking his fortune steals a pot of leprechaun gold and arrives in America to plant it at Fort Knox and watch it grow. However, the leprechaun who follows him is threatened to become human if it is not returned. When they stop in Rainbow Valley, Finian’s daughter falls in love with a local. During his brief stay, Og the leprechaun, convinces racist Senator Rankin to turn over a new leaf by magically turning him black. The Senator recants and Finian gives back the gold and continues his wanderings.
Jazz History: Jazz was created in 1947 as an artist’s book of some one hundred prints based on paper cutouts by Henri Matisse, who was in his seventies and in poor health when he began this project. No longer able to draw or paint easily with a pencil or brush, he used scissors to cut out simple forms from brightly colored paper painted to his specifications with gouache. He then arranged them on another sheet of gouache-painted paper.
The original intention was for Matisse to illustrate poems written by a French author. As Matisse began, he used a large fluid brush to write notes to himself on construction paper about his thoughts as he created the images. The simple visual appearance of the words pleased Matisse, and he suggested using his roughly painted words in juxtaposition with the images, rather than the original poems. The publisher agreed.
None of the original copies were bound, and many of the purchasers arranged with prominent artists like Cocteau or famous graphic designers to create binders for the pages. Each of the pages is about 24 inches by 12 inches and folded in the center. The original edition of September 30, 1947 consisted of 250 sets of prints and sold for $120 each.
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Dale Fielder was born July 27, 1956. Growing up in Midland, a small suburb outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania he studied oboe, bassoon and tuba in the school system and clarinet, saxophone, composition and arranging privately with Pittsburgh area tenor saxophonist Phillip Celli. An alumnus of the University of Pittsburgh Jazz Studies Program, Dale studied as an ethnomusicology major under Dr. Nathan Davis. His debut jazz performance was as a member of the Joe Harris Quartet, former drummer with the Charlie Parker Quintet and Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra.
Fielder is a recipient of a NEA grant, has completed his first large work “The Aquarian” for alto saxophone and chamber orchestra; spent eight years in NYC, moved to Los Angeles, began studying with alto legend, Charles McPherson. He has recorded a dozen CDs as a leader including the top-ten critically acclaimed “Dear Sir: Tribute To Wayne Shorter”; he received his first commission and wrote the extended eleven-movement jazz suite, “Ocean Of Love And Mercy”; was selected as BET’s 1999 Jazz Discovery winner and performs throughout Europe and Asia with his quartet.
If originality is the barometer of what truly makes a great jazz artist, Dale Fielder possesses a quality of originality in his voice. The multi-instrumentalist offers rare and obscure jazz classics to his audience coupled with his original compositions, giving the listener a variety of new concepts and presentations. He continues his performance, recording and touring.
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Jon Faddis was born July 24, 1953 in Oakland, California and studied music and trumpet as a child. At 18, he joined Lionel Hampton’s big band followed with tenure in the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra as lead trumpet. After playing with Charles Mingus, he became a noted studio musician in New York, appearing on many pop recordings in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The mid-Eighties saw Jon leaving the studios to pursue his solo career, which resulted in albums like Legacy, Into The Faddisphere and Hornucopia. Becoming the director and main trumpet soloist of the Dizzy Gillespie 70th Birthday Big Band and Dizzy’s United Nation Orchestra, in 1992 he began leading the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band at Carnegie Hall, conducting over 40 concerts in ten years.
Faddis has led the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Stars and the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Stars Big Band, was appointed artistic director of the Chicago Jazz Ensemble, heads the Jon Faddis Jazz Orchestra of New York. As an educator he teaches at The Conservatory of Music at Purchase College-SUNY and is a guest lecturer at Columbia College Chicago.
A jazz trumpeter, conductor, composer, and educator renowned for both his highly virtuosic command of the instrument and for his expertise in the field of music education, trumpeter Jon Faddis also leads master classes, clinics and workshops around the world often bringing promising students along to his gigs to sit in, and has produced a number of CDs for up-and-coming musicians.
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From Broadway To 52nd Street
Brigadoon opened at the Ziegfeld Theatre on March, 13, 1947 and had a run of 581 performances. Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Leowe composed the music and lyrics for the stars David Brooks, Marion Bell, George Keane and Pamela Britton. From this musical arose to compositions to jazz standard fame – Almost Like Being In Love and The Heather On The Hill.
The Story: Two American hunters in Scotland lose their way and stumble upon the village of Brigadoon that seems to belong to another time. As they enter, a kilted swain is rejoicing his impending marriage. Tommy falls in love with Fiona, Jeff has a fling with Meg. They discover the village is bewitched coming back to life only once every hundred years. Jeff and Tommy flee but Tommy’s love for Fiona brings him back and the village appears just long enough to embrace him.
Broadway History: It was during the 20th century that the Tony Awards were established, in 1947. These awards recognized theater achievement in Broadway theaters. Other Broadway and theater awards include the Drama Desk Awards, New York Drama Critics Circle Award, Theatre World Awards and the Obie Awards. The Drama Desk Awards are the only award given to Broadway and off-Broadway productions, all competing against each other.
The Obie awards cover off Broadway and off-off Broadway productions. The Theatre World awards are given to actors for outstanding debut performances. The New York Drama Critics’ Circle award is the second oldest theater award in the U.S. with the main award for Best Play.
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Lynn Seaton was born on July 18, 1957 in Tulsa, Oklahoma and began studying classical guitar vey young but by age nine switched to the bass. By the late 70s he was performing around the state and in 19080 he moved to Ohio with the Steve Schmidt Trio and later became the house bassist at the Blue Wisp Jazz Club in Cincinnati. This gig gave him the opportunity to accompany a host of big name jazz guest soloists every week.
Seaton joined Woody Herman in 1984 followed by the Count Basie Orchestra in ’85 and after two years began touring extensively with Tony Bennett and George Shearing. He went on to spend time touring with Monty Alexander and with the Jeff Hamilton Trio. Since the early ‘90s the bebop and swing bassist has free-lanced with the likes of Toshiko Akiyoshi, Ernestine Anderson, Buck Clayton, Al Cohn, Kenny Drew Jr., Scott Hamilton, Ken Peplowski, Wynard Harper, Frank Foster, Harry “Sweets” Edison, Mark Murphy, Joe Williams, Nancy Wilson, Mel Torme, Frank Wess and Blossom Dearie, just to name a few.
Rarely a leader, Lynn has recorded under his name as in 1991with “Bassman’s Basement” followed by “Solo Flights” and “Puttin’ On The Ritz” and as a sideman on over 100 recordings including Grammy-winning “Dianne Schuur and the Count Basie Orchestra”. He lived in New York from 1986 to 1998 and has performed at festivals worldwide such as Newport, North Sea, Kyoto and others. He currently teaches at the University of North Texas, home to one of the world’s largest jazz program.
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