From Broadway To 52nd Street
Hello Dolly opened at the St. James Theatre on January 16, 1964 with music composed by Jerry Herman. The show starred Carol Channing & David Burns, Eileen Brennan, Sondra Lee and Charles Nelson Reilly, running for a record 2,844 performances landing it amongst the grand collection of blockbuster hits. It was revived in 1967 with Pearl Bailey & Cab Calloway in the lead roles and in 1969, Barbra Streisand & Walter Matthau took the characters to the silver screen. The title song Hello Dolly and It Only Takes A Moment went on to become a part of the jazz catalogue.
The Story: At the turn of the 20th century in New York City, a brassy and intrepid matchmaker Dolly Galagher Levi is in town to find wealthy Horace Vandergelder a wife. However, unbeknownst to Horace, Ms. Levi has her sights set on him herself. While helping two rich pretenders to find love, Dolly finds romance and a husband for herself in this spoof on love and marriage.
Broadway History: Broadway, previously the home to jazz influenced choreographers like Cole, Fosse, and Robbins, saw a part of its nature change to reflect the mood of the country. While there were still blockbuster musicals of the old type – like My Fair Lady, Hello Dolly, Mame – a new generation of musicals reflected the changes in American society, and dance. Hair was a depiction of the rebellious nature of the hippie movement. And Fosse, that champion of syncopated, tap and minstrel based movement, absorbed the new 60s feel of dance with his hit musical Sweet Charity. In this show, Fosse based much of his movement on the social dances of the 1960s, while injecting his own unique brand of style and angular movement and jutting body parts. The movements of jazz dance had evolved to absorb the blossoming social scene. Broadway was no longer the spawning ground for theatrical jazz dance. It had become a pastiche of old standard styles and movements, and an incubator for a new form of jazz dance.
Sponsored By
www.whatissuitetabu.com
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Stefano di Battista was born on February 14, 1969 in Rome Italy. He began studying the saxophone at the age of 13 years in a band made up primarily of boys. It was during this period that he discovered the fun of making music. By the time he was sixteen he had become interested in jazz and the sound of Art Pepper and found his mentor, Massimo Urbani.
Enrolling in The Conservatory, Stefano perfected his technique with classical tradition, graduated with honors and by twenty-one was playing in groups of various configurations. 1992 finds him playing the Calvi Jazz Festival and is invited to perform in Paris. Traveling between Rome and Paris he lands two engagements, is hired to play with the National Jazz Orchestra and his career takes off.
Di Battista put out “Volare”, his debut as a leader in 1997, has toured with the Elvin Jones Jazz Machine as well as performing with Jimmy Cobb, Walter Booker, Nat Adderley, Laurent Cugny, Aldo Romano, Jacky Terrasson and many others. The alto and soprano saxophonist continues to record, perform and tour both as a leader and sideman.
More Posts: saxophone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jaleel Shaw was born February 11, 1978. Growing up in Philadelphia, PA, where he studied with saxophonist Rayburn Wright, Robert Landham, and jazz instructor Lovette Hines while attending the High School for Creative & Performing Arts, Shaw transferring and graduated from George Washington High School. During this period, John Blake and Grover Washington, Jr. also mentored him.
Upon graduating from high school, he received a full four-year tuition scholarship to Berklee College of Music, earned dual degrees in music education and performance Jaleel attended Berklee for four years, received the Billboard Endowed Scholarship for Outstanding Academic and Musical achievement, two Woodwind Dept. Chair Awards, The Outstanding Student Teacher Award, and The Boston Jazz Society Award.
After Berklee, Shaw went to Manhattan School of Music, received his Masters in Jazz Performance and was a finalist in the Thelonious Monk International Saxophone Competition. Jaleel has performed and toured throughout the U.S., Asia, Europe and Australia. The altoist is currently a member of the Roy Haynes Quartet and the Charles Mingus Big Band, performs in various New York clubs, has recorded two albums and leads his own quartet and quintet.
More Posts: saxophone
From Broadway To 52nd Street
Funny Girl opened at the Winter Garden Theatre on March 26, 1964 and entered into the fraternity of blockbuster musicals with 1,348 performances. Jule Styne & Robert Merrill composed the music and from the score came the classic tune People, that became a hit long before it premiered on Broadway performed by Barbra Streisand. Joining her in the cast of players were Sydney Chaplin, Jean Stapleton and Lainie Kazan.
The Story: The early years of Ziegfield Follies star Fanny Brice in which Streisand recreates her Broadway triumph. She reminisces about her life as she wanders back to the days of Keeney’s Music hall, her eventual success and the two men in her life. There’s Flo Ziegfeld, who makes her a star and Nicky Arnstein, a gambler, who she marries. Her career flourishes as Nicky’s gambling and prison sentence destroy her marriage. She sings, roller-skates, cracks jokes, loves & marries a gambler, and tugs at your heart in a tour-de-force performance)
Jazz History: The Sixties was the most tumultuous decade in the history of America and the changes were reflected in jazz. Many musicians were falling under the modal-jazz spell of Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue, and the free-jazz influence of saxophonist Ornette Coleman; John Coltrane performs in concert as a member of Miles Davis’ group for the last time, riots break out at the Newport Jazz Festival and Max Roach begins to record his Freedom Now! Suite. The country saw John F. Kennedy elected as the youngest President in U.S. history, we lived the Cuban missile crisis, student sit-ins and segregation protests at restaurants, and the San Francisco Chronicle reports that Dave Brubeck lost $40,000 in bookings from a month-long tour of U.S. southern states because he refused to drop African-American bassist Eugene Wright from his group.
Sponsored By
www.whatissuitetabu.com
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Gregory Tardy was born February 3, 1966 in New Orleans, Louisiana but was reared in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His interest in music began studying classical clarinet. By high school he excelled in music, winning many awards and scholarships, studying with renowned clarinetists and preparing for a symphony career. Over time he was asked to play saxophone, filling missing gaps in various high school and college ensembles. But it was the prodding of his older brother that made him explore the music of John Coltrane, and decide to follow a jazz path.
Gregory’s passion for the saxophone took over his studies, he moved to St. Louis, played the jazz and blues scene, returned to New Orleans to further study, gigged with the Neville Brothers and ended up in bands led by Nicholas Payton, Jason and Ellis Marsalis. In 1992, Tardy recorded his first solo project “Crazy Love”, was picked up by Elvin Jones Jazz Machine, and moved to New York City.
His performance and recording lists a large array of prominence not limited to Tom Harrell, Dave Douglas, Wynton Marsalis, Jay McShann, Steve Coleman, Betty Carter, James Moody, Ravi Coltrane, Mark Turner, Dewey Redman, Chris Potter, Joe Lovano, Bill Frisell, Rashied Ali and John Patitucci. He has even brought his clarinet out of retirement playing with Andrew Hill, Steve Swallow, Stefan Harris and others.
Tardy continues to explore new territory while keeping in the tradition as he play his own music and perform in many great bands. As an educator he teaches private lessons and facilitates clinics around the world, but always speaking through his horn.