From Broadway To 52nd Street
The Music Man opened at the Majestic Theatre on December 19,1957 and entered the ranks of “Blockbuster” with one thousand three hundred and seventy-five performances. The book, music and lyrics were written and composed by Meredith Wilson for Robert Preston and Barbara Cook, who held the starring roles. The cast album won five Grammy Awards for “Best Original Cast Album”, was on the Billboard charts for 245 weeks and spawned a 1962 film version in which Preston reprised his role with Shirley Jones as the lead love interest. The song “Till There Was You” remains a jazz standard today.
The Story: This is the tale of smooth talking con man Harold Hill who poses as a boys band organizer and leader and sells band instruments and uniforms to naive townsfolk before skipping town with the cash. In River City, Iowa the prim librarian and piano teacher Marian Paroo sees through him, but when Hill helps her younger brother overcome his fear of social interactions due to his lisp, Marian begins to fall in love with Harold. Harold, in turn falling for Marian, risks being caught to win her.
Jazz History: Swing music or simply “Swing” is a form of American music that developed in the early 1930s and became a distinctive style by 1940. Swing uses a strong rhythm section of double bass and drums as the anchor for a lead section of brass instruments such as trumpets and trombones, woodwinds including saxophones and clarinets and sometimes stringed instruments such as violin and guitar, medium to fast tempos, and a “lilting” swing time rhythm. The name swing came from the phrase “swing feel” where the emphasis is on the off–beat or weaker pulse in the music, unlike classical music. Swing bands usually featured soloists who would improvise on the melody over the arrangement.
The danceable swing style of big bands and bandleaders were the dominant form of American popular music from 1935 to 1946, a period known as the Swing Era.
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Ernestine Anderson was born November 11, 1928 in Houston, Texas. By age three she was singing along with the raw tunes of the legendary Bessie Smith and soon moved on to the more refined environs of her local church, singing solos in its gospel choir. She grew up listening to John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and other blues greats while listening to the live performances of the Jimmy Lunceford, Billy Eckstine, Erskine Hawkins and Count Basie big bands. At twelve she entered into a local talent contest and singing around the melody in the wrong key was told she was a jazz singer.
Moving to Seattle with her family when she was sixteen, Ernestine graduated from Garfield High and at eighteen went on the road with the Johnny Otis band. By 1952 she was with Lionel Hampton, then settled in New York working with Gigi Gryce, touring Europe with Rolf Ericson. She recorded her debut album “Hot Cargo” in Sweden and released by Mercury Records. She won Down Beat’s “New Star” award in ’59, continued to record for Mercury to sensational acclaim, splitting her time between the States and Europe.
Anderson stepped out of the limelight as the Sixties ushered in rock and roll but re-emerged in the mid 1970’s with Ray Brown as her manager. Her appearance at the Concord Jazz Festival led to a string of albums for the label working into the ‘90s with the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra among others.
In 2008 she fell on hard times and her family home facing foreclosure, was saved by an outpouring of donations by friends and colleagues like Quincy Jones and Dianne Schuur. Ernestine Anderson, a jazz and blues singer has enjoyed a career that has spanned over half a century has recorded over 30 albums, been nominated four times for a Grammy Award, has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and the Monterey Jazz Festival six times during her prolific career as well as jazz festivals and clubs all over the world.
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From Broadway To 52nd Street
Bells Are Ringing opened on November 29, 1956 at the Shubert Theatre, starring Judy Holliday, Jean Stapleton, Sydney Chaplin, Jack Weston and John Cleese, running 924 performances. The music and lyrics were composed and written by Jule Styne, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. The original production was directed by Jerome Robbins, choreographed by Robbins and Bob Fosse and ran for 924 total performances after transferring to the Alvin Theatre. The Party’s Over and Just In Time rose to prominence as jazz standards.
The Story: Ella Peterson works in the basement office of “Susanswerphone”, her boss, Sue, telephone answering service. Listening in on others’ lives, adds some interest to her own humdrum existence by adopting different identities and voices for her clients. They include Blake Barton, an out-of-work method actor, Dr. Kitchell, a dentist with musical yearnings but lacking talent, and playwright Jeff Moss, who is suffering from writer’s block and desperately needs a muse. Ella considers the relationships with these clients “perfect” because she can’t see them and they can’t see her.
When Jeff Moss pleads with Ella for help in writing, she responds, and a romance ensues. Complications arise when Ella thinks that she does not fit in with Jeff’s wealthy friends. Adding complications are the police, who are certain the business is a front for an “escort service,” and Sandor, the owner’s shady boyfriend, who unbeknownst to Sue is using the agency as a bookmaking operation.
Broadway History: Off-Off-Broadway theatrical productions in New York City are those in theatres that are smaller than Broadway and Off-Off Broadway theatres. Off-Off-Broadway theatres are often defined as theatres that have fewer than 100 seats,though the term can be used for any show in the New York City area that employs union actors but not under an Off-Broadway, Broadway or Lort contract. It is often used as a term relating to any show with non-union actors. The shows range from professional productions by established artists to small amateur performances.
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From Broadway To 52nd Street
Mr. Wonderful opened at the Broadway Theatre on March 22, 1956 and ran for 383 performances. Jerry Bock, Larry Holofcener and George David Weiss composed the music and lyrics for the musical from which emerged Too Close For Comfort to become a jazz standard.
The Story: Written specifically to showcase the talents of Sammy Davis Jr. the thin plot, focusing on entertainer Charlie Welch’s show business struggles, primarily served as a springboard for an extended version of Davis’s Las Vegas nightclub act. The cast was comprised of Sammy Davis Sr., Will Mastin, Jack Carter, Chita Rivera, Malcolm Lee Beggs and Marilyn Cooper.
Jazz History: The 1930s belonged to popular swing big bands, in which some virtuoso soloists became as famous as the bandleaders. Key figures in developing the “big” jazz band included bandleaders and arrangers Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Fletcher Henderson, Earl Hines, Glenn Miller and Artie Shaw.
Swing was also dance music. It was broadcast on the radio ‘live’ nightly across America for many years especially by Hines and his Grand Terrace Cafe Orchestra broadcasting coast-to-coast from Chicago, well placed for ‘live’ time-zones. Although it was a collective sound, swing also offered individual musicians a chance to ‘solo’ and improvise melodic, thematic solos, which could at times be very complex and important music.
Over time, social strictures regarding racial segregation began to relax in America: white bandleaders began to recruit black musicians and black arrangers.
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Kurt Elling was born November 2, 1967 in Chicago, Illinois who first became interested in music through his father and growing up sang in choirs and played various musical instruments. As a child he listened to Tony Bennett, learned counterpoint from the motets of Bach and sang in his high school choir. He played violin, French horn, piano and drums but wasn’t exposed to jazz until he attended college listening to Dave Brubeck, Dexter Gordon, Herbie Hancock and Ella Fitzgerald among others. He went on to pursue a master’s in philosophy of religion but left one credit short to pursue a career as a jazz vocalist.
Kurt began to perform around Chicago in basement clubs and jam sessions, scat singing and improvising his own lyrics while working day jobs to survive. He started listening to the minimalism and emotion of Chet Baker and to Mark Murphy exposing him to the poetry of Jack Kerouac. He recorded a demo in the early 90s that resulted in signing with Blue Note and the subsequent releasing of seven albums with the label.
He has been nominated for nine Grammy Awards, winning Best Vocal Jazz Album for 2009’s Dedicated To You. He often leads the Down Beat critics poll and has been awarded the Prix Billie Holiday from the Académie du Jazz. Elling is a baritone with a four-octave range, a writer, and composer who performs vocalese. Kurt Elling has sung and recorded with Bob Belden, Joanne Brackeen, Oscar Brown, Jr., Orbert Davis, Jon Hendricks and Bob Mintzer to name a few. Since 1995, he has collaborated with pianist, composer, and arranger and musical director Laurence Hobgood, regularly leading a quartet.
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