The Jazz Voyager
606 Club: 90 Lots Road, London, SW10, United Kingdom / Telephone: 020 7352 5953 Good jazz and good food in one of the best venues in London.Two Jazz groups a night Monday through Wednesday perform from 8:00pm – 1.00am. Thursdays – one band plays from 9:30pm – 1:30am and on Fridays and Saturdays 10:00pm – 2.00 am.
The club’s a policy is to book local British based musicians providing a platform for some of the finest British musicians as well as encouraging a considerable number of younger players. The club employs more than ten different bands a week, making it one of the largest club promoters of Jazz in Europe.
There is no entry fee, instead the musicians are funded from a Music Charge which is added to the bill at the end of the night. These charges are currently £5.00/head Sunday – Thursday and £6.00/head Friday and Saturday. For more information visit http://www.606club.co.uk
From Broadway To 52nd Street
The Golden Apple was staged for it’s initial performance at the Phoenix Theatre on March 11, 1954 and ran for one hundred and seventy-three performances. The stars of the musical were Kay Ballard, Dean Michener, Jonathan Lucas, Jack Whiting, Stephen Douglass, Bibi Osterwald and Priscilla Gillette. Jerome Morross composed the music with libretto written by John Latouche and their composition Lazy Afternoon emerged from the musical to make the pantheon of jazz standards.
The Story: In a small turn-of-the-century American village called Angel’s Roost, nothing of importance seems to happen until a traveling salesman arrives at the annual fair in a balloon. He so beguiles the wife of the sheriff that she elopes with him to the neighboring town. The mayor throws roadblocks in the pursuer’s path. After the sheriff outclasses the salesman in a boxing match, he returns home to find love from another woman waiting for him. Recreation of Homer’s The Iliad & The Odyssey.
Broadway History: The Off-Broadway theatre is a professional New York City venue with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, much smaller than those on Broadway. An Off-Broadway production is a production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts.
The Off-Broadway movement started in the 1950s, as a reaction to the “perceived commercialism of Broadway” and provided an “outlet for a new generation” of creative artists. This fertile breeding ground, away from the pressures of commercial production and critical brickbats, helped give a leg up to hundreds of future Broadway greats. The first great Off-Broadway musical was the 1954 revival of the Brecht/Weil Three Penny Opera.
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The Jazz Voyager
Rest’Ô Jazz: 8, rue Amélie, Toulouse, France. Telephone: +33 5 61 57 96 95 Fax: +33 5 61 57 96 95 Contact: Yannick Orthlieb. The Rest’Ô Jazz is open from Tuesday to Saturday with live jazz every night.
Since 2004, the Rest’Ô Jazz has presented the tradition of New Orleans Jazz Clubs distilling a unique atmosphere in Toulouse. All year long, jazz influences adapt to any purpose. From Louis Armstrong to The Mississippi Jazz Band, from Django Reinhardt to Gadjo Zaz Trio, from Count Basie to The Philippe Laudet Jazz Odyssée.
From Broadway To 52nd Street
House Of Flowers opened at the Alvin Theatre on December 12, 1954 with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics and book by Truman Capote. This was his only Broadway musical based on his own short story, which was first published as one of three extra pieces in the Breakfast At Tiffany’s novella. Pearl Bailey, Diahann Carroll, Juanita Hall, Alvin Ailey, Geoffrey Holder, Ray Walston and Carmen de Lavallade starred for 165 performances. The composition that emerged from this musical to become a jazz standard was “A Sleepin’ Bee”.
The Story: During a trade war between two Haitian brothel keepers, Madame Tango and Madame Fleur, the latter sells one of her girls, Ottilia, to a rich lord. Ottilia turns him down preferring young, handsome but poor mountain boy Royal. and despite Fleur’s machinations to seal Royal in a barrel and toss him into the ocean, he escapes his watery grave on the back of a turtle. The lovers eventually marry and live happily ever after.
Jazz History: Hard bop, an extension of bebop (or “bop”) music that incorporates influences from rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues especially in the saxophone and piano playing, developed in the mid-1950s, partly in response to the vogue for cool jazz in the early 1950s. The hard bop style coalesced in 1953 and 1954, paralleling the rise of rhythm and blues. Miles Davis’ performance of “Walkin'”, the title track of his album of the same year, at the very first Newport Jazz Festival in 1954, announced the style to the jazz world. The quintet, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers featuring pianist Horace Silver and trumpeter Clifford Brown were leaders in the hard bop movement along with Davis.
Modal jazz recordings, such as Davis’ Kind of Blue became popular in the late 1950s. Popular modal standards include Davis’s “All Blues All” and “So What”, John Coltrane’s “Impressions” and Herbie Hancock’s “Maiden Voyage”. These recordings would eventually lead to the formation of Davis’ second great quintet, which included saxophonist Wayne Shorter and pianist Herbie Hancock, recorded a series of highly acclaimed albums in the mid-to-late 1960s.
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From Broadway To 52nd Street
Our journey from Broadway to 52nd Street continues with Kismet that opened as a play on December 25, 1911 at the Knickerbocker Theatre and ran for 184 performances. However, it wasn’t until almost 42 years later to the day that it opened on Broadway as a musical on December 3, 1953. Two songs, Stranger In Paradise and Baubles, Bangles & Beads came from the musical composed by Robert Wright and George Forrest to become jazz standards. The musical ran for 583 performances with Ronald Coleman, Marlene Dietrich and Edward Arnold playing the musicals starring roles.
The Story: Haji, a wily beggar and poet is arrested on a minor infraction by the Wazir, who agrees to release him if he kills the Caliph. Hajj’s attempts fail and he is thrown in jail with his old enemy the sheik. He kills the sheik and escapes in his clothing. Learning his daughter is a concubine in the Wazir’s harem, Hajj drowns the Wazir and frees his daughter. The Caliph marries the daughter but by law must banish Hajj. When Hajj returns, the Caliph looks the other way and allows him to beg and recite poetry.
Broadway History: In the 1950s, Broadway musicals were a major part of American popular culture. Every season saw new stage musicals send songs to the top of the charts. Public demand, a booming economy and abundant creative talent kept Broadway hopping. To this day, the shows of the 1950s form the core of the musical theatre repertory. The best of these musicals integrated every element, offering recognizable characters singing in stories told with wit and genuine heart – in short, they applied the Rodgers & Hammerstein formula. The two songwriters were international celebrities, so the media treated each new Rodgers & Hammerstein stage show as a major event.
Oscar Hammerstein II died due to stomach cancer a few months after The Sound of Music opened, ending a career that spanned the golden age of musical theatre and film. After working with the innovative Jerome Kern Jerome and operetta master Sigmund Romberg, he did his finest work with Rodgers, and later coached young Stephen Sondheim. More than any other individual, Hammerstein had turned the once-innocuous Broadway musical into a potent dramatic form, and had turned lyrics into essential dramatic tools. He did it by being a superb storyteller and a dedicated craftsman. Even when dealing with serious issues, he always kept his focus on intriguing characters caught in remarkable situations.
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