DanceMetros

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Joan Myers Brown, Jowale Zollar, Philadanco, Rennie Harris, Ulysses Dove

ph~Julieanne Harris

Philadanco’s Spring Dances thrill

Joan Myers Brown always brings something new for her annual spring dance season at the Kimmel Center Cultural Campus. Philadanco returned to live performances last fall with ‘Fast Forward’ a program of premiere works that was in celebration of the company’s 50th Anniversary year but was postponed due to the pandemic.

 Last week Philadanco hit the Perelman Theater stage with retooled ballets by choreographers Ray Mercer, Jowale Willa Ja Zollar, Ulysses Dove, and Rennie Harris in a program called  ‘RE (RE-vived and Archived, RE-visted and RE-constructed ballets, four of Brown’s favorite ballets from ‘Danco’s vault of over 200 repertory works.

And this program was packed with ‘Danco signature styles that showcased the range of its current roster of 12 dancers and back for this high-octane bill that included guest artist alums Lamar Baylor, Adryan Moorefield, and Courtney Robinson.

A tall table is center stage for Ray Mercer’s ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner’ so tall and wide that the cast of eight dancers fly over-under-sideways-down it with fearless speed and accuracy in Mercer serves up a simmering dance drama of narratives about relationships, conflicts, crisis, romance, breakups

Some of the duets have the flash of show-dance couplings, but dazzlingly fueled with daredevil balletics. The lighting design of sudden fade outs and half-spots adds to the effects of the duets as the dancers flash through a series of dramatic antagonistic scenes. In contrast Mikaela Fenton’s dances, a solo under the table that is full of mystery and anguish.

Next, Jowale Zollar’s‘The Walkin,’ Talkin,’ Signifying Blues Hips, Sacred Hips, Lowdown, Throwdown‘

The title says it all and the dancers illustrate the details with Zollar’s sensual, deep dive into Afro-Caribbean vernaculars. set to a raucous mix of original music by Zollar and Percussion virtuoso Junior ‘Gabu’ Wedderburn.

The first scene, BattyMoves, (means butt) and danced by soloist Kaylah Arielle with wry, sexy flair and expression of the body as manifest power. Then the slow, breezy processional with dancers Leslie Bunkley, Mikaela Fenton, Drani Pinnix, Brittany Wright in a sensual and lyrical line as they float over the stage in a choreographic character study of feminine mystique titled ‘Soon Come’

Then ‘Up in Here’ a wily funk rap workout instructional to cue ‘attitude walks, power twerks, solidarity in the body beautiful power to the nth degree. The fabulous costume designs by Terri Shockley in a Jamaican couture. The finale section a mix of Africanist movement and explosive modern expressions. Joan Myers Brown making a star appearance with some sage elegance steps all her own. This audience wild with cheers and applause the whole time.

Choreographer Ulysses Dove was a Cunningham and Ailey dancer in the 60s, and after an injury that side-lined him while AAADT was on tour, Ailey asked him to choreograph a work on Ailey’s junior company. Dove was a choreographic student at Juilliard, but never aspired to be a choreographer. Dove went on to choreograph major works for AAADT, ABT, NYCB and top international companies including, Royal Swedish Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, et.al. Dove’s concepts and technical approach is still revealing his singular choreographic voice, in terms of classical modernist idioms and liberating interpretive artistry. Dove died of AIDS complications  died of AIDS in 1996. ‘Bad Blood’ is a modern classic.

Jameel Hendricks dances the arresting opening solo to ‘Bad Blood’ that states many of the movement themes. The dancers in white unitards to accentuate Dove’s distinct innovations in a series of sculptural duets that freeze in moments, sometime in mid-trajectory. Dove’s signature tight mach-speed turn variations, geometric port de bra that speaks volumes and explosive leaps for the men and women.

Dynamic lighting design by ”’ in tantem with 80s altnoir music by Peter Gabriel and Laura Anderson. Dove’s choreography stage composition haunts. He plays with time, space, and potent stage composition. The audience responded with applause at the dancers supple precision. Among the standouts Janine Beckles and Adryan Moorefield in a central duet completely embodied the dynamic lyricism in Dove’s powerful balletics.

Rennie Harris choreographed ‘Wake Up’ in 2014 and after watching the rehearsals in Philadanco’s studiosfor this revival, he saw immediately how it should be revived. It was already one of his PureMovement works with self-defining messages of what hip-hop is aesthetically and what the idioms represent culturally.

For ‘RE’ he wanted to impart its original energy on new dancers “refine it a little bit. He saw spots where he could make it more urban contemporary from just 10 years ago. “Use more Afro-beat music, more communal passes.”  ‘

‘Wake Up’ resonates in the wake of the many incidents of police killings of black Americans in recent years. It contains a fiery speech voiceover by MLK.

Laced through music mix by composer Darrin Ross and are voiceover excerpts from a fiery speech by Dr. Martin Luther King and other commentary in reference to the many incidents of the killings of black Americans by law enforcement.

Those civil-rights issues resonate from the first scene as Lamar Baylor is in distress, gasping for breath, he ends up lifeless on the ground as Harris’ ensemble movement ignites the full company in razor sharp unison, hip-hop choreography that heats up to even more complex, but completely fluid streams. Baylor floating in and out of the action, ramping it up. In various scenes Baylor is in slow motion, ghostly and weaving in and out of the dance action.

 In his program note, Harris states, “Wake Up” shows us through the lens of dance that community people relationships in hip hop define itself then this cannot be altered nor controlled.” Harris is credited for the costume ‘concept’ consisting of street clothes that evoke retro black fashions, from 60s jazz club cool to black power Afros of the 70s to yesterday. Harris has a terrific sense of theatrical and historic arc, and the choreography and themes of ‘Wake Up. are relevant as ever.

Jazznights in Philly

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composers, Jazz vocalists, JazzPhilly

(ph: LJW)

Jazz in the Key of Ellison

Verizon Hall, Philadelphia

April 14, 2022

Jazz in the Key of Ellison

Verizon Hall, Philadelphia

April 14, 2022

 ‘Jazz In The Key Of Ellison’ is a concert production conceived in 2016 at the New Jersey Center for the Performing Arts and the Andy Farber Jazz Orchestra is back on tour in Verizon Hall for one night only performance on April 14.

Ralph Ellison’s novel ‘Invisible Man’ confronted mid-20th century racism in the country and remains a groundbreaking novel in the pantheon of social justice literature, which has inspired generations. Ellison also wrote about jazz, its musical importance to American arts, and about its cultural significance for Black America. An accomplished trumpeter himself, Ellison was very much part the jazzworld of Armstrong, Basie, Ellington, Gillespie, Monk, et. al. and the defining genres reflecting the African American diaspora that spoke to people of color and their communities in the US.

The Andy Farber Jazz Orchestra, with vocalists Quiana Lynell, Lizz Wright, and the legendary Nona Hendryx along with actor-singers Andre DeShields, Carl Hancock Rux and Ellison scholar Robert O’Meally performed ‘Jazz in the Key of Ellison‘ structured in two hour long sets for a beautifully conceived concert of music and inspiring words of Ralph Ellison, delivered by the narrators between the numbers.

Here are a few random highlights

Verizon Hall was just a little more half full but those of who were there knew just a few bars into the orchestra’s rendition of Count Basie’s ‘Jumpin’ at the Woodside’ this was going to be a jazz night to remember.

From that dancehall classic, vocalist Quiana Lynell’s interpreted the Fats Waller song ‘ Black & Blue’ made world famous by Louis Armstrong, which vamps the blues lament via Armstrong’s mocking sincerity, as it confronts the face of American racism. Controversial in its time in, it still conjures many disturbing tropes of its era, meanwhile Lynell’s soaring operatic jazz vocal, up and down the scale, laced with scat ala Louis, It is followed by a screening of the historic film of Armstrong performing it at an embassy event in Ghana in 1956.

Later Quiana Lynell drove mighty high & low notes into the stratosphere for Oscar Brown, Jr.’s  ‘Chain Gang’ with trumpeter Randy Brecker picking up the afterburn in a solo and pianist Zack Hyde driving it home in roadhouse slide piano style.

Sauntering onstage in a red lace, bell-bottom ensemble ala her days with LaBelle, Nona Hendryx launched into the Coots/Gillespie 30s standard ‘You Go to My Head. Took the first verse to find her footing, almost speaking the lyrics, but then gave a tour de force vocal like no one else. But it was a house down moment for her smoldering version of Nina Simone’s ‘Mississippi Goddamn.’   Hendryx’s owning Ray Charles’ low down blues belter “I Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town’

Jazz stylist Lizz Wright sang 40s style of big band singers for Ellington’s ‘In a Mellow Tone. Then with pianist Zack Hyde hypnotized with their version of Hoagie Carmichael’s ‘Stardust.’  Wright brings everything in its lyrical magic and vocal control. Randy Brecker solo at the end making it all the more ‘a timeless ‘haunting melody.’ Wright also performed a medley of Fred Parris’s  In the Still of The Night that segues in the Jonny Green/Edward Heyman atmospheric classic ‘ I Cover the Waterfront.’ highlighted by the Jennifer Vincent’s atmospheric solo on double bass.

Deep vocal qualities, and impeccable phrasing all her own, finished out with Brecker’s noirish trumpet solo. Later, Wright is vocally radiant on Mongo Santamaria ‘Afro Blue’ backed by a lushly quiet arrangement (after John Coltrane).

Throughout this concert the Andy Farber Orchestra- Andy Farber on sax, Willie Applewhite (trombone); Courtney Wright (baritone sax); Bruce Williams (altosax) Anthony Hervey (trumpet); Randy Brecker (trumpet); Alvester Garnet (drums); Zack Hyde (piano)

Alto Saxophonist Bruce Williams soulful, solo on Ellington’s ‘Jeep’s Blues’ and its brilliant ascent with Ellington’s majestic jazz crescendos, the musicians make this one a symphonic blues barnburner for the ages.

JazzPhilly

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SanFranciscoJazzCollective

SFJAZZ Collective meets the musical & humanitarian moment at PennLiveArts concert

 On the last leg of their 2022 tour SFJazz Collective swung into Philadelphia on a cold, starry April 3 night and electrified the almost full Penn Arts Live concert in the Annenberg Center’s Zellerbach Theater. It’s Jazz appreciation month and after two years of industry shutdown over these musicians met the musical and humanitarian moment with

Musical director Chris Potter, a multi-reed virtuoso led on soprano & tenor sax, bass clarinet and alto flute. But all the musicians curated session ‘New Works Reflecting the Moment’  the group’s musical response to a world experiencing multiple global crises of pandemic, climate change conflicts abroad and political unrest at home.

Pianist Edward Simon introduced each player, commenting” This is our first tour since the pandemic began,” and added that Philly was “A second home for me…I’m originally from Venezuela, but I went to high school & college here and I have a lot of great memories.”

Instead of focusing on the music from such jazz giants from the past, Simon noted ” this time we were giving the freedom to bring either an original composition or arrangement, as long as it reflects what is happening in the world.”

The session opened with vibraphonist Warren Wolf’s ‘Vicissitudes” opening in an entrancing prelude by Wolf and interplay with pianist Simon. Then the simmering dynamic percussion by t Kendrick Scott’s and Chris Potter’s sinuous tenor sax turning it into a smoldering jazz sinfonia. The first sampling of the famed West Coast jazz milieu is a breezy ensemble virtuosity as tight as it is fluid and freewheeling in the performance moment that continued to entrance this audience for the entire concert.

Some random highlights from this memorable concert

Simon on electric organ framing the blazing harmonics of Saxophonist Etienne Charles and trumpeter David Sanchez, in a jazz-funk intro to Sly Stone’s ‘Stand’ as vocalist Martin Luther McCoy saunters onstage and launches into the vocals. McCoy’s builds it to that famous bridge that is just busted open as a jazz funk comet that took the roof off. The audience roared their approval, some audience members already on their feet dancing before it was over.

Later McCoy vocal interpretation of Edward Simon’s ‘8’46’’ his sobering and somber jazz chamber piece in response to the murder of George Floyd by police on the streets of Minneapolis. Simon’s lyrics laced with anguished upper registers burning through McCoy’s vocal.

Later, the band played an intro with echoes of a familiar tune and then dropped in the lead line of Marvin Gaye’s seminal 60s classic ‘What’s Going On.’ with McCoy straightforward passionate vocal in soaring through the jazz sub streams already built into Gaye’s orchestral harmonics and rhythmic drive.

Both these hits from the late 60s, then and now, are more than pop classics, but manifestos against the backdrop of the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, sexual liberation, and social justice issues that we still have to solve today.

Throughout the concert, the rhythm section of Simon, Kendrick A.D. Scott, and the phenomenal Matt Brewer on double bass and switching up with bass guitar. And equally impressive, aside from their horn virtuosity Charles and Sanchez would also perform on conga and drums joining Kendricks for some meaty improvs.

Potter’s Composition ‘Mutuality’ inspired by lines from Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail’  “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” Potter’s spirited humanity built into the melodies and rhythmic drive wrapped around McCoy’s passionate vocalese.

The SFJazz Collective is a non-profit organization that for 15 years has assembled some of the most accomplished and thrilling jazz musicians from around the world to tour. Each year a new group of musicians celebrate the music of the legends of jazz – Miles, Dizzy, Monk, Silver- just to name a few, in new arrangements. SFJazz Collective keeps this vital repertory alive and has explored every jazz genre and era. And this performance will be remembered as one legendary jazz night in Philadelphia.

Next up~Jazz in the Key of Ellison a concert production about the life and writings of Ralph Ellison who also happened to be an accomplished. And his association with jazz titans of the big band and bebob eras. With vocals by Lizz Wright, Quiana Lynell & the legendary Nona Hendryx in front of the phenomenal Andy Farber Jazz Orchestra. Stay tuned.

BooksBooksBooks

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booksbooksbooks

Watergate | A New History

by Garrett M. Graff

Simon & Shuster

Hardcover; photos; 795 pgs; $35,

Political journalist and historian Garritt Graff acknowledges that there are shelves of books and declassified government documents that chronicle Watergate saga that led to the downfall of Richard Nixon’s presidency. But, 50 years on, Graff debriefs on all of the untold tales of all the president’s men and women in his book ‘Watergate- A New History.

Graff is not only a veteran political reporter for Politico, The Washingtonian, CNN and New York Times he is a researcher who can stylishly weave together the many colliding political capers and dramas that swirled around Nixon with both journalistic and theatrical flair.

The book opens on Richard Nixon’s “last joyful day” in the White House- the day he and Pat hosted his daughter Trisha’s wedding in the White House. But the next day he groused that there was not enough tv coverage, that had it been a Kennedy wedding it would have been covered live on all three networks. The following day the wedding was covered on the front page, with a glittering photo of the event, but next to it ran the first installment of The Pentagon Papers that exposed the disastrous US policies that fueled the war for over a decade that had cost tens of thousands of American lives.

Even though the Pentagon Papers exposed the malfeasance and warmongering hubris of previous administrations, Nixon was obsessed with insider leaks to the press could potentially lead leaks about the first term of his own presidency. And what was being plotted for his second term.

Graff is methodical in his sourcing and granular its detail- both the established facts and disputed ones- newly revealed sourcing and, critically, exculpatory evidence that can now be collated into the voluminous Watergate lore.

 There’s deep background on known and unknown aspects of Watergate and the cast of infamous characters the short list being- Howard Hunt, G. Gordon Liddy- the jailed off burglars being paid off to keep quiet, not to mention the Oval Office cabal of Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell and Dean collaborating with the hard-drinking paranoid, vengeful Nixon.

Graff’s paints a dimensional portrait of a Nixon, the man and politician full of dualities and contradictions, but as he justified his actions and whose less self-destructive side led him to think of himself as the great statesman who had a positive agenda for cleaning up the environment, achieved détente with Russia and China, advocated for cancer research, and even for more women in the male dominated jobs in government. Graff reminds readers of his reasonable political agenda.

The overtures to bug the Watergate was ignited by Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist being surveilled. Nixon had considered J. Edgar Hoover useless to do his bidding. Graff goes into the shady dealings of Nixon’s landslide victory in 1968 dubbed, The Chenault Affair where Nixon’s engaged a society matron to in sabotage the Paris Peace talks until after his 1968 run for the presidency.,

Nixon who was vengeful, petty, insecure, and power greedy. And sabotage political opponents. Graff devotes a chapter early on detailing the Chennault scandal in which Nixon was engaged in clandestine overtures with the South Vietnamese government that would stall the Paris peace talks at the end of the Johnson administration. Johnson knew about it and tried to contain it, when he could have exposed Nixon in what would have, on the face of it been a treasonous offence.

Nixon’s fear of leaks over his impulses to ignore legalities. The formation of the Plumbers, not only to smear Nixon’s enemies, but using methods that were indisputable crimes. Sound familiar?

Graff dissects the events that led up of the break-in at the Watergate. Gives the backstory of the dupes and shady characters recruited by Nixon’s henchmen. The opening chapters dissecting Nixon’s obsessive tactics employed to blackmail, silence, and smear his real or perceived enemies.

Graff delves into fascinating episodes such as Nixon knowing that the aging J. Edgar Hoover was losing his iron grip on the FBI. Mark Felt aka Deep Throat, was Hoover’s heir apparent at the FBI. Or that Nixon and his inner circle figured it out early that he was feeding information to reporters. But Nixon thought it wouldn’t serve them to expose him but strategized how to sideline, and control him, knowing that he was waiting be named director.

John Dean’s image as the President’s lawyer of conscience who’s famous ‘There’s a cancer growing on the presidency’ account to the Ervin committee made him come off as a choirboy, as Graff reveals Dean’s testimony was a performative red herring to the Ervin Committee since he an active participant in the coverup from the start.

Graff tips his hat to the groundbreaking first line reporting by Woodward & Bernstein in cracking open the case, but he also dissects the faults and factual errors in their best-selling All The President’s Men and the blockbuster movie produced by Robert Redford.

And to fill in the areas that dropped off the radar, or were under seal, or hidden until years after Nixon was out of office. New details about the infamous showdown over the Nixon tapes, the Saturday Night Massacre, Executive privilege, Rosemary Woods contortions caused the 18-and-a-half-minute-gap,

At near 800 pages of reveals, Graff uncovers all of the political malfeasants, hubris, smear tactics and dirty tricks that became the Nixon administration’s brand. Watergate | A New History reads like a political primer that anticipated what the Republican party has now become, a secret, cut-throat, undemocratic, petrified institution cast with people who will do or say anything to stay in power.

Nixon’s tragic flaws are still fascinatingly Shakespearean in their complexities, even as his compulsions are the stuff of farce- unfortunately a comedy with tragic consequences for a democracy.

 

Philly Stage

Tags

FrankX, Lantern Theater Company, PhillyStage, Plays&Players, Robert Bolt

A Play for All Seasons

The Lantern Theater Company

A Man For All Seasons by Robert Bolt

Plays & Players Theater, Philadelphia

Through April 10

http://www.lanterntheater.org

The Lantern Theater Company returned to live performances with a gorgeous revival of Robert Bolt’s ‘A Man For All Seasons.’ Peter DeLaurier directs a stellar ensemble cast led by FrankX as Sir Thomas More, the uncompromisable nobleman who navigates the treacherous minefield of the court of Henry VIII.

As good as the 1966 movie starring British star Paul Scofield and directed by Fred Zinnemann remains, many of Bolt’s soliloquies are condensed or cut completely. And it is terrific to hear a full rendering of Bolt’s script on played out on the Lantern stage.

For contemporary classical actors it presents a gallery of rich characters and Bolt’s riveting dialogue cycles DeLaurier’s sharp and sensitive direction illuminates every angle of this brilliant script.

It is not only a thrilling depiction of political hubris, but about ideas conscience in a corrupt world, as timely today as it was in the 60s or the Tudor court of the 1600s,’ in other words, it resonates in this or any other season.

The story unfolds at Thomas More’s estate and the private world he has built for his wife and his daughter, revered by King Henry VIII, but maintaining his political distance from scabrous court intrigue.

When Henry VIII seeks a divorce from Catherine of Spain because she has borne him no son and heir and is now in love with Anne Boleyn who he knows will bear him sons, he orders Cardinal Wolsey to get Sir Thomas More to officially support him.

Cardinal Wolsey summons Sir Thomas in the middle of the night, but his veiled threats are to no avail, as More dances around the arguments and stands on his principals.

Henry then visits More and his family at their estate. He matches wits with Thomas, complimenting and stroking his ego, but gets nowhere, so hurls some veiled threats that More doesn’t take seriously. When Wolsey dies, Henry sicks the ruthless Cromwell to find dirt on More, to charge him with corruption. ON manufactured evidence More loses everything and is jailed.

FrankX gives an electrifying, revelatory performance. It adds to his gallery of consummate performances from Shakespeare to Beckett that make him one of Philly’s most versatile actors of classic repertory.

Jake Blouch’s Henry VIII is full of fire, humor, and mystery and as the awkward journeyman Thomas, humbly courting Lady Margaret. Scott Greer is the ‘Common Man’ portraying multiple subservient roles with cynical swagger. Gregory Isaac also in multiple roles first as the wryly humorless Cardinal Wolsey trying to match wits with More, the as Thomas the awkward suitor to Lady Margaret and as the goateed, furtive diplomat Chapuys jockeying for court power by playing both ends against the political middle.

Bolt gives Lady Alice and Margaret a lot of heavy lifting from the sidelines of much of the dramatic action but Leah Brockman is as Lady Margaret and Elizabeth Scallen as Lady Alice captivate throughout.

Even though Margaret is not groomed to be a court decoration or married off to nobility, More is sternly against her betrothal to Thomas, whose agnosticism More considers heretical, even as he admires the young man’s convictions. Scallen’s Alice is heartbreaking as the wife knows the machinations of the court and what harms it can do her family.

Anthony Lawton is terrific as the snarlingly ambitious Cromwell . Benjamin Brown equally dynamic as More’s earnest compatriot, who tries to save him from being too noble, lest he end up in the tower. .Paul Harrold, in his first role as the court climbing Richard Rich is convincing as the malleable rube who can’t resist overriding his conscience for position.

Bolt’s brilliant script full of drama, tenderness, intrigue, and comedy elements that director Peter DeLaurier balances with tight, illuminating direction.

Lantern’s Fine production team make the most of Plays & Players proscenium theater. The production design by James Pyne, of a two-tiered stairwell gallery, in tandem with Lilly Fosner’s shadowy lighting design conjures gothic atmospherics. Add to that Chris Collucci’s period music adds Tudor noir soundscapes. And Kelly Meyer’s costume design with lush robes, gowns, accoutrement is dazzling court couture.

April = Jazz&Poetry month

Tags

Jazz music, Jazzpoetics, LJW POETRIES, The Music Rooms

Chet plays the Mercury Lounge

from The Music Rooms

Before the rain
Tore off
some baleful heart
in private pictures
Of sordid songs
beats inside my head

the alley footfalls
& other shadows
quit the sounds
in my cornet

a dreamer’s dream

siren of
spent memories
abandon hotels
notes on that shattered
infinity

lost invitations
lipsticks bleeds

onyx cufflink hurled
dogtags crushed

silver flask too far under the bed
with discarded jacks

lovers again yes

blue smoke
faced away

twin nightmares

promises
night sweats
in whispers
through coma

ostinato in 16th notes

dreamsindreams/ofdreamindreams

Driving red ’55 Alfa

your blonde hair &

silver scarf  flowing

around my head
you made me sing ‘Where or When’
you cradle my horn

as sweet as our boy in your arms

you dangle your foot out
your window
dismissing the world/ my toes curl around the gas petal

That sad day becomes nothing

when I pissed you off

dark side of the moon bad

torch song lousy adios bad

You can’t chase down
that scorched hallway
of that empty stage
then escape on lullaby street

hung out

condemned psalms
sexual blue
shadows
seethe
at a fevered pitch
Then he shoots the stars
into that vanquished nirvana

pictures of godless eyes
Of mercury wings
of that skeletal wounded heart
Crouched over burnt notes
on ash, smack, whiskey

honey flowing’

all over the bed
melting my trumpet