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Get Happy: Finding inspiration...

5/14/2019

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Inspiration. It can come from anywhere. In the case of one of the dance numbers, it came from an old picture of men standing in line hoping to get hired during the Great Depression. 

Jitterbug! opens with the dancical's hero Billy Rhythm returning to Harlem during that spirit-killing time after failing to make it on the TOBA* circuit, the black entertainer's vaudeville. And for years he just crossed 7th Ave to stop by the clubhouse of his gang, the Jolly Fellows.

But it wasn't until seeing this picture that I got the idea to add a song and dance number. Finding the song was easy.
Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler, two nice 20-something Jewish songwriters, were already in the script because they had been hired by the mobster owners of the Cotton Club (also in the play) to write a new show for them.  At that time Arlen and Koehler had a national hit called "Get Happy," which was like an unofficial anthem for the Great Depression, promising "a land where the weary forever are free..."

Now when Billy crosses that street-- once known as the "Boulevard of Dreams"-- he sees an unemployment line of gray sad faced men holding onto a rope that keeps them from spilling out onto the sidewalk and a
lthough there may be music and dancing in the streets when the curtain rises, the audience is quickly reminded of the tough economic times with the perfect song.

And, since this is a "dancical," the men in line use the rope as a ballet barre, holding onto it with one hand while "trucking" with the other as they "plié, rise, kick-out, and lock step forward while the LIGHTS SLOWLY DROP on them until they disappear in the shadows." 
 

And since this is also "musical realism," the music filters into the theater from a radio sitting on a tenement window. Ella Fitzgerald is singing this later truncated version that's just long enough to get Billy across the street.

​On stage, this growing separation between the hopeless men in line and Billy is a metaphor symbolizing his indomitable spirit, propelled by his dancing away from despair toward hope which is found on the other side of the stage, the sunny side of the street, if you will, just behind the legendary "Tree of Hope."

*Theater Owners Booking Association
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Norma Miller, dead at 99

5/7/2019

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"Norma Miller, who danced the Lindy Hop on Harlem sidewalks as a child, and as a teenager dazzled crowds on international tours in the 1930s and early ′40s doing the same kicks, spins and drops that had made it a Jazz Age jitterbug craze, died on Sunday at her home in Fort Myers, Fla. She was 99."

She truly was "something else" and was our last touchstone with the original Lindy Hoppers. Blessed with an indefatigable spirit, sharp wit, athleticism-- and courage, too when you're talking about allowing yourself to be launched into space while doing the jitterbug-- she will be sorely missed.  

The New York Times did a fine job with her obituary and is well- worth a read. Just click her name above. 
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The Jazz of Physics: The Secret Link Between Music and the Structure of the Universe

5/6/2019

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Stephon Alexander
PictureJohn Coltrane
"More than fifty years ago, John Coltrane drew the twelve musical notes in a circle and connected them by straight lines, forming a five-pointed star. Inspired by Einstein, Coltrane put physics and geometry at the core of his music. 

Physicist and jazz musician Stephon Alexander follows suit, using jazz to answer physics' most vexing questions about the past and future of the universe. Following the great minds that first drew the links between music and physics- a list including Pythagoras, Kepler, Newton, Einstein, and Rakim- The Jazz of Physics reveals that the ancient poetic idea of the Music of the Spheres," taken seriously, clarifies confounding issues in physics."

You can watch Alexander explain what Coltrane came up and find other videos with him explaining the connection of jazz and hip hop with science here. 

All of this reminds us of our post about the Cotton Club being the Center of the Jazz Universe. 

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    DC Copeland

    Multi-hyphenate with a penchant for writing.

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