The Jazz Repertory Company
The Musical Revolution Is Older Than You Think - Authentic Live Recreations Of The Greatest Music In Jazz History
Jazz In New York: The 1930s
The Hit Classic Jazz Show That Sold Out London's Cadogan Hall
In 1930s New York jazz was the pop of its day and the music emanating from Manhattan’s radio stations, night clubs, bars and dance halls was at its most swinging and exciting.
We begin in 1937 with music from The Madhattan Room at Midtown’s Hotel Pennsylvania where Chicagoan Benny Goodman, The King of Swing, is resident. Benny’s effervescent playing is captured perfectly by German clarinet star Matthias Seuffert. From here, a cab ride to Greenwich Village and Nick’s Club where Eddie Condon and his band are cooking up a storm with their freewheeling Chicago jazz style. (See the video below for our version of Eddie Condon’s My Honey’s Lovin’ Arms)
Keeping with our Chicagoans in New York theme we then feature our very own Chicago Chanteuse, Joan Viskant, paying tribute to the great singers Lee Wiley and Mildred Bailey. The first set finishes with the music of Harlem’s ‘Cheerful Little Earful’: Fats Waller. Keith Nichols performs some of the most well-loved Fats compositions such as Your Feet’s Too Big and The Joint is Jumpin’.
Vibraphone virtuoso Anthony Kerr kicks off the second set performing as Lionel Hampton and taking us to New York’s RCA Victor studios in 1938 where Hamp’s dizzying small band sessions included some of the top New York jazzmen of the day such as Benny Carter and Harry James.
One of the most popular female singers in jazz history, Billie Holiday is celebrated by Julia Biel who captures Billie’s sound and style perfectly in a set featuring some of the marvellous recordings she made with Teddy Wilson and Lester Young.
Pianist Martin Litton takes on the role of Duke Ellington and we’re back in the RCA studios with Duke’s small band starring such luminaries as Johnny Hodges and Cootie Williams.
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The concert finishes with a tribute to the biggest name in jazz, Louis Armstrong (played by maestro Enrico Tomasso reprising his role as the great ‘Satchmo’). In 1938 Louis was joined by Fats Waller, Bud Freeman, Jack Teagarden and a hotter-than-hot rhythm section on a Saturday Night in Harlem session on radio station WNEW. The wonderful music that ensued makes for a fitting climax to this round-up of jazz in 1930’s New York.
