What are jazz stories?
Jazz stories weave together tap dance, original music and written text to tell a narrative tale. The subject matter can range from musicians to periods of jazz history to abstract themes, told through jazz music. The stories can be factual, fictional, wildly imaginary, boldly futuristic or a mix of all these things.
What stories have I told?
TYNER AND TIMMONS TNT (2021)
McCoy Tyner passed away in March of 2020, and in one of his obituaries, there was an evocative story about how he and Bobby Timmons grew up around the corner from each other, and that they both had the same piano teacher, who was Bobby’s uncle. I was totally fascinated by this fact, because the pair of them ended up with wildly different sounds and careers. I decided to use the oral history of Bobby Timmons and McCoy Tyner’s Philadelphia childhoods to create a work about “what brings you here?”What is it that attracts us or leads us to the art forms that become our vital sources of expression? I researched the catalogs of both musicians and interwove the set list with original texts that dug into the meanings of “hear/hear.” It also became a personal story about how I found my way into tap dance. I also enjoyed arranging in other musical sources of inspiration that included Benny Golson, Chick Corea, John Coltrane and Fred Spielman. This piece premiered on two live-broadcasts by PhillyCAM in April of 2021.
TROUBLE THE WATER (2022)
In 2022, Homer Jackson commissioned me to create a work for presentation at the “POOL” exhibit at Fairmount Waterworks, with the specific request to utilize two thematic spirituals, Wade in the Water and Deep River, in the final piece. Considering so many elements: venue, history, presenter requests, artist strengths, current social context and audience pathways, I wrote a jazz story about three people: a refugee, a domestic abuse survivor and a child who couldn’t swim, and their varying escapes through water to places of revolutionary rest. The piece included my original ‘psalms,’ verse text, compositions and choreography, all of which moved in and out of two pools. The instrumentation included piano, bass, tap shoes, tarima and two large water bins, used as instruments, so that the artists could step inside and create water sounds with our feet, play with the sounds of gathering water with our hands, and pour water from vessels to create additional rhythms. The completion of this work encouraged me to go 'wild': include all of my artistic inclinations, across writing, history, music composition, arranging and choreography, into my finished works. The audience and the presenters shared that they felt the power of the three stories I aimed to tell, and that the music, movement and text evoked deep feelings of shared community and experience. I felt a new sense of achievement, in that I was able to draw together aspects of Philadelphia history and use tap dance as the medium. This piece premiered as a part of the POOL Exhibit at Fairmount Waterworks and was presented by Habitheque, the PJP and the Philadelphia Water Department. 2022 Fringie Award winner!
TERRY POLLARD: A JAZZ EPISTOLARY (2023)
In 2023, I received a commission from Creative Philadelphia to make a new piece for Philly’s Jazz Appreciation Month celebration. Since the theme was centered on women in jazz, I decided to tackle the story of Terry Pollard. As I researched Terry, I also researched the stories of Charlie Parker, Hazel Scott and Bunny Briggs, who all have ancillary parts in the story. This is a piece about bebop, influence, how opportunity knocks across genders, the jazz and tap dance scene in the 1950s, communication, what’s said and unsaid, and really, nothing new. While I can only imagine how much Terry had to persevere as a black female jazz musician and mom in the 1950s, the experience of surviving in the competitive forum of jazz music and art-making, alongside the experience of bearing children, having that divided body experience of needing to be at home when one’s work demands you be seen, out, at all hours, and taking care of a family while making one’s art, in any male-dominated field, hasn’t changed much. Terry Pollard’s story is just one of countless untold jazz stories, scattered like obelisks, where a woman’s prodigious lifetime contributions are simply described in one or two words: “overlooked,” ”unappreciated,” or “underrated.” This piece premiered in April 2023 and was re-mounted for the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. 2023 Fringie Award for Best Music Performance!