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SMITHSONIAN'S "JAZZ AGE IN PARIS" EXHIBITION MAKES ONLY CALIFORNIA STOP IN EAST BAY
Entitled The Jazz Age in Paris: 1914-1940, the exhibition opens September 21, 2000, at the Library, 100 Montgomery Street, San Ramon, and remains on view through November 2. This is the exhibition's only California stop in a two-year, 28-city tour. Hours are 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 1-5 p.m. Sunday. Entrance to the exhibit is free.
In conjunction with the exhibit, the Library will showcase writings from the era--including works by such Jazz Age authors as Langston Hughes, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Zora Neale Hurston, Dorothy Parker, W.E.B. DuBois and Ernest Hemingway --along with jazz recordings from its growing collection and other period pieces. It is also scheduling numerous jazz performances featuring legendary Bay Area jazz musicians, musician-led school assemblies, period films, and lectures.
Funds raised by performances will go to music scholarships for high school students and to expanding the library's collection of jazz materials. The collection currently stands at 2,000 CDs, 60 audiocasettes of material not available on CD, more than 600 videos, and 50 books.
With graphics and backgrounds evocative of the period, the 10 multi-panel kiosks showcase nearly 100 images, including portraits and candid photographs, posters, programs, and other printed memorabilia supplemented by quotations and writings from the period and an original half-hour video.
Through art and artifact, the exhibition examines Europe's early jazz movement, its close relationship to the development of jazz in the United States, and the American artists, writers and musicians who lived in Paris at the time.
This examination of post-World War I Europe, particularly Paris, also offers a unique perspective on American culture of the period -- a complex mixture of racial repression, movements toward equality of women and post-war adjustments. Thus, it captures the essence of a unique musical, artistic and intellectual period on both sides of the Atlantic.
Part of a 10-year series titled “America's Jazz Heritage," undertaken by the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund and the Smithsonian Institution, the traveling exhibit is based on a stationary exhibition of the same name previously displayed at the Center for African American History and Culture at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.
The Jazz Age in Paris, 1914-1940 has been made possible through the generous support of Nissan North America and is a presentation of America's Jazz Heritage, A Partnership of the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund and the Smithsonian Institution. Its San Ramon appearance is underwritten locally by Chevron Corp., with promotional assistance donated by The San Ramon Valley Times.
EXHIBITION: The nationally touring 1,000+ square foot Smithsonian exhibition, “The Jazz Age in Paris: 1914-1940," will make its only California stop at San Ramon Library, 100 Montgomery Street (Marketplace Center, Bollinger Canyon Road) in San Ramon, California September 21-November 2, 2000.
The exhibition features Josephine Baker, James Reese Europe, Django Reinhardt and his Quintette du Hot Club de France, Clarinetist Sidney Bechet, Bricktop, Louis Cole, Jimmy Donahue, Mabel Mercer, Alberta Hunter and other stars of La Coupole, Casino de Paris, Le Grand Duc, Place Pigalle, and more.
Through an original video, period photos and other materials, the exhibition explores post-World War I Europe, particularly Paris, and offers a perspective on the period in Europe and America and the era's unique musical, artistic and intellectual environment on both sides of the Atlantic. The portable panel exhibition features 10 free-standing kiosks and is based on an exhibition of the same name on display at the Center for African American History and Culture at the Smithsonian. It is part of a 10-year series titled “America's Jazz Heritage," undertaken by the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund and the Smithsonian Institution.
The 18-minute original video features vintage film clips, interviews with performers who worked in Paris during this time, information about the French jazz movement and music of the period by James Reese Europe, Sidney Bechet, Josephine Baker and others.
PERFORMANCES (also see http://www.sanramonjazzlibrary.org.): Tickets for all performances go on sale July 15. They may be purchased by phone at 925 973-2853. Here's the lineup:
SATURDAY CONCERTS
September 23 -- Grand Opening Gala benefit features Berkeley Jazzschool instructor and performer Dmitri Matheny and a lineup of his star pupils and fellow faculty playing dance tunes and jazz standards from World War I to the present. Proceeds benefit the Jazzschool program as well as the Library's seminal jazz collection. The performances begin at 8 p.m. in the San Ramon Library; tickets are $25.
October 28 -- Since its 1994 premier at the Monterey Dixieland Festival, “To Bessie With Love: A Bio-Musical Tribute to Bessie Smith, Empress of the Blues" has entranced audiences coast to coast. It stars Pat Yankee, who took this year's Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award as best female performer in a musical, and her Gentlemen of Jazz. Written, directed and narrated by Frank E. Reilly of San Francisco, the 90-minute show incorporates music augmented by 40 slides in computer generated frames, depicting the times and life of Bessie Smith. The tribute contains 24 arrangements from the Blues period to the Jazz Age and into the beginning of the Swing Era, just prior to Smith's tragic death in 1937 at the age of 43. The show will be performed twice -- the Saturday, October 28, performance is at 8 p.m. at PG&E Learning Center, 3801 Crow Canyon Road, San Ramon; a Sunday, October 29, matinee is at 2 p.m. at the PG&E Center. Tickets are $35/$25 seniors, students for Saturday, $25/$15 seniors, students for Sunday matinee.
LIBRARY JAZZ CLUB -- FRIDAY NIGHTS AT 8 P.M. All performances are at 8p.m. at San Ramon Library (unless otherwise noted), 100 Montgomery Street, in the Marketplace Center, Bollinger Canyon Rd. Tickets cost $15/$10 seniors, students and are available at San Ramon Library.
September 29 -- A former singer with Louis Armstrong, who gave the singer her first professional break, the Voice of KJAZ, and a popular nationally-touring Bay Area blues/jazz vocalist, Denise Perrier and her rhythm section deliver a program of Jazz Age standards and Bessie Smith hits marked by authenticity and intelligence. Calling her the “Grande Dame of Bay Area club singers," San Francisco Examiner jazz critic Phil Elwood says Perrier “sings with a soft intimacy but can belt out a Bessie Smith blues lyric."
October 6 -- Ragtime pianist, composer and scholar Trebor Tichenor and his ragtime pianist daughter Virginia Tichenor, with Marty Eggers on bass, perform solo and two-piano numbers, as well as do a little gentle teaching on the subject of ragtime via an accompanying slide show.
October 13 -- Patterned after the Jean-Baptiste “Django" Reinhardt “gypsy jazz band" of the '30s, The Quintet of the Hot Club of San Francisco will perform Reinhardt-era dance favorites using the unique collection of instruments favored by Reinhardt himself. The quintet features lead guitarist and bandleader Paul Mehling, rhythm guitarists Ned Boynton and Paul Robinson, violinist Julian Smedley, and bassist Evan Dain.
October 20 -- At The Blackhawk Museum, 3700 Blackhawk Plaza Circle, Danville, the Jazz Club features dancing to big band music amid the unique cars on display. Featured band to be announced.
October 27 -- The Devil Mountain Jazz Band, featuring Dixieland and other classic jazz sounds, has been performing since 1982. Their revival of the masters of the “Golden Age of Jazz" has played to sold-out venues across the United States, Mexico and Japan. Featured musicians are Ken Keeler as bandleader and on banjo, Jean Keeler on piano, Allan Grissette on drums, Keith Baltz on tuba, Pete Main on clarinet and sax, Jim Maihack on trombone, Noel Weidkamp on coronet and sax, and Andrew Storar on cornet.
SWINGIN' SUNDAYS All performances will be from 4-7 p.m. and are open to people of all ages. Admission is $8/$5 seniors, students.
October 1 -- TBD October 8 - The San Ramon Senior Center, 9300 Alcosta Boulevard, will be the jazz center for today. Performing 1-2 p.m. is Lois Flood with the Diablo Dance Theater & Company presenting the historic dances of Isadora Duncan, an innovator in modern dance. From 4-7 p.m. a tea dance will feature the San Ramon Valley High School Jazz Band. Everyone is invited to swing to the youthful beat. Tea Dance will be preceded by a two-hour swing dance lesson (2-4 pm). For information about the class contact the Senior Center at 925-973-3250.
October 15 -- Tea dance (4-7 p.m.) at the San Ramon Community Center, 12501 Alcosta Boulevard with the San Ramon Jazz Ensemble plus a half-hour demonstration of period dances and dance instruction by the San Ramon Valley Dance Academy. Dances include the Lindy, Charleston, and other World War II dances.
October 29 - 2 p.m. matinee performance of “To Bessie with Love “ (see above, Saturday, October 28).
JAZZ AGE FILM SERIES Featuring period films, including masterpieces unseen for decades, this series occurs at the Library at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday evenings. The exhibit will be open to attendees after the films. Admission is $5. Tickets will be available at the door.
October 3 --The Josephine Baker Story (1991) provides a reference point from which to begin an appreciation of Baker's life and that of so many other performers who fled to Paris because they were faced with unrelenting racism in America. Josephine Baker is shown as an incredible entertainer and her life is artfully displayed from her turbulent rise to fame to her rocky downfall.
October 10 -- Men of Bronze: The Black American Heroes of World War I (1977), long out-of-print but recently revived, is the definitive story of the black American soldiers of the 369th combat regiment, known as the “Harlem Hellfighters," who served with the French army in World War I. Not only did the 369th spend more time in front-line trenches than any other American infantry unit, they also distinguished themselves in some of the fiercest battles of the Great War AND formed a jazz band. Under the direction of Edward Reese Europe, they performed throughout Europe at the front, on the march, at hospitals, in Paris concert halls and elsewhere.
October 17 -- The International Sweethearts of Rhythm (1986) tells the story of this multiracial, all-women's jazz band of the 1940's, blending oral history interviews with surviving band members with archival footage, musical performances, photos and memorabilia. In this award-winning film, directors Andrea Weiss and Greta Schiller record the obvious pleasure the women took in their work in spite of the routine sexism and racism they encountered. The sequel produced by the same directors, Tiny and Ruby: Hell Divin' Women (1988), profiles the legendary jazz trumpeter Ernestine 'Tiny' Davis and her companion of over forty years, drummer Ruby Lucas. The film includes color interviews with Tiny and Ruby in their Chicago home, archival materials, lively musical performances, an evocative narration by poet Cheryl Clarke, and an impromptu jam session showing the vim and vitality if these two aging but still active musicians.
October 24 -- A Great Day in Harlem (1995), an Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary, presents an extraordinary cross-section of jazz greats. Producer Jean Bach chronicles Art Kane's idea to produce a group shot of “everyone" in the jazz world at 10 am one summer morning in Harlem. Rare, never-before-seen home movie footage of the jazz stars arriving and greeting each other the morning of the shoot, conversations with jazz greats and archival performance footage are carefully integrated throughout this film. Dizzy Gillespie's appearance included some of his last spoken words on camera and Ms. Bach tried to get the details of a fabled bit of jazz history cleared up. But Dizzy held back and the incomplete story was dropped from the final cut.
The Spitball Story (1997), also produced by Jean Bach, is the outcome of further research into the spitball mystery, an event that plays a part in the beginning of bebop. Dizzy Gillespie, Milt Hinton, Jonah Jones and Cab Calloway were all involved and talk about this incident, which led Cab Calloway to toss Dizzy out of his ensemble one night in 1941. The conflict was as layered as the spitwad, its core a disagreement about jazz.
THE JAZZ AGE IN PARIS - LECTURE SERIES All lectures take place at San Ramon Library at 7:30 pm. The exhibit will be open to attendees after the films. Admission is $8/$5 seniors and students. Tickets will be available at the door.
Wednesday, September 27 -- Grover Sales: The Big Bands As critic, producer, publicist and lecturer since the 1950's, Grover Sales has represented many of the jazz immortals, including Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans, John Coltrane and Charles Mingus. Mr. Sales received a Grammy Nomination for his liner essay for the Amadeus Original Cast album, has published extensively in many national magazines, and was music, film and theater critic for the award-winning Newsroom on KQED-TV. He is currently Lecturer in Jazz Studies at Stanford, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the Berkeley Jazzschool and Elderhostel. His book, Jazz: America's Classical Music, is widely used as a college text nationally.
Wednesday, October 4 -- Philip Elwood: American Jazzman in Paris Phil Elwood, longtime San Francisco Examiner jazz critic, is a well-respected lecturer on the history of music, especially jazz. His collection of phonograph records chronicles the history of jazz and his knowledge of this genre is a valuable resource. His insights into the musicians of this genre and their music are fascinating and help paint a complete picture for jazz lovers.
Wednesday, October 11 - Dr. Chris Nelson: The Legacy of the Paris Jazz Age on Modern Jazz Dr. Nelson, emeritus professor of music at Diablo Valley College, initiated a jazz studies program at DVC in 1971, which has become one of the largest jazz history programs in the country. During the past eighteen years, over 10,000 students have gone through this program. He currently organizes and teaches a summer jazz program with the Fujitsu Concord Jazz Festival at the Chronicle Pavilion in Concord.
Wednesday, October 18 -- Dr. Tyler Stovall: Harlem Comes to Montmartre In his book Paris Noir: African Americans in the City of Light, Stovall has given readers the first book which provides a documentary history of black expatriates in Paris, presenting fascinating detail and insights into a 'color blind society' in which blacks and whites live together in relative harmony. Beginning with African American soldiers in Paris during World War I and progressing to African Americans in Paris today, he discusses each decade and its black literary figures, entertainers, musicians, academics, scientists and businessmen who found new lives in Paris. Dr. Stovall chairs the Department of History at UC Santa Cruz, is Provost of Stevenson College, and is currently working on a history of race in France.
FAMILY PROGRAMS These programs are for all ages and will be held at San Ramon Library. All are free.
Wednesday, September 27 - The Different Drums Percussion Group brings the exciting sounds of percussion music to the library on Wednesday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. Four talented musicians-Jim Munzenrider, Tommy Kesecker, Curt Moore and Spencer Chan-share experience ranging from symphony orchestras to rock, jazz and Latin groups. They take their audience on a musical tour using instruments from around the world and African drum rhythms, Caribbean steel drum tunes, movie themes, and the electronic sounds of contemporary Pop music.
Wednesday, October 18 - Jazz in Words and Music Alan Schroeder, children's author, and Guido Fazio, musician combine to present a unique program. Alan Schroeder, the award-winning author of several picture books about the childhood of jazz entertainers, is a lifelong admirer of Louis Armstrong, the subject of his book Satchmo's Blues. Josephine Baker's childhood, the subject of Ragtime Tumpie, brings to life one of the most colorful periods in American history and the vivacious ragtime music of St. Louis. Guido Fazio, who has taught and played professionally for 25 years in classical, contemporary, jazz, Latin and many other styles, is best known for his mastery of the sax, flute, saxophone, and clarinet. His music will combine with the language of Alan Schroeder for an unusual program.
Saturday, October 28 -- This Saturday afternoon program at 3 p.m. will involve the entire family in Listen - Play - Sing - Dance with the Gail Dobson Band. Vocalist Gail Dobson with Tim Volpicella on guitar, Stan Poplin on bass, Renata Bratt on cello, Smith Dobson, Jr. on vibraphone, Peppe Merolla on drums and Lisa Hubbard, a professional dancer, present a short concert and then help children choose instruments and perform with the band. Their love of music is contagious and an exciting exchange will happen between the band and the audience.
For more information contact All About Jazz.
