Performers
- Chopin University Big Band
- Piotr Kostrzewa band leader, artistic direction
Programme
John Kander Hot Honey Rag from the musical Chicago [4’]
Sammy Nestico The Queen Bee [5’]
Irving Mills St. James Infirmary [5’]
Henryk Kuźniak Ragtime from the film Vabank [4’]
Glenn Miller Pennsylvania 6-5000 [4’]
Louis Prima Sing, Sing, Sing [4’]
Cole Porter/Artie Shaw Begin the Beguine [4’]
Billy Strayhorn/Duke Ellington Take the “A” Train [3’]
Cole Porter Love for Sale from the musical The New Yorkers [5’]
Andy Weiner Cruisin’ for a Bluesin’ [7’]
Concert description
It’s time to kick back and let the juicy sounds of the big band carry you away! It’s time to move nearly a hundred years back to American stuffy movie theaters and pubs filled with freedom, shouting and cigarette smoke. Recorded in sounds, however, the beginnings of jazz and blues are not only fantastic rhythms and original harmonies, but also a piece of history. It’s the traditional spiritual When the Saints Go Marchin’ In, now classic jazz standards like the longing farewell to his beloved at St. James Infirmary, which was intoned by Louis Armstrong in the 1920s, as well as an anthem in honor of the newly established 1936 railroad connecting Brooklyn to Manhattan (Take the “A” Train). The atmosphere of New York’s bustling Café Rouge (Pennsylvania 6-5000) and swing dancing (Sing, Sing, Sing), for which the American youth of the 1930s and 1940s went crazy, survives in music.
Jazz instantly captured the Broadway stage and cinema market – the title song from the musical Lady, Be Good!, in which poor siblings fight for love and dreams, became a hit shortly after its release in 1924. But this genre of music has also worked well in productions that are far from a romantic vision of the world. Among them will be Hot Honey Rag, the final “duet of murderesses” – the heroines of the famous musical Chicago – and the song of the prostitute Love for Sale, which contributed to the initial controversy surrounding The New Yorkers musical.
– Karolina Dąbek (pisanezesluchu.pl)