More from JazCraft

Life
 
Death
                              
and Jazz

Music, lyrics and book by

G. F. Mlely

Theatrical jazz cabaret

BOOK CURRENTLY IN REWRITE






Synopsis

Cast
 
Demo Vocal Excerpts of the Songs

Status of Production
Attention Producers

Auditions

Contact







SYNOPSIS

 The story so far:

In the early 1980s, a peculiar gig market and Affirmative Action drive a white jazz musician to Europe on the promise of a concert tour being arranged, with unexpected results, including loss of memory from a mugging in Amsterdam, requiring songs to retrieve. 

Producer Inquiries Invited

Contact JazCraft



Back to Top


Cast of Characters and Musicians

and Setting
THE TRIO
THE TRIO consists of a PIANIST [performed by pro jazz pianist perceived as Lennie], DOUBLEBASSIST and PERCUSSIONIST, requiring skilled jazz musicians in the mainstream style, capable of featuring in performance and accompaniment. 

ACTORS
  • LENNIE (American male) [performed by actor perceived as musician] this is Lennie’s story, a White jazz pianist with career challenges that have sent him from New York to San Francisco, and now from Los Angeles to Amsterdam, TN. 
  • *CARRIE (female) journalist with major Amsterdam newspaper, interviews Lennie for article. 
  • MARGARITE Lennie’s wife (soprano), sings play’s signal song (and may also be FEMALE JAZZ SINGER). 
  • *DHL CLERK (female) unintentionally comic.
  • **AFRICAN-AMERICAN MAN expatriot American jazz musician, confronts Lennie about Carrie’s article quoting Lennie’s politically-incorrect criticism (and may also be MALE JAZZ SINGER).
  • *BIMHUIS ASSISTANT (female) Af-Am Man’s girlfriend resents what results of Lennie’s presence in Holland. 
  • **CAB (African male from Ghana) owner of “Cab Kaye’s Jazz Piano Bar,” former Ghanian Minister of Culture under Nkrumah.
  • ***GLENN STONES (African-Surinamese male) musician, provides shelter for Lennie in his fixer-upper of an apartment. 
  • ***KENNETH (African-Surinamese male) lives in Stones’s fixer-upper, vocally anti-White. 
  • *ERIC (Male) editor of “Jazz Nu” major Dutch jazz periodical. 
  • *HUUB (BIMHuis Secretary) books all performers into BIMhuis, Holland’s major concert venue for jazz and improvisational music. 
  • *STAGE MANAGER (male) employed at BIMhuis.
  • *FRITZ (male) music critic/journalist, influential. 
  • *JARON (male) artist agent. 
SPECIAL FEATURES (may be doubled)
FEMALE JAZZ SINGER (any ethnicity) featured jazz scat performer, possibly Margarite.
MALE JAZZ SINGER (any ethnicity) featured jazz scat performer, possibly the African-American Man. 

ETHNICITIES:
*Characters where asterisked are Dutch. 
**Characters where double-asterisked are Black.
***Characters where triple-asterisked are Black Surinamese
Lennie is White. 
Characters not otherwise specified are of any ethnicity. 

“Amsterdam” Cafe CUSTOMERS (4) are drawn from the ENSEMBLE which is drawn from available characters, including the AMERICAN and the *DUTCHMAN. 

Setting is in Los Angeles and, mainly, in Amsterdam, TN.





 


NOTE:
Mp3s often fail using
Mozilla Firefox (Netscape QT)

Demo Vocal Excerpts of the Songs
(not including the Instrumental Opening.
All material protected by submitted copyright
& WGA Registration #1065240)

*
Hands on Keys

Naturally, these are truncated demos, including a couple of the repeated songs which do not give the specific part of the lyric.

Act I


Prologue What A Winter It Was (Instrumental opening that gains a lyric by the end of the  play)

1. 1:25 mp3 file Cafe Elixir
2. 1:11 mp3 file Here We Are
3. 1:24 mp3 file
Everything Provided
4. 0:53 mp3 file Dark Song
5 . 0:42 mp3 file Fat Butterfly
6. 1:35 mp3 file
Spirit In Me
7. 0:39 mp3 file Words We Say
8. 1:15 mp3 file What Is The Purpose Of Art?

Act II

9. 1:04 mp3 file
Village Scene
10. 1:02 mp3 file A Little Night Waltz
11. 1:06 mp3 file
Never Quite Say
12. [1st A] 1:37 mp3 file
It's Not The End
13. 0:58 mp3 file
Mistress Of The Tree
14. 1:11 mp3 file Here We Are (song that returns when only Lennie is able to hear it)
15. [2nd A & Bridge] 1:37 mp3 file
It's Not The End
16. [3rd A] 1:37 mp3 file
It's Not The End
17.
What A Winter It Was (This time with the lyric)
18. 1:04 mp3 file eL Ay ("eL Ay" gets sung in place of "Rio" in the lyric as demo'd)

Everything Provided and It's Not The End reprise the finale.

*






Back to Top


STATUS OF PRODUCTION


ATTENTION PRODUCERS
For Script and demo CD of the music, Contact JazCraft






TO AUDITION
For future productions of this theater piece, contact
William Rocker

projects@jazcraft.net






Contact 
William Rocker at 

jazcraft@jazcraft.net

or write
 
JazCraft
1535 Termino Avenue
Jefferson #1
Long Beach, CA 90804

Back to Top
To JazCraft Contents Page


Grand

This page created with Netscape Navigator Gold