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Fuzzy Music is
offering a Limited Edition CD of the Original
Musical Score for "Side Man." Peter Erskine
scored the production with a jazz quintet. The WDR
Big Band also makes a guest appearance...
"They played not for fame, and certainly not for
money. They played for each other. To swing. To
blow. Night after night, they were just burning
brass. Oblivious."
The Tony Award-winning play, written by Warren
Leight, is set in New York City between the years of
1953 and 1985, and it chronicles the life and
lifestyle of a jazz trumpeter, exploring the
creative forces which drive a musician and binds him
ever closer to his fellow jazzmen while tearing his
own family apart. It's a wonderful play, and the
cast and crew for this productions are all
brilliant. (The cast includes Dennis Christopher and
Mare Winningham.) The interesting thing about this
production is the use of a newly-recorded score (as
opposed to the "needle drop" scoring solution used
in previous productions of the show in New York and
elsewhere), and I was very lucky to get the call
from director Andy Robinson to write the music.
Be-bop lives!
Here are some of the program notes written by Peter
Erskine for the play:
"Side Man" resonates with theatergoers, and it
positively rings a bell for musicians who have read
or seen it. Having been a sideman myself for quite a
few years, enjoying the opportunity of touring with
Stan Kenton's band for 3 years, Maynard Ferguson's
big band for 2 years (I'm talking nonstop touring,
by the way, folks) etc., and having lived the life
of a New York jazz musician for several years before
coming out west, I feel as though I know all of
characters in the play (these musicians on the
stage) very well.
There's a saying in jazz that goes: "Straight ahead
and strive for tone." It's a sort of benediction or
blessing ... good words of advice to the music
knight errant. These are funny men and women in
"Side Man." They are also noble (and tragic, of
course) ... a vital part of the cultural fabric of
this country, these people who gave us so much of
the music with which to chase our own dreams.
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