Jazz Notes

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If you're a lover of Jazz, you're in good company.

Following the success of our last production The Hip Gringo's Guide to Rio where my ensemble and I immersed ourselves in the music of the Bossa Nova era , we have produced a 1929
Radio Play Jazz Cabaret production titled Tramp Steamer Tramp.

TRAMP STEAMER TRAMP

A Jazz Cabaret Radio Play in Two Acts

 By David Baker and Chris Gill

 

Tramp Steamer Tramp

David Baker has written, musically directed and performed in five Jazz Cabaret Radio Play Productions. Funny Valentine,(a biography of composers Rodgers and Hart) and, The Speakeasy, (a tribute to the music and times of Fats Waller), were both performed at Newcastle’s Royal Exchange in 2007. The third of Baker’s cabarets, The Medusa Kiss, was commissioned and performed for the Broke Music Festival, 31^st October 2008, and performed in an extended season at The Royal Exchange, Newcastle, and Lizotte’s, Kincumber, in 2009. (Nominated for a CONDA best actress award). In October, 2012, the fourth of David Baker’s Cabarets, The Hip Gringos Guide To Rio, was presented at The Royal Exchange, Newcastle. A hilarious two act jazz cabaret disguised as a live to air, 1979 radio play, The Hip Gringos Guide To Rio recorded the tangled amorous and other adventures of Romeo Edwards, freelance travel writer, as he researches The Hip Gringo’s Guide To Rio, attempting to discover the lost era of the Bossa Nova (1956 to1963) in the decadent and dangerous Rio of 1979. (Nominated for a CONDA best production award.)

The fifth and latest production has been written in collaboration with musician, Chris Gill. This production is a 1937 spy/adventure radio play cabaret titled, Tramp Steamer Tramp.

 

Tramp Steamer Tramp is an hilarious 90 minute radio play jazz cabaret, a riotous assemblage of clichés from 1930’s and 40’s B grade romantic adventure, film noir and road movies, set in exotic locations. Tramp Steamer Tramp is inhabited by a variety of characters in conflict and is punctuated with rapid one liner insults where no character is spared. The cabaret takes place in a 1937 radio play theatrette where a radio play set on board a dilapidated Tramp Steamer called The Shanghai Princess, is performed. The audience may optionally dress in 1930’s attire to contribute to the decadent ambience.

Despite its comedic emphasis, some very clear parallels may be drawn with contemporary events including the aftermath of the World Financial Crisis and the plight of the dispossessed who attempt to escape in leaky boats.

 

 The music consists of vintage jazz from 1910 to late 1930’s swing. It includes Creole Love Call, Singing in the Bathtub, At The Cod Fish Ball, Dinah, Oh, By Jingo, Make My Cot Where The Cot-Cot-Cotton Grows, Persian Rug, It’s Only A Paper Moon, Your Feet’s Too Big, Shine, Limehouse Blues, Bei Mir Bist Du Schon, Slow Boat To China, Besame Mucho, Hindustan, You Stepped Out of A Dream, The Nearness Of You, and It Could Happen To You. All are played with their usual vitality by The Smokin’ Chops Jazz Quartet’s, Manny Serrano on trumpet and flute, Marcus Holdsworth on double bass, sousaphone and trombone, Chris Gill on saxophones, clarinet and percussion, and David Baker on guitar and banjo. The musicians play all the male characters in the cabaret. Chris Gill, in particular, risks multiple personality disorder by playing four different characters with four different accents.

Our special guest playing the part of Camille Crevette, a mysterious French spy, is two times ABC 1233 Music Award winning singer/song writer, Anousha Victoire.

 

Tramp Steamer Tramp will be performed at The Royal Exchange, 32/34 Bolton St, Newcastle, on Saturday 16 February, Friday 22 February, Saturday 23 February and Saturday 2 March, 2013.

Enquiries: David Baker (02) 49715220; Mob 0432626523

                                                dbaker2281@bigpond.com

 Hope to see you at one of the following February and March gigs .


COMING UP:

• Saturday,February 16 :  Opening, Tramp Steamer Tramp, The Royal Exchange,Newcastle
• Friday, 22nd, Saturday 23rd February, Saturday 2nd May:  Season of Tramp Steamer Tramp, Royal Exchange, Newcastle.
• Wednesday 13th February :  Cibo Tapas Bar, Beaumont Street ,Hamilton{with Manny Serrano}