from the 13in13
production
the
Beginners' Guide to SOLOS a play by Joseph Reed Hayes
With SOLOS, playwright Joseph Reed Hayes introduces audiences to the amazing range of music we call jazz, and a host of players, some famous, some not-so well known but just as important.
This is a guide to the names invoked in the play, and to the dizzying changes that took place from 1939 to our modern-day jazz scene.
Lowndes Shakespeare Center 2013
Michael Sapp; Desiree Perez; Paul Castaneda, director; Brian Groder, composer; Alejandro Arenas, bass; Mark Feinman, drums; John O'Leary, piano; Matthew Mill, trumpet
Orlando International Fringe Festival 2004
Jay T. Becker; Lulu Picart; Ula Stoeckl, director; Brian Groder, composer, musical director, trumpet; Chuck Archard, bass; Per Danielsson, piano; Doug Mathews, bass; Steve Luciano, guitar; Tom Ewing, guitar; Mark McKee, keyboards; Dan Johnson, drums
The December 2013 production of Solos was part of the year-long 13in13 Project of creative events.
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SOLOS
by Joseph Reed Hayes
Solos is nothing less than the history of jazz in America, as told through the relationship of two people, in three movements and a coda. At its heart is the fabulous, always-changing life of the music itself, a dance of timing, in which the rhythms of dialog mimic the rhythms of jazz and the music becomes the third character, reinterpreting the actors' emotional involvements.
Trumpeter Ben "Blue" Miller has spent years blowin' horn in seedy bars, vaudeville, the carnies and worse. New Years Eve of 1939 he meets society girl Ellie Grace in a hotel ballroom. He plays with the band, her daddy owns the place. She's a gifted composer with no outlet for her music, and he's an itinerant musician, a "gypsy" without a way to the top. They begin a passionate relationship that lasts a lifetime — she composes but is unwilling to perform; he plays her dazzling new music and accepts the acclaim from the audience.
The music changes, from swing and bebop through "free" jazz to melodic post-modern, with Ellie's compositions leading the way. Ellie is delighted to give her music to the man she loves, but becomes frustrated by her invisibility as the decades go by, with Ben unwilling to risk falling from the heights he has attained ... until things finally explode.
"A touching story about love, truth, God and jazz as religion … a must-see performance."
~ Orlando CityBeat
"In Solos, Michael Sapp plays jazz trumpeter Blue Miller, whose love life is overtly stoked by Ellie Grace (Desiree Perez) after meeting her on New Year’s Eve of 1939; he’s playing in the hotel her father owns. As Miller finds fame, Ellie’s covert skill as his ghosting songwriter drives the three-act drama via the direction of Paul Castaneda. As a romantic meet-cute, Solos might ring familiar with a contemporary audience, but looking at the history of jazz music, you can start to follow the real rhythm." ~ Orlando Weekly
"A play by Joseph Reed Hayes is a welcome oasis of cultural smarts at the Fringe, which tends toward the bawdier side of the spectrum. His Solos takes as its topic the development of jazz, as revealed by the decades-spanning story of a trumpeter and his wife, who secretly pens his 'original' compositions. Music fans will have a leg up in discerning how their working relationship reflects the flow of an entire American century; no such foreknowledge, though, is required to appreciate Hayes' smooth hand with dialogue." ~ Orlando Weekly
"My first Sunday show was Solos, a touching story about love, truth, God and jazz as religion, accompanied by an incredible jazz ensemble. Blue Miller, a working-class jazz trumpeter meets upper-class Ellie Grace who has a gift for composing scintillating music. Self-conscious Blue struggles with his inability to write the electric compositions that Ellie naturally produces. Shy Ellie battles her own monster, her performance inhibitions and the mid-twentieth century's views on women's roles. Their creative success belies their personal failures. Through their tumultuous relationship, Ellie and Blue realize that they are two parts of a whole, both as performers and lovers. A must-see performance." ~ Orlando Sentinel
