字體：小 中 大 |
|
|
|
| 2015/11/27 04:49:12瀏覽131｜回應0｜推薦3 | |
| Sowash: "Clean Up- Homage to Cab Calloway” for SATB chorus. I met the late, great Cab Calloway in 1983. I had booked him to perform at the Renaissance Theatre in Mansfield, Ohio, my home town. A Grand Baroque movie palace, built to last forever in 1925, “The Ren" was slated for demolition just five and half decades later. A handful of Mansfielders resolved to save it, inspired others to join them, hired me to lead the effort, raised money and restored it beautifully. Ninety years old now, it is an enduring source of pride for Mansfield. I booked and met many performers during the six years I served as Director of Renaissance, Inc. Johnny Cash, Judy Collins, Count Basie, Dave Brubeck, Itzahk Perlman, “Alabama,” Mitzi Gaynor, Bob Hope. It was a heady time and I was especially excited to be hosting Cab Calloway. When I was a boy, my mom often played LP recordings of Cab singing his greatest hits. We sang and danced right along; I knew the all words. I was very eager to meet him. An hour before showtime he had not arrived and I was nervous. A half hour before showtime, my stage manager, shaking his head, informed me that Mr. Calloway was in the dressing room. Something was wrong. I went backstage. He was in his dressing room, yes, but he looked to be a hundred years old. He was slumped in his chair, a very old, very tired black man in a sleeveless undershirt, staring at his knees. I said hello. He raised one hand in a half-wave but hardly looked up. I told him I was a fan and that we were really looking forward to his show. He grunted. There was nothing more to say so I joined my wife in the audience. “Hoo boy,” I told her. “I don’t know about this.” At length the lights went down, the band played the introduction to one of his songs, the spotlight beamed a bright circle on stage right … and we waited. Suddenly, he came strutting out, head high, shoulders back, flashing his famous, toothy, million-dollar smile, sporting a magnificent, powder-blue tuxedo. The Hi-Dee-Ho Man had arrived! For two hours, he wowed the audience, singing, dancing, telling jokes and stories and getting us all to sway our hands with him, echoing his “Hi-dee-ho’s” right on cue. Standing ovation. Afterwards, he made his way up the aisle of the empty theatre to my office. He was standing tall, his tux in a clothes bag over his shoulder. I paid him the balance of his fee, just as his contract had specified: twenty-five one-hundred dollar bills. He took out his wallet and it was as thick as a triple cheeseburger, stuffed with hundred-dollar bills. He must have been carrying $40,000 in that wallet. Cash. The wisdom of his carrying that amount of cash on the streets of downtown Mansfield being none of my business, I just told him how much we had all loved the show. Then I added, “I have to tell you that you had me pretty worried when I saw you in your dressing room before the show.” He asked me why. “Well, you just seemed really tired and I didn’t know what to expect.” He laughed and said, “Ma-a-a-an, you got to learn to re-LAX!” I laughed too and thanked him again. We shook hands. I watched him shuffle out the front door of the theatre and across Park Avenue West to the Travel Lodge. A legendary figure of the Harlem Renaissance, a great performer, an artist who knew when to relax and when to expend his energy, he was also, at that moment, a solitary, elderly black man on the streets of downtown Mansfield, late at night, with $40,000 in his wallet. I kept an eye on him from the theatre door until he had safely entered the motel lobby. In 2010, it occurred to me that our church choir at Mt. Auburn Presbyterian here in Cincinnati would have a blast belting out some Cab Calloway-style “hi-dee-hi-dee-ho’s.” I adapted a quotation from G.B. Shaw because it expressed the “bright and shiny” optimism Cab put across so convincingly. I rewrote Shaw’s words so that they would rhyme and I worked in some “hi-dee-ho’s.” To hear the Northern Kentucky Community Choir sing "Clean Up!” under the direction of Stephanie Nash, click here: http://www.sowash.com/ To see a PDF of the score, click here: http://www.sowash.com/ I'd love to know what you think about this music; reply if you're inclined. But please don't feel that you are expected to reply. I'm just glad to share my work in this way. As always, feel free to forward this message to friends who might enjoy it. Anyone can be on my little list of recipients for these mpFrees (as I call these musical emails). To sign up, people should email me at rick@sowash.com, sending just one word: "Yes." I'll know what it means. To unsubscribe, reply “unsubscribe.” |
|
| ( 創作｜其他 ) |
