On November 30th, composer Stephen Lockwood has a performance and CD release party of his new jazz suite entitled "New Orleans Lowdown". The piece is a 40 minute jazz suite for 8 piece band and includes top-flight musicians such as: Kim Richmond, Nick Rosen, Harry Scorzo, Ken Rosser, Chris Wabich, Michael Merritt and more. The ensemble will also play new material, and other material from Steve's previous 2 CD's.November 30th-No Cover - Casual dress/atmosphere
Two Shows: 8PM & 9:30PM
Typhoon
3221 Donald Douglas Loop South • 2nd Floor
Santa Monica, CA - 90405
Tel: 310.390.6565
New Orleans Lowdown
A Brief Summary
by
Steve Lockwood
New Orleans Lowdown is a six part dance suite intended as a
jazz homage to New Orleans as an American culutral icon. This piece is a
fervent wish that New Orleans find the strength to maintain it’s status as
an international city reflecting the multi-cultural diaspora that is America
and in turn maintain its heritage as a center for all the arts including that
most American of all art forms: jazz. There is another aspect though: the
piece is a study of disaster and the human drama that accompanies it. In
recent years we have seen them; 9/11, the Indonesian tsunami of
December 2004, the Madrid train bombings, and the list goes on. What
happens to us? How do we react? By creating this piece I hope to bring
disaster to the audience on a very human level. I wish to express its terror,
but also, the need for us to respond together to overcome whatever
obstacles lie in our path to our well-being and prosperity as a nation and a
civilization. This includes governments that are for whatever reason unable
to take care of their people. I believe that jazz has the power to convey this
message, especially to these people in New Orleans.
Jazz music best expresses the nature of these people (their “soul”) as
well as their “drama” as survivors and victims of a terrible hurricane. The
songs of the suite open us to the drama itself which centers on the
individual lives and problems of its 3 main characters, their friends, and
their relationship to the city they love. Then something happens that
totally transforms their lives and they discover what is really far more
important then their own problems. The transformation that occurs is
something in all of us; an all consuming desire to survive that is part of the
human story itself. In that way, this piece makes it’s statement for anyone
who has ever suffered any tragedy of this magnitude. That is it’s relevance
and it’s necessity.
I have not written a traditional New Orleans score. Because this
drama takes place during the week of Hurricane Katrina it is
contemporary, and I felt that it should reflect a more contemporary
approach to jazz music. So, the listener/viewer will hear my personal
approach to jazz that will express my love of the music, the city, and the
situation that it’s people face now.
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