Library for the Performing Arts

The first blog in this series concerned one of the icon images for the Vaudeville Nation exhibition and web site (www.nypl.org/vaudeville). The rondel held clues to the time and place of one of the many forms of popular entertainment associated with turn-of-the-century vaudeville -- roof garden cabarets.

This blog concerns the other figure in the title banner who comes from the other end -- chronologically -- of vaudeville. Not that the model is necessarily older than the young woman on the swing, but that her form of vaudeville, Prologues, dates from much later -- the 1930s to 1950s. Prologues were short vaudeville shows that alternated with feature films in the sound film era. The image is a costume design for a Roxyette, a precision dance team at the Roxy Theater in NY. The Roxy, managed by "Roxy" Rothafel, and the Roxyettes, staged by Russell Markert, were the older siblings and direct predecessors of Roxy's Radio City Music Hall and its Rockettes. The use of music notation in costumes had been popular in designs for dance choruses since the late 19th century. This costume was probably designed by Monte Montadoro. It came to the Billy Rose Theatre Division in the collection of Albert Packer, who was business manager for the costume shop at the Roxy (1930- 1936) and Radio City Music Hall. The caption in the Vaudeville Nation web site gives the collection credit only.

The next blog will present the visual icon that inspired my curation of the exhibition, but was never featured in the gallery.

In the development stage of most exhibitions, there are a few images or artifacts that inspire the team. It can be something that impacts of the design or structure -- a color that sets a mood or a type face that defines a period.

For me, it is usually an artifact that inhabits the theme of the exhibition. So, in starting to blog about artifacts, I wanted to start with one of those pieces. It defined the theme and set one end of a chronological span.

This rondel was on the cover of the program for the Hammerstein Roof Garden, on top of the Victoria Theater at 42nd Street and Broadway. That alone puts it in the center of the performing arts universe. It served as one of the two symbolic images for Vaudeville Nation, the popular exhibitions from 2006-2007, which can still be seen in its on-line version (www.nypl.org/vaudeville).

For many modern-day visitors to the real and virtual gallery, she was a smiling, vaguely 19th century face. As with so many artifacts, the deeper you go, the more we can share what it meant to its original viewers at the turn of the last century. It is a woman because women were a targeted audience in vaudeville and women found employment in vaudeville. The leaves behind her mean that the smiling woman was at a roof garden theater -- a cabaret space on top of a theater that featured an outdoor space or a glass roof. She is wearing what we now would think of as a clown suit, but was then known as a "Yama-Yama" from the popular Bessie McCoy song "Yama-Yama Man." Most meaningfully, she has a drink with ice cubes -- clues that the roof gardens were cooled and served iced drinks.

If you take US Route 20 heading east from Albany, New York, you will eventually drive through the rural village of Nassau. There are three gas stations, a couple of pizza places and a trailer-cum-restaurant on the empty lot where Delson’s department store stood until it burned to the ground in the early 1980s. Past the village’s one traffic light, on the right is a small white building with a black sign in front: Nassau Free Public Library. Most of this two-room branch of the Upper Hudson Library System is taken up by the children’s and young adult section. When I was growing up five miles outside of Nassau, it was a favorite place to visit. Mrs. Sherman was the branch librarian, kind, grey-haired, soft-spoken. I remember vividly the feeling of security and sanctuary I felt as a very small child, looking at book after book while perched on a wooden foot stool.

For me, however, the most significant aspect of the Nassau Free Public Library was its children’s film screenings. Tuesday nights at 7:30, the children in this small corner of Rensselaer County would gather in the basement, parents sequestered in the adult reading room upstairs or the Stewart’s gas station and coffee shop down the street. I can still envision the experience of my first movie night. All of us kids sitting on the floor in front of the projector while a color 16mm film was shown: a boy running through a summer field. It wasn’t just that this was a motion picture - after all, this was 1980, not 1880- but that it was our motion picture. Something made just for children and being shown just to children.  read more »

Some time ago, there was a large illustrated article in the New York Times, regarding a production of the Czech children’s opera, Brundibár, composed by Hans Krása in 1938, before he was sent to the Nazi concentration camps, Terezin also known as Theresienstadt, and Auschwitz, where he later died. Under the composer’s direction, this opera was performed many times at Terezin/Theresienstadt, with a changing cast of imprisoned children, many of whom also later died in the camps.  It became one of the most frequently performed pieces in Terezin/Theresienstadt, as it symbolized in the person of Brundibár, all the evil that the Nazi regime stood for. When the children sang their final song of victory over Brundibár, the evil organ grinder, “We won a victory over the tyrant mean”, “Since we were not fearful”, “Since we were not tearful”, the entire audience of concentration camp prisoners, know exactly what this meant and it helped to serve as a form of intellectual protest for them, as well as to boost their morale and lessen their suffering. 

The New Jersey State Opera, donated to the Rodgers & Hammerstein Recorded Sound Archives, a rare video of the opera, Brundibár; the evil organ grinder, a musical fairy tale in one act, performed by members of the Resident Choir of the American Boychoir School and other selected children choristers from New Jersey middle and upper schools, together with the New Jersey State Opera, 1988.  The Recorded Sound Archives also has a CD of Brundibár, recorded in Middlebury College, Vermont, 1996, with the Essex Children’s Choir, and the Vermont Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. 

Both this video recording and the CD of Brundibár, are available to the public for viewing and listening, in the Rodgers & Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. Our Music Research Division also has a tri-lingual vocal score in Czech, German and English, as well as an english-only version, and a libretto. All of the above can be consulted while viewing the video or listening to the CD.

Brundibár was restaged by Maurice Sendak and Tony Kushner in an English translation, for the Yale Repertory Theater and played in New York in April and May, 2006, at the New Victory Theater. The video of this production, can be viewed at the Theatre on Film and Tape, Billy Rose Theatre Collection, Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.

Brundibár’s message of hope, courage and strength in the presence of great tragedy and suffering, should resonate strongly with the audiences of today.

The Big Apple will become the Green Apple very soon. On March 17th, to mark New York City’s 248th consecutive St. Patrick’s Day Parade, the green line will again be painted down the Fifth Avenue parade route. Although a lot of green will be in evidence, did you know that Ireland’s traditional color was blue?
Nevertheless, I’d recommend you wear some green on the 17th or you may get pinched.

May I suggest some ways you might celebrate Irish Heritage Month, as I like to call March? Listening to some of the traditional music is a must—perhaps the Chieftains, the Clancy Brothers, or the great Irish tenor, John McCormack. And since NYPL is celebrating women this month , I’d recommend Susan McKeown and Cherish the Ladies, both of whose songs you'll find in several collections owned by NYPL. And listen to one of the Irish music radio programs heard locally on WFUV-FM such as A Thousand Welcomes, Ceol na nGael , or NPR’s Celtic music mix, The Thistle & Shamrock. (And a quick comment: Celtic is usually pronounced “keltik,” unless you’re referring to a certain basketball team from New England...)

Or borrow a film such as Angela’s Ashes, The Commitments, or Waking Ned Devine. The Craic (“crack”) Fest, an annual festival of Irish-themed films, takes place in lower Manhattan this week.

And for some programs which will be both fantastic and free, just take a look at the NYPL calendar.  read more »

Did you know that jazz musician Jane Ira Bloom...

...prodded by her friend, the actor Brian Dennehy, wrote a letter to NASA to ask what they thought about the future of the arts in space and ended up as the first musician ever commissioned by the NASA space program and with an asteriod (6083janeirabloom) named in her honor?

...had to relearn the saxophone while studying as a girl with Joe Viola at Berklee College? ("My embouchure was all wrong!")

...while walking around the dicey neighborhoods surrounding the New England Conservatory in the early 1970s, carried her alto sax in one hand, soprano in the other, and a chain attached between them? "I don't know what I thought, but nobody was gonna get those instruments!"

...was in the fourth class of women at Yale in 1972 and was part of the "The New Haven Renaissance" of jazz improvisers?

...found inspiration in the work of both top fuel race car driver Shirley Muldowney and British ice dancers Torvill and Dean?

Oh, there is so much more! Jane Ira Bloom recently sat down with Lara Pellegrinelli for a three-hour, two-part interview here at The Library for the Performing Arts as part of our Duke Jazz Series concert and oral history program, and the two had fascinating and, as you can see, wide-ranging conversations about the nature of her work as a jazz saxophonist. The interview should be available for listening to here at the Library within the next month or so, and I highly recommend it!

But, even sooner, you can see Jane Ira Bloom perform at the Library for the Performing Arts' Bruno Walter Auditorium, free of charge, with her Quartet, next Friday, February 20 at 7:30 p.m. as part of our Duke Jazz Series. The Bruno Walter Auditorium is located at 111 Amsterdam Avenue (at 65th Street). Doors open at 7:00. Hope you can join us!

Please join us for our next Duke Jazz Talk featuring father/son artists Bucky and John Pizzarelli on Wednesday, February 11 at 8:00 p.m. Duke Jazz Talks put the spotlight on four GRAMMY® -nominated and -award winning jazz artists. Bucky and John will discuss their lives and work with Bob Santelli, Executive Director of The GRAMMY MuseumSM; following the dialogue will be a brief performance.

Duke Jazz Talks are part of the two-year Library for the Performing Arts’ project funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to present, document, and preserve jazz, contemporary dance, and theater performances and related oral histories.

These oral histories are offering the chance to be connected to times we can never know - times we can only miss. I encourage you all to be a part of celebrating a generation of musicians whose schooling was backing Billie for a week as she passed through town - whose best education was piling into Coltrane's station wagon and traveling across the country and back. Be a part of appreciating your primary resources. Further, be a part of the movement to document, preserve, and provide access to these rich histories.

Photo Credit: Jens Palm

The Pizzarellis:

Bucky Pizzarelli has been playing professional jazz music for over sixty years. His extraordinary skill as a rhythm guitar player places him in the company of other jazz greats like Freddie Greene and Barry Galbraith. He has pioneered the great chord solo tradition begun by George Van Eps and Dick McDonough. For many years, Eps and Pizzarelli were considered the only guitarists to play the seven-string guitar exclusively.

John Pizzarelli has followed in the footsteps of his father, and has been playing the guitar since he was six years old. He began playing alongside his father at age 20, and has since gone on to have his own prolific career as a jazz guitarist, vocalist and bandleader. Internationally known for classic standards, late-night ballads, and the cool jazz flavor he brings to his performances and recordings, John Pizzarelli also hosts the nationally syndicated radio program “Radio Deluxe with John Pizzarelli.”

There is an admission charge of $10 or $5 for students for Duke Jazz Talks programs. For ticket reservations, please call 212.870.1793, or to charge by phone, call 212-245-5440. We also accept TDF vouchers for this event.

This event will be held in the Bruno Walter Auditorium at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, 111 Amsterdam Avenue @ 65th Street. For more information, please call 212.870.1793 or visit nypl.org/lpaprograms

Hope to see you there!

Beginning in late September 2008, The Performing Arts Library (LPA) hosted two Duke Jazz Series concerts with Dafnis Prieto Sextet and Jovino Santos Neto Quinteto. The members of those groups were wonderful individuals with extraordinary talent. Every musician expressed their love for the music; we witnessed that excitement and burst of energy when they performed. My favorite musician was Jeff Busch from Jovino Santos Neto Quinteto who is the percussionist for that group. The piece that he stood out the most was “Feira Livre,” from Jovino Santos Neto’s album Canto do Rio.

We are pleased to start the New Year and our new Jazz season with Donny McCaslin, who is participating in our next Duke Jazz Series concert. Donny McCaslin who plays the tenor saxophone, will be performing on January 7, 2009 with David Binney, Scott Colley, Adam Cruz, Gonzalo Grau, Ben Monder, and featuring the vocals of Kate McGarry. The Donny McCaslin Group will be performing selected songs from McCaslin’s sixth album In Pursuit, described as “The concept of “pursuit,” single-minded devotion to a distant goal, marked by inventive exploration has characterized his music almost from the beginning.”

Some of the musicians who will be performing in upcoming Duke Jazz Series concerts are Jane Ira Bloom, Ben Allison, and Drew Gress, along with few others. All the performances will be held at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Bruno Walter Auditorium, at 111 Amsterdam Avenue @ 65th Street. Doors open at 7:00, show at 7:30 p.m. Admission to this show is free, and is first-come, first-served.

Chances are, if you spend any time online you've come across Flickr. Flickr is a wonderful site for storing, sharing and building community around photographs. It's similar to online photo services like Kodak Gallery or Shutterfly except with a greater social focus and tools and features reminiscent of Facebook.

About a year ago Flickr launched the Flickr Commons, a project dedicated to sharing and describing the public photo collections of the world's leading cultural heritage institutions. Starting this past January with The Library of Congress, and continuing with places such as The Smithsonian Institution, The Brooklyn Museum, The National Maritime Museum, The National Library of New Zealand, the Nationaal Archief of the Netherlands and numerous others, the Commons has grown steadily over the past year into a truly remarkable public photography resource.

We are delighted to be the latest institution to join in this endeavor, with an initial contribution of 1,300 images culled from various areas of our diverse photographic collections.

We think of this as a sort of appetizer course, a sampler of collections accessible in greater breadth and depth on the NYPL Digital Gallery, and on-site in our network of libraries. Lush images of modern dance pioneers; haunting early cyanotypes of algae (the first photographic works to be produced by a woman); majestic geographical surveys taken along the Union Pacific Railroad, iconic Depression-era images taken under the Farm Security Administration's famed photography program; Berenice Abbott's epic documentation of 1930s New York for the Federal Art Project; stunning 19th century vistas of the Egypt and Syria; scenes and portraits of Ellis Island Immigrants, the Statue of Liberty under construction... These and more are now available to view, tag and discuss in the Flickr Commons, and are offered as an invitation to explore further on our own site or in our actual libraries. After this initial road test, we expect to post many more images into the Commons pool.  read more »

The Duke Project team -- consisting of Sarah Ziebell (middle), Flordalisa "Lisa" Lopez (right), and myself (left) -- are gearing up for the second concert in the Duke Jazz Series.

For those of you who missed September's show, the wonderfully talented Dafnis Prieto Sextet were featured, filling the Bruno Auditorium with Cuban-infused jazz. We had an excellent turn out for the event -- despite having to compete with presidential debates and pouring rain -- and hope to match the turn out next week with the sounds of Brazilian pianist/flutist/composer Jovino Santos Neto and his Quintet. In addition to the quintet (traveling to NY from Seattle to perform) are special guests Harvey Wainapel and Felipe Salles.

Jovino and his band were in New York during the summer as part of the River to River festivities, and the Duke team caught his set. Jovino and his band mates are excellent musicians and the danceable Brazilian rhythms make the music irresistible.

We were fortunate to include this program in the Third Annual Latin American Cultural Week (LACW), which is a celebration of Latin American arts and artists throughout New York City from November 5 through 21. LACW is a program of PAMAR (Pan American Musical Art Research), founded and directed by Uruguayan pianist Polly Ferman. For more information, visit www.pamar.org.

Please join us for this free, first-come, first-served show on November 21st at the Bruno Walter Auditorium, 111 Amsterdam Ave. @ 65th Street. Doors open at 7:00. If you have any questions, give us a call at (212) 870-1793.

The Duke Project has many outstanding musicians scheduled throughout 2009 -- both as part of the Duke Jazz Series and Duke Jazz Talks -- so please check back often to find out who is performing next at the LPA.

We'll look for you there!

Jovino_Santos_Neto-Duke_Jazz_Series.pdf (110.27 KB)

Through the exceptional generosity of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Library for the Performing Arts’ Music and Dance Divisions and the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive have been awarded two years of funding to present, document, and preserve jazz, contemporary dance, and theater performances and related oral histories. Those of us on the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Project have the distinct pleasure of leading these efforts.

Doris Duke was an avid jazz fan. In her honor, the Library is kicking off this fall a run of exciting programs focused on jazz, the Duke Jazz Series, Duke Jazz Talks, and Duke Jazz Histories. The Duke Jazz Series features eight live jazz performances from Chamber Music America award-winning ensembles and oral histories with each ensemble leader. Duke Jazz Talks put the spotlight on four GRAMMY-nominated and -award winning jazz artists and are hosted live by music curator and scholar Bob Santelli, Executive Director of The GRAMMY Museum. Jazz at Lincoln Center is our partner in producing the Duke Jazz Histories, private interviews with ten musicians performing in the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 Jazz at Lincoln Center seasons.  read more »

Along with Sarah Ziebell and Lisa Lopez, I work on the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Project, whose mission is to program and document live music (mostly jazz), theater, and dance in connection with the 10 year anniversary of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation's grant program.

In addition to the programming aspects, the grant also covers the preservation of a collection of oral history interviews conducted in the early 1970s by the dance critic, Don McDonagh, on people associated with the iconic dancer/choreographer, Martha Graham.

Lucky me, I get to listen to the interviews and am in the proces of cataloging the hours of conversations. After working with Safe Sound Archive toward the preservation process, we received 6 boxes of CDs and I spend most of the day taking notes to include in catalog records.

The over 70 cassettes include conversations with dancers May O'Donnell, Sophie Maslow, Charles Weidman, Erick Hawkins, Gertrude Shurr, and Israeli Graham-trained dancers Rina Schenfeld and Rina Gluck, as well as composers, artists, and office assistants -- all with a tale to tell about Martha Graham.

These candid interviews touch on many aspects of Graham's life; with each person telling stories of his/her interactions with the mighty Miss Graham. One interview is conducted with a school friend of Graham's, Helen Low, who tells stories of Graham (around 1914) playing basketball wearing bloomers, and remembers Graham as a shy, retiring sort of girl. After hearing tales of Graham's infamous temper, it is hard to believe that anyone would describe Graham as shy and retiring.

Some of the anecdotes reveal Graham's tendency towards tantrums, with stories of her throwing a lap dog at a student, or smashing a metronome to pieces by throwing it inside an open piano. But many of the stories are lovingly told by loyal, idolizing students and friends, and reveal a side of Graham that perhaps many did not witness: Martha playing with a stage manager's dog, Brandy, instead of going to rehearsals, or the time she allowed a friend's chubby child to sit on her lap for the duration of a long car ride through Jerusalem.

These interviews certainly uphold -- and, at times, dispel -- the myth of Martha Graham, and are a rich addition to the dance collection of the LPA.

Prior to cataloging, I consulted several books housed at the LPA, including:

Martha Graham: the early years. Edited, and with a foreword, by Merle Armitage; illustrated with photos. and Carlos Dyer's ink drawings; and

Martha Graham, sixteen dances in photographs / by Barbara Morgan.

and watched many dances on video, including:

Primitive Mysteries (videorecording) -- *MGZIDVD 5-1700

I anticipate these interviews being available on CATNYP (with restricted access) by the end of October -- so all you Graham enthusiasts, be on the look out for them!