And So It Begins
Posted by James Vincent Meredith on 1/31/2008We just finished our first rehearsal, where did a couple of read-throughs of the play. I always have those jitters the night before the first read, the first rehearsal. So many questions and thoughts and such that it just keeps me up (I think I got about 4 hours of sleep last night). But it’s also about the excitement of beginning something new, with some people you’ve worked with before, as well as those who you’ve always admired and only now have the pleasure of working with.
It’s kind of freeing to work with a new play, a new script. Carter’s Way was first performed two or three years ago at Kansas City Rep. But Eric has taken the script and reworked so much of the plot that it feels new. He actually said today that he feels like this is a brand new show, with new words, new personalities, new everything. Which makes it very exciting to create this together. When I worked on The Pain and the Itch a couple of years ago, I had a blast creating and learning and growing the new story together as a cast. I look forward to us all working with that same sense of discovery and organic energy that this play needs and deserves.
It’s funny, I’ve read more jazz books and listened to more Bennie Moten and Lester Young and Jay McShann and Count Basie and Ben Webster and Coleman Hawkins and Dizzy Gillespie recordings in the last month than I can count. Yet, my most illuminating experience researching this show came from seeing a jam session at The Velvet Lounge a few days before rehearsal started. The crowd wasn’t that big, maybe 20 at its busiest. There was a house band playing, with the occasional newcomer sitting in to play a song or two. Watching the sax player and the other musicians play was a lesson in itself, but what I really remember was the raucous camaraderie they all had after a song, or sometimes even during them, standing offstage watching the current solo. But when it was their turn to play or solo, it was like a light went on, and it was dead-serious up there. The room almost became like a church, pin drop quiet, with all of us worshiping the music, the sound.
I read a Wynton Marsalis quote recently where he spoke of how Art Blakey told him to play. He said, “You have to play it with soul, with intensity, and every time you touch your horn, you play your horn. This is not a game”. Those musicians at the Velvet were definitely following that directive. And that’s the focus I want to bring to the show, and to the music passages in particular. This play is a love story for certain, but the music is so central, so essential to the telling of this story, weaving it’s way into every character’s arc for better or for worse. I can’t wait for the band to start working together with the music, to become one with the soundscape that composer Darrell Leonard has created.
March 8th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
I was chatting with a good friend who shares an equal adoration for Jazz and Blues Music. We were discussing the difference between the two and he said, “Jazz hits you in the heart. Blues hits you in the gut.”
If anyone is curious or confused of this comparison stop by the band’s dressing room sometime and I’ll gladly play two versions of “I’d Rather Go Blind”. One is sung by Etta James and the other by Koko Taylor.
This play for me is definitely a jazz story of broken heart strings. All the characters scream out at one point or another and do their best to improvise melodies to mend unreciprocated love.
I’m glad to work with you James and everyone in this production. Let’s beat it out!