PRESS
RELEASE
For further info, photographs & press tickets
contact Kate Denby
Tel: 07949 388 659
Email:
kate@chetbakerspeedball.com
Web:
www.chetbakerspeedball.com 19-29 November
2007, 7.15pm Monday-Thursday
2 December 2007, 4.00pm Sunday
606
Club, 90 Lots Road, London SW10 0QD Tickets £12/£8
concessions
Advance Sales: www.ticketweb.co.uk / 08700 600 100
(24hrs) Speedball
Directed
by Nicholai La Barrie Written by Mark O'Thomas
Composed
by Andrea
Vicari With Glenn Macnamara and Andy
Davies
Speedball
is a
theatrical and musical response to the iconography of jazz
trumpeter/vocalist Chet Baker. Following sold-out
performances at Oval House Theatre in February, the production moves to
the 606 Club in London, one of Europe's best jazz clubs, and features
in the London Jazz Festival 2007. Chet Baker was a
legend of the West Coast ?cool school? whose life was as turbulent
off-stage as it was poetic on-stage. Director Nicholai La
Barrie, writer Mark O'Thomas and composer Andrea Vicari present a
performative response to a life once lived which visits themes of
romance and desperation in equal measure. Taking an
ambiguous, fragmentary approach, Speedball pursues an original and
organic integration of text and music where a medley of stories, songs,
spoken lyrics and film clips are underscored by original live
music. The result is a unique
interplay of theatre, live music and performance, blended with the
dexterity of a late-night jam session. With
performances from Glenn Macnamara, trumpeter Andy Davies and pianist
Andrea Vicari.
Notes for
the
Editor Venue Details:
Address:
606 Club, 90 Lots Road, London
SW10 0QD
Telephone: 020 7352 5953
Email:
jazz@606club.co.uk
Website: www.606club.co.uk
Transport:
Tube: Fulham Broadway Bus: C3, 11, 22 Developing
Chet Baker: Speedball
Chet Baker: Speedball is an exciting
and
original collaboration between artists of different disciplines, using
jazz not as a tool but as an essential form in the process.
The work evolved through creative response: the artists were each given
a collection of material, including recordings, interviews, biography
and photographs, and asked to respond as they wished. The
responses were broad, including text and dialogue, new composition,
photography and film, and helped generate a first draft
script. During the rehearsal process all artists and
performers contribute to the development of an organic, seamless
relationship between the music, text and performance. The
script is revised daily to respond to the musical and performative
improvisations and the original music and jazz standards are arranged
to incorporate the responses to text and performance. Writer - Mark O'Thomas
Mark is a
British playwright and
translator. His first play, False
Feeding was commissioned
and produced by Soho Theatre and opened its new home Dean Street,
W1. This was followed by Salvador
at the Man in the Moon,
which earned Critic's Choice in Time Out, Viva Maria! and The Pirhana
Lounge with Dende Collective, Dog
Down at Edinburgh Festival 2003,
Almost Nothing at the Royal
Court and OneFourSeven on
national
tour. His latest work, Dona
Flor and her Two Husbands and
Agreste were performed at
Lyric Hammersmith. He is currently
script advisor to the Royal Court International Department and is
engaged in research into the joint processes of adaptation, translation
and devised performance. Director
- Nicholai La
Barrie
Nicholai is a director, actor and musician who has
worked internationally for the last fifteen years. As an
actor he has been seen in Passports
to the Promised Lands with Nitro,
High Heel Parrotfish at
Theatre Royal Stratford East, and Mustapha
Matura's Meetings at the
Arcola Theatre. He has directed It
Had To Be You for Ragoo Productions and Passport to Posterity for Tiata
Fahodizi. He is currently Head of Youth Arts and resident
youth theatre director at Oval House Theatre, and recently directed an
award-winning production of Chatroom
for the National Theatre Shell
Connections Youth Festival, and site-specific productions of Peter Pan
and Ti-Jean and His Brothers
in the flower garden at Kennington Park. Composer - Andrea Vicari
Andrea
has worked with the cream of the UK
jazz scene, including Alan Barnes, Denys Baptiste, Don Weller, Dick
Pearce, Tim Whitehead, Tim Garland, Jacqui Dankworth, Dick Pearce and
Benn Clatworthy. Gaining a reputation as a prolific and
original composer, in 1994 she was commissioned by the Arts Council and
the Peter Whittingham Trust to write music for a new eleven piece jazz
orchestra - the Suburban Gorillas
project - which was followed by a CD
and Jazz Services tour including a triumphant appearance a the Brecon
Jazz Festival and a live BBC broadcast from the Newcastle
Playhouse. In 2004 she performed and recorded with the
all-female Vortex Foundation Big Band, led by Annie
Whitehead. Andrea is currently Professor of Jazz Piano at
Trinity College of Music, London, and in October 2007 she released her
album Mango Tango, on
which she performs with Pete Wareham, Steve
Waterman, Dorian Lockett and James Maddren.
Andrea has been
described as 'one of the most brilliant young musicians in the UK' by
the 'Penguin Rough Guide to Jazz', 'atmospheric and original' by Time
Out, and 'breathtakingly eclectic' by The Guardian. Glenn
Macnamara
Glenn performed his
concert debut at the age of 15. He has performed with Frank
Sinatra?s guitarist, Lino Patruno in Rome, at the P.P.I. Music and
Radio Awards, Dublin, the G-MEX Arena in Manchester and the 606 Club in
London. At the age of 19, Glenn won a scholarship to the Guildford
School of Acting and gained a BA Hons degree in Musical Theatre. Since
leaving drama school Glenn has continued his career in musical theatre,
jazz and swing music performing regularly with his own quartet, The Big
Swing. He also works with S.M.A Productions playing Frank Sinatra in
The Rat Pack's Back and with
Calibre Productions in their show The
Kings of Swing/Absolute Swing. In these productions he works
alongside
Swing City and The London Swing Orchestra. Glenn has recently
been selected to perform for two of London's longest serving Big Bands
- Perfidia and The Mike Richards Big Band. Andy Davies
Originally
from Gower
in South Wales, and is a jazz graduate of Trinity College of Music in
London where he was a student of Steve Waterman. In 2003 Andy
was awarded a Trinity College of Music Silver Medal for Outstanding
Performance in Jazz Studies. While still a student, Andy was
the guest trumpet soloist with the singer Ian Shaw and his Trio
appearing at Blackheath, Croydon, Grimsby, The 606 Club, Brecon Jazz
Festival and Ronnie Scott's. Andy has performed with numerous
artists including Gwyneth Herbert and Robin Jones, and is a featured
soloist on Iris Festenstien's CD, One
Good Scandal (33
Records). He has appeared at all the major venues in London
including Ronnie Scott's, Pizza Express Dean Street, 606 Club, The
Vortex, Pizza on the Park, The Crypt and toured Europe playing in jazz
festivals and clubs as a sideman and leading his own quartet.
The Andy Davies Quartet release their debut album Getting Giggy
(Rhythm& Muse Records) in December 2007. He has been
described as 'one of the most sensitive and creative trumpeters to
emerge on the British jazz scene in recent years' whose 'strength is
his ability to marry a first-class technique and marvellously clear
tone with elegant, emotive phrasing'. His compositional style
has been called 'classy, melodic music with unexpected twists'.
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