The Independent
September 28, 2000
Performance:
| Mojo Workin’
Speaking of Stories Jazz and Blues: Stories and Music At the Lobero Theatre, Saturday, September 23 |
 |
It was a sultry evening of blistering jazz and well-woven poetry and prose at Speaking of Stories last Saturday. What was promised was "Jazz and Blues: Stories and Music," but what was uncertain as the Lobero’s red curtain rose was whether the stories would come alive and the jazz would swing. They did, and a great deal of the credit should go to jazz combo director Konrad Kono for at once holding together the quintet and stealing the show. Hats off to Karin delaPeña for her artistic direction, and Speaking of Stories founder Steven Gilbar for conceiving the idea. Works by James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, Jack Kerouac, Billy Collins, and Al Young were adeptly chosen for their references to jazz tunes and jazz players.
One of the highlights of the show was "The Reunion"
by Maya Angelou, read by the vivacious Nambi Kelley and the charming Diane
Stevenett. The story concerns a meeting between a black jazz pianist (the
narrator) and a white acquaintance, Beth-Ann Baker, who’s out on a date on
"the wrong side of the tracks" with a black man. "I would always
be the song struggling to be heard," says the narrator, as the jazz combo
slid into Thelonius Monk’s "Round Midnight." This was the moment
when the suspension of disbelief was complete, and I found myself lost in a sea
of sharps and flats, nouns and verbs. Konrad Kono bounded over to the piano and
hit the keys with such expert force (even turning to play a couple of chords, in
key no less, with his buttocks), that the audience exploded into laughter
applause. Then boogie-woogie piano man Carl Sonny Leyland hopped on-stage along
with pianist Peter Clark until the three brought it all home. By the end of the
show, all the actors and musicians were dancing, and the audience rose in a
quick standing ovation.