Oregon Festival of American Music 2015: "creole Love Call" at Oregon Festival of American Music at John G Shedd Institute for the Arts

When Prohibition took effect in 1920, it created a mob-run industry for the illegal distribution of alcohol, a system in which clubs were an important component…and these clubs became, incidentally, rich grounds for the creation and advancement of much of the great music we associate with the Jazz Age. A number of clubs in Harlem competed for downtown audiences, the most successful being The Cotton Club, which gangster Owney Madden opened in 1923 while serving time in Sing Sing. The Club's huge success in its heyday (before Prohibition was repealed and the Great Depression hit) was in large part due to two dynamic bandleaders, four great songwriters, and weekly radio broadcasts. Duke Ellington's tenure ran from 1927-30; Cab Calloway's from 1930-34. The lead songwriters for the nightly revues (which were refreshed twice each year) were Jimmy McHugh & Dorothy Fields in the early years and Harold Arlen & Ted Kohler later. An evening at The Cotton Club--a leisurely dance set filled with the strains of the best music of the day followed by the nightly revue--was by all accounts fabulous and the radio broadcasts made everyone famous....

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When Prohibition took effect in 1920, it created a mob-run industry for the illegal distribution of alcohol, a system in which clubs were an important component…and these clubs became, incidentally, rich grounds for the creation and advancement of much of the great music we associate with the Jazz Age. A number of clubs in Harlem competed for downtown audiences, the most successful being The Cotton Club, which gangster Owney Madden opened in 1923 while serving time in Sing Sing. The Club's huge success in its heyday (before Prohibition was repealed and the Great Depression hit) was in large part due to two dynamic bandleaders, four great songwriters, and weekly radio broadcasts. Duke Ellington's tenure ran from 1927-30; Cab Calloway's from 1930-34. The lead songwriters for the nightly revues (which were refreshed twice each year) were Jimmy McHugh & Dorothy Fields in the early years and Harold Arlen & Ted Kohler later. An evening at The Cotton Club--a leisurely dance set filled with the strains of the best music of the day followed by the nightly revue--was by all accounts fabulous and the radio broadcasts made everyone famous.

Jesse Cloninger, the Festival Hot 5 and members of the Emerald City Jazz Kings are joined by vocalists Shirley Andress, Siri Vik, Clairdee, Bill Hulings, and Byron Stripling for an extended evening in tribute to those golden Ellington-Calloway years. The format for the evening will be our usual cabaret layout: top-ticketed cabaret seating down front of the main floor, and reserved seating up in the balcony, with a full bar in the Tykeson Lobby. We get going at 7 pm--an hour earlier than the Festival's other evening concerts--with 2 intermissions. While dressing up is not required, in the spirit of the event we encourage it (especially if you go period!).

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