Under the assured stewardship of helmsman Steve Garden, Rattle has since taken listeners on journeys through classical, jazz, sonic experimentalism, improvised music, the evocative sounds of taonga puoro. Thirty years ago, the Rattle label launched itself with the album Pesky Digits by the Auckland guitar ensemble, Gitbox Rebellion. But sometimes we can feel it as circular. Time, as we live through it, seems linear. Russell Hughes, Joanne Melbourne, Tomislav Skulic, Rob Mita, Sonia Wilson, Bodie Hermans, Peter Kirkbride, Sam Loveridge, Kim Halliday and Nigel Gavin Gitbox is comprised of ten acoustic guitarists who usually perform left to right in this order: The group’s music is as unique and vibrant as ever, just as Rattle’s enthusiasm for artists who follow their own compass is not only undiminished but even more determined as we move into our fourth decade. As curveballs go, we couldn’t have asked for a nicer one. HOW MUCH: $35 in advance, $45 at door for the general public $10 for students with ID.This year, 2021, is Rattle’s 30th anniversary as an advocate for New Zealand art-music, and it gives us enormous pleasure to mark the occasion with a new album from Gitbox, the band that kicked things off for the label three decades ago with their much-loved and widely acclaimed Pesky Digits, Rattle’s very first release back in 1991. WHERE: Birchwood Manor, 111 North Jefferson Ave., Whippany. 1-80 (select option 1) or , "There was concern from parents that kids were listening to something wrong, just like the rock era and the rap era," Josephson says. While their elders continued to fox-trot to Guy Lombardo, their kids were raucously trucking and jitterbugging to Goodman, Glenn Miller, Harry James, and Tommy Dorsey. It was a turning point analogous to the birth of rock-and-roll - a moment when black culture, by proxy, suddenly hit the mainstream audience like a ton of bricks. "It was like something today that goes viral," Josephson says. The moment electrified not only the crowd at the Palomar Ballroom, but also millions listening across the country on radio. "And somewhere along the line Gene Krupa said, 'If we're gonna die, let's die playing our own thing.' At this point, Goodman pulls out the Fletcher Henderson arrangements, and pulls out all the stops." "What I've heard happened is, at the beginning of the performance, the band played pretty much stock arrangements, and they were losing the crowd," Josephson says. No matter if the musicians themselves might have preferred to stir things up. "Sweet" music, it was known in the trade - to distinguish it from the "hot" music played uptown by black bands such as Duke Ellington's and Fletcher Henderson's. It was the beginning of the "big band" era.īut initially, many of these bands - at least the ones aimed at white audiences - kept things light and polite. By the 1930s, they had begun to swell in size - from 11 or 12 pieces (the typical size of a 1920s dance band) to 25 instruments or more. Jazz bands had been a popular attraction at hotels, speakeasies and resorts since the early 1920s. "There's something that happens that night when he played," Josephson says. That's the night that Benny Goodman, playing the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles, let 'er rip. The demarcation lines are fuzzy, but many place the birth of the swing era at Aug. 21, 1935. Mostly, the event is a celebration of swing - the music that dominated American bandstands and airwaves from roughly 1935 to 1945. That was the spark for the annual event, which helps fund scholarships for music students (proceeds go to four schools, including William Paterson University, New Jersey City University, Mason Gross School of the Arts and Rowan University). The big band clarinetist, who played with Eddie Condon, Louis Prima, and Red Nichols, remarked shortly before his death that he regretted not having children to whom he could pass on his legacy. The Pee Wee Russell Stomp was born the year Russell died: 1969. "You do not have to be a jazz aficionado to enjoy it, because the music is very accessible," Josephson says. Hot and cold cash buffet and bar will be available, and there will be a hardwood floor for dancing. Typically, Josephson says, the event draws between 300 and 400 people. Professor Cunningham and His Old School, Dan Levinson's Russell of Spring Band, the Peter and Will Anderson Quintet, and the Midiri Brothers Quintet are the combos that will be jiving and wailing at the Birchwood Manor jitterbugs and swing dancers, especially, are encouraged to cut the rug. "It just happens this year that these band leaders are also clarinetists," says Sandy Josephson, who serves on the board of the Morristown-based New Jersey Jazz Society.
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