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"Chet Baker: Speedball" at the London Jazz Festival 2007

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19-29 November 2007, 7.15pm Monday-Thursday
2 December 2007, 4.00pm Sunday
606 Club, 90 Lots Road, London SW10 0QD

Chet Baker: Speedball
Directed by Nicholai La Barrie
Written by Mark O'Thomas
Composed by Andrea Vicari
With Glenn Macnamara and Andy Davies







Chet Baker: Speedball is an exploration, theatrically and musically, into the life of iconic jazz trumpeter and singer 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.



A legend of the 1950's West Coast 'cool' school, Chet Baker was seen as the great white hope of jazz, but ultimately his devotion was only to drugs. Chet Baker: Speedball explores the life of this iconic musician, from the night of his fatal fall from an Amsterdam hotel window back to the famed audition for Charlie Parker that set his turbulent career in motion.



Chet Baker: Speedball was conceived and created by artists from three disciplines - directing, writing and composing - collaborating to find a new and exciting integration between text, music and performance. Taking an ambiguous, fragmentary approach and incorporating jazz-like repetition and improvisation, stories share the stage with jazz songs, spoken lyrics jostle with diary extracts and documentary footage.



The result is a unique interplay of theatre, live music and performance, blended with the dexterity of a late-night jam session.





Venue Details:

Address: 606 Club, 90 Lots Road, London SW10 0QD
Telephone: 020 7352 5953
Email: [email protected]
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.



Chet Baker (Actor/Singer) - 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.



Chet Baker (Trumpet) - 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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