Tandy Beal Dance Company to Appear with Bobby Mcferrin
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Tandy Beal Dance Company to appear with Bobby McFerrin January 22, 1988 Contact: Ruth Baily, University Events Office, 534-4090 or Alixandra Williams, Public Information Office, 534-3120 TANDY BEAL DANCE CO. TO APPEAR WITH JAZZ VOCALIST BOBBY MCFERRIN When applied to the combination of Tandy Beal and Bobby McFerrin, the term "song and dance" reaches new heights. Performing together with the Tandy Beal Dance Company, jazz vocalist McFerrin and dancer Beal are a "brilliant" collaboration. The performance will take place at 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 29, in the Mandeville Center Auditorium, at the University of California, San Diego. The Beal/McFerrin chemistry on stage has been called a "meld of genius in song and dance." A story by Allan Ulrich of the San Francisco Examiner, says, "Together, McFerrin and Beal make a superb match, a collaboration that seems both natural and predestined from the moment the curtain rises." The two "mine each other's impulses with a wit and spontaneity that restores jazz dancing to its pristine state." McFerrin's unaccompanied vocal improvisations, teamed with Beal's imaginative movements, have elicited many such words of praise. The voice of Bobby McFerrin has been called "tenor, soprano, beat box, arctic loon, washing machine, cello, saxophone, locomotive, gull--and totally himself." (June 1986, Image Magazine, Umberto Tose). A one-time piano player for the Ice Follies and small music groups, McFerrin discovered 10 years ago that he could sing. The son of Robert McFerrin, a baritone who sang with the New York Metropolitan Opera in the 1950s, and who dubbed Sidney Poitier's singing voice for the 1958 film "Porgy and Bess," and Sara McFerrin, a classical soprano who now chairs the voice department at Fullerton College in Southern California, McFerrin is no stranger to the singer's voice. After McFerrin stopped playing piano he went to New Orleans, and later to San Francisco where, in 1978, he formed a trio. Soon after, he was discovered by jazz vocalist Jon Hendricks (of Lambert, Hendricks and Ross), who invited him to sing with him at a club in New York City. By 1980, he was lined up for several jazz festivals, including Playboy Jazz (Hollywood) and Kool Jazz (New York City), where he brought down the house. In 1982 McFerrin recorded his first album called "Bobby McFerrin," and later recorded "The Voice," a highly unusual album of unaccompanied vocal improvisations. The album became highly popular in Europe, recorded at various concerts in West Germany in 1984. Beal is a Santa Cruz dancer and choreographer, and former member of the Alwin Nikolais Company. Her work has taken her throughout the United States, Canada and Europe, either with her dance company, or on her own. In 1986 she won the Bay Area Dance Coalition's Isadore Duncan Award for Innovation. From May to November 1986, she was in Japan on a fellowship from the U.S./Japan Friendship Commission. During the 1986-87 season Beal was in residence at Columbia College's Dance Center in Chicago, and also at the Atlanta Ballet and the Scottsdale Center for the Arts in Arizona. She has toured throughout the Pacific Northwest, the Midwest and California. Last year, Beal's zany version of the "Nutcracker" ballet played seven performances at California State University, Fullerton, garnering outstanding reviews from Lewis Segal of the Los Angeles Times. Tickets for Bobby McFerrin and the Tandy Beal Dance Company are $15 for general admission, $13 for seniors and $10 for students, and may be purchased from the UCSD Box Office (534-4559) or from TicketMaster outlets. (January 22, 1988).