Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance the CenterStage
Photo by Dario Acosta
New York Festival of Song Harlem Renaissance
Friday December 5, 2014 8:00 p.m. 2014-2015 Artist Series Touring Professional Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance New York Festival of Song Steven Blier artistic director Michael Barrett associate artistic director
Harlem Renaissance
Julia Bullock (photo by Christian Steiner) Darius de Haas (photo by Tess Steinkolk) James Martin (photo by Steve Godbold)
Julia Bullock soprano Darius de Haas tenor James Martin baritone Michael Barrett pianist Steven Blier pianist & arranger
2 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance
Program
Capricious Harlem Eubie Blake The Joint is Jumpin’ (Andy Razaf / J. C. Johnson) thomas “Fats” Waller A Porter’s Love Song to a Chambermaid (Razaf) James P. Johnson Ain’t-cha Glad (Razaf) Waller Li’l Gal (Paul Laurence Dunbar) J. Rosamond Johnson Death of an Old Seaman (Langston Hughes) Cecil Cohen The Breath of a Rose (Hughes) William Grant Still Day Dream (John LaTouche) Billy Strayhorn I’m Craving for that Kind of Love (Noble Sissle) Blake You’re Lucky to Me (Razaf) Blake I’ve Heard of a City Called Heaven Trad., arr. Hall Johnson Guiding Me Back Home (Sissle) Harry Revel INTERMISSION
Mo’ Lasses (Alex Rogers) Charles “Luckey” Roberts In a Sentimental Mood (Ellington/Kurtz) Duke Ellington / Manny Kurtz I’m Just a Lucky So-and-So (Mack David) Ellington A Flower is a Lovesome Thing (Strayhorn) Strayhorn The Harlem Blues (Handy) W. C. Handy My Handy Man Ain’t Handy No More (Razaf) Blake I’m Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town (Razaf) William Weldon Song to the Dark Virgin (Hughes) Florence Price What’s the Use (Dunbar) Price Black and Blue (Razaf) Waller/Harry Brooks What Harlem Is to Me (Razaf) Russell Wooding/Paul Denniker
3 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance
PROGRAM NOTE by Steven Blier
In February 1919, when the all-black Fifteenth Regiment of New York’s National Guard returned in triumph at the end of the First World War, they were given a hero’s welcome. Marching to the beat (unsyncopated, for this occasion) of James Reese Europe’s band and cheered by thousands of spectators, the troop of 1,200 Negro soldiers paraded up Fifth Avenue, passed the reviewing stand at 130th Street and Lenox Avenue, and finally broke into a free-form jubilant celebration, dancing and embracing their loved ones. This proud homecoming marked a post–Civil War high point in their status and their visibility.
The civic honor of this parade helped to launch a movement that had been coalescing since the beginning of the century. Under the guidance of writers like James Weldon Johnson, social leaders like W. E. B. Du Bois, philosophers like Alain Locke, organizations like the Urban League and the NAACP, rich patrons like Charlotte Osgood Mason, and intellectual socialites like Carl Van Vechten, its moment arrived. Its goal: to promote racial equality and celebrate the unique contributions of African-Americans to American culture at large. It became known as the Harlem Renaissance.
A combination of factors made Harlem the capital of black culture. The Great Migration of African-Americans from the South to northern urban centers had begun before 1915; it was a response to the entrenched racism of the South and a flight from a series of natural disasters that endangered the jobs and homes of all southerners. In the North there were new industrial opportunities and the promise of a fresh start. New York was one of the most exciting and attractive options—it was “the city that never sleeps” way before Kander and Ebb wrote their famous song. At that time New York’s black population was concentrated in a crowded slum called the Tenderloin. It stretched from the West 20’s to 53rd Street. African-Americans were starting to migrate to the neighborhood just north of there, the equally congested San Juan Hill area, populated by Irish-Americans.
4 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance
But farther uptown, there was a real estate crisis of a different kind. Harlem had been badly overbuilt with middle-class and upper middle-class housing. Both black and white landlords needed tenants to fill their buildings. For once, real estate competition worked in the favor of African-American people, overcoming the discriminatory policies that had previously kept them out. Seeing the possibilities of the situation, a farsighted black businessman named Philip A. Payton bought up property in Harlem and then sold or rented it to blacks. As James Weldon Johnson wrote in Black Manhattan (1930): “Harlem has provided New York Negroes with better, cleaner, more modern, more airy, more sunny houses than they ever lived in before. And this is due to the efforts made first by Mr. Payton.”
Racism, of course, was not confined to the South. As new black residents poured into northern cities, tensions rose, leading to a series of race riots and lynchings. The black community united to fight back, gathering strength and solidarity during the crisis. They also began to attract interest as a unique artistic culture. The New Negro Movement embraced social debate and political reform, resulting in a series of small but significant legal victories for African-Americans in the 1920s. But its leaders realized that it was their artists who would be the best emissaries from their culture to the society at large. Their agenda was to create a literary canon, spurred on with a new series of awards from the widely read black magazines of the day, The Crisis and Opportunity. The judging panels included prominent white authors and editors; authors who won prizes attracted attention and contracts from such mainstream publishers as Knopf or Boni & Liveright, ensuring a growing interracial audience. Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and Zora Neale Hurston were the emerging authors whose work had the greatest staying power, but many others created valuable novels and poetry about the life of Black America.
The leaders of the Harlem Renaissance encouraged artists to create serious works, in order to lend dignity and gravitas to the cause. But the Harlem Renaissance was also famous for its parties: rent parties for the lower middle classes crammed into crowded apartments; hot nightclubs—both integrated and whites- or blacks- only; and high-toned evenings where white and black society gathered to drink, make music, and carry on till dawn. And accompanying the revels was a musical
5 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance groundswell of jazz and blues, performed by black orchestras, singers like Bessie Smith, pianists like James P. Johnson and Fats Waller. All-black revues enjoyed runs both uptown and on Broadway. It’s not surprising that the glory years of the Harlem Renaissance coincided with the Jazz Age. Harlem musicians may not have created the Jazz Age singlehandedly, but they provided the fuel that launched one of the great periods of American popular song. This was the first time that African- American culture rose to public visibility within the larger white-controlled culture. While the literature remains fascinating, ultimately it was the music that conquered the world.
The musicians we’re hearing tonight took their inspiration (and in some cases, instruction) from the black musicians who made their mark at the beginning of the century. Scott Joplin’s rags and Will Marion Cook’s vaudeville songs from In Dahomey (1903) may have seemed passé by 1920, but they had already become part of a tradition that supported a subsequent generation of musicians. In the classical field, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s success in Great Britain was as great an encouragement to serious black musicians as that of Harry T. Burleigh in America. Not only did Burleigh’s settings of Negro spirituals reach a large audience but his ballads and art songs were popularized by the greatest singers of the day, including John McCormack and Alma Gluck.
The long career of W. C. Handy (1873–1958) spanned almost everybody else’s; he first went on tour at age fifteen, and he lived long enough to be a headliner on the Ed Sullivan Show. He came from an older tradition, so his songs from the 1920s have an old-timey feel to them. By synthesizing Victorian parlor ballads, hymns, minstrel tunes, ragtime, and band music—and adding his own distinctive blue notes into the mix—the father of the blues brought the sounds of African- American folk music to a larger public. His music permeated the Jazz Age, leaving its imprint on the novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald and the repertoire of jazzers from Jack Teagarten to Fats Waller. He was also a first-rate lyricist, able to evoke powerful feelings in a few simple words. Handy made another vital contribution as a publisher of American composers, both black and white. His company is still in existence today, based in New York City. “Harlem Renaissance? Oh, you’ll have fun working on it, it was all about the
6 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance
piano,” said Barry Singer, a music journalist and the author of Black and Blue, a biography of Andy Razaf. Luckily for a series devoted to songs, many of its great pianists were also great songwriters. One such is James P. Johnson (1894–1955). His best known vocal is certainly “Charleston”—yes, the famous original one— but it’s probably the only one found in the songbooks these days; “The Darktown Huskin’ Bee,” “I’m Stepping Out With Lulu,” “Harlem Choc’late Babies,” “Don’t Need Nobody to Tell Me I’m Bad,” and literally hundreds of others are languishing in the archives. One of tonight’s rescues is “A Porter’s Love Song to a Chambermaid.” Today Johnson’s piano compositions are better known than his songs, and he’ll go down in the history books as the king of stride piano, the virtuoso style that followed ragtime. Sung or played, Johnson’s music is hot stuff, an inspiration to many other musicians.
Johnson’s uninhibited virtuosity was a big influence on George Gershwin. They cut piano rolls for mechanical pianolas alongside one another, and they shared their aspirations to write for the symphony orchestra. Gershwin wasn’t alone in admiring him. James P. was the touchstone for all the pianists of his day, many of whom learned his test piece “Carolina Shout” by slowing down the piano roll and following the motion of the keys as they mechanically descended. One of Johnsons’s greatest protégés was Thomas “Fats” Waller (1904–1943), who wrote his first musical comedy score (Keep Shufflin’, 1927) in collaboration with Johnson and premiered his mentor’s concert piece Yamekraw at Carnegie Hall the year after. Waller was a protean talent: composer, singer, accompanist, organist, bandleader, and radio personality. That last word may be the key to his success— he had an appealing, larger-than-life stage persona that could be felt over the airwaves, through the scratchy surface of a 78 rpm record, and on film. He may have captured the public with his gift for comedy and satire, but his true genius lay in his musical facility. As a pianist, he had utter command of the instrument; as a melodist he had the Midas touch. Gershwin was a fan—and the Gershwinesque way that the middle section of “Ain’t-cha Glad” releases into the main tune indicates the feeling was mutual, not to mention the quote of “I Got Rhythm.” Like Gershwin, Waller died young, yet he left us more than 350 songs and a many superb recordings, as well as the sadness of not knowing what he might have accomplished.
7 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance
“Favor me with your name,” said Eubie Blake when I met him in 1980. At the age of 97, he was courtly and wizened. He didn’t look much like the radiant young man in his early photos, but his zest for living was still palpable and his eyes were playful. He had, after all, been part of the glory years of black music from its earliest days. He wrote his first rag in 1899; had his first hit song in 1915 for Sophie Tucker; joined James Reese Europe’s Society Orchestra; formed a successful partnership with Noble Sissle both as songwriter and vaudeville performer; and conquered Broadway with the runaway hit Shuffle Along in 1921. Ragtime went out of fashion for a while, but when it came back into vogue, Blake became a star once again, celebrated at the White House, revived on Broadway and showered with honorary degrees. Blake was able to span a wide range of popular styles at any given moment, and he knew how to roll with the changing tides of musical fashion during his hundred-year life span. He knew jazz, he knew ragtime, and he knew Tin Pan Alley; most of all, he knew how to knit them together to appeal to a wide audience.
I asked friends if I’d see them at any NYFOS evenings this year, and they said, “Oh, we wouldn’t miss your Ellington concert!” For them, his name had eclipsed all the other Harlem stars. Without question, Duke Ellington (1899-1974) is the most famous composer on tonight’s program. He was a veritable geyser of musical energy. As bandleader, composer, arranger, manager, songwriter, and spokesman for jazz as a legitimate compositional tool, he brought the world of popular dance music into the realm of the sublime. One of his greatest gifts was finding musicians who could realize the sound palette he had in his imagination, and then writing charts to exploit the unique colors of their playing. He often undermined expectations by using unusual instrumental voicings and creating new colors, like his famous “jungle” style. Under his leadership, the individuality of players like Johnny Hodges and Cootie Williams flourished, creating a sexy, complex sonority for true jazz compositions, not just song arrangements.
Of course, Ellington couldn’t have created his empire without expert support, particularly from Billy Strayhorn (1915–1967), who was Ellington’s arranger, collaborator, deputy pianist, conductor, orchestrator, and compositional sidekick. When someone called Strayhorn Ellington’s alter ego, the latter replied: “Let’s not go overboard. Strayhorn is only my right arm, left foot, eyes, stomach, ears,
8 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance
and soul, not my ego.” Many tunes published under Ellington’s name were really Strayhorn’s handiwork, most notably “Take the A Train.” And some of Ellington’s most famous music was written in a unique tag-team process, as each of them spelled the other during the wee hours of the night before a recording session. “Gather up the genius, Swee’ Pea. The maestro is limp at the heels,” said Ellington. Strayhorn would then write for ninety minutes while Ellington napped, waking him with, “Wake up, Monster. I stopped on C minor. Take it from there.”
Strayhorn’s renown has grown since he died—he tended to avoid the limelight during his life. He was a gentle, generous man, much beloved by the legendary singers and players of his day. His solo performances reflect his benevolent personality. They may lack the dark drive of Ellington, but they have a unique lyricism of their own. Most of Ellington’s famous songs were originally instrumental pieces onto which lyrics were later grafted. Given such a provenance, they remain amazingly effective as sung pieces. But Strayhorn’s songs seem more truly bound to the meaning of their words—Ellington was first attracted to Strayhorn as a lyricist. Strayhorn was one of the few openly gay musicians in the predominantly straight world of jazz; is it politically incorrect mention a special sensitivity in songs like “Day Dream,” “Passion Flower,” “Lush Life,” and “Lotus Blossom”?
Harlem was most famous for jazz and revues, but composers also reached out to the concert stage, to parallel the literary explosion with a new repertoire of art song. It began with the black English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, who made three visits to America before his death in 1912. Cecil Cohen (1894–1967), Florence Price (1888–1953), and William Grant Still (1895–1978) were all young when Coleridge-Taylor came to the States, but his inspiration and influence touched all of them. Of tonight’s classical composers, J. Rosamond Johnson (1873–1954) was the eldest, but at the time of Coleridge-Taylor’s American tours he was busy with another kind of composition. In tandem with his brother James Weldon Johnson, he was turning out successful ragtime and vaudeville tunes like “Under the Bamboo Tree” and “My Castle on the Nile.” As the century progressed, Johnson became more interested in collecting black folk music— spirituals, ring shouts, plantation ballads, street cries, and blues. He added his own song to the collection, “Li’l Gal,” performed by the composer in Carnegie Hall in
9 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance
1912, and later revived by William Warfield. It was written to a poem by another favorite African-American poet from the turn of the century, Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872–1906). Dunbar’s simple, folk-like verses inspired many black composers who wrote for the concert stage.
Cecil Cohen taught at Howard University, and Florence Price lived in Chicago. They weren’t Manhattanites. “Can I include them in this program?” I anxiously asked Darryl Taylor, who founded the African-American Art Song Alliance. “You must,” he said. “Harlem was everywhere; it was bigger than just New York.” Each of them made beautiful settings of poems by New York’s most famous black poet, Langston Hughes, and they also made significant contributions to the choral, chamber music, and orchestral repertoire. But most people would say that the most important composer of this group is William Grant Still, who earned the title “Dean of Afro-American Composers” through his pioneering work in opera and symphonic music. As children in Little Rock, AR, he and Florence Price both had the same music teacher. Still went on to study with Edgard Varèse and George Chadwick. He started his career in dance orchestras, arranging tunes for W. C. Handy, backing up Ethel Waters at the piano, and playing in the pit orchestra for Eubie Blake’s Shuffle Along; he eventually went to Hollywood where he wrote scores for movies like Lost Horizon and television shows like The Perry Mason Show. Could that marvelous theme song (you remember: “da-daaaaah, da- DAAH!”) be his handiwork?
As the 1920s progressed, Still found his voice as a classical composer. In 1926 his three-movement piece for orchestra and singer, Levee Land, had its premiere. When the Rochester Philharmonic played his first symphony dubbed,The Afro- American, in 1931, it marked the first time in history that a major orchestra programmed a full-length work by a black composer. He broke ground again when the New York City Opera premiered Troubled Island in 1949. Set to a libretto by Langston Hughes, it had choreography by George Balanchine and featured Robert McFerrin (Bobby’s opera-singer father), with neophytes Cornell MacNeil and Frances Bible in supporting parts. It was the company’s first premiere and the first time a top-ranking opera company presented a work composed by a black artist.
10 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance
Tonight’s program page might be mistaken as a tribute to Andy Razaf; he wrote the lyrics to a third of the songs. While his name many be unfamiliar, Razaf (1895- 1973) was in fact one of America’s most brilliant and prolific lyricists, and any survey of the Harlem Renaissance would have to pay homage to him. Even in his glory days he was well known mainly to people in show business. But everyone knows the song hits he wrote in tandem with Eubie Blake (“Memories of You,” “I’d Give a Dollar for a Dime”), Benny Goodman (“Stompin’ at the Savoy”), Glenn Miller and Joe Garland (“In the Mood”), and especially Fats Waller (“Honeysuckle Rose,” “Keepin’ Out of Mischief Now,” “Ain’t Misbehavin’”). He came from an exotic background: born Andreamentaria Paul Razafkeriefo in Washington, D.C., he was the great-nephew of Queen Ranavalona III of Madagascar, where his grandfather had led an embattled and controversial career as the United States Consul. An elegant man, self-taught, fiercely devoted to advancing equality for his people, Razaf wrote lyrics (and sometimes music) for more than 800 popular songs. His verses read well on the page, but they really spring to life in the hands of performers, where their subtle wit, verbal dexterity, and acting opportunities come through.
When the Great Depression swept America, black America was among the hardest hit. Harlem was no longer fashionable, there was no longer prize money to bestow on promising young writers, internecine battles between African- American factions gathered heat, ferocious race wars broke out in Harlem, and segregation seemed more deep-rooted than ever. “So suddenly I am serious and entirely grown-up, and I know that the promise we, the New Negroes, were so full of is enormously depleted,” wrote Dorothy West to James Weldon Johnson. In the repressive climate of the 1930s, even the most successful black musicians found their work drying up. In the mid-thirties, when Benny Goodman appropriated some of Fletcher Henderson’s hot jazz charts from the 1920s, he brought swingtime into the repertoire of white bands. Co-opted by white competition, black orchestras were less and less able to get touring engagements. Broadway audiences seemed to have tired of the exuberant black revues that had delighted them only a few years earlier. African-American composers were unwelcome in Hollywood, and when they were lucky enough to have their songs picked up, they received only a fraction of the compensation their
11 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance white colleagues could get. Eubie Blake, Andy Razaf—most of the stars of the Renaissance in fact—lost their popularity and could not find employment.
The times were tough. The literary bonanza was at an end. But the music wouldn’t die. There was no turning away from the allure of jazz. By the late thirties, a new generation was coming to the fore in Harlem: Chick Webb was at the Savoy Ballroom, Sidney Bechet at the Saratoga Club, the Apollo Theater opened on 125th Street, Count Basie was on the way. For music, the Renaissance was a phoenix—to be reborn and reborn, stronger each time. The pride and determination of Harlem’s residents would find its voice in each generation, never to be silenced again.
I’d like to thank Robert Kimball and Barry Singer for their help, inspiration, and guidance with tonight’s program. Darryl Taylor was also a fountain of information and good advice; Elliott and Elizabeth Hurwitt supplied invaluable materials and contacts as well. They are my University without Walls, and I am deeply grateful for their generosity.—S.B.
12 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance
The Joint is Jumpin’ Music by Thomas “Fats” Waller; Lyrics by Andy Razaf and J. C. Johnson Sung by the Ensemble
They have a new expression along old Harlem way That tells you when a party is ten times more than gay. To say that things are jumpin’ leaves not a single doubt That ev’rything is in full swing when you hear somebody shout: (Here ’tis)
This joint is jumpin’, it’s really jumpin’, Come in cats an’ check your hats, I mean this joint is jumpin’ The piano’s thumpin’, the dancers bumpin’, This here spot is more than hot, in fact the joint is jumpin’ Check your weapons at the door, be sure to pay your quarter. Burn your leather on the floor, grab anybody’s daughter. The roof is rockin’, the neighbor’s knockin’. We’re all bums when the wagon comes. I mean this joint is jumpin’.
The joint is jumpin’, it’s really jumpin’ Ev’ry Mose is on his toes, I mean the joint is jumpin’ No time for talkin’, it’s time for walkin’. (Yes!) Grab a jug and cut the rug, I mean this joint is jumpin’. Get your pig feet, beer and gin, there’s plenty in the kitchen. Who is that that just came in? Just look at the way he’s switchin’. Don’t mind the hour, ’cause I’m in power. I got bail if we go to jail. I mean this joint is jumpin’. This joint is jumpin’, It’s really jumpin’. We’re all bums when the wagon comes, I mean this joint is jumpin’ Don’t give your right name. No, No, No!
13 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance
A Porter’s Love Song to a Chambermaid Music by James P. Johnson; lyrics by Andy Razaf Sung by Mr. Martin
Tho’ my position is of low degree, And all the others may look down on me; I’ll go smiling thru’, that’s if I have you; I am the happiest of troubadours, Thinking of you while I’m massaging floors, At my leisure time, I made up this rhyme: I will be the oil mop, if you’ll be the oil, Then we both could mingle, ev’ry time we toil; I will be the washboard, if you’ll be the tub, Think of all the Mondays, we can rub-a-dub; I will be your shoebrush, if you will be my shoe, Then I’ll keep you bright dear, feeling good as new; If you’ll be my razor, I will be your blade, That’s a porter’s love song to a chambermaid. I will be your dust pan, if you’ll be my broom, We could work together, all around the room; I will be your clothes pin, be my pulley line, We’ll hang out together, wouldn’t that be fine; I will be your dishpan, if you will be my dish, We’ll meet after meals dear, what more could you wish? I will be your window, be my window shade, That’s a porter’s love song to a chamber maid.
14 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance
Ain’t-cha Glad Music by Thomas “Fats” Waller; lyrics by Andy Razaf Sung by Ms. Bullock
Folks look in surprise, hearin’ us sing our happy song, They can’t b’lieve their eyes; seein’ the way we get along. Ain’t-cha’ glad we were mated for each other? Ain’t-cha’ glad that we waited for each other? We agree constantly. Life is just a symphony of perfect harmony. Ain’t-cha’ glad how we get along together? Ain’t-cha’ glad we can laugh at “stormy weather”? Folks declare, “What a pair!” They can see we’re happy, ain’t-cha’ glad? Just like lovers on picture covers, in spite of sun or rain, We find romance, every street we meet is lovers’ lane, Ain’t-cha’ glad that our kisses keep their flavor? Ain’t-cha’ glad, ev’rything is in our favor? Ev’ry day, we can say, ev’rything is rosy, Ain’t-cha’ glad.
15 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance
Li’l Gal Music by J. Rosamond Johnson; poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar Sung by Mr. Martin
Oh, de weathah it is balmy, an’ de breeze is sighin’ low, Li’L Gal, Li’L Gal; An’ de mockin’ bird is singin’ in de locust by de do’, Li’L Gal, Li’L Gal; Dere’s a hummin’ an’ a bummin’ in de lan’ f’om eas’ to wes’, I’s a sighin’ fo’ you honey an’ I knows no res’; Fo’ dey’s lots o’ trouble stewin’ an’ a brewin’ in my breas’, Li’L Gal, Li’L Gal.
Don’t you let no dahkey fool you, ’cause de clo’es he waihs is fine, Li’L Gal, Li’L Gal, Dey’s an’ hones’ hea’t a-beatin’ underneaf dese rags o’ mine, Li’L Gal, Li’L Gal; Cose dey ain’t no use in mockin’ what de birds an’ weathah do, But I’s sorry I cain’t ’spress it when I knows I loves you true; Dat’s de reason I’s a-sighin’ an’ a-singin’ now fo’ you, Li’L Gal, Li’L Gal.
16 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance
Death of an Old Seaman Music by Cecil Cohen; poem by Langston Hughes Sung by Ms. Bullock
We buried him high on a windy hill, But his soul went out to sea, I know for I heard when all was still, His sea soul say to me:
“Put no tombstone at my head, For here I do not make my bed. Strew no flowers on my grave; I’ve gone back to the wind and wave. Weep not, weep not, weep not for me, For I am happy, happy with my sea!”
17 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance
The Breath of a Rose Music by William Grant Still; poem by Langston Hughes Sung by Ms. Bullock
Love is like dew On lilacs at dawn; Comes the swift sun And the dew is gone.
Love is like starlight In the sky at morn, Starlight that dies When day is born. Love is like perfume In the heart of a rose, The flower withers, The perfume goes.
Love is no more than the breath of a rose, No more Than the breath of a rose.
18 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance
Day Dream Music by Billy Strayhorn; lyrics by John LaTouche Sung by Mr. de Haas
Funny the way that I feel now. Can’t keep my feet on the ground, Ev’rything seems unreal now when you’re not around:
Day dream, why do you haunt me so?
Deep in a rosy glow, The face of my love you show. Daydream, I walk along on air Building a castle there, For me and my love to share. Don’t know the time, Lordy, I’m in a daze. Sun in the sky, while I moon around feeling hazy. Day dream don’t break my reverie Until I find that she Is daydreaming just like me.
19 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance
I’m Craving for that Kind of Love Music by Eubie Blake; lyrics by Noble Sissle Sung by Ms. Bullock
I’m wishing and fishing and trying to hook A man kind like you find in a book. I mean, a modern Romeo— I do not want a Phoneo
He may the baby Of some vamp, oh babe— At vampin’ and lampin’ I’m the champ. And if I once get him, Why I’ll just set him Beneath my parlor lamp And let him kiss me, kiss me, kiss me with his tempting lips, Sweet as honey drips. Press me, press me, press me to his loving breast, While I gently rest. Breathe love tender sighs While I gaze into his eyes, Eyes that will just hypnotize.
Then I know he’ll whisper, whisper, whisper to me soft and low Something nice, you know, Honey, honey, honey, when there’s no one near, My honey dear Will huddle me, cuddle me Sing to me, cling to me, Spoon to me, croon to me, Sigh to me, cry to me, I’m craving for that kind of love.
20 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance
You’re Lucky to Me Music by Eubie Blake; lyrics by Andy Razaf Sung by Mr. de Haas and Ms. Bullock
Never since a child, was I reconciled By the folks who laugh at bug-a-boos. Hoo-doos haunted me, trailed me constantly, Till the day you come my way, like good news:
Whenever you’re near, all my fears disappear, Dear, it’s plain as can be, you’re lucky to me. My only luck charms are your two loving arms, Anybody can see you’re lucky to me. No harm can happen to me anymore, I’m writing “thirteens” all over my door. My Mother and Dad thought that my luck was bad, Now like me, they agree you’re lucky to me.
When I was just like you, superstitious too, Thought myself unlucky all life thru. Things are different now, Not afraid, somehow, Since you came, I feel the same as you do:
21 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance
I’ve Heard of a City Called Heaven Musical arrangement by Hall Johnson; traditional poem Sung by Ms. Bullock
I am a poor pilgrim of sorrow. I’m in this wide world alone. No hope in this world for tomorrow, I’m tryin’ to make heaven my home.
Sometimes I am tossed and driven, Sometimes I don’t know where to roam. I’ve heard of a city called heaven, I’ve started to make it my home. My mother’s gone on to pure glory. My father’s still walkin’ in sin. My sister and brother won’t own me Because I’m tryin’ to get in.
Sometimes I am tossed and driven. Sometimes I don’t know where to roam But I’ve heard of city called heaven And I’ve started to make it my home.
22 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance
Guiding Me Back Home Music by Harry Revel; lyrics by Noble Sissle Sung by Mr. Martin and Mr. de Haas
Of roaming I’m fond, I’m a real vagabond And the road, just beyond, is my way. I never turn round, for there’s one that I’ve found Guiding me, up and down Life’s Highway.
No matter where I go, how I go, when I go, There’s always one I know guiding me back home. Her voice so tenderly calls to me, o’er the sea, Wherever I may be, guiding me back home. Though I am only a rover, when my roaming days are all over, I’ll be by mother’s chair, kneeling there, joys to share, Answ’ring her loving prayer guiding me back home.
I sometimes go wrong, as I’m singing a song And I’m swinging along a byroad. Tho’ guide posts I lack, to help me find my track, Yet I always get back to my road.
23 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance
Mo’ Lasses Music by Charles “Luckey” Roberts; lyrics by Alex Rogers Sung by Mr. Martin
Down in New Orleans There’s a dance that cleans Right up I mean (It’s a bear, I declare). Its class is Way out there alone That dance shown A class its own (At the ball they call it ’Lasses). Got me so each night that passes I just got to have mo’ ’Lasses — Oh! It seems to me Done got to be Necessitee (Oh! Mo’ ’Lasses good to me!) When they want some more They sing this encore An’ they sing it loud:
I want some mo’ ’Lasses, Gimme some mo’ ’Lasses Must have some mo’ ’Lasses Like them ’Lasses I just had— Must have some mo’ ’Lasses There can’t be no ’Lasses But if there’s mo’ ’Lasses Like dem ’Lasses den I’m glad. Oh! so sweet and oh! so bendable
24 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance
I’ll say that they’re recommendable, Music starts dem ’Lasses trick-l-in’ Den they start to tick-l-in’! I want some mo’ ’Lasses, Must have some mo’ ’Lasses Gimme some mo’ ’Lasses Like dem ’Lasses I just had, Don’t b’lieve there’s mo’ ’Lasses There can’t be no ’Lasses But if there’s mo’ ’Lasses Like dem ’Lasses den I’m glad— ’Lasses! ’Lasses! Ah’ I want to add Want ’em mighty bad Mo’ ’Lasses like I had.
In a Sentimental Mood Music by Duke Ellington; lyrics by Manny Kurtz Sung by Mr. de Haas
In a sentimental mood, I can see the stars come through my room, While your loving attitude is like a flame that lights the gloom. On the wings of ev’ry kiss drifts a melody so strange and sweet. In this sentimental bliss you make my paradise complete. Rose petals seem to fall, it’s all like a dream to call you mine. My heart’s a lighter thing since you made this night a thing divine. In a sentimental mood, I’m within a world so heavenly, For I never dreamt that you’d Be loving sentimental me.
25 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance
I’m Just a Lucky So-and-So Music by Duke Ellington; lyrics by Mack David Sung by Mr. Martin
Some people need a lot of money And nothin’ else but money To make their life complete. Not me, not me. I haven’t got a lot of money, But life is milk and honey Yes, life is mighty sweet, You see, this is my philosophy:
As I walk down the street Seems ev’ryone I meet Gives me a friendly “hello.” I guess I’m just a lucky so-and-so. The birds in ev’ry tree Are all so neighborly, They sing wherever I go. I guess I’m just a lucky so-and-so.
If you should ask me the amount In my bank account I’d have to admit that I’m slippin’. But that don’t worry me, Confidentially, I’ve got a dream that’s a pippin!
And when the day is through Each night I hurry to A home where love waits, I know. I guess I’m just a lucky so-and-so.
26 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance
A Flower is a Lovesome Thing Music and lyrics by Billy Strayhorn Sung by Ms. Bullock
A flower is a lovesome thing, A luscious, living, lovesome thing A daffodil, a rose, No matter where it grows Is such a lovely, lovesome thing.
A flower is the heart of spring That makes the rolling hillside sing, The gentle winds that blow Blow gently for they know A flower is a lovesome thing.
Playing in the breeze, Swaying with the trees, In the silent night Or in the morning light— Such a miracle!
Azaleas drinking pale moonbeams, Gardenias floating through daydreams, No matter where you go, Wherever it may grow, A flower is a lovesome thing.
27 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Blues Music and lyrics by W. C. Handy Sung by Mr. Martin
You never can tell what’s in a woman’s mind And if she’s from Harlem, there’s no use o’ tryin’. Just like the tide her mind comes and goes Like March weather, When she will change, nobody knows.
The woman I love, she just turned me down, She’s a Harlem brown. Ofttimes I wish that I were in the ground, Six feet under ground. She idolized me as no other could, Then surprised me, Leaving a note that she was gone for good.
I’ve searched each hole and corner From the Batt’ry to the Bronx, From the most exclusive To the Honky Tonks. I’ve sought her at the movie houses Cabarets and parks Advertised in the Age and the News.
And since my sweetie left me Harlem ain’t the same old place, Though a thousand flappers Smile right in my face. I think I’ll mooch Some homemade hooch And go out for a lark Just to drive off these mean Harlem Blues.
28 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance
Ah, there’s one sweet spot in Harlem, It’s known as Striver’s Row. Dicty folks, some call ’em, Live there, and you should know That I have a friend who lives there, I know he won’t refuse To put some music to my troubles And call ’em Harlem Blues.
Now you can have your Broadway, Give me Lenox Avenue. Angels from the skies stroll Seventh And for that thanks are due To Madam Walker’s beauty shops And Poro System too Have made then Angels Without any doubt.
There are some spots in Harlem Where I’m told it’s sudden death To let a body see you Stop to catch your breath, Yet if you’ve never lived in Harlem, So the saying goes, You have really been camping out.
Sweet Mama listen to the Harlem Blues, O’er the rad’o-phone, Oh, the times recall ’em, Remember Happy Rhone And the Clef Club dances led by Jim Europe’s jazzy band—sweet mem’ries! Change your mind once more And come to your Harlem man.
29 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance
My Handy Man Ain’t Handy No More. Music by Eubie Blake; lyrics by Andy Razaf Sung by Ms. Bullock
Once I used to brag about my handy man, But I ain’t braggin’ no more. Something strange has happened to my handy man, He’s not the man he was before, I wish somebody would explain to me, About this dual personality.
He don’t perform his duties like he used to do He never hauls the ashes ’less I tell him to. Before he hardly gets to work he says he’s through. My handy man ain’t handy no more. The way he used to handle things was “Too bad, Jim” That man was so efficient, full of pep and vim. Although he looks the same, I know it isn’t him. My handy man ain’t handy no more.
He’s forgotten his domestic science And he’s lost all of his self-reliance He won’t make a single move unless he’s told, He says he isn’t lazy, claims he ain’t old But still he sits around and lets my stove get cold. My handy man ain’t handy no more.
Time after time if I’m not right there at his heels He lets the poor horse in my stable miss his meals. There’s got to be some changes ’cause each day reveals My handy man ain’t handy no more.
30 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance
He used to turn in early and get up at dawn All full of new ambitions he would trim the lawn. Now, when he isn’t sleeping all he does is yawn. My handy man ain’t handy no more.
Once he used to have so much endurance Now it looks like he needs life insurance I used to brag about my handy man’s technique, But now “The spirit’s willing but the flesh is weak.”
So now I’m gonna get myself a strong young sheik, And tell him that it’s solid action that I seek I’m gonna put that cat on notice it’s a seven-day week. My handy man ain’t handy no more.
31 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance I’m Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town Music by William Weldon; lyrics by Andy Razaf Sung by Mr. de Haas
I’m gonna move way out to the outskirts of town I’m gonna move way out to the outskirts of town I don’t want nobody who always hangin’ round. I’m gon’ tell you baby we gon’ move away from here I don’t want no iceman, I’m gon’ get me a frigidaire When we move way out to the outskirts of town I don’t want nobody who always hangin’ round. I’m gon’ bring my own groceries, bring ’em ev’ry day That’ll stop that grocery boy and keep him away When we move way out to the outskirts of town I don’t want nobody who always hangin’ round. It may seem funny, honey, it may be funny as can be But if we have any children, I want them all to look like me That’s why I’m gon’ move way out to the outskirts of town I don’t want nobody who always hangin’ round. I’m so doggone handsome that gals just won’t let me be Told ‘em all we’s married now so’s they’ll just be you and me When we move way out to the outskirts of town I don’t want no females who always hangin’ round. I’m gon’ disconnect my telephone, leave no clues around That’ll stop those Amazons from trackin’ me down When we move way out from the outskirts of town I don’t want those mamas who always hangin’ round. I wanna raise a fam’ly A girl or two or even three But dodgin’ female wolves is really much too much for me That’s why I’m gon’ move way out to the outskirts of town There’s too many women who always hangin’ round.
32 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance
Song to the Dark Virgin Music by Florence Price; poem by Langston Hughes Sung by Mr. Martin
Would That I were a jewel, A shattered jewel, That all my shining brilliants Might fall at thy feet, Thou dark one.
Would That I were a garment, A shimmering, silken garment, That all my folds Might wrap about thy body, Absorb thy body, Hold and hide thy body, Thou dark one.
Would That I were a flame But one sharp, leaping flame To annihilate thy body, Thou dark one.
33 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance
What’s the Use? Music by Florence B. Price; poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar Sung by Mr. de Haas
What’s the use o’ folks a-frownin’ When the way’s a little rough? Frowns lay out the road for smilin’. You’ll be wrinkled soon enough. What’s the use? What’s the use o’ folks a-sighin? It’s an awful waste o’ breath. Oh an’ a body can’t start a-wastin’ What he needs so bad in death. What’s the use? What’s the use o’ even weepin’? Might as well go ‘long an’ smile. Life, our longest, strongest arrow Only lasts a little while. So what’s the use?
34 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance
Black and Blue Music by Thomas “Fats” Waller & Harry Brooks; Lyrics by Andy Razaf Sung by Mr. de Haas
Cold, empty bed, springs hard as lead, Pains in my head, feel like old Ned. What did I do to be so black and blue? No joys for me, no company, Even the mouse ran from my house, All my life through I’ve been so black and blue.
I’m white inside, but that don’t help my case. ’Cause I can’t hide what is on my face, I’m so forlorn, life’s just a thorn, My heart is torn, why was I born? What did I do to be so black and blue? Just ’cause you’re black, folks think you lack, They laugh at you and scorn you too, What did I do to be so black and blue? When you are near, they laugh and sneer, Set you aside and you’re denied, What did I do to be so black and blue?
How sad I am, each day I feel worse, My mark of Ham seems to be a curse! How will it end? Ain’t got a friend, My only sin is in my skin. What did I do to be so black and blue?
35 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance
What Harlem is to Me Music by Russell Wooding and Paul Denniker; lyrics by Andy Razaf Sung by the Ensemble
Poet and sage turn out page after page about Harlem, Views about Harlem, true and untrue. I’m neither poet nor sage, and I know it, however, I may be clever, so here is my point of view.
It’s a symphony of many moods and shades, It’s a tapestry of all designs and grades, It’s a hand behind the bars, Ever reaching for the stars, That’s what Harlem is to me.
It’s a barricade holding back the sea, It’s a big parade on a jubilee, It’s a grown-up running wild, It’s a helpless little child, That’s what Harlem is to me.
There is no place you will ever see, Like this dusky town within a town; It’s a showcase full of novelty, Sophistication done up brown.
It’s the lighter side of a heavy load, It’s the brighter side of a dismal road, It’s a day of moanin’ low, And a night of hi-de-ho, That’s what Harlem is to me.
36 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance ABOUT THE ARTISTS
STEVEN BLIER Mr. Blier is the Artistic Director of the New York Festival of Song (NYFOS), which he co- founded in 1988 with Michael Barrett. Since the Festival’s inception, he has programmed, performed, translated and annotated more than 140 vocal recitals with repertoire spanning the entire range of American song, art song from Schubert to Szymanowski, and popular song from early vaudeville to Lennon-McCartney. NYFOS has also made in-depth explorations of music from Spain, Latin America, Scandinavia and Russia. New York Magazine gave NYFOS its award for Best Classical Programming, while Opera News proclaimed Blier “the coolest dude in town.”
Mr. Blier enjoys an eminent career as an accompanist and vocal coach. His recital partners have included Renée Fleming, Cecilia Bartoli, Samuel Ramey, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Susan Graham, Jessye Norman, and José van Dam, in venues ranging from Carnegie Hall to La Scala. He is also on the faculty of The Juilliard School and has been active in encouraging young recitalists at summer programs, including the Wolf Trap Opera Company, Santa Fe Opera, and the San Francisco Opera Center. Many of his former students, including Stephanie Blythe, Joseph Kaiser, Sasha Cooke, Paul Appleby, Dina Kuznetsova, Corinne Winters, and Kate Lindsey, have gone on to be valued recital colleagues and sought-after stars on the opera and concert stage.
In keeping the traditions of American music alive, he has brought back to the stage many of the rarely heard songs of George Gershwin, Harold Arlen, Kurt Weill and Cole Porter. He has also played ragtime, blues and stride piano evenings with John Musto. A champion of American art song, he has premiered works of John Corigliano, Paul Moravec, Ned Rorem, William Bolcom, Mark Adamo, John Musto, Richard Danielpour, Tobias Picker, Robert Beaser, Lowell Liebermann, Harold Meltzer, and Lee Hoiby, many of which were commissioned by NYFOS.
Mr. Blier’s extensive discography includes the premiere recording of Leonard Bernstein’s Arias and Barcarolles (Koch International), which won a Grammy Award; Spanish Love Songs (Bridge Records), recorded live at the Caramoor International Music Festival with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Joseph Kaiser, and Michael Barrett; the world premiere recording
37 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance of Bastianello (John Musto) and Lucrezia (William Bolcom), a double bill of one-act comic operas set to librettos by Mark Campbell; and Quiet Please, an album of jazz standards with vocalist Darius de Haas. His latest release is Canción amorosa, a CD of Spanish songs with soprano Corinne Winters on the GRP label.
His writings on opera have been featured in Opera News and the Yale Review. A native New Yorker, he received a Bachelor’s Degree with Honors in English Literature at Yale University, where he studied piano with Alexander Farkas. He completed his musical studies in New York with Martin Isepp and Paul Jacobs.
MICHAEL BARRETT Associate Artistic Director Michael Barrett started NYFOS in 1988 with his friend and colleague Steven Blier. Mr. Barrett was Chief Executive and General Director of the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts from 2003-2012. In 1992, he co-founded the Moab Music Festival with his wife, violist Leslie Tomkins. From 1994 to 1997, he was the Director of the Tisch Center for the Arts at the 92nd Street Y in New York.
A protégé of Leonard Bernstein, Mr. Barrett began his long association with the renowned conductor and composer as a student in 1982. He is currently the Artistic Advisor for the estate of Leonard Bernstein. He has been a guest conductor with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the New York Philharmonic, the London Symphony, the Israel Philharmonic and the Orchestre National de France, among others. He also has served variously as conductor, producer, and music director of numerous special projects, including dozens of world premieres by Bernstein, Musto, Bolcom, Rorem, and D’Rivera.
Mr. Barrett’s discography includes: Spanish Love Songs, recorded live at Caramoor with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Steven Blier, and Joseph Kaiser; Live from the Moab Music Festival; the Grammy-nominated Evidence of Things Not Seen (New World Records); Aaron Kernis: 100 Greatest Dance Hits (New Albion); On the Town (Deutsche Grammophon); Kaballah (Koch Classics) by Stewart Wallace and Michael Korie; Schumann Lieder with Lorraine Hunt and Kurt Ollmann (Koch); and Arias and Barcarolles (Koch) by Leonard Bernstein (Grammy Award).
38 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance
JULIA BULLOCK Soprano Julia Bullock is an “impressive, fast-rising soprano… poised for a significant career” (The New York Times). Equally at home with opera and concert repertoire, she has been hailed for her versatile talent. As First Prize Winner of the 2012 Young Concert Artists Auditions, she was presented in debut recitals at the Kennedy Center and Merkin Hall, where she “demonstrated both profound artistry and impressive originality” (Opera News). She also won First Prize at the 2014 Naumburg International Vocal Competition.
Her numerous engagements for this season include concerts at Napa’s Festival del Sole, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, San Francisco Performances, and the Marlboro Music Festival. She will also be featured in the New York Festival of Song’s Harlem Renaissance, as well as in the Mondavi Center’s Rising Stars of Opera. She reprises the title role in Henry Purcell’s The Indian Queen, directed by Peter Sellars at the Perm Opera House in Russia and the Diaghilev Festival, and at English National Opera later this season.
Ms. Bullock has performed the title roles in the Juilliard Opera productions of Massenet’s Cendrillon and Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, to rave reviews. She has toured South America as Pamina in Peter Brook’s award-winning A Magic Flute; and toured China, singing with the Bard Music Festival Orchestra. Other opera roles include Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, Monica in The Medium, and the title role in L’Enfant et les Sortilèges. In 2013, she made her San Francisco Symphony debut in West Side Story, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas; an album of the concert is available on the orchestra’s label.
Ms. Bullock earned her Bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music, and her Master’s degree at Bard College’s Graduate Vocal Arts Program. She is currently pursuing her Artist Diploma with Edith Bers at The Juilliard School.
Ms. Bullock’s previous appearances with NYFOS include Song of the Midnight Sun (March 2013) and NYFOS’S 25th Anniversary Party (May 2013) as well as multiple appearances at NYFOS After Hours at Henry’s.
39 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance
DARIUS DE HAAS Darius De Haas enjoys a multifaceted career as an award-winning, widely acclaimed popular singer and actor. Born and raised in a musical family on Chicago’s South Side and known for his soaring voice, he has proven successful as a performer ranging from the Broadway stage to recordings to concert venues throughout the world.
He made his Broadway debut in Kiss of the Spiderwoman, followed by Lincoln Center’s revival of Carousel, the original cast of Rent, The Gershwins’ Fascinating Rhythm, Marie Christine, the 20th anniversary concert of Dreamgirls and Hair (both for the Actor’s Fund). Notable Off-Broadway, regional, touring and premiere credits include his Obie winning leading performance in the Pulitzer-nominated Running Man (Music-Theater Group), Cain in Children of Eden (Papermill Playhouse), Saturn Returns (Public Theater), Cry The Beloved Country (Goodman Theater), The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin (Playwrights Horizons), Once On This Island (1st National Tour), the John Adams opera I Was Looking At The Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky, and the title role in Jesus Christ Superstar at the Alliance Theater.
His stature as a solo artist was launched with his two highly acclaimed concert tributes (to Billy Strayhorn and Stevie Wonder) for Lincoln Center’s American Songbook Series. His singular abilities and range in popular music, jazz, and musical theater have established him as a performer in a variety of settings as well as a guest with several orchestras including the National Symphony, The Cincinnati Pops, The Philly Pops, The Los Angeles Master Chorale and Luckman Jazz Orchestra, New York Festival of Song, The Moab Music Festival, and The Alvin Ailey Dance Theater’s 50th Gala Celebration. He has been a guest soloist at Carnegie Hall, London’s Royal Festival Hall, Disney Concert Hall, The Kennedy Center, Town Hall, Lincoln Center, Constitution Hall, and St. John the Divine. Other notable performances include the concerts Too Hot To Handel at Carnegie Hall (conducted by Marin Alsop with The Baltimore Symphony) and Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concert of Music at Disney Concert Hall.
TV appearances include Only Heaven, My Favorite Broadway: The Love Songs, Life 360, In The Life, The View, Good Morning America, The Today Show, A&E’s Private Sessions. His film work includes Anastasia, Malcolm X, Martin and Orloff, and Chicago (soundtrack).
Mr. de Haas is featured on numerous recordings including his award-winning solo debut CD, Darius de Haas: Day Dream–Variations on Strayhorn. Other recordings include
40 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance
Children of Eden, Marie Christine, I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw The Sky, Fire At Keaton’s Bar and Grill, Myths and Hymns, Dreamgirls In Concert, Bright Eyed Joy, The Century Men: Anthems In Disguise, Only Heaven, Hair, The Bubbly Black Girl…, and Quiet Please with pianist Steven Blier.
Mr. de Haas’s previous appearances with NYFOS include, At Harlem’s Height (October 2001 & January 2002), Songs of Peace and War (March 2003), Lost Tribes of Vaudeville (November 2003 & May 2005), and NYFOS’s 25th Anniversary Party (May 2013) as well as multiple appearances at NYFOS galas and NYFOS After Hours at Henry’s.
JAMES C. MARTIN Baritone James C. Martin has won critical acclaim for his performances in opera, musical theater, and concert as a versatile singer, actor, and entertainer. Thrilled to be back with NYFOS this season, his artistic repertoire spans Bach to be-bop, Busoni to Burleigh, and Berg to Bernstein. He has appeared with leading musical organizations throughout the United States and abroad, including the opera companies of Mississippi, Chicago, San Francisco, Santa Fe, St. Louis, New York, Toronto, Strasbourg, Basel, and Oslo; the music festivals of Marlboro, Ravinia, Aspen, Moab, Colmar, and Tel Aviv; and concert appearances at the Concertgebouw, the Library of Congress, Washington National Cathedral, Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
Mr. Martin has had the privilege to be featured with many premiere arts organizations including the contemporary performance ensemble Continuum, the Collegiate Chorale, the Summergarden series at MOMA, Joy in Singing, the American Composers Orchestra, Red: an orchestra, Meet the Composers, the Carnegie Hall Honor! Festival in conjunction with the NY Public Library; the Caramoor Music Festival; Copland House, and Lincoln Center’s African American History festival and American Songbook series during the inaugural season of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s residency at Frederick P. Rose Hall. Recent highlights include premieres for Copland House, Papageno on Martha’s Vineyard, a Big Easy Best Actor nomination in New Orleans, recitals and concert appearances in NY, VA, ID, MS, AB, MA, and LA, and the CD release of Wake Up Singin’ for Copland House Blend recordings.
As a teacher, Mr. Martin is a popular guest clinician and is currently Adjunct Professor of Voice at Millsaps College in Jackson, MS, after many years as Teaching Artist in Residence.
41 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance
He maintains an active studio and is compiling and editing a book of songs by William Grant Still for the W. G. S. Foundation. As a church musician, he was a professional soloist with the Trinity Choir at Trinity Church, Wall Street in NYC for many years. In Mississippi, he has been an active worship leader, soloist, and clinician for the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi serving at St. Philip’s, Jackson, and the Mississippi Conference on Church Music and Liturgy, as well as coordinating music for the Task Force for Racial Reconciliation honoring Medgar Evers and the Freedom Riders under Bishop Duncan Gray, Jr. He currently serves as Director of Music and Creative Arts Ministries at Wells Memorial United Methodist Church.
Mr. Martin holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Illinois Wesleyan University and a Master of Music from The Juilliard School where he also received the William Schuman award for excellence and leadership in music. While at Juilliard he was a fellowship artist with The Juilliard Opera Center and directed the yearly MLK program for many years. He can be heard on the Naxos, Albany, and Copland House Blend recording labels. Find him at jamesmartin.us.com or like him on Facebook at James C Martin.
Mr. Martin’s previous appearances with NYFOS include At Harlem’s Height (October 2001 & January 2002), Dvořák and the American Soul (November 2002, February 2007 & October 2012), Lost Tribes of Vaudeville (November 2003 & May 2005), Fats & Fields (February 2005), All Together Now (February 2006), Harry, Hoagy, & Harold (February 2008), Night & Day / USA (February 2011), and NYFOS’s 25th Anniversary Party (May 2013).
NEW YORK FESTIVAL OF SONG (NYFOS) Now in its 27th season, New York Festival Of Song (Nyfos) is dedicated to creating intimate song concerts of great beauty and originality. Weaving music, poetry, history and humor into evenings of compelling theater, NYFOS fosters community among artists and audiences. Each program entertains and educates in equal measure.
Founded by pianists Michael Barrett and Steven Blier in 1988, NYFOS continues to produce NYFOS MAINSTAGE, its series of thematic song programs, drawing together rarely-heard songs of all kinds, overriding traditional distinctions between high and low performance genres, exploring the character and language of other cultures, and the personal voices of song composers and lyricists.
42 Reston Community Center Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance
Since its founding, NYFOS has particularly celebrated American song. Among the many highlights is the double bill of one-act comic operas, Bastianello and Lucrezia, by John Musto and William Bolcom, both with libretti by Mark Campbell, commissioned and premiered by NYFOS in 2008 and recorded on Bridge Records. In addition to Bastianello and Lucrezia and the 2008 Bridge Records release of Spanish Love Songs with Joseph Kaiser and the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, NYFOS has produced five recordings on the Koch label, including a Grammy Award-winning disc of Bernstein’s Arias and Barcarolles, and the Grammy-nominated recording of Ned Rorem’s Evidence of Things Not Seen (also a NYFOS commission) on New World Records. Its recently released CD on the GPR label, Canción amorosa, focuses on Spanish song—Basque, Catalan, Castilian, and Sephardic— with soprano Corinne Winters accompanied by Steven Blier.
In November 2010, NYFOS premiered NYFOS NEXT, a series for new songs, hosted by guest composers in intimate venues. This season the series returns as a mini-festival during the month of February 2015 with all concerts presented at OPERA America’s National Opera Center. In the fall of 2014, NYFOS officially introduced its unamplified cabaret series NYFOS AFTER HOURS at HENRY’s Restaurant on the Upper West Side, drawing full houses and superlative voices accompanied by Blier at the piano.
NYFOS is passionate about nurturing the artistry and careers of young singers and through its NYFOS EMERGING ARTISTS program has developed professional training residencies around the country, including The Juilliard School’s Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts (now in its 10th year); Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts (its 7th year in March 2015); San Francisco Opera Center (over 15 years as of March 2014); Glimmerglass Opera (2008–2010); and its newest project, NYFOS@North Fork in Orient, NY (2 years).
NYFOS’s concert series, touring programs, radio broadcasts, recordings, and educational activities continue to spark new interest in the creative possibilities of the song program, and have inspired the creation of thematic vocal series around the world.
All NYFOS programming is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
43 Reston CommunityNext On St Centerage Presents NYFOS: Harlem Renaissance
Anna Deavere Smith: Snapshots: Portraits of a World in Transition Sunday, January 18, 2015 8:00 p.m.
Tickets available online at: www.restoncommunitycenter.com Like us on Facebook • Follow us on Twitter Board of Governors
Beverly Cosham, Chair William G. Bouie Michelle Moyer Lisa Ehrhardt William Penniman William Keefe Vicky Wingert John Mendonça Gerald Zavala
Leila Gordon Thomas Ward Executive Director Deputy Director
RCC Arts & Events Staff
Paul Douglas Michnewicz Arts & Events Director Linda Ifert Technical Director Mark Brutsché Assistant Technical Director Kevin Danaher Community Events Director Cheri Danaher Arts Education Director Gloria Morrow Arts Education Assistant William D. Parker Box Office Manager Patrick Pacak, Susan Lissner, Shannon Catlett Box Office Assistants Hunter Livesay, Garrett Milich, Laura Reichert Technicians Alison Reinfeld House Manager Richard Lowman, Piano Tuning and Service RCC Piano Technician BeBe Nguyen Director of Communications Cristin Bratt Public Information Officer Carrie Ann Toreno Web/Graphic Artist Samantha Korkowski Graphic Artist