Five Guys Named Moe Try to Teach Him Some Life Lessons Through the Jiving Music of the “Grand- Father of Rock ‘N Roll,” Louis Jordan
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CONTENTS The Play Meet the Playwright FIVE GUYS Arena Backstage: Director Robert O’Hara Louis Jordan: The King of the Jukebox NAMED MOE Historical Context: Rhythm and Blues to Rock ‘n’ Roll Jukebox Musicals Timeline of Music: 1938-1962 Do the Clothes Make the Man? Fashion and Costumes Three Big Questions Additional Resources THE PLAY Nomax has got the blues, so he tunes into his favorite radio station. On this particular night, the station is celebrat- ing the music of Louis Jordan, “father of rock, rap and roll” and “showman extraordinaire!” When Nomax tries to turn off his radio, he is accosted by five guys who magically appear from nowhere. It gets weirder because they are all named Moe! There is No Moe, Little Moe, Eat Moe, Big Moe and Four-Eyed Moe. They have come to show Nomax the error of his ways. While Nomax mopes about losing his girl, the five guys named Moe try to teach him some life lessons through the jiving music of the “grand- father of rock ‘n roll,” Louis Jordan. l Now Playing in the Kreeger Theater November 14 – December 28, 2014 Lyrics and music by Louis Jordan Book by Clarke Peters Directed by Robert O’Hara A co-production with Cleveland Playhouse The DC Ticket Partnership is generously sponsored by the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation. Additional support is provided by Rockwell Collins. William Gottlieb/IraP. andLeonore S. Gershwin Fund Collection, MusicDivision, Library of Congress.) MEET THE THE JUKEBOX KING AND FatHER LOUIS JORDAN OF RHytHM AND BLUES (July 8, 1908 – February 4, 1975): PLaywRIGHT ouis Jordan was the the most famous white artists at the Lconnection between time, wanted to make a record with Louis the Big Band era and Jordan. They released “Your Socks Don’t Jordan with Sax. the Rhythm and Blues Match” in 1944. era. Born and raised in Arkansas, Jordan had played with various bands and Jordan provided much of the slang in majored in music before he decided to early rock ‘n’ roll and directly influenced start his own band, the Tympany Five. its freewheeling spirit. This down-home Arkansas man knew what the people Clarke Peters Their music was unlike anything else wanted to hear. In 1946 he sold over at the time. The sound was big and 2 million recordings of “Choo Choo “I was blown away by the happy like the big bands, but Jordan Ch’Boogie,” obliterating any previous amount of people … who only had five band members, a radically record. Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five paid homage to Jordan: Nat small number at the time. Having fewer were on fire for the whole of the 1940s. King Cole, Bill Haley, Elvis instruments opened to band up to a Presley, James Brown, B.B. looser style of riffing and improvisation, However, in the 1950s, he started losing King and Chuck Berry among while still maintaining the sound of the steam. His manager left him and his them. Like Count Basie, big bands. Louis Jordan and His Tympany experiment fronting a big band was a Jordan just has a natural Five were an instant success. Music failure. Then in 1953, Decca Records critics called his new sound “jump music” canceled his contract as well as those of musical bounce … How I because it made people dance. Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong. The wish I could have had even landscape of popular music was changing just ten minutes talking to In 1943, Jordan released the hit “Is You quickly. Jordan continued to play and him. That’s history, African- Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby?” His band record music with diminishing success American cultural history.” first performed the song in Hollywood. A until his death in 1975. The musical Five – Clarke Peters Universal Pictures movie crew happened Guys Named Moe kicked off a Louis to hear it and filmed them for an Jordan revival in 1992 with its U.K. premier. Clarke Peters was born in upcoming movie. Jordan released the l New York City, and grew up song when the movie premiered, and it in Englewood, New Jersey. took off. This song helped him to attract riffing- making use of short rhythmic He is an accomplished a white audience. Bing Crosby, one of phrases repeated in a song. actor, writer, director and singer. Peters earned a Tony award nomination in 1992 for Best Book of a Musical ARENA BACKSTAGE: DIRECTOR ROBERT O’HARA for Five Guys Named Moe, which was nominated for riter and director, Robert O’Hara returns to Arena Stage for the Best Musical that year. first time since his acclaimed production of The Mountaintop. Peters even played the role W of Nomax in the Edinburgh Tell us about Five Guys Named Moe. club act. I want the cast to feel like rock Festival and West End What attracts you to this show? stars, and I want to encourage them productions in 2010. What attracts me to Five Guys Named to be rock stars. Moe, besides the music, is the opportu- What about dancing? Peters won the Theatre nity to reinvent it. So when Arena said It’s going to be a huge dance show, World Award in 1999 for his to put my own take on it I immediately which is why it required us to really starring role in The Iceman thought about what context I could put search for the people who have that sort Cometh on Broadway. the play in. So I said, “Well, what if they of stamina and skill set. There’s going He also played the role were a tribute group? What if the Moes to be flips, there’s going to be tapping, of lawyer Billy Flynn in were a modern day boy band, but they and there’s going to be throwing people the Broadway revivals sang the songs of Louis Jordan?” around the stage. I want it to be an event of Chicago in 2000 and We got the OK from producer Cameron in that way. l 2003. He is famous in the Mackintosh, so we’re reinvigorating the songs. We’re going to add different types television world for his of instruments and put a different spin, so it role as Detective Lester doesn’t feel like we’re in the 1930s and 40s Freamon on HBO’s The Wire. listening to a band, but that we’re listening to a tribute to that music. We’re going to West End – London’s make it an event — a Five Moes event — premiere professional and a celebration of Louis Jordan’s music. theater district, like Broadway in the U.S. How would you describe the aesthetic of the show? It’s going to be incredibly stylish. We’re really looking for it to be almost a night HISTORICAL CONTEXT: TIMELINE: 1938-1962 Rhythm and Blues to Rock ‘n’ Roll Saxophonist Louis 1938: Jordan forms his hythm and blues is the creation of band, the Tympany Five. Ra genre of music Jordan and His Tympany Five. rock ‘n’ roll. Modern Records that combines soulful William P. Gottlieb/Ira and Leonore S. Gershwin Fund 1945: is founded in Los Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress.) singing with a strong Songwriter Angeles to specialize in black back beat. Its clearest Jon Hendricks music. beginnings can be seen wrote a lot of Louis Jordan after World War II and songs from launches “jump through the 1960s. The Jordan’s last 1946: blues” or “rhythm and blues” economic boom and Decca record. with “Choo Choo Ch’Boogie.” rising employment after During the the war drew many rural recording Atlantic Records is African Americans to period 1947: founded in New York the cities. This created Hendricks had to promote black music at the a young, urban black a conversation intersection of jazz, rhythm audience. Swing music with Milt and blues and pop. was on its way out, but Gabler, one of Memphis radio the need for dance the producers. 1948: station WDIA hires music was stronger than Hendricks tells Nat Williams, the first black DJ. ever. Early R&B artists, this story, The first rock ‘n’ roll led by Louis Jordan, 1951: record, Ike Turner’s broke away from the “I was in the “Rocket 88,” is released. big band structure and studio when Little Richard’s first moved to small instrumental combos with Milt Gabler said, ‘This is [Louis Jordan’s] record is released. blues-style vocals. New instruments like the last date for Decca.’ And I said, ‘What?’ He 1952: electric guitar and the bass added volume says, ‘Yeah, we have to let him go.” And I Sam Phillips records and intensity to the sound. said ‘Why?’ He said ‘Well, they got this new 1953: the first Elvis Presley kid comin’ up, so Louis has to get out of the record in his Sun Studio in The term “rhythm and blues” was coined in way.’ And I said, ‘What new kid?’ And he said, Memphis, using the effect of 1949 by Billboard magazine to rename its ‘Elvis Presley.’” “slapback” audio delay. “race records” chart. This new term reflected Ray Charles forms the rise in social status, economic power Artists like Louis Jordan, Little Richard, 1954: his band. and musical influence that African Americans James Brown and Ray Charles were the link Chuck Berry cuts were cultivating. New independently owned between rhythm and blues and rock ‘n’ roll. 1955: his first rock ‘n’ radio stations and record labels that It was fitting that they were some of the roll records, the first ones marketed to black audiences fascinated first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of to have the guitar as the l young white audiences and led directly to Fame in 1986 and 1987.