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Event
Wee Small Hours:Post Modern Variations
About Wee Small Hours
Internationally recognized singer, Nathan Granner and composer Jeffrey Ruckman (see key personnel) have begun an interesting collaborative partnership. Having known each other for almost a decade and through playing in ensembles together the two have formed a bond that allows for fun, challenging conversation as well as a working compositional parlance.
The project at hand is "Wee Small Hours, Post-Modern Variations on the iconic smash 1955 Frank Sinatra album, "In the Wee Small Hours". The sixteen Classic American Standards on the record are brilliantly arranged by Rukaman with an ear for post-modern pop and sung by Granner using the full gamut of his prodigious vocal skills, just now coming to prominence.
This obsession created by this album wasn't just brought about by a love for the early work of Frank Sinatra, it is also the hearkening back to a style totally American made, influenced by the classic sounds of Europe at the turn of the 20th Century and the hot Jazz sounds just then becoming a wave that would change the world.. Tin Pan Alley was thecenter of this hotbed of sound, where composers worked in little rooms to sell to the world. It wasn't just about the music, it was immgrants needing to feed their families. There was no special place to go, not a great concert hall to aspire to...simply the churn of the mind and the scratch of pen on paper, paying the rent and staving off being on the street.
With the multitude of music that came out of that period, the Great American Song book took shape and 'Standards' are the name that stuck.
What Sinatra did in 1955 was to take a group of these 'standards' and make his own context and narrative out of the chosen playlist. At the time, Sinatra had broken up with Ava Gardner, or rather, she with him. Theirs was a stormy relationship culminating in an emotional bond that resulted in numerous near-death experiences for the two of them. The jealousy, the rage, the love and the passion these two had for each other was an opera on its own. Just think if there had been reality TV THEN! Their breakup had a devastating effect on Sinatra. Using sixteen songs, he was able to convey his sadness, his longing and confusion about what had happened to him and in the process making one of the greatest works ever.
For seventy five years some of these songs have existed (just a drop in the bucket say, to a Mozart aria or a John Dowland piece) yet they seem to have been around for ever, conveying our thoughts, or desires and our emotions. Is the moment past us? Frank standing under the street lamp, singing songs of unrequited love seems like dreamland, But we think more so now than ever these songs, this emotional state, are right for us.... only ... the music must be made of our era. That's the beauty of the American Classic song, it is meant to be a maleable shape rather than a rigid expression of one thing over the eons.
OUR TIME
Where's the time? Hustle-Bustle, move it or loose it, go go go! Get there, get that done, got that done, get that other thing done, yesterday! And then there's the recession... How long have YOU been out of work... six, eight, eighteen months? It's funny, being out of work, we are even busyer than before. Send That resume! Go get that interview, dress up fix your tie, these are my good socks, job's taken, get another interview, new resume, go buy 'how to get a job in the recession', same info, different author, who writes these things anyway???
Break-ups happen, love is lost, day fades into night and I find myself staring out the window at three AM. It's too early for coffee, too late for sin, when am I going to feel like a kid again?
I'm lost in a daze
of an eternal haze
and now the birds are chirping ...
It's strange not the sun but how now the moon seems more like my friend.
-Wee Small Hours: Post-Modern Variations-
-Key Personnel
Jeffrey Ruckaman -
(aka: Glendon Jethro, J. Ruckus, Glenda Jeffries, Jevy Rukaman, Doyle Magritte, etc.) has been a founding member of Gillham Park Orchtet, Necessity Brass Band, Gamelan Genta Kasturi, newEar, Terrestrial Consort, and Spoonbender Orchestra. He writes music for instruments, found objects, hardware/salvage constructions and voices. He has performed and collaborated with Lou Harrison, John Cage, Pauline Oliveros, Firesigh Theater, Rebirth Brass Band, Treme Brass Band, Indonesian gamelan masters Ketut Gide Asnawa and Komang Astita, temple gamelans of Denpasar and Ubud, Transylvanian poet Andrei Codrescu, the Ozark Mountain Daredevils, National Audio Theater (as composer in residence), and National Public Radio, to name a few. Among his recent projects is "Sounds of Silents," a series of silent films presented with live music composed by Rukaman at Kansas City Public Library's Helzberg Auditorium.
Nathan Granner -
On his own, Sony/BMG Masterworks recording artist, Nathan Granner has received critical acclaim from The Boston Globe, The London Times, The New York Times, Opera News, Washington Post, and USA Today from his appearances as solo artist as well as from his leading role portrayals with the National Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Irish Radio Orchestra, the Tulsa Philharmonic, Opera Theatre Saint Louis, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Wolf Trap Opera, Opera Tampa, and Tulsa Opera. He counts his characterizations of Ferrando in Cosi fan Tutte, Nemorino in L'Elisir D'Amore, Remus in Scott Joplin's Treemonisha and Mr. Owen, Man With a Paint Box from Dominick Argento Wagnerian pastiche, Postcards from Morocco, in addition to being a Metropolitan Opera National Council Semi Finalist as his most outstanding achievements to date.
Mr. Granner has also been a force in the Kansas City Metropolitan area, working and collaborating throughout the community as an artistic director, a general manager and as an entrepreneur. He is co-founder and President of KCMETROPOLIS.org, Kansas City's new online journal of the Performing Arts, an answer to the shrinking press coverage of the print media industry.
In addition, Granner is creating a new role for a new major musical theater piece "Lost Lady With a Violin, written by Laurie Whitaker and is collaborating with composer Jeffery Ruckma on "Nathan Granner - Wee Small Hours - Variations on the 16 songs on the iconic 1955 Frank Sinatra Album" Also on deck is collaboration with composer Brad Cox on "Hymn - a new live production celebrating the history of the American Hymn". He is also keeping an extensive national concert schedule. Please visit www.nathangranner.com for more information.
Gerald Spaits - Bass
Gerald Spaits, a native of Kansas City, is one of the foremost bass players in the Kansas City area. Gerald has enjoyed an active career including playing with jazz legends Jay McShann and Claude Fiddler Williams. Appearing with national recording artists Herb Ellis, Rob McConnell, Marilyn Maye, Gary Foster, and The Woody Herman Orchestra, Gerald has also provided soundtracks for TV and radio commercials. He has performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival, the San Jose Jazz Festival and the Worlds Fair in Seville, Spain. Gerald is the Adjunct Assistant Professor of Jazz String Bass at the Conservatory of Music at UMKC. He also teaches private lessons at the Toon Shop and with Kansas City Young Audiences.
Scotty McBee - Percussion
With a natural talent for anything musical, Scotty began playing music at a very young age. Family musicians and artists alike gave him the propensity towards being creative. This added to his intuitive sense of musical perfection making him one of the most talented musicians in the Kansas City area. He began playing guitar at the age of 4, and added drums at 6. Ever since that point, he would explore a variety of instruments and styles. He is heavily influenced by the likes of Frank Zappa, The Beatles, Dream Theater, Jellyfish, Charlie Daniels, George Carlin, and Chick Corea just to name a very few. Another evidence of influence is his current portrayal of Gene Simmons in the Kansas City area tribute band, KISSED. He participated in numerous forms of music throughout his education and was featured as WDAF-TV Channel 4's first "Reaching for Excellence" area prodigy. Scotty is an Eagle Scout, a member of the tribe of Mic-O-Say, and a member of the Order of the Arrow all affiliated with Boy Scouts of America. He is also an enrolled Native American, being a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. He earned the degree of Bachelor's of Music in Percussion Performance from UMKC in 1996, and currently teaches budding musicians in the areas of guitar and percussion in private lessons. He is a regular studio musician for Berry Music Group in Kansas City. He can be found playing around the Kansas City area and internationally as the drummer for Ida McBeth and Friends, as one of the hosts at the infamous Jerry's Jam night on Wednesdays at Jerry's Bait Shop in Lenexa, and with groups like Seastrings and Jazz Discharge. With the release of his CD, "Playing with Myself", he has begun performing as Scotty McBee and the Dangerous Kitchen.
Pat Conway - Percussion
Patrick Alonzo Conway is a percussionist, wind player and
composer. He has studied with ethnomusicologist David Locke and such noted Master Drummers as Abubakari Lunna-Wumbie (Dagomba), Frisner Augustn (Haitian), Michael Spiro, Alejandro Carvajal (AfroCuban) and I Ketut Ged Asnawa (Balinese).
Mr. Conway has traveled to Cuba to research Afro-Cuban Folklore through the Escuela National de Art in Santiago de Cuba and Havana.
He holds a Master of Music degree in Music Composition from
the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and was a founding member of the contemporary music ensemble newEar and has served as president and a member of the Board of Directors of the New Music Institute of Kansas City, Inc..
He has performed with the Gillham Park Orchtet, the Terrestrial Consort, Orquesta Inspiracion, Flamant, Mambo X, ERV Andean fusion group, Grupo Aztlan and worked as performer and composer with Paul Mesner Puppets, Gorilla Theater and the National Audio Theater Festival.
Greg Singleton - Guitar
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LocationThe Hemingway Gallery
103 W. 19th St
Kansas City, MO 64108
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: No |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: No |
| Wheelchair Accessible: No |
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