[Dixielandjazz] "It Ain't Nothin' but the Blues" reviewed

[Robert Ringwald]

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Exploring the Far Reaches and Forms of the Blues
by Rachel Saltz
New York Times, August 3, 2011
Watching "It Ain't Nothin' but the Blues," a musical revue at Aaron Davis Hall, feels
a bit like being on a sightseeing tour with an uninspired guide. The things you see
may be appealing or even thrilling, but you're not going to learn much about them
that you didn't already know.
With more than 30 numbers, this second production of the New Haarlem Arts Theater,
the recently formed professional company of City College, really is more dressed-up
concert than play. Costumes change, and there's a bit of narrative patter and some
dancing, but the songs remain front and center. Here are the blues in every permutation:
country, city and churchy blues; happy blues and sad blues; slow burns and fast-talking
come-ons.
The show, first seen in 1994 in Denver and at the New Victory Theater in New York
in 1999, gives you a strong sense of the elasticity and longevity of the form, but
that's about it. There is no overarching narrative idea; instead the writers (five
are credited) present the music's story in a roughly chronological way, beginning
with chants in Africa and ending, more or less, with postwar urban blues.
If the revue, directed by Alfred Preisser (the founding artistic director of the
Classical Theater of Harlem), never gains much cumulative power, it still has lots
of standout moments, thanks to a strong, nicely varied cast of eight performers.
(A live band provides accompaniment.) Some highlights: Dameka Hayes's "Fever," Marvel
Allen's "St. Louis Blues" and Shawn Brown's sweet and shyly lowdown "Candy Man."
The most sustained section -- a "give the ladies the mike" cluster of songs -- is,
not coincidentally, the most exciting, and it contains the show's high point: Nathaly
Lopez's vampy-funny "Come On in My Kitchen." She understands how to find the drama
in the blues, and milks the song for all she can get. (Plenty.)
Too often, though, the theatrical presentation works against the music, smoothing
its rough edges and making its ache sound rehearsed. As my friend said afterward,
"They gave you the songs, but where were the blues?"


--Bob Ringwald
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