[Dixielandjazz] Sweepin the Clouds Away reviewed - New York Times, February 24, 2014

[Robert Ringwald]

Happy Days and Happy Feet, Despite the Depression
by Stephen Holden
New York Times, February 24, 2014
What, if anything, does it mean that the giddiest, most euphoric popular music ever
produced in the United States bubbled and kicked up its heels while the country was
sliding into the Great Depression? That question hovered over the joyous opening-night
performance on Saturday of "Sweepin' the Clouds Away: Boom, Bust and High Spirits,"
presented by the 92nd Street Y's Lyrics and Lyricists series, almost all of whose
songs were written between 1929 and 1932.
The show, hosted by the music historian Robert Kimball, had surefire musical grounding
in the buoyant 11-member dance band Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks, which recreates
the past, note by note, sound by sound from Mr. Giordano's collection of vintage
band arrangements, sheet music and old recordings. Oh, it sounds like a museum exhibition,
you may scoff. But to hear them in action is to be reminded that this music, when
played with enthusiasm, is as alive and vital as any being created today. The show's
high point, unannounced in the program, was a frenetic performance of "Jazznocracy,"
a 1934 piece for the Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra.
The show was impeccably cast with singers whose affinities to gramophone and operetta
styles of the era helped bridge the gap between then and now. Erin Dilly, John Treacy
Egan, Jason Graae, Klea Blackhurst and Christine Andreas covered all the bases. Ms.
Blackhurst blared two standards introduced on the musical stage by Ethel Merman:
"I Got Rhythm" and "Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries." Mr. Graae, affecting a French
accent, became the blase, cheerfully fatalistic narrator of "Just a Gigolo," and
Ms. Andreas his character's female counterpart in "Love for Sale," which Mr. Kimball
said was reputed to be Cole Porter's favorite of all his songs. Ms. Andreas found
a delicate blend of wit and pathos for "Body and Soul."
The theme of the evening was distilled in an Irving Berlin song, "Let's Have Another
Cup of Coffee," from the revue "Face the Music":
Songwriters say the storm quickly passes;
That's their philosophy.
They see the world through rose-colored glasses;
Why shouldn't we?
-30


-Bob Ringwald K6YBV
www.ringwald.com
916/ 806-9551

“I offer my opponents a bargain: if they will stop telling lies about us, I will stop telling the truth about them.” -Adlai Stevenson, campaign speech, 1952.