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THE COTTON CLUB STORY
This lively production is a celebration in words and music of the world's most famous nightclub.
From 1923 until 1940 the Cotton Club, with its exotic cabarets and hot orchestrated jazz, set the standard for club entertainment for all time by buying in the class of singers, dancers, musicians, songwriters, producers, designers and caterers that only gangster money could afford. Its fast-paced shows, earthy and erotic, were irresistible to the nightly influx of merrymakers from downtown - and their dollars - and meanwhile provided a showcase and a career boost to a generation of future stars.
Audiences are treated to the hot, sultry music of Duke Ellington, forever associated with the Cotton Club by virtue of his long residency in the 1920/30s; and to interpretations of performances by Armand Piron, Andy Preer, Luis Russell, the Mills Blue Rhythm Band, Jimmy Lunceford, Louis Armstrong and the outrageous Cab Calloway, all of whom played the club at various times.
Between numbers short narratives describe the background, with reference especially to the gangsters and bootleggers who owned and operated the club, characters like the "murderously polite" Owen Madden and his associates "Big Frenchy" DeMange and Harry Block; and there are anecdotes relating to singers and dancers like Ethel Waters, Adelaide Hall, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and the Nicholas Brothers, as well as the bandleaders and their sidemen. There is more detail available in a printed programme for optional purchase.
The Cotton Club Story brings to life - with impact and authenticity - a slice of entertainment history for today's audiences. A "must" for jazz fans, its appeal will further embrace anyone who enjoys good music well played and imaginatively presented.