"My greatest claim to fame is that I discovered Bricktop before Cole Porter." -- F. Scott Fitzgerald
The indisputable queen of Jazz Age Paris nightlife was Ada Beatrice Queen Victoria Louise Virginia Smith, known to the world then and now simply as "Bricktop". Bricktop got her start (and her nickname, due to her red hair) at Barron's Exclusive in Harlem and moved to Paris in 1924 at the invitation of Gene Bullard, who had just opened his club Le Grand Duc on that corner of Rue Pigalle and Rue Fontaine in Montmartre. Over the next 16 years, first at Le Grand Duc and then at a series of her own clubs, she hosted the most luminous of Paris Jazz Age scene, from Scott Fitzgerald and T. S. Eliot to (for a brief period) the Montparnasse avant garde to, finally and most prominantly the worlds of Cole Porter, Noel Coward and the Prince of Wales.
The 2012 OFAM jazz party pays tribute to Bricktop and those golden years, including everything from solos to group jams, with Clairdee on vocals and some surprises from Ian Whitcomb. The format for the evening will be our usual jazz party: top-ticketed cabaret seating down front of the 21+ main floor, and reserved seating for all ages up in the balcony, with a full bar in the Tykeson Lobby. We won’t be getting going at midnight, mercifully, but at the far more civilized hour of 8 pm. And while formal wear is not required, in the spirit of the event, we encourage it for those who opt for the Gold Circle cabaret seating.
As usual, the evening’s program will be shaped by audience requests from the provided program list of music played at Bricktop’s, as well as favorite songs of Bricktop and the itinerant musicians, dancers and singers that passed through her world. Be prepared for a relaxed evening featuring some of the best standards-based jazz anywhere...with plenty of great singing.
| The eveningy's program will be selected from the following: |
| |  | Creole Love Call (1927) Rhyth-mania Duke Ellington, Bubber Miley, Rudy Jackson (m) |
| | Rosetta (1933) Earl "Fatha" Hines, Henri Woode (w/m) |