SOLOS

The Jazz Romance of trumpeter Ben "Blue" Miller and Ellie Grace, a woman composer in a man's world.

Trumpeter Ben "Blue" Miller has spent years blowin' horn in seedy bars, vaudeville, the carnies and worse. But he wants his name to mean something, something it never has before, to stand toe-to-toe with his heroes and play the instrument he loves. "Why the trumpet? Go ask Roy Eldridge, ask Fats Navarro, King Oliver, Clifford Brown, Bix, Dizzie ... Ask the sainted Louis Daniel Armstrong — ask the Archangel Gabriel as he weeps over creation and blows his final notes ... Hey, Gabe, why the trumpet?"

New Years Eve of 1939 he meets society girl Ellie Grace in a hotel lobby. He plays in the ballroom, her daddy owns the place. She's a gifted composer with no outlet for her music, and he's an itinerant musician, a "gypsy" without a way to the top. They begin a passionate relationship that lasts a life-time — she composes but is uninterested in performing; he plays her dazzling new music and accepts the acclaim from the audience.

The music changes, from swing and bebop through "free" jazz to melodic post-modern, with Ellie's compositions leading the way. People pay attention to Ben as he shares the stage as an equal with jazz giants. Ellie is delighted to give her music to the man she loves, but becomes frustrated by her invisibility as the decades go by, with Ben unwilling to risk falling from the heights he has attained — "I been hungry, and I been fed," he says. "Fed is better."

Solos is about love, deception, the hardships and joys of the jazz existence and the fabulous, always-changing life of the music itself, a dance of timing, in which the rhythms of dialog mimic the rhythms of jazz and the music becomes the third character, reinterpreting the actors' emotional involvements. The "soundtrack", a combination of improvisation and modern compositions by New York trumpeter Brian Groder, is played by a four-piece ensemble live on stage through three movements and a coda.

Now available for regional and international productions, Solos had its world premiere at the Orlando International Fringe Festival, May 20-30, 2004.

"My first Sunday show was Solos, a touching story about love, truth, God and jazz as religion, accompanied by an incredible jazz ensemble. Blue Miller, a working-class jazz trumpeter meets upper-class Ellie Grace who has a gift for composing scintillating music. Self-conscious Blue struggles with his inability to write the electric compositions that Ellie naturally produces. Shy Ellie battles her own monster, her performance inhibitions and the mid-twentieth century's views on women's roles. Their creative success belies their personal failures. Through their tumultuous relationship, Ellie and Blue realize that they are two parts of a whole, both as performers and lovers. A must-see performance." — Vincent Crampton, Orlando CityBeat

"A play by Joseph Reed Hayes is a welcome oasis of cultural smarts at the Fringe, which tends toward the bawdier side of the spectrum. His Solos takes as its topic the development of jazz, as revealed by the decades-spanning story of a trumpeter and his wife, who secretly pens his 'original' compositions. Music fans will have a leg up in discerning how their working relationship reflects the flow of an entire American century; no such foreknowledge, though, is required to appreciate Hayes' smooth hand with dialogue." — Steve Schneider, Orlando Weekly

"Best local playwright: Joseph Reed Hayes. Joe's Fringe play is Solos, a jazz riff about a jazz man (played by the always-interesting Jay Becker). The show features original music by Brian Groder." — "Commander Coconut", columnist, Orlando Sentinel

"I've never really got jazz, but the people involved are always fascinating. Back in the 20's Ben "Blue" Miller (Becker) runs into society girl Ellie Grace (Herrera) in the hotel lobby. He plays in the ballroom, her daddy owns the place. She's a gifted composer with no outlet for her music, and he's a Jazzbo of some limited talent. They strike up a romance that lasts a life time - she composes, he plays and takes the credit. Such a deal! After 20 years of this, Ellie longs for the spot light and by rights should get it, but Ben refuses. In retaliation, she writes progressively harder and harder music, making him one of the leaders of the progressive and modern jazz movements. But, at some point, she writes music so complex it exceeds his ability to play. Now if that isn't love, what is? There's a very cool live band playing between acts, playing songs in the style of what the couple writes. This adds a great deal of context to those of us who regard jazz as background music in a nice restaurant. Becker looks elegant in a suit as always, and Herrera is suitably outgoing and earnest, vengeful when required, and loving when not. I do have some question as to her role - sometimes the text implies she is black, and sometimes white. Would a black family own a large hotel ... in the 1920's, and would an interracial marriage occur in that time? The question provided an additional tension to the production, perhaps intended, perhaps not. (Answers: yes, they would and did, and who said they were married? - JH) But despite the loud preshow riffs that precluded chit chat, the show rolls along at a good clip, exploring the question of artistic recognition, bias in the jazz world, and long-term relationships based upon more than movie-style romance." — Carl F Gauze, Ink19

"The world of jazz has always been foreign to most of us, filled with people who speak in a strange vernacular and have longings most of us will never know. Writer Joseph Reed Hayes captures a bit of that world in Solos, an ambitious drama that tries to show the forces that have come between musicians and their music. Solos is the story of Ben "Blue" Miller, a jazz trumpet player, and Ellie Grace, who wrote his music but, as a woman in a man's world, had to keep her identity unknown. Hayes has upped the ante by using a four-piece jazz band (led by trumpet player Brian Groder) as a kind of Greek chorus." — Elizabeth Maupin, Orlando Sentinel

"Music of ceaselessly fascinating possibilities." — All About Jazz

The primary (and preferred) musical collaborator of JR Hayes, Brian Groder has studied with guitar great Dennis Sandole (who is probably best known as teacher to a who's who list of jazz luminaries including John Coltrane) and works and writes with the legendary Joanne Brackeen, who has praised the originality of his voice. He first met Brackeen (and Hayes) while attending her Master Artist's residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in Florida. Two years later, Groder returned to the Atlantic Center to study and perform with the master of avant-garde jazz, Cecil Taylor.

Equally fluent on trumpet and flugelhorn, Brian Groder draws on the entire jazz tradition, as well as world music influences, to create compositions critics have called "Music not only for today, but also for tomorrow," and All About Jazz hailed as "Music of ceaselessly fascinating possibilities."

While running a progressive and acclaimed instrumental music curriculum for an entire school district, he recorded two albums with the Abstract Truth ensemble, and Ancestral Tongues, his first CD heading his own group. The record garnered public acclaim as far afield as Japan, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, where it became a staple on the "National Radio" jazz show. His latest releases include the critically acclaimed Torque, new recordings with jazz great Sam Rivers, of which All About Jazz said, "This is easily one of the best and most exciting releases of 2006 and may prove to be an enduring classic.".

"When Joseph bounced the play off me, he saw the musical ensemble acting as a “Greek Chorus” to the characters on stage. I heard that concept true and deep, arousing musical possibilities of both the band interacting with the staged action and also being outside the play, reinterpreting the actor’s emotional involvements with each other, as well as with their jazz. I did not want another authenticated musical presentation of jazzed history, rather a pivotal setting for modern progressive compositions highlighting the nuances of each jazz scene. Swing, Bop, Modal and The Blues would all be focused thru the lens of a contemporary backdrop of poly-tonalities, odd time signatures, poly-rhythms, untraditional/expanded popular song structure and form. Jazz has always been, and will remain, an evolutionary art form." — Brian Groder