Joseph Reed Hayes, playwright
The Jazz Romance of trumpeter Ben "Blue" Miller and Ellie Grace, a woman composer in a man's world. A tale as passionate as the music A live band and all-original compositions
SOLOS:
Drama with music. Full length 90 minutes. One male, one female actor: playing from mid-20s to senior. Can be done with minimal set.Original music written by Brian Groder. Versions for live band or prerecorded music available.
sample pages
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Solos
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."
... until things finally explode.
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.
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Orlando International Fringe Festival 2004
Jay T. Becker
Lulu Picart
Ula Stoeckl, director
Brian Groder: composer, musical director, trumpet; Chuck Archard: bass; Per Danielsson: piano; Doug Mathews: bass; Steve Luciano: guitar; Tom Ewing: guitar; Mark McKee: keyboards; Dan Johnson: drums -
Orlando Citybeat
"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." Orlando Weekly
"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."-
Orlando Sentinel
"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."
WUCF-FM
"A definite must-hear!" -
Orlando Sentinel
"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." -
Ink19
"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 (Picart) in the hotel lobby. He plays in the ballroom. They strike up a romance that lasts a life time - she composes, he plays and takes the credit. 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. 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."