Joseph Reed Hayes, playwright

Avram Saltzman is newly arrived in New York, a working musician with talent and ambition. It is the mid 1940s, when a thriving population of Jewish players who worked as studio musicians in popular swing bands, as well as novelty "oriental" (klezmer) orchestras, were being displaced by the advent of new jazz styles and the increasing prominence of black musicians taking control of their own music onstage and in recordings.

Tempus is a story of heritage, pride and conflict, old ways and old players making way for the new, in a time when musicians of all colors were forbidden from perform together in public, but shared musical styles and explored new avenues of expression after hours.

Taking inspiration from Shakespeare's Tempest, big band and bebop, Old World and new, with live musician/actors onstage playing original jazz and klezmer music both revived from the period and written specifically for this project, Tempus looks at life spoken in the universal languages of music and love.

Part 3 of the Avram Chronicles