{"id":5473,"date":"2023-06-04T05:59:25","date_gmt":"2023-06-04T05:59:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/?p=5473"},"modified":"2023-06-04T05:59:26","modified_gmt":"2023-06-04T05:59:26","slug":"copasetic-foundation-celebrates-ten-years-words-sammy-stein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/2023\/06\/04\/copasetic-foundation-celebrates-ten-years-words-sammy-stein\/","title":{"rendered":"Copasetic Foundation Celebrates Ten Years. Words: Sammy Stein"},"content":{"rendered":"

May 2023 marked\u00a0the tenth\u00a0anniversary of the founding of the Copasetic Foundation. What began as an informal vehicle for jazz and related music words and music productions has grown to become an established, non-profit collective that creates and produces live music and theatre shows, to promote the understanding and appreciation of jazz and related music via live performance, recording, and electronic media.<\/p>\n

The Foundation is run by a board of volunteers co-ordinated by the secretary, Alex Webb, who told me, \u201cThe idea was in gestation for a while.\u00a0I had found I was creating, with some like-minded musicians and vocalists, projects which were more than just gigs; things with narrative, leaning towards theatre.\u00a0So, it was a bit like building a production house.\u00a0And part of it was to create a funding vehicle for those projects.<\/p>\n

I’ve long thought that although a lot of people out there either don’t know about jazz or actively dislike it, they are often interested in the stories of the amazing men and women who made the music – the human-interest side.\u00a0That was another spur to the kind of projects we’ve created over the last decade.\u2019<\/p>\n

I asked Webb about the name, and he explained, \u201cThe Copasetics was a social club founded by Billy Strayhorn, among others, in 1950s New York.\u00a0The word was already out there. It is also, according to Max Decharne’s\u00a0Dictionary of Hipster Slang\u00a0‘the highest compliment in the hep world.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Copasetic Foundation\u2019s specialty is putting on words and music shows and music theatre pieces about jazz history. Shows centre around particular themes, including great musicians and episodes of jazz and popular music history. Their first production was in 2009 titled, \u2018Old, New, Borrowed and Blue\u2019 which explored jazz and blues songwriting with the help of leading UK vocalists Ian Shaw, Liane Carroll, and Tammy Weis. It was performed in London at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, Paul Hamlyn Hall, and the Blackheath Halls.<\/p>\n

For the 2010 London Jazz Festival, Webb, together with arranger Frank Griffith, created a words and music show\u00a0about Duke Ellington\u2019s co-composer Billy Strayhorn, featuring Griffith\u2019s nine-piece band and vocalists China Moses and Alexander Stewart.\u00a0In 2015, for Strayhorn\u2019s centenary year, the show was revived for the festival. \u2018Lush Life: The Songs of Billy Strayhorn\u2019\u00a0<\/b>was staged at the Cadogan Hall with a ten-piece band and the\u00a0participation of vocalists David McAlmont, Sandra Nkake, and Allan Harris.<\/p>\n

In 2013 Webb created a multi-media show with the film workshop Bebop Productions about the life of jazz musician Charlie Parker, which played at the Purcell Room as part of the London Jazz Festival.\u00a0\u2018Charlie Parker on Dial\u2019\u00a0used projections of archive photographs as well as bespoke abstract imagery and a spoken narrative by Sirena Riley to tell the story of the two years (1946-7) Parker was with the Dial record label. The show featured alto saxophonist Nathaniel Facey and trumpeter Freddie Gavita, playing Webb\u2019s arrangements. It received excellent reviews.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the past decade, Copasetic Productions have featured a stellar line-up of musicians and vocalists and staged numerous productions \u2013 some are listed in the \u2018take away facts\u2019 at the end of this article. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The activity of the Copasetic Foundation is not limited to productions. It engages in education and offers music business seminars and business coaching for young musicians.\u00a0 <\/span>Webb brings his experience as a senior lecturer in music and event management at university level, organising seminars for Tomorrow\u2019s Warriors students, and organising and lecturing at the 2019 edition of the Take Five residential programme for Serious Ltd to these events. The Foundation also calls on expert advice from many areas of music including live promotion, marketing, press, PR, and music publishing.<\/p>\n

With such a diverse range of projects and activities, I asked Webb whether he felt there were tangible differences the Foundation had helped create. He replied, \u201cThat’s a hard one.\u00a0We’ve created a lot of work for musicians, but I can’t say we’ve really changed anything on the scene. I do think we’ve done some audience-building, which has to be a good thing.\u00a0And some important people had their first, or at least very early, gigs for us – Cherise, Camilla George, Nathaniel Cross, and Melanie Charles in the US.\u201d<\/p>\n

I asked Webb where he considered the future of live music and projects was going and he commented, \u201cThe live scene will continue to be tough, and being more cut off from Europe by Brexit hasn’t helped, but I think jazz can survive anything and a lot of the worries about the effect of AI on music won’t apply. I believe jazz is pretty much AI-resistant.\u00a0The experience of being in a room while music is created or at least extemporised in front of you, in real-time, I don’t think that will ever die.<\/p>\n

I’d like to get a Copasetic project back into a London theatre again – I’m working on it but, like music, theatre took a hell of a beating in the pandemic and there isn’t much appetite for risk.\u00a0But I’m excited to be working with two excellent young jazz vocalists – Ineza, with whom I’ve created a show of entirely female-written (or co-written) repertoire with a great female band, and Lulu Pierre, who has it in her to be a jazz singer in the classic mould.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, the first ten years have proved productive and the Copasetic Foundation is respected and established. Here\u2019s to the next ten years and more.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Take away information.<\/b><\/p>\n

Production locations:\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Queen Elizabeth Hall, The Purcell Room (Southbank), Tricycle Theatre, (Kilburn, London) Leicester Square Theatre, Theatre Royal Stratford East, Ronnie Scott\u2019s Club, Pizza Express, St James\u2019 Theatre Studio, the Hideaway (Streatham), JW3,(Finchley), Snape Maltings ( Woodbridge, Suffolk), Scarborough Spa Theatre, Crazy Coqs ( London), Sunset-Sunside Paris, 59E59 Theaters New York, and other venues.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Albums produced or co-produced by the Foundation.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n