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Big Band Jazz and Swing Dance Music Come Back to Ward Hotel
Released April 18, 2008
(ABERDEEN, SD) It is big band jazz and swing dance time In Aberdeen! On Fri, Apr. 25, two NSU Jazz Ensembles and the Vocal Jazz Ensemble will perform a night of 1940s swing at the historic Ward Hotel Grand Ballroom.
Music starts at 7:30 p.m. with the doors opening at 6:30 p.m. A cash bar will be provided, and tickets are $10 per couple and $6 single and a special price for High School students $4.
“We have had so many requests for a second dance after the success of the annual Jazz/Swing dance that was held at the Ward in November, that we decided to hold the second event for this academic year,” said NSU’s Grant Manhart. “And due to the fact there are three groups performing, the music will be virtually continuous the entire night.”
The event has its origins in the NSU Jazz Ensemble’s traditional November Big Band concert honoring Veteran’s Day, where NSU Jazz Ensemble and Vocal Jazz students would perform authentic works of the big band era, dressed in period military uniforms, with ballroom dancers on stage. Prior to this year, there has been only one jazz ensemble at NSU. Due to increasing enrollment and the recent hiring of Dr. Terry Beckler, Percussion, there are now two full 15 piece big bands rehearsing at NSU.
Dr. Grant Manhart, Professor of High Brass and director of the “2 O’Clock” Jazz Ensemble, moved the event to the Ward Hotel Grand Ballroom in 2006, and it was an instant hit with the Aberdeen Community, college students, and area high school students. The band takes its name from its rehearsal time of 2 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Dr. Terry Beckler’s group is similarly named the “1 O’Clock” band. This “rehearsal time naming tradition” comes from the famed jazz school the University of North Texas (UNT), that had eight different jazz ensembles, with the top band rehearsing at 1 O’Clock. The great big bands of the day: Kenton, Ferguson, Herman, Miller, Dorsey, and others would regularly call the professors at UNT when they needed a new sideman, usually selected from the 1 O’Clock band.
One of the high points of the evening will be the performance of an original Woody Herman tune which has not been heard since the record “The Woody Herman Band!” came out in 1954. The tune is “Ottobahn Blues”, composed by a young pianist/composer with the 1945-56 “Thundering Herd”, Ralph Burns. Ralph Burns went on to compose four other Herman trademarks including, “Apple Honey,” “Four Brothers,” “Bijou,” and “Wilowroot.” Other tunes he collaborated on which Manhart’s 2 O’Clock band will be playing are “Caldonia” and “Northwest Passage.” Terry Beckler’s band will be playing Herman’s “Woodchopper’s Ball.” Burn’s career turned to Broadway in the 1960’s, and he scored the stage productions of “Chicago,” “No, No, Nanette” and “Sweet Charity.” Burns went on to win an Academy Award for “Cabaret” in 1972.
Why has the tune not been heard since? Manhart says he does not know. The original handwritten score, however, fell into his hands when he was in graduate school in Cincinnati. The score was in possession of his trumpet and jazz professor, Frank Brown, who played with Woody Herman on and off for years as lead trumpet. “Woody would call me when he had a young trumpet section that needed training” Brown told the young Manhart. Tragedy struck Frank Brown when he was murdered on the street in Cincinnati in May of Manhart’s last semester.
“I was studying the score on loan from Frank at the time. There was understandably chaos in the school and specifically the jazz department. Frank’s office was sealed, and I just hung on to the score, realizing it was valuable, and therefore I was very concerned as to whom to return it. If I gave it to the wrong person during the tempest surrounding Frank’s death it could be lost or thrown out,” said Manhart. “I kept meaning to copy the score to individual parts to preserve it for a performance and send it to the University of Cincinnati Jazz Department estate, but my life got very busy on the road with bands, and so it has sat in storage since 1983.”
Manhart recently retrieved the score, and created parts for the band to perform. He has been searching online for a source that has the tune on record so the band can hear how the 1954-55 Thundering Herd interpreted it, but so far with no luck. “We can take it from Ralph’s notes in the score if we have to,” said Manhart.
“The night should be wonderful for big band jazz enthusiasts,
dancers, and anyone wishing to be a part of one of those wonderful
Aberdeen/NSU collaborations,” said Manhart. “Plus you
will see the Ward Ballroom as it was meant to be, filled to the
brim with music and dancing”.
About Northern State University
Northern State University is a premier residential institution characterized by outstanding instruction, extraordinary community relations, and unparalleled extracurricular opportunities. In August of 2007 NSU was named by US News and World Report as one of the best undergraduate public institutions in the Midwest. For more information about NSU, visit our Web site at www.northern.edu.
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