(Byron Stripling is conductor and trumpet soloist.) 

By Jerome Langston

“A lot of this is informed by Count Basie,” says Byron Stripling, the acclaimed jazz trumpeter, actor and conductor. “The show is informed by the music of Ella Fitzgerald and so many others, so it has that feeling…of that era of jazz, but we kind of do our own thing to it too.” Stripling is referring to the music set to be performed during the Uptown Nights concert performances with our Virginia Symphony Orchestra, later this month. Currently the artistic director and conductor of the Columbus Jazz Orchestra, the Atlanta native, who has performed with VSO in the past, will conduct the orchestra this time—guiding them through popular music of the 1940s and 50s, in places like Harlem’s famed Savoy Ballroom and the Cotton Club.

Stripling’s father was a classical singer, who moved his family around due to his career, and so Byron and his brother spent time in places like Kentucky, Minnesota and Texas, during his youth. He started playing the trumpet as a tween, and singing in church for his dad’s choirs. Eventually he was educated at the prestigious Eastman School of Music, and started playing trumpet for jazz superstars like Clark Terry and Lionel Hampton. After time spent with the Woody Herman orchestra, the current Ohio resident joined the iconic Count Basie Orchestra, shortly after the passing of its legendary bandleader and pianist, who died in April of 1984.

Following Count’s passing, the big band would eventually fall under the leadership of Thad Jones, and then later Frank Foster, the acclaimed saxophonist, arranger and composer, who spent his later years right here in Chesapeake. It was a challenging time for the band—a period of transition, but Stripling tells me that they rose to the challenge. “We had to up our game,” he says. “We definitely felt that responsibility in upholding the great tradition of what the Basie band was.”

During his four years performing with the Count Basie Orchestra, Stripling landed the lead in the touring musical, Satchmo: Americas Musical Legend. That show began his long association with the artistry of the great trumpeter and entertainer, Louis Armstrong, whom he has performed as, and performed the music of over the years. The success of that show also led to subsequent high-profile acting work and huge gigs as a musician. “It has really helped, so many other things that I’ve done—even just being in the theater,” he says. Now a widely acclaimed jazz orchestra conductor and musician, Stripling has performed with some of the most prestigious pops orchestras and symphonies in the world, including the Boston Pops Orchestra, Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, and the Pittsburgh Symphony, amongst so many others.

The Uptown Nights program at both Chrysler Hall and the Ferguson Center, will spotlight songs and entertainment associated with 20th century musical greats like Duke Ellington and his orchestra, entertainer and bandleader Cab Calloway, and the vocal brilliance of Virginia native, Ella Fitzgerald, regarded by many as the greatest jazz singer of all time. The program name references Harlem, the famous neighborhood in upper Manhattan, which was long considered Black America’s cultural mecca in the last century, as it became a major destination for black Americans during the Great Migration, and later became known for its Harlem Renaissance, a period of impressive black cultural and artistic exploration and output, from the likes of Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Zora Neale Hurston, and a number of other now highly regarded music artists, writers, intellectuals and visual artists. Though the renaissance lasted past the 1920s, that is the decade that saw its most iconic moments, prior to the now infamous stock market crash of 1929.

Joining VSO for these performances conducted by Byron Stripling, will be two of his frequent collaborators, singer Carmen Bradford, who performed for many years with the Count Basie Orchestra as well, and tap dancer Leo Manzari, who is a twenty-something DC native. Bradford will sing a number of Ella classics, including “A-Tisket, A-Tasket,” “Mr. Paganini,” and “Someone to Watch Over Me”. “She’s a great storyteller in addition to being an amazing singer,” Stripling says. As for Manzari, he was mentored by the great Maurice Hines, a good friend of Stripling, and the older brother of legendary tap dancer, actor and singer, Gregory Hines, who passed away in 2003. “He’s got the spirit of all the great tap dancers before,” says Stripling, referring to Manzari.

“My main thing is showcasing my music, and then incorporating tap dance as a percussion instrument in my live shows,” Manzari tells me later, during our brief interview. The hip-hop soul artist and dancer, who released a debut album, From The Other Side of the World, late last year, is now based in Los Angeles, where he records music and performs. “I actually grew up on big stages, but then I learned to operate on the smaller platform, which enables me to be more of a musician.”

He was only 14 when discovered in DC by Hines, after years as a kid performing and studying tap. “He came and kind of put me on a professional platform and had me exist in a different stratosphere,” says Manzari, about Hines. He is also a fan of many of the tap-dancing greats, including the Nicholas Brothers, Jimmy Slyde, and of course, the aforementioned Gregory Hines.  “I learned a lot from his style, approach to the floor, his relaxed nature—yet intensity within the dance.”

Manzari brings “a youthful influence to the show,” he says, and believes that young adults should not be intimidated by this art—whether the jazz or the tap. And Stripling believes that the music being performed and celebrated in this show is a great antidote to our recent, collectively challenging times. “We can squeeze the joy out of hard times.”

 

WANT TO GO?

Uptown Nights 

Virginia Symphony Orchestra 

Byron Stripling, conductor & trumpet 

Carmen Bradford, vocalist 

Leo Manzari, tap 

February 25, Ferguson Center 

February 26, Chrysler Hall 

virginiasymphony.org