Recent Performances | New Orleans Lowdown

Check out Steve Lockwood Featured in Jazz Profile Magazine 05/08

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"New Orleans Lowdown"

This new dance/theater piece is the result of a commission from a local ballet company. In September 2005, I was asked to create a jazz score for a local company that was unable to continue it's committment. This proposal occurred just two weeks after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans and the surrounding community. I became attached to the project and decided to finish it and get it staged on my own. It became more and more apparent to me that I had to do this. I had to do this. Why? The continuing lack of sales of jazz and improvised music coupled with the destruction of its birthplace, and abandonment by its state and federal government produced the necessity for this piece. The importance of realizing that the very survival of the people of New Orleans and their community are at stake had to be stated and for once not as a documentary, but as a "real" drama.

There were also personal reasons that drove me to working with this project. The opening scene is actually a true story (almost). My first visit to a jazz club was on my 18th birthday with my Father, and that evening produced a rare moment of hapiness and bonding with him. These moments are not easily forgotten.

The music is original, and it is an homage to a city that is an American cultural icon. It is a fervent wish that New Orleans will be able to resurrect itself as one of America's leading cultural and international centers.

Since the language of dance/theater is so familiar to me because of my work with Meredith Monk, and because jazz and the blues are equally so, I felt this was the best way to say what I deeply felt about this tragedy.

Regular updates as to the show's progress will be noted on this website. Please tune in as often as you wish for the progress reports!!!

Premiere performance will be staged by the Nannette Brodie Dance Theatre at Golden Valley College's Mainstage Theater in Huntington Beach CA on April 12 & 13 2008. Keep in touch for more updates.