Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Speaking of Mad Men: Club Dantzic opens with 60's jazz, booze and Stanton Hoffman Quartet on Fri, Aug 13, Artspace Shreveport; curator's talk at 8 pm

William Joyce, artistic director of Artspace Shreveport, looked at the photos of jazz greats that were to be exhibited at Artspace Shreveport and had an epiphany: "We'll show those images in a nightclub, which was where so many of those performances were captured."

Thus Artspace Shreveport has been turned into Club Dantzic for the display of the photos of Satchmo and Miles and Krupa.

The exhibit opens with a party Friday night - beginning at 5:30 pm. At 8 there will be a curator's talk by Grayson Dantzic, son of the photographer whose work is on view.

Speaking of the hot TV series, the vibe will be pure Mad Men. The musicians and onlookers in the photos sport white shirts, skinny ties, Ray Bans, little black dresses, pointy high heels.

There will even be a behind-the-curtains area called the Boom Boom Room. There you'll be able to catch the burlesque vibe of the era, says Megan Porter.

The room is dominated by a large, dark bar designed to evoke a big-city tavern.

Friday night the Stanton Hoffman quartet will provide ample jazz and will able to play whatever's necessary - r&b, rock, reggae - to get the crowd rolling. With the powerful John Hoffman on drums (Stanton's son), Rick Willis on bass, Stanton on keyboards and Scotty Gerardy on sax, the quartet presents some of the region's best players.

Admission is $10.

Also, look for a video called 'Jazz Is' by Robert Trudeau. Six local musicians offer solo takes on their favorite jazz vibe in a film designed to demonstrate the range and something of a definition of the music called jazz.

Bill Joyce's definition of the music is on the Club Dantzic logo: "Jazz is life. Life is Jazz."

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