Satchmo’s in her heart and songs
“My Heart Belongs to Satchmo,” the tasty new recording by singer Roberta Donnay and her Prohibition Mob Band, includes a version of the Depression-era classic “Pennies From Heaven” with wry new lyrics by the inimitable Dan Hicks.
Donnay, who worked with Hicks for a decade before his death in 2016, says Dan Hicks & the Hot Licks rehearsed but never performed or recorded his “Pennies From Heaven,” which manages to rhyme “deadbeat” with “dead meat.” Arranged by Sam Bevan for bass, trumpet and voice, Donnay and vocalist Annie Stocking added other touches to it for this album of tunes associated with Louis Armstrong.
“Dan was a genius arranger and writer, a great performer, an insanely unique talent,” says Donnay, a swinging singer and arranger in her own right. “He was like an old vaudeville guy. He’d do anything to make the audience laugh.”
Donnay and the Prohibition Mob Band plan to serve up songs from their new album Thursday, March 8, and Saturday, March 10, at Mill Valley’s Throckmorton Theatre. Both shows benefit W.O.M.A.N. Inc., the San Francisco organization that helps victims of domestic violence.
Thursday’s lineup also includes indie rock singer Stefanie Keys, jazz vocalist Deborah Winters, Kay Kostopoulos & Black Olive Jazz and others.
On Saturday, Donnay and the band — which features fine players like reed man Sheldon Brown, trumpeter-cornetist Rich Armstrong and bassist Bevan — share the bill with jazz singer Michelle Coltrane, daughter of legendary saxophonist John Coltrane and harpist Alice Coltrane.
A self-taught musician, Donnay grew up in the Washington, D.C., area listening to her folks’ jazz and Broadway recordings. A teenage runaway, she started singing in clubs, and toured with blues, folk and rock bands after moving here on a lark in ’82. Billie Holiday was a big influence, she says, Armstrong even more so.
“Louis performed with so much joy and energy,” she says. “The amount of energy that man had, and the power of his trumpet — God! He played with such courage and abandon. His music saved my life.”
Donnay co-produced and arranged “My Heart Belongs to Satchmo” with Bevan and 18year-old music whiz Matt Wong, whom she met at a jam session in the Bay Area two years ago and who now attends Manhattan School of Music. He’ll be on piano at Throckmorton; pianist John Burr, who’s on the record, plays with the band Friday, March 9, at Berkeley’s Back Room.
Bevan’s pleasing arrangement of “Up a Lazy River” replicates the original Armstrong recording, but with the scat improvisation voiced for the horns.
Donnay, who sings a ruefully tender version of “Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?” rarely scats herself (the late, great producer Orrin Keepnews agreed to work with her on the condition she not scat sing). Instead, she focuses on the phrasing of the melody, she says, on “the lyrics, the meaning, and the feeling.”
For more information, go to www.throckmortontheatre.org.
Playhouse commissions
San Francisco Playhouse’s ambitious new 5-Year Commission Program will develop 20 new works over the next five years.
The company, whose new play program has nurtured a number of notable pieces over the last decade — including Lauren Gunderson’s “Bauer,” “Seared” by Theresa Rebeck and Christopher Chen’s “You Mean to Do Me Harm,” will annually commission plays by “an “established top playwright,” two mid-career practitioners and one emerging playwright.
The first-year commissions are going to Rebeck, Aaron Loeb, Chelsea Marcantel and newcomer Christian Durso. Look for plays in future years by Lauren Yee, Julie Hebert, Jen Silverman and Chen.
For more information, go to sfplayhouse.org.
Beach Blanket scholarships
Aspiring singers, dancers and actors can apply for the arts scholarships handed out annually by the Steve Silver Foundation and “Beach Blanket Babylon.” Bay Area high school seniors can compete to win $15,000 — in acting, singing or dancing categories — to further their studies.
Submit an entry form and a three-minute performance tape, postmarked or uploaded by 11:59 p.m. April 27. Three finalists from each category will perform for the top prizes at San Francisco’s Club Fugazi on June 4.
For more information, go to www.beachblanketbabylon.com/2018-scholarship-form.
Elfman at Stanford
Celebrated film composer Danny Elfman is scheduled to be at Stanford’s Bing Concert Hall Saturday-Sunday, March 10-11, when his new violin concerto, “Eleven Eleven,” will be performed by violinist Sandy Cameron and the Stanford Symphony Orchestra under John Mauceri’s baton. Stanford co-commissioned it. For more information, go to live.stanford.edu.