Dizzy’s Coca-Cola Club hosts late night session every week Tuesday through Saturday featuring up and coming jazz musicians. The breathtaking view of Central Park and Columbus Circle creates a wonderful atmosphere to enjoy live music. This week Michela Marino Lerman brought tap fever to Dizzy’s supported by very fine musicians: Tivon Pennicott on saxophone, Kyle Poole on drums, Russell Hall on bass and Takeshi Ohbayashi on piano.
Michela has been tapping since she was five, she is a well-established performer, composer and educator. For years she has been performing in NYC as well as internationally. She also hosts a weekly jam session at Smalls Jazz Club, breathing life into the tradition. That’s where I first had the pleasure of seeing her. Tap dance and jazz seem like a natural fit and it’s always amazing to see it live (you can also subscribe to Smalls’ live feed and watch live streaming from anywhere in the world).
This week Michela and her group played a tribute to Horace Silver, an amazing jazz pianist and composer. The chemistry between the members of the band was intense and the vibe throughout the set was very bright and full of passion. It slowed down for a beautiful ballad Lonely Woman, not the easiest tune to tap to, but so full of soul and heartbreaking tenderness. Michela’s tapping is mesmerizing and the range of sounds she creates with her feet was impressive, to say the least.
Tivon Pennicott and Kyle Poole, both semifinalists in the Thelonious Monk Competition, dazzled the audience. Tivon’s sound is rich and beautiful and Kyle did a fantastic job keeping the heart of the band beating steady and was swinging hard.
It was difficult not be enchanted by the piano solos of Takeshi Ohbayashi. Originally from Japan, he is a marvelous pianist and has a very clean and crisp sound, which beautifully complemented Michela’s solos.
Joseph Wiggan, another wonderful tap dancer, joined the band at the end of the set, and delighted the audience with his performance.
Once the official part of the set was over, the stage opened up for a jam session. For the rest of the night tap dancers and musicians engaged in a dynamic musical conversation, with the charismatic Michael Mwenso as a host.
Curious to learn more about her journey as an artist, I chatted with Michela before the show.
Anna: How did you start to tap dance? Was your family a big influence?
Michela: I started when I was 5. My mum loved old films, she was a seamstress for a fashion designer, and she loved old clothes, old style, like from the 20s and 30s. She also grew up loving tap dance, she never did herself. But she would show me these films and I fell in love with tap dancing. And then when I was 5 I saw the movie “Tap” with Gregory Hines. When I saw him I was awestruck and I fell in love with him and what he did. I started begging my mum for tap dancing classes. And then one day randomly this tap dancing group came to my kinder garden and did a performance, just for our class. They passed out their flyers at the end of the class with their school information, I took one home and said: “This is it! That’s where I want to be” …. And I wound up there. It was an amazing place because all of the master tap dancers worked and rehearsed there. So I was at the very core of it from the very beginning. It was very inspiring!
A: That definitely must have been the best place to be! Was tap and jazz intertwined for you from the very beginning?
M: No, It was tap, just tap at first. But as a tap dancer the first song that I performed to was Ella Fitzgerald’s “Mack The Knife.” So jazz came in very early, but it also depends on the school where you are tapping. In NYC, with the type of dancers that are here, they teach jazz to kids at a young age in tap dance schools. … When you study dance outside of the city, more often it is pop music.
A: You were very lucky then!
M: I was very lucky, I grew up here. And then through my mentor, James “Buster” Brown, who was a real tap master, I really started to get into jazz. He took to me different jazz clubs in the city – St.Nicks, Lenox Lounge – lots of uptown places. And he really showed how to work with the band. He had a regular tap dance jam session every Sunday at Swing 46. So he really introduced me to the importance of jazz and tap dance together.
A: Who inspires you in jazz music? Who do you like to tap to?
M: An early influence, and one that’s been consistent, is Monk. His phrasing is so spacious, his compositions complement tap dancing very well, they are a lot of fun to tap to. He was also my mentor’s favorite composer. And there tons of drummers that I listen to, drummers are always a big influence. Current one that I love listening to is Ulysses Owens, he sounds like a tap dancer!
A: You have collaborated with a number of top jazz musicians in NYC. How do you choose the people you want to work with? And how what about the band you are playing with this week at Dizzy’s?
M: It’s a very particular thing to play with a tap dancer. It’s sort of like playing for a vocalist but not exactly. You have to find musicians who are very open and willing to work with something new. And that’s why I picked these guys – they are very supportive, very open to working with a tap dancer.
This is an ongoing project, developing how to incorporate myself in the band as much as a musician as possible, and not be a dancer in front of the band. I’ve been working with Kyle for years now, I love working with him. Takeshi and Russell are people that I recently been working with, but it’s such a cool vibe out there with them. Yesterday Russell was playing a solo and he started tapping with his foot, it was so awesome! And Takeshi has been learning some steps. Everybody is catching tap fever!
A: What are the main challenges to “playing jazz with your feet”?
M: One thing is that there is no way for me to sustain a note, even a drummer has the ability to sustain the sound by crashing the symbol very loud and the sound will last long . For me, I constantly have to move to make my sounds. To make a sustained sound I have make a lot of quick sounds, so it’s more like murmur. I hear things in my mind that I want to do, I want to hold the notes but I can’t really hold the notes … So I am working on trying to really listen to everyboys’ phrasing and start to phrase my dancing more like a musician and less of a typical tap dancer. Typical tap dance phrasing – we hold time a lot, we have specific phrases that will play and then there is a lot of keeping time in between. I am trying to play more with sound, space, pauses, add value to a phrase. And make it stronger, make it stand out more, rather than just consistently be dancing.
A: You have been running the tap dance jam session at Smalls Jazz Club for almost five years now. How did it all come together?
M: I was hanging out at Smalls, Fat Cat and Zinc Bar a lot with a friend, Joe Wiggan, and we would sit in with musicians. After a while people started take notice that tap dancers are hanging around and then my friend told Spike [the owner of Smalls] that he should have a tap session at Smalls and he recommended that I host it. Spike was totally open to the idea and we started doing it once a month, then twice a month and then it became weekly … And now it is an amazing thing to do for me to do in the middle of the week. To have a place to dance and to PROVIDE a place to dance, it’s so beautiful. My upbringing as a tap dancer happened at the jam sessions, that’s where I got most of my education. Jam sessions are where you really go to school; you can learn only so much in the studio. You have to practice, fail, try and try again, until you succeed.
A: What are some of the other projects that you working on now?
M: The is the first time that I am here at Dizz’s and I am very excited to be a part of what’s going on here. I thinkI might be coming back to here in May. In a couple of weeks I will be a part of a tap dance showcase of the current choreographers on the scene. I am putting together a tribute Betty Carter with Charlene Wade, she is going to sing. My group will be performing at Harlem Arts Festival in the summer, lots traveling coming up – I will be doing some tap festivals around the world. Things are pretty good, it’s a very busy, exciting year so far.
A: Sounds like a very busy and exciting year ahead! Any final thoughts that you would like to share?
M: I just want to encourage people to keep working hard on their craft. Stick with it, stay focused, and it will bring you far.
Anna Yatskevich is Flowers In A Gun’s glamorous jazz & beyond critic! Catch more reviews from her here and follow her on Twitter @jazzaddikt.
