It’s not often in Tucson you can bring tap dancers together with jazz musicians, but we were able to accomplish this for the Charlie Parker & Dave Brubeck Centennial Celebration School Show (belated from 2020) held on May 8, 2023, at Utterback Middle School (TUSD) in Tucson. Charlie Parker invented the bebop language and tap dancers were known to have inspired the rhythmic feel. In this clip you’ll see Eric Nakanishi (new to Tucson alto saxophonist/represented Charlie Parker) and well known award-winning Tucson tap dancer Brendan Kellam trading after the performance was over. Brendan & Eric were very happy to meet and perform for the first time together and they wanted it to continue for as long as they could. Not only was this concert fun for the students, it was also fun for the performers, too.
We hope to bring the Parker-Brubeck School Show to more school districts this fall. Performers included Scott Black/bassist & Artistic Director, Sly Slipetsky/pianist representing Dave Brubeck, Pete Swan/drums, Eric Nakanishi/alto sax representing Charlie Parker, and tap dancers Brendan Kellam & Maya Vinayak.
Thank you to Principal Sanders & Riki Valdez for allowing us to bring this educational jazz music concert to Utterback Middle School students. And a special thank you to Altrusa International of Tucson for the $1000 grant (2020) that made this performance free for 200+ students.
The performance was organized and produced by Krystyna Parafinczuk, Treasurer & Project Manager, Tucson Jazz Music Foundation. Scott Black, Artistic Director, designed the program content. To learn more about our school shows/themes, email TucsonJazzMusicFDN@gmail.com or call 520-743-1349.