When music at the ballpark is mentioned one\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s thoughts immediately summon an organ playing assorted diddies designed to get the crowd to make some noise, as well as the famous seventh inning stretch favorite \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Take Me Out To The Ballgame.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 Dixieland also is a ballpark favorite as the groups are small and feature lively tunes.<\/p>\n
Baseball usually doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t conjure thoughts of big band music but in the early 1940\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, barnstorming Negro League baseball teams doubled as big band jazz bands in the evening.\u00c2\u00a0 This discovery led to the creation of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Jazz and Baseball\u00e2\u20ac\u009d show at Manchester Craftsmen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Guild<\/a> in Pittsburgh on February 12 and 13.<\/p>\n MCGJazz Executive Producer Marty Ashby, a long time baseball fan, discovered the interesting tie between the two distinctly American pastimes while researching another project at the Smithsonian Museum of American History.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not sure whether they were jazz bands that played baseball or baseball teams that played jazz,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Ashby.\u00c2\u00a0 What he did know was these teams helped pay the bills by playing ball during the day and then turning out the tunes at night.<\/p>\n Ashby then approached longtime Yankees Entertainment Director Stanley Kay<\/a> about collaborating on the show.\u00c2\u00a0 Kay not only worked for the Yankees for decades but he managed and subbed for drummer Buddy Rich and had ties to the jazz world that pre-dated his tenure with the Bronx Bombers.\u00c2\u00a0 Kay founded the big band \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Diva<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that is a powerhouse band with a roster of all women.<\/p>\n The New York based big band was the ideal selection as the centerpiece of the concert to play such hits from the Big Band era as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Baseball Boogie\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Joltin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Joe DiMaggio.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 The music will reminisce of an era when baseball and big band jazz weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just things to do; they were key elements of \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcpop culture\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 for the era.<\/p>\n The performance will also pay tribute to Kay who passed away in June of last year.\u00c2\u00a0 In addition to Kay\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s favorite big band\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another name on the show roster who was no stranger to Kay.\u00c2\u00a0 Broadway star Haley Swindal, granddaughter of the late Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, will step up to take a few swings.\u00c2\u00a0 So will MLB umpire Joe West who will forgo calling balls and strikes to croon a tune or two and share some of stories.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Baseball and jazz are a lot alike,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d offers Ashby.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They both offer individual freedom for the players to improvise but the team or band is always greater than its individual parts.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n That commonality will be shared and celebrated in this show.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe jazz will pop to mind with the mention of baseball.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When music at the ballpark is mentioned one\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s thoughts immediately summon an organ playing assorted diddies designed to get the crowd to make some noise, as well as the famous seventh inning stretch favorite \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Take Me Out To The Ballgame.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 Dixieland also is a ballpark favorite as the groups are small and feature lively tunes. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":716,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/716"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11283\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}