Fifty years ago, jazz music stood at the forefront of the American music scene. "Side Man," a 30-year journey through jazz history, chronicles the triumphs of jazz musicians during the glory days of the big band -- sex, drugs and disorderly conduct included -- and the lessons that followed.
"Side Man," presented in conjunction with the University's jazz festival, delves into the family construct surrounding many of the 1950s jazz musicians. While working as professionals, often spending late nights in the clubs and weeks on the road, jazz musicians were also family men torn between doing what they loved and making ends meet.
The play's title is based on these men who, although they were talented and essential members of the traditional swing band, often went unnoticed behind the names of more popular band leaders such as Benny Goodman, Gil Evans and Glenn Miller. Written by the son of a side man, Warren Leight, "Side Man" is a semiautobiographical story of his parents' own rocky marriage and jazz lifestyle.
The storyline in "Side Man" weaves between Clifford Brown's present day, the early 80s, pseudo-flashbacks of his parents' early days in the 50s, and his childhood through the 60s and 70s.
Jack Marshall delivers a carefully crafted performance as Brown, a currently unemployed and confused 20-something, torn between the responsibilities of taking care of a mentally deranged mother, attempting to reunite his estranged family and breaking away to set out on his own.
Jumping back to the '50s, after years of living gig to gig and hanging out with the boys in the band, accomplished jazz trumpeter Gene (Christopher McHale) meets the young, fiery, albeit naive, Terry (Jennifer Rohn) in the practice hall one night.
They marry, and as Terry tries to make her house into a home, Gene continues to swing with the boys, Al (Jeffrey Blair Cornell), Jonsey (Ray Dooley) and Ziggy (Ken Strong).
Through a series of flash-forwards and flashbacks, Clifford explores his parents' attempt at marriage and the strains of a jazz lifestyle.
As her marriage breaks down, Terry turns to the bottle to drown out the sorrows of a life that didn't live up to her expectations.
