Some years later when Anne was living in Greenwich, Connecticut she saw that Brubeck was in town to perform his Fiesta de la Posada, a Christmas opera piece based on Mexican themes.
She went to see the show and particularly loved a piece so much that it stuck in her mind. Brubeck instantly remembered her from their time at Oberlin and his wife Iola was there at the event confirming that yes, Dave definitely had a great memory for people.
Again, some years later Anne was writing her Jazz Nativity piece, she came to a part, where she needed a very joyous piece of music and remembering that show, she thought that Brubeck’s piece would be a great addition to her show.
She reached out to him to see if she could use that piece of work from the Fiesta de la Posada and he graciously allowed her to use it. In addition, his wife Iola contributed material as well to Anne’s composition.
The show then goes on to “Deck the Halls” sung by the vocal group and then Anne says the show goes into what she calls a planned “jam session”.
She laughs that this goes on for about a half hour. She has a general “road map” of what gets covered in this jam. From trumpets, bass, saxophone, drum solo, singers singing skat, trombone, swing, jazz saxophone acapela….these are all arranged improvisations. Sometimes she will have guests come up from the audience to join.
One of her favorite stories is that one year she had legendary saxophonist and composer, Paquito come up as a guest because he couldn’t “officially” be one of the kings since he was performing at Lincoln Center.
He loved the show though so much and wanted to be a part of it so he would make a point to sneak into the audience so that he could be a part of the jam session.
From there it goes into a swing section and back to Deck the Halls with the vocal group.
In hearing her read through the program, I myself become so excited. I ask her is this a sit down event? I can’t imagine people sitting still. She tells me that people are up and the place is roaring by the end of the performance which I can absolutely believe!
The first part of the performance
Anne says that throughout the years, different members in the show have added their own flavor and Anne feels that this is another reason why people keep coming to the show. There’s so much unexpected variety each and every year.
Anne gives me some fun stories about how the show has changed through the years.
She tells me that the first Three Kings in the very first performance were trumpeter, composer & writer Clark Terry, tap dancer Charles “Honi” Coles and a juggler who the church had requested to be a part of the performance.
Anne laughs that she definitely did not want to keep a juggler as part of the show and quickly decided to change that part for the following year. She made a big improvement the next year by swapping out the juggler for another musician, this time aiming high to get Tito Puente for the role.
One of Anne’s earlier performances of the Jazz Nativity. Yep, that’s her!
The story for finding Tito is that Anne realized she knew someone who could help connect her to him.
She played tennis with a gentleman, named Sal Negroni who was the lawyer for Fania Records which was the label that Tito Puente was under.
Anne called up Sal and asked “how do I get in touch with Tito Puente”. Sal happily gave her Tito’s number and told her to tell him that Sal had recommended her to him.
Unlike today where her musician’s are paid scale wage, she was only able to pay the musicians $100.00 per show,
So she wasn’t sure if Tito would be interested as he was in such high demand with lots of major gigs, but he happily agreed to be a part of the event.
In fact, he said no to other gigs to be a part of Anne’s performance much to his manager’s disappointment. He loved being a part of the show. Some of the years when Tito was playing, there would be 2 or 3 performances of the show and Tito’s manager would call her up complaining “Anne, you’re killing me”, because obviously Tito could be making more money at other gigs.
It just shows how much Tito valued being a part of this event.
Three Kings Day (El Dia de los Reyes) has deep roots in Latin culture. The January 6thholiday marks the adoration of baby Jesus by the Three Kings, the Wise Men.
With strong ties to Latin tradition and Christian religion, Anne still makes sure the show is inclusive to people of all religions and philosophies. The concepts behind this show being love, hope and truth which resonate with everyone.
The perfect story to express this is that one year Anne asked Lew Soloff, lead trumpet player for many years in this show to be one of the kings. He was silent for some time before responding to her by saying “Anne, I’m Jewish, and I don’t know if I should really be one of your characters?”. So Anne said “What if we get you a yarmulke for a crown?”.
Anne had a special yarmulke made for him with beautiful embroidery and jewels so that he could feel more comfortable playing the role of one of the kings.
The special yarmulke made for Lew Soloff as one of the Three Kings in the Jazz Nativity.
In fact, the show has now been performed at the Stephen Wise Synagogue in NYC where the rabbi explained that the show is a great way to show respect for other people’s traditions and thoughts.
Until his passing, Anne had CBS news anchor and journalist, Charles Kuralt narrating the show and he would introduce the show in this way….“In Bethlehem in the grotto where Christ was born, a light shines into the darkness. The light is meant to serve, as light serves for so many religions and philosophies, as a symbol of truth and love and hope.
Hope, that even in a dark season, we may begin to see the world BENDING TOWARDS THE LIGHT.”
This year’s Three Kings are tap dancer, Maurice Hines, trombonist Steve Turre, and the most recent addition whom Anne is thrilled about is drummer and percussionist Bobby Sanabria. Join us this Sunday, December 16th at 7PM to Christ & St. Stephen’s Church at 120 W. 69thSt.; NY, NY to see this year’s performance. Click here to purchase your tickets
Those words are still as powerful and meaningful today as they were when the performance started in 1985. Anne hopes that when you come out of her show, you feel the same uplifting feeling that she still does. And that’s why she’ll do it again next year!
Bending Towards the Light – The Jazz Nativity, Written & Arranged by Anne Phillips, Additional music by Bob Kindred and Dave Brubeck, Additional lyrics by Henry Timm and Iola Brubeck, Interview arranged by and photographed by: Betsie Batista, Author: Tina Trevino
