THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 27, 1995 TAG: 9504250093
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY DAWSON MILLS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Long : 238 lines
TAKE A DOZEN OR SO talented musicians, drop them into a time warp and transport them back to the 1920s and '30s, supply them with music found only in places like the Library of Congress archives, and what do you get?
The Hotel Paradise Roof Garden Orchestra.
Specializing in the music of an era belonging to your grandparents and great-grandparents, this group is a trip down memory lane like no other. But the group's fans are as much teenagers and young adults as the geriatric set. What's happening with the Hotel Paradise Roof Garden Orchestra and its followers is vibrant and alive.
The best way to understand it is to experience it by catching the group performing at Uncle Louie's Delicatessen and Restaurant in Norfolk between 3 and 5 p.m. on the first Sunday of each month. But make your reservation early. The dates usually are sold out a week or two in advance.
``We initially attract the older market, age 50-plus,'' explains Lynn Summerall, the Hotel Paradise Roof Garden Orchestra's conductor and music director. ``But they bring their younger friends, who fall in love with the music. Or they wander in accidentally while we're playing and become regulars.''
It's hard to resist the pull of ``Heart Of My Heart'' (1926), ``Star Dust'' (1927) and ``I'll Get By'' (1928).
Performances at hip, contemporary area music stores such as Blockbuster Music (formerly Tracks) and Planet Music bear this out. Teens stop browsing through bins of rock, rap and heavy metal to listen when Summerall strikes up the band.
Even the teens wind up tapping their feet to ``St. Louis Blues'' (1914), ``Basin Street Blues'' (1928) and Fats Waller's classic ``The Joint Is Jumpin' '' (1938).
The Roaring '20s. Flappers. Bathtub gin. The Charleston. Every hotel worth its salt had an orchestra. The palm court variety gave way to the salon or ``hotel'' orchestra. A decade later they would evolve into the ``big bands,'' without strings and with a guitar in place of the banjo, a string bass in place of the tuba. Glenn Miller. Tommy Dorsey. Guy Lombardo.
But orchestras like the Hotel Paradise Roof Garden Orchestra would carry America musically from the '20s era into the Great Depression and the New Deal. Their brand of music was balm for the national spirit, with tunes like ``Bye, Bye Blues'' (1929), ``Happy Days Are Here Again'' (1929) and ``Here Comes The Sun'' (1930).
The magic still works today.
``I started the orchestra in the spring and summer of 1991 when I realized my trombone was getting dusty,'' Summerall recalls. ``I wanted to bring something fresh to Hampton Roads - not just another `big band' but something different.''
Summerall was inspired by the music of Isham Jones, a bandleader of the late '20s and early '30s.
``The music is invigorating, melodic, fun, the sort I'd like to play myself,'' he says.
The search for suitable music began by contacting author Garrison Keillor's musical staff. Keillor's music director referred Summerall to the Library of Congress. Summerall and Buddy White, who would become lead alto sax and vocalist with the orchestra, made the initial visit. On subsequent trips they learned the music was also available at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, the Chatfield Brass Band Library in Minnesota, and - surprisingly - the Fairfax County Public Library in Northern Virginia.
White, a composer (he has written a musical) and band director at J.P. Knapp Junior High School in Currituck, N.C., furnishes the orchestra with original arrangements. But even the new arrangements are faithful to the period. The orchestra includes only one song in its repertoire that was written after 1938: ``Achy-Breaky Heart.''
``It's a fun piece to do, and I wanted to see how it would sound with the orchestra,'' Summerall says.
``I'd like to add `Rhapsody In Blue' by Gershwin in a concert arrangement,'' White says. ``It was written for Paul Whiteman and his orchestra, a glorified salon orchestra with more players.''
The 13 instrumentalists and Summerall are joined by principal vocalist Becky Livas for numbers such as ``When The Moon Comes Over The Mountain'' (1931) and ``Begin The Beguine'' (1935). Tap dancer David Kennedy joins the band for the likes of ``Sleepy Time Gal'' (1926) and ``The Blue Room'' (1926).
``One of my dreams was to sing with an orchestra,'' says Livas, who has a background in broadcast journalism. ``My ex-husband told me I would never make it as a singer in this day and time; my voice belonged in the '20s, '30s or '40s. In the back of my mind I knew I was a singer, and this is perfect. It gives me a sense of accomplishment. Performing is medicine to me.''
Summerall, 48, has spent most of his working life in and around the performing arts. He was associate manager of the Maryland Ballet Company, spent a year with the Metropolitan Opera doing group sales and theater parties, and was in the stage crew of the New York Philharmonic.
Public relations and marketing work for ``The Lost Colony'' led to a one-year assignment at Radio City Music Hall in New York. The late Vianne Webb hired him as an announcer for Hampton Roads' public radio stations, WHRO-FM and WHRV-FM, a job that continues to make his voice familiar to Hampton Roads radio listeners.
``I gathered musicians by word-of-mouth,'' Summerall says, recalling the orchestra's earliest days. ``We rehearsed for six months, first once a week and then twice a month. Our dress rehearsal for our public debut was a Pizza Hut party; we were paid in pizzas. Our debut was in January 1992 at the Jewish Mother.
``Shortly thereafter, I convinced Louis Eisenberg to try us Sunday afternoons at Uncle Louie's. We started there in October 1992. Now it sells out most of the time. We've established a following that supports us to a great degree.''
The orchestra also performs at the Old Point Steak House in Hampton the second Sunday of each month. The Steak House has a dance floor, something that is missing at Uncle Louie's, where patrons occasionally dance in the aisles. The orchestra has played the Chamberlin, in Hampton, for special events, including a highly successful Valentine's Day party this year. That hotel, built in 1928, is a perfect venue for the orchestra, Summerall says.
Predictably, the orchestra has built good relations with area nursing homes such as Westminster-Canterbury, Leigh Hall and First Colonial Inn. Life Savings Bank has underwritten some of the orchestra's nursing home concerts.
The orchestra also has played for the Ghent Arts Festival, the House of Jazz, Norfolk Festevents, the Virginia Air and Space Center, the Virginia Zoological Society, WHRO-TV and FM, and WTAR-AM. The group regularly performs in the summer band concert series at Ocean View Park and is increasingly performing as far away as Williamsburg and Elizabeth City.
The musicians range in age from 23 to about 70, with most in their 30s. Some have come from the Virginia Symphony, the Boston Pops and rock 'n' roll bands; some are Navy and Air Force musicians. They include a city planner, a retired surgeon and a number of public school teachers. David Starkey, tenor sax, is a Chesapeake teacher with a rock 'n' roll background. Phil Respass is an Air Force trumpeter.
Dru Stowe, 38, the tuba player, runs Mursto Productions, a booking agency providing special entertainment for parties. He and his wife, Karen, are charter members of the orchestra. She's first violinist.
``We were listening to Lynn on the radio, called in to win tickets to the Naro and ended up getting jobs with the orchestra,'' Stowe recalls. ``It's rare for a tuba player and a violinist to get to play together so that's fun for us. I enjoy the music itself, the pleasant orderliness of it. It's listenable and enjoyable.''
The banjo player, Sophie Sellars, is a former vaudevillian; her parents had a traveling road show they took up and down the East Coast. Later she became a shipyard welder and, later still, applied that knowledge of the welding to metal sculpture. Her work is displayed at Studio Arts in Ocean View as well as galleries in Hampton, Portsmouth, Smithfield and Yorktown.
``It's like a dream come true to play the music I love with these musicians,'' Sellers says. ``Lynn even lets me sing every once in a while.
``It's amazing, after spending all my life in grueling jobs and raising children that I got to retire and this would happen. It's unbelievable.''
The orchestra will reach at least two other milestones this year. The group is about to issue its first recording, on compact disc and cassette. Later this year, the orchestra will perform with one of the area's best-known vocal ensembles.
``We're collaborating with the 80-member Virginia Choral Society on a pair of pops concerts in November of this year,'' Summerall says. ``There'll be one on the Peninsula and one on the Southside.''
How did this outfit get its name?
``Many of the period hotels had roof gardens, and that was where their orchestras played,'' Summerall explains. ``There never was a Hotel Paradise that I know of, but, as I like to point out at concerts, we hope that listening to our music will make you think you're in paradise.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Cover]
SOUNDS LIKE PARADISE
[Color Photo]
Staff photo by Jim Walker
Principal vocalist Becky Livas belts out a number during a
performance at Uncle Louie's while conductor Lynn Summerall leads
the band.
Staff photo by JIM WALKER
Virginia Beach resident Becky Livas dreamed of singing with an
orchestra and now does so as the band's principal vocalist.
Staff photo by MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN
Portsmouth resident Lynn Summerall is the band's conductor and music
director.
Staff photo by JIM WALKER
Banjo player Sophie Sellers, a Norfolk resident, is a former
vaudevillian.
Staff photo by JIM WALKER
The Hotel Paradise Roof Garden Orchestra performs regularly at Uncle
Louie's.
THE BOYS (AND GIRLS) IN THE BAND
CHESAPEAKE RESIDENTS: David Snead, principal drummer; Buddy
White, principal 1st alto sax; Tom Hornbeck, substitute 2nd alto
sax; Dave Starkey, principal tenor sax; Scott Wilson, substitute 1st
trumpet; Dave Jacobson, substitute tuba player.
ELIZABETH CITY, N.C., RESIDENT: Bob Hanson, substitute tenor
sax.
FORT MONROE RESIDENT: Ray Wallace, substitute tuba player.
MANTEO, N.C., RESIDENT: Mary Moore, substitute pianist.
NEWPORT NEWS RESIDENTS: Karen Stowe, principal 1st violin; Jim
Richmond, substitute 1st alto sax; Dru Stowe, principal tuba player;
Mark Reimer, substitute tuba player; Mary Schugam, substitute banjo
player.
NORFOLK RESIDENTS: Stephanie Holmes, principal 2nd violin; Vince
Ognibene, substitute 2nd violin; Larry Weintraub, substitute alto
sax; Pete Beller, substitute 1st trumpet; Phil Respass, principal
2nd trumpet; John Ingersoll, principal pianist; Stephen Kolb,
substitute pianist; Sophie Sellars, principal banjo player; Russell
Scarborough, substitute drummer; Virginia Vail, substitute vocalist;
Donna Hover, stage manager; David Kennedy, tap dancer.
PORTSMOUTH RESIDENTS: Lynn Summerall, conductor & music director;
Reggie Barnes, substitute pianist; John Jenkins, substitute
drummer.
VIRGINIA BEACH RESIDENTS: Roger Gray, substitute 1st violin;
Diana Kemp, substitute violinist; Brian Ross, substitute 1st alto
sax; Jo Marie Leland, principal 2nd alto sax; Tom Graper, principal
1st trumpet; Jay Larkin, principal trombonist; Chuck Sayle,
substitute trombonist; Becky Livas, principal vocalist.
YORKTOWN RESIDENTS: Gary Porter, substitute 2nd trumpet.
WHERE TO HEAR THE ORCHESTRA
May 7 - Uncle Louie's Delicatessen & Restaurant, Norfolk, 3-5
p.m.
May 13 - Old Point Steak House, Hampton, 3-5 p.m.
May 20 - WHRO-TV, member appreciation day, 4-5 p.m.
May 21 - Vicki Villa Restaurant, Elizabeth City, N.C., 5-7 p.m.
May 27 & 28 - Seawall Arts Show, the Water Stage, Portsmouth, 3-4
p.m.
June 4 - Uncle Louie's Delicatessen & Restaurant, Norfolk, 3-5
p.m.
June 4 - Ocean View Park Festevents Big Band Concert, Norfolk,
7-9 p.m.
June 11 - Old Point Steak House, Hampton, 3-5 p.m.
June 24 - Leigh Hall Retirement Community, Norfolk, 4-5 p.m.
July 2 - Uncle Louie's Delicatessen & Restaurant, Norfolk, 3-5
p.m.
July 9 - Old Point Steak House, Hampton, 3-5 p.m.
July 30 - Ocean View Park Festevents Big Band Concert, Norfolk,
7-9 p.m.
For more information or more details on performances, call
397-7224.
[For a copy of the INFOLINE box, see microfilm.]
by CNB