Black Swan Blues

inspired by the ballet “Swan Lake”

Music by Randy Klein

Book and Lyrics by Joan Ross Sorkin

The concept developed by Joan Ross Sorkin and Randy Klein


New York, NY - Jazzheads, the NYC- based music label, proudly releases the concept album for the new musical Black Swan Blues, composed by Randy Klein, with book and lyrics by Joan Ross Sorkin. This album, with its blues-infused score and memorable songs, promises to captivate audiences with its story of love, racial injustice, and redemption, set in the sultry ambiance of New Orleans, 1963. “Black Swan Blues - The Concept Album” is also a giant step in the development of the musical, one that will energize its listeners to clamor for a full production.

Listen To Black Swan Blues Press Release Track Setups Production History

The Story and Selected Songs

Inspired by the story of the iconic ballet “Swan Lake,” Black Swan Blues follows Shep Chandler, an idealistic journalist from privilege who falls in love with Ori Fontaine, a street-wise member of The Swans, a mixed-race singing group at The Black Swan, a blues club on Bourbon Street. When the lovers meet secretly at the levee, Shep (Tony-winner Christian Hoff) and Ori (Tony-nominee Lilli Cooper) sing the very liftable love song “Anything Can Happen” with its heartfelt message of living your dream. Yet sometimes love needs a little New Orleans voodoo magic, and they get that from Papa Legba (the incomparable Jerry Dixon) who sings “That’s The Way It’s Always Been,” with its visceral R&B rhythms, with Richard Baskin, Jr. James Jackson, Jr. and Kwame Michael Remy as a tight, cool-sounding backup trio.  Velvet (powerhouse Aurelia Williams), the impresario of The Black Swan, sings two knock ‘em dead numbers: “This Boy” with its haunting reverie, and “Black Makin’ Babies With White” with its pulsating rhythm that communicates the torment and heartbreak of this story about race and white privilege in America.

 

Shep’s racist mother, OLYMPIA, is portrayed by the eloquent Broadway and cabaret star Karen Mason who sings “If Grayson Were Here,” wishing her deceased husband could be there to guide their son Shep away from the dangerous course he has set for himself. To add a note of levity to the show, “The Kangaroo,” led by Melody Bowers (Broadway’s Jillian Louis) could spawn a new dance craze, if not here, then in Australia!

 

At the top of Act II, in a split scene, one of The Swans, Jasmyne (the brassy “full-of-attitude” Soara-Joye Ross) leads a fun, blues-grooved club number, “Doin’ It My Way - Do It For Love," and Papa Legba and his Voodoo Trio follow by singing a hypnotic melody to urge Ori to follow her love. Later in the act, after Velvet’s voodoo spell has torn the lovers apart, Velvet has a nightmare, which comes to life in a colorful and powerful musical scene. “Truth Is Gonna Set You Free,” sung by the company, takes the listener from the depths of hell to Mardi Gras to the initiation of Shep into the Ku Klux Klan, and finally to the ghost of Velvet’s beloved husband Jack, who implores her to admit to the voodoo spell she placed on Ori. After a shocking plot turn at the end of the show, the company sings the final inspirational anthem, “Hope.”


 The Journey

Recording this album turned out to be a yeoman’s job. The recording was made prior to any public reading of the show, so it is a credit to the star power, energy and sheer talent of the cast, led by Christian Hoff, Lilli Cooper, Aurelia Williams, Karen Mason and Jerry Dixon. All of the vocalists bravely rehearsed and recorded the album in the summer and fall of 2021, smack in the middle of the pandemic. Special precautions were taken to isolate the soloists along with socially distancing the ensemble singers throughout the rehearsal and recording process. Countless hours were devoted to mixing the vocals and mastering the recording to create a fully integrated sound.