Spare A Dime ensemble member Jason Fraticelli blends his influences in a variety of musical styles.  Fraticelli is playing upright bass in the project's jazz quartet.  "The upright bass can be a humble, yet aggressive, instrument that connects with the melodic aspect of music, while being highly rhythmic," he said.  "Its main purpose is to support both these melodic and rhythmic elements; at the same time the player's personality and 'voice' merges with the music at its foundation.  Musical commitment can easily be achieved through the upright bass as it's a very physical instrument that utilizes a large range of the player's body."  Fraticelli offered a musical analogy to the lessons learned from the Great Depression, "Bass players tend to be easy people to get along with, maybe because they are constantly adapting to an array of situations musically. They learn to navigate through these situations while giving their best and adding a uniqueness that speaks to their musical personality."

Fraticelli exists in many different facets of the music community. As an upright bassist, he has played with many different musicians, including Skerik (Les Claypool) and Billy Martin (MMW), and has performed and toured in groups such as The Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, Melody Gardot, and Cyro Baptista’s Banquet of the Spirits. He also records with several different bands in the Philadelphia and New York area.  Fraticelli's musical ventures with the electric bass include playing and touring as part of rap and reggae star Matisyahu’s band.  In this group, Jason played alongside longtime friend and peer Aaron Dugan, whom was the guitarist for Matis, and with whom he was able to explore his bass playing through reggae and dub music for the very first time. During years prior, Fraticelli had been experimenting with avant garde/jazz/punk rock, with Dugan, in a band called Astro-Cusion. He has also frequented the New York scene, on electric bass, in the groups Aaron Dugan’s Theory of Everything, Taylor McFerrin’s The Cell Theory, and Mark Guiliana’s Beat Music.  Fraticelli began his musical career as a drummer, and his work as a percussionist is heard on recordings with groups Senor Salty Balls, Shadowdance, and Sinking Ship.  Fraticelli is also a composer, with work ranging from a 10 piece ensemble commission from the Painted Bride Art Center, to work as singer and songwriter with his own band, Jason Fraticelli & The Wet Dreams.  He has two records in the works, a new album with his band, entitled Under the Influence of 'Hearing' and a recording of his Painted Bride commission, The Mother’s Suite, inspired by the love, respect, and loss of a mother. Fraticelli studied performance and composition at Bucks County Community College and at New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City. 

Learn more and listen to Fraticelli on his website www.jasonfraticelli.com

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"I grew up hearing the stories my grandmother told of bringing her
kids along to her bank, and having its doors shut just in front of her," recalls Spare A Dime ensemble member Ken Ulansey. "I heard many stories of the years of deprivation that followed,  and the values that emerged from the Great Depression. It's thrilling now to be a part of an artistic re-examination of that era."

Ulansey plays alto sax, soprano sax, and clarinet, and has received grants for composition from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. He is a musical chameleon, having played contemporary classical music with Relâche, jazz with his own award-winning band, Latin with Synthesis and Minas, and folk music with most of the area’s and even the nation’s leading songwriters.  For the last fifteen years he's had one of the top Klezmer bands in the area.  Besides leading his own wedding band that specializes in swing, Motown, Latin, pop, zydeco, and oldies, Ken has toured extensively in Europe and the United States, played on nearly two hundred recordings, and worked in collaboration with dancers, filmmakers, poets, and storytellers.

Learn more and listen to Ulansey on his website www.kenumusic.com

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This week on the Spare A Dime blog, we'll be featuring members of the jazz ensemble accompanying our vocalists.  But first, let's get in the mood of the era with a list of the top artists and songs from 1935!

How many do you know?

Louis Armstrong: I'm In The Mood For Love, You Are My Lucky Star
Fred Astaire: Cheek To Cheek, No Strings, The Piccolino, Top Hat, White Tie and Tails
Gene Autry: Ole Faithful, Tumbling Tumbleweeds
Boswell Sisters: The Object of my Affection
Al Bowlly and the Ray Noble Orchestra: 
Blue Moon
Cab Calloway: Keep That Hi-De-Hi in Your Soul  (pictured above)
The Carter Family: Can The Circle Be Broken
Tom Coakley and his Palace Hotel Orchestra: East of the Sun, West of the Moon
Bing Crosby: I Wished The Moon, It's Easy To Remember, Red Sails in the Sunset, Soon
Bob Crosby and his Orchestra: In a Little Gypsy's Tea Room
Xavier Cugat: Begin the Beguine, The Lady In Red
The Dorsey Brothers: Chasing Shadows, Lullaby of Broadway
Tommy Dorsey: On Treasure Island
Eddie Duchin: Cheek To Cheek, I Won't Dance, Lovely To Look At, You Are My Lucky Star
Irene Dunne: Lovely To Look at
Nelson Eddie: Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life
Duke Ellington: In a Sentimental Mood
Sleepy John Estes: Stop That Thing
Ruth Etting: Life Is A Song
George Formby: Fanlight Fanny
Benny Goodman: Blue Moon, King Porter Stomp
Glen Gray: Blue Moon, When I Grow Too Old To Dream
Richard Himber and his Orchestra: Just One Of Those Things
Little Jack Little: I'm In The Mood For Love
Guy Lombardo: I'm Sittin' High on a Hill Top, Red Sails In The Sunset, What's The Reason
Jimmy Lunceford: Rhythm Is Our Business
Ethel Merman: I Get A Kick Out Of You
Patsy Montana and the Prairie Ramblers: I Want To Be A Cowboy's Sweetheart
Carmen Miranda: Sonho de Papel
Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra: And Then Some
Ray Noble: Isle of Capri, Let's Swing It, Paris in the Spring
Cole Porter: You're The Top
Leo Reisman: I Got Plenty O' Nuttin', It Ain't Neccessarily So
Riley-Farley Orchestra: The Music Goes Round and Round
Ballew Smith: Roll Along, Prairie Moon
Shirley Temple: On The Good Ship Lollipop
Fats Waller: A Little Bit Independent, I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself A Letter,
Lulu's Back In Town, Truckin'
Western Brothers: We're Frightfully BBC
Victor Young: She's a Latin From Manhattan 

It's just good stuff: a meal that's easy, hearty, and delicious. Wrap up these ingredients in some aluminum foil, slow cook, and enjoy the results.  Bliss will ensue, hence the name. 

During the 1930’s Americans began to see advertising campaigns from Reynolds Metals, boasting the convenience and charm of Reynold’s Aluminum Foil.  A housewife could juggle all her duties more gracefully by allowing the foil to to the cooking and take care of the cleanup.  Aluminum foil cooking became quite popular, and this particular recipe also utilizes the modern marvels of onion soup mix. Try this one at home, and you surely won’t be left to want. 

Ingredients
• chuck steaks, cut 1 inch thick
• 1 envelope onion soup mix
• 1/2 lb mushrooms, sliced
• 1/2 green peppers, sliced
• 16 ounce can diced tomatoes, juice drained and reserved
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• fresh ground pepper
• 1 tablespoon A-1 Steak Sauce
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• aluminum foil, 20 inch sheet
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

Directions
1.  Spread center of aluminum foil with butter.
2. Cut steak into serving portions.
3. Arrange on foil, slightly overlapping.
4. Sprinkle with onion soup mix, mushrooms, green pepper, tomatoes.
5. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
6. Mix reserved juice from the tomatoes, A-1 sauce and cornstarch.
7. Pour over meat and vegetables.
8. Bring foil up over and double-fold edges to seal tightly.
9. Bake 2 hours in 350 oven.
10.  Carefully roll back foil and garnish with parsley.

N.B., During the last 1 1/2 hours, bake potatoes alongside the meat packet to serve with this dish.

On March 24, 1935, the granddaddy of all of today's talent contests, Major Bowe's Original Amateur Hour, made its debut on NBC radio.  Bowes had been a real estate entrepreneur who entered the world of the entertainment through his rennovations of old theaters.  He built the famed Capitol Theatre in New York City in 1918 and served as its Managing Director for over a decade.

The Original Amateur Hour was an immediate and extraordinary success.  In the midst of the Great Depression, poor people from all over the country made their way to New York City, selling their homes and hitching rides in cars and trains, with hopes of being on the show. Over 10,000 people applied to the Amateur Hour every week; the vast majority did not even get to audition.  Fewer than 700 people per week were reviewed, and only 20 appeared on each broadcast. 

The on-air competition was just as fierce, with many contestants being cast off the show by the sound of a giant gong.  Most of the winners did not achieve their dreams of stardom; many ended up stuck, penniless, living in New York.  A few notable exceptions, Frank Sinatra and Beverly Sills among them, did go on to fame and fortune. The public's fascination with amateur talent ended as WWII began, but the show continued on the air until Major Bowe's death in 1946.  A television version of the Amateur Hour ran from 1948 until 1970.

Spare A Dime vocalists Phyllis Chapell and Julian Coleman jam with Musical Coordinator Jay Fluellen and Production Coordinator Rodney Whittenberg at Melodyvision Studio.

Please join us at the COSACOSA Studio on Monday evening, March 25 starting at 7 for an open rehearsal with the Spare A Dime vocalists.  Please visit www.cosacosa.org for more information.

And stay tuned for news about more open rehearsals and other public events leading up to our live performances -- and get your tickets today on the PIFA 13 website!

Vocalist Khrista Janá White recalls her grandmother's stories about the Great Depression.  "My grandmother, Nettie Carthan, tells of the time when she was younger.  It was already hard being a black woman, but even harder to survive during the Great Depression.  African Americans were the first to be put out work, but, thanks to the Works Progress Administration, they were offered jobs and got back on their feet because of the opportunity. My grandmother still says, 'Thank you, WPA!'"

White is singing the role of The Merchant in Spare A Dime, the character who first describes the impact of the Great Depression to the audience. White is a senior at The University of the Arts where she is studying vocal performance. White has performed extensively in musical theater, with her most notable roles being Hedy La Rue in How to Succeed in Business without really trying, Mrs. Potts in Beauty and the Beast, The Beggar Woman from Sweeney Todd, Aida from Aida and Magenta from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.  She has numerous vocal competitions and is a part of many regional ensembles. She recently finished her Senior Recital, which consisted of cover songs by Beyonce; Whitney Houston; Adele; Earth, Wind, and Fire; and many more. White plans on earning a masters degree in performance and working as a music teacher.  She would like to establish performing arts school for grades 6-12. 

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"My family comes from Cuba, and my grandfather was very poor at the time of the Great Depression," said vocalist Venissa Santi.  "He was a composer and a very soft-spoken man. He was not particularly aggressive, the way one needed to be in order to be recognized.  Even though he wrote the Himno Granma, which is the hymn that still plays today at the memorial of the boat that carried Fidel Castro into Oriente, he never received a dime for that composition.  He had a life of struggle and poverty."  Santi is singing the role of The Mother in Spare A Dime, bringing her expressive, lyrical soprano to the performance.

Venissa Santi is a singer, songwriter, arranger, and teaching artist trained in jazz and Afro Cuban styles. She was born to Cuban parents and raised in Ithaca, NY. She comes from a musical, artistic, and academic family, and was nurtured to follow her musical instincts to sing and become an artist.  In 1997, she relocated to Philadelphia to study jazz at the University of the Arts, where she fell in love with the American songbook. A skilled composer and arranger, Santi began teaching in the barrio of North Philadelphia with AMLA (Asóciación de Músicos Latino Americanos).  After connecting with Philadelphia world music scene, Santi traveled extensively in Cuba to study Afro Cuban sacred and secular music, as well as to research and rediscover her own roots.  She subsequently developed the repertoire in her own signature Cuban jazz style and recorded Bienvenida, her first solo album, with Daoud Shaw at Radio Active Productions.  Released by independent jazz label Sunnyside records in 2009, the album generated national radio play and garnered Santi a Pew Fellowship for Folk and Traditional Arts.  In 2010, Danilo Perez, Panamanian jazz pianist and former curator of the Jazz UP Close series at the Kimmel Center, invited Santi to perform a tribute to Billie Holiday.  As a long-time devotee of Lady Day, Santi worked very seriously to interpret the songs in her signature Afro Cuban jazz style. That repertoire was recorded on a second album, Big Stuff Afro Cuban Holiday, again with Daoud Shaw, and will be released summer 2013 on Sunnyside records. Santi and her band have performed all over Philadelphia and have toured the East and West coast and Hawaii.

Learn more and listen to Santi on her website www.venissasanti.com

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"As a first-generation American, my immigrant parents instilled in me a sense of pride, gratitude, and patriotism for this great country (with a strong sense of 'old country' ideals)," said Spare A Dime vocalist and COSACOSA Communications Associate Victor Rodriguez. "They always reminded me of how lucky I was to be born and raised here, and how my sister and I have opportunities not offered or out of reach for them in their native lands.  Programs like the WPA weren't available in Latin America during the Great Depression (and aren't now); one had to make do with whatever little was available and stretch it as far as possible. My grandmother would tell us about how extremely hard life was back then, and how she was sent to work from a young age, having to forfeit any hopes of an education."

Rodriguez is singing the role of The Builder in Spare A Dime, as well as directing our Chorus of Liberty.  He has appeared in numerous musical theater productions with companies including Bristol Riverside Theater, the Drexel Hill Players, the Prince Music Theater, and the Society Hill Playhouse.  Rodriguez' rich and versatile tenor has been featured in commercials nationwide, as well as in performances with the Philadelphia Gospel Seminars Choir and the Germantown Concert Chorus.  His own musical ensemble, Mezclado, blends pop-rock, R&B, folk, and funk with syncopated Caribbean beats, performing in Philadelphia at venues including the Tin Angel, L’Etage, and The Rotunda, and in New York at The Duplex.  Founder of Diminuto Studio, Rodriguez is a skilled vocal coach for both adults and children, with extensive experience working in school and community settings.

Listen to Rodriguez with Mezclado at their website www.myspace.com/mezcladotroupe.
Learn more about Diminuto Studio at diminutomusicstudio.weebly.com.

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"The Works Progress Administration (WPA) has made a significant impact in my life, many years after its contributions were first presented," said vocalist Lourin Plant. "During the Great Depression, nearly 100,000 former slaves were still alive. The WPA, through its Federal Writers Project, recorded interviews with more than 2,400 former slaves about their life experiences under the institution of slavery. These recorded interviews and photographs, along with existing slave narratives, make up the largest body of writings by an enslaved people in the world. They record for us primary eyewitness accounts of the realities of slavery as an institution and the enormous humanity of African American people. As such, they are of paramount importance to our American story. They help open our continuing dialogue about slavery, freedom, and democracy. The WPA submissions help illuminate the resilient transcended soul at the center of the incomprehensibly stressful lives African-Americans struggled to carve out for themselves under the yoke of slavery. The WPA contributions are an indispensable part of our Nation’s history.”

Plant is playing the role of The Veteran in Spare A Dime, ironically following his recent appearance as a WWI soldier in Opera Philadelphia's production of Silent Night.  Plant appears as both countertenor and baritone throughout the country, performing with organizations including Opera Philadelphia (pictured), New York City Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Cincinnati May Festival, Dayton Opera, Amherst Early Music Festival, Northern Lights Music Festival, Philadelphia Classical Symphony, Philadelphia Ancient Voices, Voces Novae et Antiquae, Piffaro, Jim Thorpe Bach Festival, and in the touring ensembles of Michael Crawford, Russell Watkins, and Barbra Streisand.  Plant’s presentations on African-American spirituals have been featured in state, regional and international conferences, and his articles have appeared in Classical Singer Magazine and the National Association of Teachers of Singing Journal of Singing. His conducting, renaissance harp playing, solo and choral singing are featured on the recent CD “Magdalene and the Other Mary: Songs of Holy Women,” distributed by Church Music Publishing.  Plant holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Wittenberg University, Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in Choral Conducting from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. He has served on the voice faculties of Sinclair College and Humboldt State University of California.  Now in the nineteenth year of his appointment at Rowan University, he has served as coordinator of the vocal/choral division, and conductor of the Rowan University Chamber and Concert Choirs, and Collegium Musicum (early music ensemble). His choirs have appeared throughout the region and three times at Carnegie Hall.

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