Featuring music from Blues Suite - the ballet that launched the world-renowned Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1958

11 MP3 Songs in this album (29:04) !
Related styles: BLUES: Juke Joint Blues, BLUES: Soul-Blues



Details:
Blues Suite is the ballet that launched the world-renowned Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater on March 30, 1958 in the now-famous performance at Manhattanâs 92nd Street Y. Alvin Ailey was just 27 years old, and Blues Suite was only his sixth choreographed ballet.

In Blues Suite, In Blues Suite, a cast of vividly-drawn characters from the barrelhouses and fields of Aileyâs childhood in southern Texas gather to dance and revel through one long, sultry night. The ballet vividly evokes the sorrow, humor and humanity of the blues, those heartfelt songs that Ailey called âhymns to the secular regions of the soul.â As Judith Jamison, Artistic Director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater explains, âThe African-American cultural expression of the blues is intrinsic to the dance.â The music presented here is the original soundtrack, sung by Brother John Sellers, who Jamison recalls, âwas the âengineâ of the ballet. His achingly beautiful, throaty voice made you understand what having the blues was all about.â