STL Rhythm Collaborative
In Due Time
Even if you’ve never heard of Dave Brubeck, you likely know his music. A contemporary of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, Brubeck may not have the name recognition of those titans of jazz, but his easy-on-the-ears West Coast vibe inevitably prompts listeners to say, “Oh yeah, I’ve heard that song!”
Brubeck’s iconic “Take Five” remerged in the ‘90s as the backing track to a commercial for Infiniti cars. It had never really gone away, though, and remains the best-selling jazz single of all time. In the process of selling cars, however, Infiniti birthed a whole new generation of Brubeck fans, who glommed onto the mid-century composer’s particular brand of chill. And for tap dancers like Maria Majors and her ensemble, moSTLy TAP, the rhythmic complexity of Brubeck’s entire catalog compels them to dance and will inevitably cultivate 21st century Brubeck stans.
MoSTLy TAP joins forces with its sister group, moSTLy JAZZ, on Oct. 2 for the STL Rhythm Collaborative’s official debut, performing two shows together at the Robert G. Reim Theatre in Kirkwood. The STL Rhythm Collaborative’s first full-length performance, “In Due Time,” is an all-Brubeck evening with 75-minutes of live music and tap dancing.
Why tap to Brubeck? In large part, Majors and her co-choreographers Anthony J. Russo, Christian Frommelt, Tommy Wasiuta, and Megan Mayer were hungry for a challenge. In addition to “Take Five,” Brubeck’s 1959 tour de force “Blue Rondo a la Turk” was a major motivator, with its unusual 9/8 time signature that drops in and out of a bluesy groove in common time.
“That was part of why we wanted to do it,” Majors says. “Dave Brubeck was known for his off-the-wall experimentation. We started playing with ‘Blue Rondo a la Turk’ in rehearsal and realized how much of the catalog we were familiar with but hadn’t actually danced to.”
Majors grew up in St. Charles and spent her early career in New York. She also toured with the popular group Manhattan Tap. During that time, she worked with Dr. Buster Brown, a legend of rhythm tap, and worked closely with Robert Reed on the St. Louis Tap Festival after returning to the area in 1999. She started moSTLy TAP in 2017 as a pick-up company, with members from St. Louis’ small-but-mighty tap community coming together to perform at festivals and pop-up events. Now, she also serves as executive director of STL Rhythm Collaborative, and the desire to embed tap dancers in the rich blues and jazz scene is top of mind.
St. Louis has an abundance of pre-professional tap dance in its myriad dance studios, but opportunities for pro tap dancers have been few and far between. Moreover, the St. Louis Tap Festival’s closure in 2015—when its founder Robert Reed suddenly died—has mostly put a stop to engagement with the national tap community, who no longer have a reason to make a pilgrimage to St. Louis each year.
Majors is tirelessly working to change that, starting with local jazz musicians who might not see tap dancers as part of the band. She dances in a style called rhythm tap, an improvisational form that follows many of the conventions of jazz music—with your feet.
STL Rhythm Collaborative
Maria Majors, Megan Mayer, and the moSTLy JAZZ band rehearse for "In Due Time."
“Rhythm tap is scarce in St. Louis,” Majors said. A few years ago, Wasiuta, a founding member of moSTLy TAP and UMSL grad, started showing up at jazz clubs to jam. Majors said he’s been “instrumental in bridging the gap between jazz musicians in St. Louis and tap dancers.” Recently, the Krantzberg Arts Foundation’s long-running Wednesday jazz jam hosted its first ever tap night.
“Prior to that, there was a huge disconnect between the musicians and dancers in St. Louis, not necessarily on purpose,” Majors says. “The artists in the jazz music scene were doing their own thing. The tap dance community is so small, and we’ve been working hard to change people’s perception of what tap dance is. We’re not just trying to Shuffle Off to Buffalo; we’re trying to complement what you’re doing and make music with you.”
Scotti Iman likewise sees the value of musicians and dancers working together. For “In Due Time,” he serves as music director and will also be onstage playing drums. Echoing the Dave Brubeck Quartet’s instrumentation, the band consists of piano, bass, drums, and saxophone.
“I’m sure it would be awesome to see amazing choreography to backing tracks, but having live music is a whole different kit and caboodle,” Iman says. Iman, a Missouri native, trained at Central Methodist University and McNally Smith College of Music, settling in St. Louis after years on the road based out of Austin. He came back to be closer to his family in Columbia and, in large part, because St. Louis has both a rich music scene and an affordable cost of living.
Iman and Majors both say that “In Due Time” strikes a balance between artistic experimentation and entertainment. Like Brubeck, the show is approachable for newcomers to tap dance and jazz music, but also chock full of sophistication and rigor for those “in the know.”
“The thing that I really like about Brubeck is that it was the pop music of its day,” Iman says. “‘Take Five’ was one of the first jazz hits on the radio. Just because it’s in an odd meter, you don’t have to remember everything you learned in your fourth-grade music class to appreciate it. It’s very accessible. If Pink Floyd can put out a song in 7/4, like they did with ‘Money,’ so can we.”
For more information about “In Due Time” or to purchase tickets, visit STL Rhythm Collaborative's website.
