Sound stage

Smokin' bands make Black Ensemble Theatre a musical hot spot

Audiences who have followed the productions of Black Ensemble Theatre (BET) throughout its 30-year history know something special began to happen during the last few seasons. And those listening most closely might well point to the band -- whether it is perched up in the cramped little attic space above the stage, or hidden behind a scrim on stage level.

Recently, the sound issuing from that band, which invariably is under the direction of percussionist Jimmy Tillman, has shifted from hot to downright smokin'. I asked Tillman to let me in on the secret.

"I think it comes down to the fact that the Black Ensemble has become a place where musicians love to work, and where they know the work is steady," he said. "We keep five to eight very good musicians employed for many weeks, sometimes months at a time, something they don't find at nightclubs anymore. Plus we provide a unique place for musicians to learn how to work in the theater."

"Many of the early BET shows were in the blues or rhythm-and-blues genre, so you could just add a horn part or a rhythm part and have all you needed," Tillman explained. "But as we've moved into other areas of the music, we needed different textures and timbres, and a greater sophistication in the arrangements, as well as musicians who fit the particular style," said Tillman. "For the Jackie Wilson show we added two trumpets and it made a huge difference because that sound hit you right in the face. For the Nina Simone show we needed a tenor sax for sweetness, and a muted trombone."

For the latest production, "Don't Shed a Tear (The Story of Billie Holiday)," which begins previews tomorrow night and which writer-director Jackie Taylor describes as "BET's first R-rated show, because you can't be true to Billie and her life without the bad language," Tillman has a band of eight.

"Billie worked during the big band era, from the 1930s to the '50s, and we needed to get the right textures and colors of her music," said Tillman. "We added a bass clarinet to get the somber notes of the story and establish the overall mood. It's a haunting sound."

Tillman, now 64, spent his earliest years on a farm in Mississippi (his grandfather was a slave who bought his own freedom), but he was sent to live with relatives in Chicago because his family feared for his life after the Emmett Till murder. He found his future in music thanks to a high school teacher who also introduced him to meditation, and went on to earn a degree in music education and percussion at Roosevelt University.

Now, Tillman is hoping to come full circle, putting together a plan for a new school aimed at dropouts that would focus on agriculture.

"I've been thinking about how kids think and develop," said Tillman. "They need hands-on experiences. Music is one way, agriculture is another. Both are about making the universe work right."