Jackie's back

AND SHE AIN'T MISBEHAVIN'

In November 2003, Toronto's beloved blues star Jackie Richardson was cast in the lead role in Winnipeg and Toronto productions of Marion J. Caffey's Cookin' at the Cookery. The show was so popular that it was remounted in May 2004 at the New Yorker Theatre, largely due to critics' and audiences' delight at Richardson's warmth and her joyful interpretation of the life of blues singer Alberta Hunter.

Clearly hoping for more of a good thing, CanStage is once again calling upon Richardson's considerable talents for Ain't Misbehavin', a review-style show that revisits the music of Fats Waller. Not that any of us have forgotten him: Waller's music includes many of the most famous and most frequently performed standards of the jazz repertoire, like "Honeysuckle Rose" and "Mean to Me" — not to mention the title tune.

“We're talking about another icon from that golden age of music, and as a matter of fact, I've got recordings where Fats Waller is accompanying Alberta Hunter. They definitely worked together and worked in that same echelon together,” says Richardson. “Fats Waller ruled New York; Alberta Hunter ended up going to Europe. When we did Cookin' the Cookery, there was a lot of information about Alberta. We find out about Fats Waller just through the songs rather than there being any dialogue. Within the songs, we all are a piece of Fats Waller.”

Richardson — like most professional jazz artists, in fact — has a long history with this material. “I was fortunate enough to be involved in Marlene Smith's Ain't Misbehavin' in 1980, and that’s 25 years ago,” she says. “I haven't seen the show since then, but what stayed in my repertoire was ‘Ain't Misbehavin’’ and ‘Honeysuckle Rose’ and ‘Mean to Me’.” She also names “T'Ain't Nobody's Biz-ness If I Do” as one of Waller's songs that has made an impression on her. “That's a song that I ended up doing with out family sister group, the Richardsons,” she says.

“I just love this music, because every song really expresses the essence of Fats Waller,” she continues. “He was so full of life and it just runs through every one of us.”

Certainly each of these songs is a masterpiece of its kind, which makes some of their history a little surprising. “I was reading up about how Andy Razav and Fats Waller came to do that particular song [‘Ain't Misbehavin'’],” says Richardson. “They had a timeline for that particular show. Razav said 'Come to my mother's house; she'll make you all your favourites.' So they get out there, and it was just a matter of playing a couple of lines and Andy would come up with something. Within an hour and a half they had written three songs. Waller had played a little riff, and overnight Andy got the words for ‘Ain't Misbehavin'’. They would just write that fast.”
If this show is as big a hit as Cookin' at the Cookery, should we expect Richardson to make it a regular thing to work in revues about great jazz icons of the early 20th century? “I don't think so,” is her response. “I think that I wouldn't want to limit myself and I wouldn't want the theatre to limit itself, so that I would like to go to whatever would be a really good project. If another project came up dealing with people from that era and I loved the script... But there are so many stories to be told!”

CanStage presents Ain't Misbehavin' from April 7 to June 25 at the Bluma Appel Theatre at the St. Lawrence Centre. For tickets, call 416-368-3110 416-872-1111, or visit www.canstage.com.

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