Program Notes

Paradise Valley and Black Bottom, Detroit. For me it wasn’t a question of whether I knew the history, but rather, why I didn’t.  As I toured through the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, I thought…. Motown, check. Ford Motor Company, check. The Flame Show Bar? The Gotham Hotel?  For me, not a notion.  Paradise Theater? The very venue that this newly commissioned work will premiere, or Orchestra Hall as we know it. I had no clue that it once operated as a jazz venue under this name. 

From 1941-1951 the Paradise Theater hosted the who’s who of jazz royalty.  Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Billy Holiday, Count Basie and more.  This piece of local history was an entryway to a much larger story. A story of a once thriving African American community.  A community that grew from extremely humble beginnings during the Great Migration and out of the Great Depression.  Only to be razed in favor of “Urban Renewal” projects in the 50’s 60’s and 70’s.

This work, Paradise Valley Serenade, opens with a morning yawn and sunrise in “Dawn and Dusk”.  The day has begun like most others and there is work to be done, like in any other urban American community.   But unlike most communities, there is a cultural hub within, that spews musical fire by night and draws the culturally curious to witness the flames. 

In the second movement, “Paradise, lost but not Forgotten”, I envisioned an elder from the Paradise Valley or Black Bottom community, docilly telling the history to a grandchild.  The story is told with great melancholy and even describes his/her witnessing of the demolition of the neighborhoods. That said, there is a pride in the telling. A feeling of fortitude and resilience. 

For the last movement, “A Hug for Cab”, I envisioned what it might have been like to see Cab Calloway live at the Paradise Theater.  With his swinging big band, double entendre lyrics, high energy dancing and stage antics. 

Notes by the composer
Jeff Scott