The Modernistics at Ocean Park July 26, Music and Dance from the Great American Songbook

OLD ORCHARD BEACH, Maine - July 22, 2015 - PRLog -- The Modernistics are a jazz and tap dance ensemble featuring acclaimed tap dancers and vocalists Ted and Pamela Powers with the versatile and virtuosic Peter H. Bloom/Mark Leighton flute & guitar duo.  The group, based in Boston, performs in the Ocean Park Music Festival on Sunday, July 26 at 7:30 pm. The show, called The Modernistics Go to the Movies, features song and dance from the Great American Songbook, with a spotlight on movie tunes from the 1920s to the 1970s.

Among the many selections are Blue Skies, the first synchronized song ever heard in a motion picture, sung by Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer (1927); Irving Berlin’s Top Hat from the 1935 movie of the same name, Pennies from Heaven, As Time Goes By from Casablanca, the Harold Arlen/Johnny Mercer hit Accentuate the Positive from the 1944 film Here Come the Waves, Michel Legrand’s Watch What Happens from The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, and Let’s Fall in Love, a perennial favorite by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler featured in films from the 1930s, 40s, 50s, and as recently as 2002. Oscar winners include Over the Rainbow, When You Wish Upon a Star and The Way You Look Tonight (the Jerome Kern/Dorothy Fields classic that Fred Astaire sings to Ginger Rogers in Swing Time, 1936).  The Modernistics salute Lerner & Lowe with Almost Like Being in Love (Brigadoon 1954) and On the Street Where You Live (My Fair Lady, 1956), and the show closes with a rousing version of 42^nd Street.

The Modernistics are Peter H. Bloom, flute; Mark Leighton, guitar; Ted Powers, guitar, ukulele, tap and vocals; and Pamela Powers, tap and vocals.  The four artists have taught and performed extensively in the United States and abroad.  Peter H. Bloom, praised for his “hip, jazzy flutework” (allaboutjazz.com), has concertized with jazz and classical ensembles in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand and is featured on more than 40 CDs. He is a veteran of the illustrious Aardvark Jazz Orchestra (43^rd season) www.aardvarkjazz.com  and is contributing editor for Noteworthy Sheet Music www.noteworthysheetmusic.com    Mark Leighton is acclaimed as a jazz and classical guitarist, performs across the Northeast, and serves on the faculties of Colby College and St. George’s School.  His teachers include Robert Sullivan, David Leisner and Sharon Isbin.   Ted Powers’ career in jazz, blues, and pop includes several years as a solo performer in the south of France and tap-dancing in the U.S. with the legendary Jimmy “Sir Slyde” Mitchell.  Pamela Powers has performed and taught in the United States, Germany and England.  She studied with Harold Nicholas of the iconic Nicholas Brothers and with renowned Broadway choreographer Charles Hughes.

The Modernistics are managed exclusively by Americas Musicworks, Rebecca DeLamotte, Director, telephone 888-887-7169, email: delamotte-amw@comcast.net