Jon Burr
Jon Burr arrived onto the New York jazz scene in his early 20’s as an in demand bassist following a standout school career distinguished by All Star status and many awards, including Best Bassist at the Collegiate Jazz Festival and a scholarship from Berklee School of Music. Early on in his career he became the bassist for Horace Silver, Stan Getz, Tony Bennett, Buddy Rich, Chet Baker, Art Farmer, Ted Curson, Lee Konitz, and others. He spent a dozen years touring and recording with Stephane Grappelli, was a founding member of the Hot Swing Trio, and toured with vocalists, including Anita O’Day, Barbara Cook, Eartha Kitt, and Rita Moreno, and has toured recently with the Manhattan Jazz Quintet, one of Japan’s best-known jazz ensembles.
He began composing in his early teens, enjoying the opportunity to have his music performed by some of the artists he worked with. His compositions were played by Stan Getz, recorded by Chet Baker, Sir Roland Hanna and others. His writing career flourished with the inception of his work for the Jon Burr Big Band, resulting in a library of original work for 17-piece band, and a membership in the BMI Jazz Composer’s Workshop. A collection of Jon’s songs with original lyrics appear on the Jon Burr Band project “Just Can’t Wait.”
His discography as a leader includes The Jon Burr Quartet “In My Own Words,” Jon Burr Trio “Three for All” (featuring the late Sir Roland Hanna and Bucky Pizzarelli), Jon Burr Band “Another Kind of Love” featuring Houston Person, Hilary Kole, Bob Mintzer, Howard Alden, and others – and his latest release Jon Burr Quintet – “Very Good Year,” street date October 10, 2015, available on iTunes, CDBaby,.
He began working on Broadway in 1986 subbing on Song and Dance, held the bass chair for Me and My Girl and Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public, and subbed at many shows including Jerome Robbins Broadway. Grand Hotel, Gypsy, Side Show, and others. His orchestral work includes the bass section of the American Symphony Orchestra, and recently with the Longwood Symphony orchestra. He had also worked as a Broadway copyist while between tours in New York in the early 80’s.
Jon is also an arranger and orchestrator, currently the proprietor of arrangerforhire.com and finaleclasses.com , serving the Ottawa Symphony, The MCoE band of Ft Benning, GA, The Family organization in San Francisco, CA, and numerous independent artists and production projects, and teaching arranging and notation software remotely. According to Jon: “When I first heard about Conversion Therapy, I started thinking about a musical to create some blowback, while doing it in an entertaining, mass-media sort of way, through a story of a young man’s journey through abuse to self-acceptance. After writing the musical I realized it’s also a proxy for my own struggle for acceptance as a jazz musician in my own conservative family of origin.”
Jon is a member of the American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers, Musicians
Local 802 (New York).
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Pray Away Getaway
Blurb
“Sammy,” a post-pubescent boy, became smitten by Musical Theater following a trip to NYC with his parents, where they ended up seeing “Kinky Boots.” Back home in Dixville, Tennessee, Sammy is becoming aware he has growing feelings for men and boys, not like his platonic feelings for his best friends, who are mostly girls. His sense of guilt and dread grows as the feelings strengthen, realizing that homosexuality is not accepted in much of his rural small-town community, or his family’s church, or his peers. He hears his straight friends, parents and neighbors talking disparagingly about gay people, and is full of anxiety about his situation, which is becoming more painfully obvious to him with each passing day. Boys in school are starting to notice his mannerisms, and beginning to bully him.
His parents (Brent and Peggy) begin to suspect his situation – although he tries to conceal it, his mannerisms, mode of dress, and intense interest in Musical Theater lead them to suspect his situation, and they resolve to solve it by sending him away to a Conversion Therapy camp.
At first he tries to remain open, but his sense of alienation from the therapists is profound, and he feels completely un-seen and un-heard, as if he’s forced to deny his very being. They confiscated his phone – or what they thought was his phone – but he kept a hidden spare “burner” phone for emergency use, and used it to text with his best friend Charlise.
At first he was willing to try to listen and see if there was some “cure,” not wanting to become alienated from his family and community – but the longer he stayed, the more urgently he wanted to escape. Scenes at the camp included shaming, emotional abuse, punishment, confinement, isolation, and psychological torture.
He meets fellow youngsters with the same orientation, and for the first time starts to feel like he’s not alone. The “residents” converse among each other, offering surreptitious support, along with a sense that there’s a larger world out there, and communities of kindred spirits. One new friend at the camp (Chloe) even knows somebody (Jason) who went to New York to get away, and had found a job and a place to live.
Meanwhile, the head of the camp (Reverend Crowe), a local minister and town selectman, is caught soliciting sex in a men’s room in a rest area of the interstate that passes through their county, arrested in the next town and held overnight in jail, to much scandal in the community. The chaos of the event affords Sammy enough cover to make his exit from the camp in possession of a few hundred dollars and a bus ticket given to him by Charlise during her visit to the camp.
He escaped from the camp, hitchhiked to the bus station in the county center, and got on a bus to New York. He got in touch with Chloe’s friend Jason, who offered him a floor to crash on while he looked for a job. His parents begin to rethink their choices and treatment of him. After arriving in New York, Sammy finds a place in the gay community, getting a job in a gay bar/cabaret, starts reading BackStage, and is soon making auditions. He finally gets a part, and sings the closing number to end the show.
Find the play online at https://prayawaygetaway.com