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"TIME" - opening number

JAZZ SPOKEN HERE

"TAKE away the DAZE and get yourself some HAYES!" ~ David Amram, the creator, with Jack Kerouac, of jazz poetry readings.
Over the past nine years, Alejandro Arenas (bass), Mark Feinman (drums) and John O'Leary (piano), aka La Lucha, have joined playwright Joseph Reed Hayes in various combinations. The favored arrangement is four artists, beginning at a downbeat and ending ... when it ends. Hayes doesn't know what his friends will be playing: La Lucha doesn't know what the writer will be reading. Yet, somehow, the four share a telepathy of improvisation to create magic.

These four Central Florida artists created a one-of-a-kind, one night only theatrical jazz experience for their 10th collaboration, primarily in an improvisational setting.

JAZZ SPOKEN HERE experiments with words written for the plays of The Hayes Project and other work, and improvised and new music from La Lucha.

JAZZ SPOKEN HERE

FULL PERFORMANCE

    THE CAST OF CHARACTERS

  • LA LUCHA
    Bassist Alejandro Arenas, drummer Mark Feinman and pianist John O’Leary have toured and performed at jazz festivals around the world as La Lucha since 2007. The Tampa-based trio aims to create music which transcends genres and classifications. They have won Creative Loafing's "Best of the Bay' for Jazz Band (2015, 2014, 2013) and Best Jazz Album (2021).

    LA LUCHA'S latest record is EVERYBODY WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD on Arbors Records.
    John O'Leary's new solo record is THE SUNDERING.

    MORE INFO

  • JOSEPH REED HAYES
    Joseph Reed Hayes celebrates 20 years of writing and producing plays with this performance. Continuing The Hayes Project, Joseph pulls material from a stream of works  which will shape the final production of If I Had My Way by playing with La Lucha, one of his great artistic joys. 

    MORE INFO
John O'Leary, Alejandro Arenas, Joseph Hayes and Mark Feinman perform
Jazz Spoken Here mp3 album Jazz Spoken Here
Soundtrack mp3 album

  • In person and streaming live
    January 30, 2022, 7PM
    Timucua Arts Foundation, Orlando FL

    Alejandro Arenas, bass
    Mark Feinman, drums
    John C. O'Leary III, piano & keyboards
    Joseph Hayes, words

    • The Hayes Project is sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Arts & Culture and the Florida Council on Arts & Culture


    Special thanks to Timucua Arts Foundation




CONTACT ME

freelance writer

As a writer on assignment, I've traveled to Italy, Scotland, England, New Orleans, California and New York City, with a specialty on all things Orlando. Whether it's a story about Arts & Crafts houses in Florida or new styles in computers, a Mounted Police squad or alien abduction insurance, I've written it. Environmental issues, music, movie and theater reviews and in-depth conversations with legends in jazz. Interviews and personality profiles are my specialty.

playwright

My plays take place on buses and in bars, in hotel rooms and government offices, farmhouse kitchens and jazz stages. 57 productions and readings of my plays from coast to coast and in three countries since 2001; creator of House Theater Project and the year-long 13in13 series of shows.

"Best local playwright: Joseph Hayes" - Orlando Sentinel

food writer

Florida Magazine Association Award winning food writer and Orlando restaurant critic. James Beard Foundation judge, knowledgable champion of world cuisine and avid advocate of undiscovered chefs.

EVENT producer

Producer of the Jazz On Edge series, spotlighting new and original jazz from Central Florida since 2008, showcasing the best that Central Florida has to offer in jazz to appreciative audiences, giving creative hometown and nationally-known musicians a place to perform their own music, without boundaries, in person and online. Founder Word Play series, former Chair of Alternative Programming, Timucua Arts Foundation.