Baby Laurence at the Showplace Baby Laurence performer Theatrical Performance 1960-02-12 The Showplace Whitney Balliett wrote: "Baby Laurence, the semi-legendary jazz tap dancer, opened at the Showplace, a second-story cave on West Fourth Street. Working on a stage the size of a billiard table Laurence danced only two numbers, which, taken together, lasted well under ten minutes, but which were of such intensity that they appeared to be a telescoping of all tap-dancing. Laurence discreetly backed by Charlie Mingus (bass), Roland Hanna (piano), and Danny Richmond (drums). After some purposely heavy, flatfooted introductory steps in medium tempo, Laurence shot into double time, pausing repeatedly and suddenly for short triple-time passages, done as breaks, that were compounded of a startling variety of accents, not one of which was missed, and that invariably came out just right. These seesaw patterns were followed by abrupt slow shufflings, which gave way to offbeats against a backboard, and then to irregular, out-of-rhythm scrapings carried out on three shallow steps on one side of the stage. More breaks, a few crackling spins, and the dance was over. The shorter second number was a solo. It consisted of half a dozen rhythms--including a military beat--that, flawlessly juxtaposed, proved that Laurence is, essentially, is a great drummer." The engagement came about by Marshall Stearns, who suggested that Laurence go to the Showplace where Mingus was putting on informal dance sessions on Thursday nights. Speaking to Balliett, Laurence said he felt very lucky to have the gig with Mingus. "Between the entertainment tax and the Hollywood and Broadway producers, who use nothing but what we call choreography dancing, there just aren't many jobs for jazz dancers." Performing Arts Encyclopedia http://www.loc.gov/performingarts Balliett, Whitney: Collected Works : A Journal of Jazz 1954-2000. St. MartinÕs Press (2000). Tap Dance America http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/tda/tda-home.html "Baby" Laurence Jackson (biography) loc.music.tdabio.109 tda IHAS 151216 loc.music.tda.1145