Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington collaborated for nearly 30 years. While always deferential onstage, Strayhorn's genius fueled many signature hits. He was also vociferous about civil rights and openly gay, which did nothing to discourage the attention of glamorous women. In 1963, after the band went to Iran as part of a tour of the East, Ellington and Strayhorn created The Far East Suite, with its languid jewel "Isfahan." Isfahan Blues — co-produced by the African-American Shakespeare Company and Golden Thread Productions, and the first by the AASC outside the classical canon — is a blending of cultures, a mixture of fact and fantasy, memory and meandering. Starring famed Iranian actress Vida Ghahremani, a jazz lover who owned a nightclub in 1963 Iran, and written by Ghahremani's daughter, Isfahan Blues imagines what would have happened if, after the actress and the composer met, they had slipped out from under the shadows of their leading men to see the former capital of the Persian empire. Since The Far East Suite could not legally be used, Marcus Shelby has written an entirely original score, a situation reminiscent of one that led Strayhorn to pen "Take the 'A' Train."
Isfahan Blues opens at 8 p.m. and continues through May 24 at Buriel Clay Theatre, 762 Fulton St., S.F. $15-$34; 415-762-2071 or african-americanshakes.org.
415-762-2071
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