For four decades Decidedly Jazz Danceworks has been putting jazz dance at the forefront of Calgary’s art scene, and that tradition is set to continue with a production that calls back to the birth of jazz itself.

Call and Response, which features traditional New Orleans jazz band Falling Bullets Jazz Band led by Marla Dixon, is set to take Calgarians back to the smoky clubs and cool sounds from the home of jazz itself.

That, combined with 10 dancers each responding to the music, makes Call and Response a decidedly jazzy way to kick off the company’s 40th season of productions.

“This music, most of it that we’re playing is about 100 years old. So we’re talking about composers like Louis Armstrong, who many people have heard of—he was such a prolific figure in jazz—and other guys, if you’re a bit more niche. You might have heard of Bessie Smith, who is a really famous blues singer, we do a couple of her tunes, but this music is very accessible,” said Kimberley Cooper, Artistic Director for Decidedly Jazz Danceworks.

“It fits with dancing. At that time, jazz music and dance were together in the clubs, and this was music for dancing, too.”

She said combining music and dancing was like watching music for the eyes.

“So, I think that if you come to this show, you’re going to see and hear music, and hopefully you’re going to clap, and you’re going to shout and you’re going to say hooray, and you’re going to love watching it,” Cooper said.

The title of the production, Call and Response, refers to what Cooper said was a common way of dancing based in African cultures where dancers are called by the music and then respond with dance moves.

That tradition became part of the original jazz scene and is a central part of the way that the dance unfolds, she said.

“Sometimes it’s an instrument that calls out and the rest of the band responds. Maybe it’s a singer calling out something and everybody shouts something. In dance and music, responding to each other and the audience, I think audiences can expect a pretty good time,” Cooper said.

Decades of some of the best jazz performers, and decades more to come

Cooper said that she first heard Dixon play in New Orleans, and that performance ended up moving and haunting her.

“I took a chance. I called her up, and she put a band together and agreed to come to Calgary,” Cooper said.

That ability to make the ask, and attract some of the top talents in jazz to Calgary has a large part to do with the strength of the jazz scene in the city, she said.

“I think that Alberta and Calgary have a stronger jazz music community than people actually realize. A lot of stuff has happened here. Tommy Banks, who was a former Alberta senator, but was also huge musical star in Alberta—he had a television show, and he taught many of the musicians that we’ve collaborated with. So he planted seeds here,” Cooper said.

“He worked with Clarence ‘Big’ Miller, who was a Kansas City blues shouter who ended up living in Edmonton in the 80s and collaborated with DJD nationally. We’ve also worked with a lot of incredible Canadian jazz music artists, and right now, internationally.”

She said that the legacy of DJD has been that impact on both jazz and dance.

“Think about how we talk about dog years. I feel like, in the arts, 40 years is like 100 years in people years because it is so hard for arts organizations to survive. I think it’s just a great testament to the vision of the founders, and the strength of the leadership and the strength of the board and all the of the community that has come together and been a part of and supported DJD audiences,” Cooper said.

“All of the founders and many company members have also had a huge impact on teaching dance in Calgary. DJD was born out of the University of Calgary, so there are all these ties within the community in so many ways.”

Call and Response runs at Decidedly Jazz Danceworks from Jan. 16 through 26.

For more information, or tickets see www.decidedlyjazz.com/experience/performances/call-and-response.