SEATTLE—In a meeting of talents, jazz musician Buddy Catlett—who has played with greats such as Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, and Quincy Jones—was in attendance at Divine Performing Arts' Chinese Spectacular in Seattle's Paramount Theatre on Thursday.
Catlett heard many influences within the orchestrated music that supports the dance numbers in the Spectacular, which has been previously hailed as a successful blend of East and West, both in terms of orchestral instruments, as well as the melding of Eastern melodies with Western musical arrangements.
He said the show "brought back many thoughts of where the music came from, you could hear some Ravel and Debussy in some of those pieces, you hear all different kinds of influences, of music around the world, from Chinese, Oriental music."
"You can hear quite a bit of the influences of the 18th century composers," he said. "Very well done."
Catlett attended the show with Jessica, a writer in entertainment and arts. She explained, "I thought it was really interesting, and it seemed like it had a message of fighting for what you believe in. And it had a recurrence of Truth, Compassion, and … Forbearance."
She continued, "I really liked all the colors in it, it was really beautiful, just a variety of colors in each piece."
"And I really liked the piece with the water, with the blue," she said, referring to "Nymphs of the Sea." Catlett agreed that it was a good one.
Jessica concluded, saying, "I thought it was a great performance, I would see it again if it comes again. I really liked it. I'm really glad I went to it."
For information about upcoming Divine Performing Arts shows, please visit: www.DivinePerformingArts.org.
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of the Divine Performing Arts company. For our complete coverage please visit: http://en.epochtimes.com/features/dpa2008/
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