Between the Wars

Tomi Hayashi, Bobbi Carrey | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 14, 2002)
• Original Release Date: October 14, 2002
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Nowandthen Productions
• ASIN: B0000775SM
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #638,628 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

About the Artist

Having escaped from corporate America, Bobbi Carrey founded nowandthen Productions with Tomi Hayashi offering cabaret performances combining social history with popular song. Current shows include The Evolution of American Pop Music: from Rag to Rock n’ Roll; Music of the 1930’s: from Swing to Swoon; Irving Berlin: the Voice of Everyman and Between the Wars: Music from 1918-1941.

Bobbi Carrey's musical experiences range from Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes, to a women’s vocal trio called The Mood Elevators. She has performed throughout New England, including CabaretFest! in Newburyport and Provincetown MA, Playwright's Platform, The Footlight Club, The Blacksmith House, and Tufts University. In addition to her corporate stint at Fidelity Investments as a Senior Vice President in Retail Marketing, Bobbi has also been a professional photographer and filmmaker, antique dealer, tap dancer and Weight Watcher leader.

Tomi Hayashi comes relatively late to the cabaret scene, though not to music. He started classical piano at age four, studied harpsichord at New England Conservatory, played cocktail piano for ten years in restaurants from New York to Maine, and played for and with Lea Delaria and George Abbott. Unafraid to rock or croon, he can and will perform Rudy Vallee and Rockabilly songs back to back in their original styles.

Product Description

Between the World Wars, America was on a wild roller coaster ride. After peace was declared in 1918, the country soared to giddy heights in the Roaring ’20s, crashed deep into the Depression, climbed the long hill back to prosperity—and then found itself once again at war. The stresses created a new and altered nation, and popular culture reflected every fall back and leap forward.

After World War I, popular music was still heavily influenced by Ragtime, its sound that of the tinny Victrola or the jangly player piano. The "hot" rhythms of the 20s grew directly out of the Ragtime craze, with the Charleston leading the way. This turbulent decade—marked by bathtub gin, flagpole sitting, flappers and Charlie Chaplin—was forever captured in the songs of the day.

After the crash of 1929, the grim national mood inspired millions of Americans to turn on their radios and lose themselves in music. Broadway, Tin Pan Alley, and Hollywood all responded to the demand with an incredible outpouring of song. The ‘30s are generally referred to as the "Golden Age" of American pop music, when the legendary names were at the peaks of their careers.

Pop music continued to evolve, and by 1935, swing was generally recognized as the dominant style of music, and the Big Band era got underway. After 1935, politics took center stage and with the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, America’s history as well as its popular culture were changed. Song after song captured America’s wartime spirit and sense of purpose, uniting the soldiers overseas with the women at home.

American music, like all of society, was dramatically transformed by the tumultuous decades between 1918 and 1941. Through the medium of song, this recording explores American life and culture "between the wars."