Jazzed Up

by Janet Anderson

dance

"We'll all be doing the music," says Germaine Ingram, local tap dance sorceress and civic leader, of her upcoming Indre Recording Studio jazz session. Ingram, who added tap to a resume that includes a Penn and Harvard law background (she's currently an educational consultant), joins with several jazz musicians for an informal mix of voice, instrumental music and tapping feet.

Ingram's voice and feet will counterpoint and twine with the sweet sounds of bassist Tyrone W. Brown and guitarist Gerald "Twig" Smith, plus other musical friends who'll drop by. Expect some Latin sounds and even, why not, flamenco. Ingram adds into this lush mix her own finely modulated voice because "quite frankly," she says, "I thought it was boring just to tap. And singing gives me a chance to catch my breath."

For this session, part of the Philadelphia Folklore Project's Art Happens Here program, there will be a "loose structure," making for a strictly informal atmosphere. Within the music, there will be counts, and space, for improvisation with instruments, voice and feet. The musicians have worked with Ingram in the past, and have "the generosity and sensitivity" needed for such complex partnering. Will you be able to see these shifts as they happen? Watch closely as Ingram and the musicians cue each other subtly, like jockeys, using just the slightest inclination of hand or body to signal "now!"

Ingram likes a performance "to feel like a rehearsal because that's where I'm most comfortable. And I want the audience to experience the looseness and freedom of a real jazz session." In a performing world clogged with American cheese, consider this a caviar opportunity.

Germaine Ingram, Sun., May 22, 2:30 p.m., $10, Indre Recording Studios, 1418 S. Darien St., 215-468-7871, www.folkloreproject.org.