Tonight! '66 Bat-Music Jazz Concert, Live Stream!

[mwilbury]

I think this concert will be interesting to a few on this board, especially the Bat-Music afficionados. If we're lucky, maybe some members are near Central Florida and might attend. I'm excited to finally share it, as I've been conferring with the director for a few months.

The Flying Horse Big Band presents The Bat Swings!
Friday, April 14, 7:30 pm
Walt Disney Theater at the Dr. Phillip's Center for the Performing Arts

The University of Central Florida's top jazz ensemble will close out UCF Celebrates the Arts 2017 by performing new arrangements of music from Riddle's bat-scores. The performance will take place at Orlando's fancy new concert hall, a really top-notch venue.

Our school has an excellent jazz program, and the director recruited a few arrangers including Michael Philip Mossman who has worked with a lot of famous artists, been nominated for a Grammy as an arranger, signed to Blue Note, etc. (I'm admittedly a jazz neophyte, so I don't know too much about him or anything of the other contributors.) I've been working on promotional art for the event because I work at UCF.

Reserved seating will be available for purchase here March 1-8, and, after that, it opens up for free general admission tickets. I hope to meet somebody from the board at the event!

[John Mack]

OMG!! I sure hope their performance is recorded so we all can hear it! Thanks for sharing this excellent and exciting news!! Also, not that matters, but it's Neal Hefti, not Neil.
Maybe this will boost interest in getting the entire soundtrack released on CD?

[mwilbury]

Good eye, John. I hadn't reviewed their copy for the website, but your close reading probably prevented the error from appearing in the program which is set to go to print soon. I'll let that team know.

They usually livestream the celebration performances, so I'll check on that and report back when it gets closer. I know the director hopes to do a proper studio recording of the work in the coming months for later release.

[John Mack]

Oh, I'm so hyped! Thanks so much. I'll be looking forward to the live stream and definitely the studio release! I'm geeking out here!

[Batman65]

I'm with John here. I hope this gets recorded, and / or made available. I would love to hear that myself!

[Space Ghost]

Sounds pretty Cool!

[mwilbury]

Okay, this concert is a little over 10 days away, and I finally have some updates.

The show is FREE, so if you're anywhere near Orlando, Florida, I'm sure you won't regret it. Free general admission tickets can be reserved here: The Bat Swings!

It will be streamed live using Facebook Live. I think the content is public, so you won't need to be logged in/have a FB account in order to watch it. I will check into that.

You'll be able to catch it in one of two spots:

• UCF Celebrates the Arts live events page: http://arts.cah.ucf.edu/live/
• UCF School of Performing Arts Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/performingartsatucf

In the meantime, here is a preview of another poster I've been working on that will be sold at the event and, I presume, online. If everything goes according to plan, we'll be running a limited edition, 3-color silkscreen edition next week. I will post more details in the Bat Merchandise forum when I know the exact purchase price and method.

[John Mack]

Very nice artwork on the poster! It captures the fun of the series to a tee. While I'm really looking forward to hearing the performance, I have to admit to being a bit disappointed in hearing that it's mostly music from the film score. It's true that the main villain cues were used in the first and second seasons and that some of the movie music was incorporated into the second season episodes, most notably the fight music and Batcopter sequences, however, I was hoping for the music that hadn't been released as of yet (Batusi1 and Batusi2 from a King Tut episode, just the simple, ordinary Batfight music, and the opening music from the episode, "The Bird's Last Jest") to name but a few.
Still, it's going to be a fun listen and you all are going to have an even greater time in Florida! I'm waiting with bated breath! Work hard and knock em' out!

[mwilbury]

I have updated the title of this thread because tonight is the night.

Check out my links above for ways to livestream the concert.

It starts at 7:30 PM Eastern!

[John Mack]

Well, I hope all went well? I wasn't able to get the streaming to work, so I do hope they plan on a way for us to hear the concert after the fact. Wish I could have attended.

[Ben Bentley]

I too hope the show went well?

Was the live stream only available in real-time or is there a link we can still watch?

[mwilbury]

That's frustrating. I'm not sure if they encountered technical difficulties or opted not to livestream the show (as with a couple other programs due to licensing issues). I am eager to check in with the staff to see if any of it was recorded.

On the plus side, the music WILL be recorded in the studio next month for release later this year, so you'll be able to hear it eventually.

[John Mack]

Holy good news! Thank you!