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03/20/2019

New Change Live featuring Sarah Reich tap dances into the Goodfoot / preview

By MICHAEL "SHOEHORN" CONLEY // New Change Live featuring tap dance sensation Sarah Reich at the Goodfoot Pub & Lounge in Portland

Monday, March 25th 2019

The Goodfoot Pub & Lounge in Portland will host New Change Live, featuring tap dance sensation Sarah Reich, on Monday, March 25th, (9pm $15 cover, 21+) including musicians from Los Angeles as well as a few local stalwarts filling out the band. Reich and her group will perform selections from her stunning debut CD, titled New Change.

Reich, 28, began dancing as a child and has made it her life's work to connect audiences with the music of tap dance footwork. Reich “blew up” in a viral YouTube video with Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox in 2015, performing a retro 1920s-jazz cover of Lady Gaga's hit “Bad Romance”, which has generated nearly 26,000,000 views. With effervescent humor, and infectious enthusiasm, Reich and the band proffer a rendition that reveals the tune’s sturdy structure and appeal across genre divides, which is the central premise of the group’s work. PMJ has made several appearances in Portland in recent years.

Beautifully recorded, the New Change disc brings a contemporary ascetic front and center, incorporating modern sounds which run between funk, Latin, rock, hip-hop, and jazz without settling in to any one genre- each tune offers contrasting feels, and the arrangements are free of any adherence to predictable formats.

Listening to Reich’s CD it is easy to trace the germ of each song from her footwork to the melody and rhythm of each composition. With guest vocalists and a crack L.A. studio band nailing the crisp arrangements, the CD also features vignettes assembled from audio recordings of influential tap dancers offering encouragement to the young artist.

One of the songs on New Change, “Respect the Dance” name-checks greats of the tap dance world and the jazz firmament. There are also a couple of lovely duets with cello and bass which offer surprisingly complete musical experiences.

This is a rare opportunity for the Portland audience to experience up-close a popular tap dancer living her dream, bringing her fancy footwork to fruition with an ensemble of seasoned players, establishing without a doubt the place of tap dance in the world’s musical lexicon.

Reich is also conducting a 3-day tap intensive, her Tap Music Project Express, at Innovative Dance Studio in Wilsonville, starting Friday night, which will feature a jazz quartet accompanying the students as they explore the relation between tap dance rhythm improvisation and music composition.

Sarah Reich’s Website

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