Downtown: Artists find pairing makes best of talents
Two local artists bring their love of jazz and performance together for an evening of song and dance.
By ELIZABETH MILLER
Published August 27, 2004
Whether you're a fan of jazz or Las Vegas-style entertainment, An Evening with Sunny and Rose offers some of both.
Local artists Rose Bilal and Nathan Burton have combined their talents to present an evening of song and dance tonight through Sunday at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center's Shimberg Playhouse. The show features Bilal and Burton performing songs from jazz legends, including Nat King Cole and Ernestine Anderson.
For performers Bilal and Burton, co-producing the show marks a culmination of their careers.
Bilal, whose voice has been compared to jazz greats such as Ella Fitzgerald and Carmen McRay, most recently performed in a Doug Hammond concert in Austria and Germany. A colorful artist who lives in Tampa Heights, she's known locally as a performer as well as painter, sculptor of papier-mache divas and writer. All of these pursuits, she says, stem from her music.
Her life-size diva titled Oschun, the name of an African deity, was recently featured in Gary Monroe's book about eccentric artists and the creative process titled Extraordinary Interpretations: Florida's Self-taught Artists. Bilal's moving tale of a troubled youth and finding her artistry has been told in an unpublished autobiography and adapted into a story for Power Stories, an anthology of inspirational stories published by JADA Press.
Whether writing or speaking to groups of young girls about her experiences or producing a cabaret show, Bilal says her music is at the center of it all.
Burton is an actor, musician and vocalist who has toured the country, and has appeared in local theater for many years. He met Bilal while working on a production at Stageworks.
"We found we had a mutual interest in doing a Vegas-style show," Bilal said. "We sat down and brainstormed some ideas and it evolved from there."
The two are already planning future productions and hope to tour with An Evening with Sunny and Rose.
"Nathan has given me a lot of confidence to do something I never thought I could do," she said.
Putting together the show wasn't easy. They needed musicians, props and money. To help cover production costs, they applied for and received a small grant from the Hillsborough County Arts Council.
The duo named the show's second act "Living, Loving, Laughter and Jazz" in the hopes it will help "spread the message of jazz music, and promote good, wholesome entertainment," Bilal said.
With musical arrangements by Marcus Hampton of the former Hampton House of Jazz, and the choreography done predominantly by Burton, Bilal says the show has something for everyone.
"It's got some jazz and some rhythm and blues - it's something the whole family will enjoy."
If you go
Local artists Rose Bilal and Nathan Burton present An Evening with Sunny and Rose at 8 p.m today and Saturday and at 4 p.m. Sunday at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center's Shimberg Playhouse. Tickets are $25. For information, call 229-7827 or go to www.tbpac.org
