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Swingin’ Denver is excited for this production and wanted to share it with our audience too. Keep reading for more details. The show runs February 9 - 19.

In the Pocket: The Ballad of Bobby Trombone imagines life at the historic Rossonian Hotel, located at the pinnacle of Five Points, Denver’s historic Black neighborhood in the 1950s. The former Rossonian Hotel was the beating heart of Five Points and one of the most famous jazz clubs in the West durring the Jazz era.  

Three employees tell the story of its rich jazz history and how it earned its nickname “The Harlem of the West” in a comedic, fictionalized account of historic facts.  ‘In the pocket’ is a jazz term to describe when a musician or band finds a groove.  Garcia Lorca might have called it Duende, the “mysterious power which everyone senses and no philosopher explains.”  In the play, Bobby Trombone, the Rossonian’s head concierge, explains to a young bellhop on his first day on the job, “We do it like jazz. That’s the pocket, the rhythm, keep in time, be on time, adapt and improvise, until it’s check out time... Bellhoppin’ is just like jazz.”

The characters in the story offer a glimpse into what it was like as a Black resident of Denver who lived, worked, struggled and thrived in Five Points in during the Jazz era.  These characters also embody a larger symbology as the past and future of Denver’s Black community in relationship to its artistic identity over time. 

WRITTEN BY JEFF CAMPBELL

Story Consultation/ Direction by Theatre Artibus

Music by Akil

Cast: Danette Hollowell, Shane Franklin, Wesley Watkins and Jeff Campbell