Photo: A diverse crowd watching “Bebop: The Musical.”

“It’s been a while since I directed a musical,” said Carrie Morris, director of Carrie Morris Arts Production (CMAP). “I forgot how much work it is.”

CMAP, a Knight Arts Challenge Detroit winner, is one of four arts groups that comprise the Carpenter Exchange–a creative placemaking initiative focused on Detroit’s Carpenter Street and rounded out by fellow Knight Arts grantees The Hinterlands, Popps Packing and Power House Productions. As part of the Carpenter Exchange, CMAP has been putting on free outdoor theater events all summer.

With her latest, “Bebop: The Musical,” Morris certainly had her work as director and producer cut out for her. An original work of satirical puppet theater written by Scott Gwinnell, “Bebop” featured a live jazz band and vocal talent, in addition to a puppet show starring fictionalized caricatures of some of jazz history’s greatest names.

“Good guys” Miles Davis, Charlie Parker and Chet Baker.

The story pits “good guys” Charlie Parker (voiced by Brian Baylor), Miles Davis (Marcell Seldon), Chet Baker (Luciana Piazza) and Art Tatum (Dan Johnson) against an evil plot to destroy the new school of bebop. The plot is masterminded by Louis Armstrong (Jonathan Jones, drawing clear inspiration from Darth Vader), and abetted by Ella Fitzgerald (K Edmonds) and Benny Goodman (Jeremy St. Martin). Many of the adversarial relationships between characters were represented in violent jazz battles, such as Parker’s saxophone (played by musician Carl Cafagna) taking on Armstrong’s trumpet (John Douglas).

Morris ably handled the many working parts of this production, including the orchestra, which, in addition to Cafagna and Douglas, featured Jordan Schug on electric bass, Cory Allen on guitar, Jesse Kramer on percussion and Gwinnell conducting from behind the keyboard. The cast of puppets was handled by puppeteers Samantha Moltmaker, Torri Lynn Ashford and Greg Mulkern—working in concert with the vocalists that provided the spoken and sung content of the script. Overall, the multi-channel production provided an excellent point of entry into jazz (and its different schools, like swing, slide piano and bebop), with the puppetry keeping the many youngsters in the audience entertained. It was clever way to foster jazz appreciation in a young audience, as well as a wonderful way to showcase an impressive cross section of young musical talent in Detroit.

The villains, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, with puppeteer Samantha Moltmaker.

The crowd included Carpenter Exchange members and regulars, neighbors and visitors, who all packed the available seating and spilled over onto blankets on the lawn for a picture-perfect night with cool temperatures that signaled the coming of autumn. But never fear, there are still a number of outdoor activities on the Carpenter Exchange’s September roster, including “Tactile Taste of Banglatown” (a 30-minute food-based performance experience that will take place Sept. 4-5 at Play House), outdoor movie nights every Friday in September, and the Detroit Fringe festival Sept. 17-20 at CMAP. It’s been a busy summer for everyone involved in the Carpenter Exchange, and each new act of culture seems to be adding momentum to a growing neighborhood.