Everyone today is excavating buried histories for celebration or lament, but Jawole Willa Jo Zollar got there first—40 years ago with the Africanist, feminist troupe Urban Bush Women. The Bard Summerscape commission SCAT!… The Complex Lives of Al & Dot, Dot & Al Zollar marks her last such venture into social history, now that she has passed the Bush Women baton to younger colleagues. The evening-length piece, set to Craig Harris’s live, original jazz score, takes its inspiration from Zollar’s own parents, Dot the jazz singer and Al, an owner of a Kansas City bar. The choreographer is in the mix, too. SCAT! is modeled on the “floor shows” a young Willa Jo participated in, with their “comic MCs (like Moms Mabley and Pigmeat Markham), flash acts (think the Nicholas Brothers), eccentric dancers (Earl ‘Snakehips’ Tucker), exotic dancers (Josephine Baker),” she recalls. Zollar’s work always evokes a strong mood. Here, expect joy. —Apollinaire Scherr