Jazz Combo to perform

The Georgia College & State University Jazz Combo brings familiar show tunes to the stage in their upcoming fall concert.
“Cabaret, Broadway, & Beyond: An Evening of Treasured Vocal Jazz Styles,” directed by Dr. Ross Feller, assistant professor of music, will take place Tuesday, Oct. 28 at 7:30 p.m. in Max Noah Recital Hall.
This is the Jazz Combo’s first initiation into a mostly vocal jazz show. The show will feature the vocal talents of Brad Bergeron, April Felton and Chris Ndeti. Fellow Jazz Combo members including Tim Pietrofere on trumpet, Marshall Coats on bass, Kelly Starling and Jon Joiner on drums, Dr. Maureen Horgan on trombone and Feller on piano will join them.
“This has been an exciting and challenging semester for us,” said Feller. “The horn players have learned how to play accompanimental, supportive roles.”
The concert will feature well-known standards from the jazz vocal, lounge, cabaret and Broadway literature made famous by such singers as Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Billie Holiday and Chet Baker, and composers such as Cole Porter, Rogers and Hart, George Gershwin, Kurt Weill and Jerome Kern.
There will be a broad selection of songs performed throughout the night. “Speak Low” and “September Song” by Kurt Weill are two tunes the Jazz Combo will perform in a cabaret style. Cabaret was a style first found at the end of the 19th century in Berlin and Paris. Mostly vocal, the cabaret style used stock, common, pop chord progressions along with lyrics that often functioned as social commentary.
“Singers sang about controversial topics whether from the statehouse, courthouse or bedroom in a house,” said Feller. “Toward the outbreak of WWI, cabaret lyrics often turned to anti-war themes. It is no big surprise that regimes such as the Third Reich or Stalinist Russia outlawed cabaret and declared it politically subversive.”
The performance will also include “My Funny Valentine” by Rogers & Hart, a famous writing pair that produced many well-known musical theater and Broadway compositions. Others songs featured in the concert are “Autumn Leaves” by Johnny Mercer, “All the Things You Are” by Oscar Hammerstein and “The Days of Wine and Roses” by Henry Mancini.
The GC&SU Music and Theater Department will sponsor the concert. Admission to the concert is free and open to the public. If you have any questions, please contact the Music & Theater Dept. at 445-4226.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 24 2003. Filed under Other. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry