The Addison Singers over the summer term will be rehearsing to present a Festival of Music to celebrate the myriad talents of our Jazz and Classical Choirs. Maestros Jarman, Hough and Morgan will lead the Jazz Choir, Jazz Ensemble, Chamber and Oratorio Choirs on a musical tour through British and American repertoire.
For the Jazz choirs, the emphasis is on music played at jazz/popular and classical music festivals throughout the decades. The Jazz Choir tips its hat to the spirit of the counterculture movement of the 60’s and 70’s with two songs from the musical Hair (Aquarius and Let the Sunshine In). The "Hippie culture" was responsible for many famous festivals, including Woodstock, and the original "Summer of Love" in Golden Gate Park. My Funny Valentine, performed by Miles Davis at the 1963 Monterey Jazz Festival, and Roberta Flack at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1996, are but two of the many artists to take on this beautiful standard. Other numbers include All the Cats Join In, Caravan (Ellington at 1969 Berlin Jazz Festival); there is a balm in Gilead (Montreaux Jazz Festival), and the ever-fun I Say Yeh Yeh!
The Jazz Ensemble is revisiting some old favourites to include Embraceable You (played by Miles Davis at Festival International de Jazz in 1949), I Say a Little Prayer, Old Devil Moon (notably sang by Carmen McRae at the Newport Jazz Festival, established in 1954), One for My Baby, Steam Heat, and That Old Black Magic.
An evening not to miss, there are bound to be many frivolous moments and something more melancholic as we explore movements from Dove’s The Passing of the Year and Rutter’s The Sprig of Thyme. The choirs will join together in rousing performances of New York, New York by Kander & Ebb, and Jenkins’ Jubilate Deo.
