Jazz quartet delivers laid-back Christmas classics

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This article was published 13/12/2019 (1589 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“Welcome to our Christmas party!” New York Voices musical director and tenor Darmon Meader greeted more than a thousand holiday concert revelers.

He was welcoming them to the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s latest Pops concert, “New York Voices Christmas Special,” featuring the American group in their local debut. And then it was off to the races as the internationally acclaimed vocal jazz ensemble delivered the first of three weekend shows Friday night, treating listeners to a program of buttery smooth harmonies and eclectic jazz stylings led by WSO Associate Conductor and NYV countryman, New York City-born Julian Pellicano.

In the more than 30-year-old quartet, Meader is one of those truly astonishing musical whizzes who seems to do everything, including sing complex tenor lines, scat like Ella Fitzgerald, blow a mean saxophone, as well as create all of the group’s idiosyncratic jazz vocal and orchestral arrangements. Greg Jasperse filled in for usual baritone Peter Eldridge, who was on hiatus; and sopranos Lauren Kinhan and Kim Nazarian performed. Nazarian was a founding member of the quartet with both Meader and Eldridge. The quartet had its genesis during the mid-1980s at New York’s Ithaca College, before moving as a professional ensemble to New York City in 1988.

They continue to tour the world with their swinging harmonies, including collaborating with such musical royalty as the Count Basie Orchestra, Paquito D’Rivera, and the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band. The group also boasts a discography of 14 albums, including its latest 2019 offering, “Reminiscing in Tempo,” and “Let it Snow,” (2013), from which many of their show’s 16 selections were chosen.

After Pellicano kicked things off with a sprightly “Canadian Brass Medley,” the group made its entrance — fittingly only in voice, their eerily wafting vocals during “Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel” filling the Centennial Concert Hall. After taking the stage, they quickly launched into a devil-may-care version of “Let it Snow,” that provided the first taste of their simpatico artistry and spot-on jazz phrasing. They appear to breathe as one, heightened further by effervescent scat – in fact, more numbers with scat would have been welcomed.

Highlights included all the a cappella offerings, as “Coventry Carol,” and an absolutely gorgeous “S’vivon,” sung with heart and soul as a nod to the Jewish Festival of Lights, Hanukkah. Another, “Silent Night” first began in its original German language before slipping into English translation, creating several magical moments as first Nazarian’s, and then Jasperse’s, respective solos soared above the other singers’ simple humming.

It’s arguably tricky singing smooth vocal jazz, even slightly oxymoronic during a season teeming with ebullient high spirits. Many of the selections felt, well, overly laid-back; offering more steak than sizzle, when we wanted more sass than simply class. A few notable exceptions, including a red-hot “We Three Kings” that ended the first half, and a stylish “Merry Medley,” performed during the second set ramped up the show’s overall energy exponentially, powered by a greater abundance of contrapuntal, polyphonic lines and natty cross-rhythms that added more musical drive and compelling edge –and these singers clearly have the goods to deliver.

Michele Weir’s fascinating arrangement of “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” featuring crisply biting, asymmetrical meters and ear-cleaning harmonies, including a spark-flying saxophone solo by Winnipeg’s Janice Finlay, who also showed her chops during “Let it Snow.” Not to be outdone, local pianist Will Bonness and double bassist Nenad Zdjelar added their own featured solos during “I Wonder as I Wander,” as further testament to the city’s fine jazz community.

A promising “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” infused with the spirit of American jazz great Count Basie, surprisingly clipped along too briskly, not fully in the proverbial pocket that is the hallmark of the late jazz pianist/bandleader (and Basie’s music is always about less being more). Although, the song did become a showcase for Jasperse’s svelte vocals, as well as Meader’s own effective sax solo.

A three-song “Alfred Burt Medley” – with Meader drawing dead silence from the crowd when asked who had heard of this American composer – also didn’t completely gel with the orchestra. It was, at times, perilously out of sync with the rat-a-tat snare drum that felt just plain queasy, and would likely be remedied with more rehearsal time.

One of the best moments came with Pellicano, who appeared pleased as punch with his woodblock/slapstick solo performed from his podium during Leroy Anderson’s 1950 Christmas classic, “Sleigh Ride,” simulating the sounds of (gulp) whipped horses, quipping he had two master’s degrees under his belt to pull off the less than equine-friendly effect.

It became immediately clear that these terrific singers don’t take themselves too seriously, which brought levity and mirth to the evening, as they kibitzed about their dancing skills — on display during “Holiday for Strings” — cracked jokes and genuinely seemed in awe of being in “Winterpeg” where white Christmases are still very much the norm, despite the ever-quickening drum beat of global warming.

The crowd gave only a tiny, Canadian-polite standing ovation after the American singers’ rousing finale of “We Wish you A Merry Christmas. Oddly, they did not re-appear for a traditional encore after taking their bows; perhaps having already left the hall to spread their wings and make their own first angels in the snow, or simply enjoying further seasonal merriment with jazz licks and song.

The concert repeats Dec. 14 at 8 p.m., with a Dec. 15 2 p.m. matinee at Centennial Concert Hall.

 

Holly.harris@shaw.ca