‘Christmas with the Big Band’ Delivers Musical Cheer
‘Christmas with the Big Band’ once again brought much festive musical cheer to Perrins Hall on Monday evening with its annual offering of yuletide music with a jazzy and contemporary flavour.
The Big Band, expertly led by Mr Adlington, bookended the evening, opening with non-festive tunes such as ‘Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag’ and ‘Moanin’ and closing the evening with a version of ‘Rockin’ Robin’, ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ and ‘Silent Night’ (which features Upper Sixth saxophonists Noah Davison and Callum Butler as soloists). The Senior Jazz group performed four numbers, including a fiendishly difficult arrangement of ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’ and ‘Winter Wonderland’ sung superbly by Anna Jobes and Catherine Broadbent.
Some of our smaller ensembles completed the programme, with the Flute Group (led by our excellent flute teacher Mrs Humphries) and Clarinet Choir each presenting two seasonal songs. The ever-growing Guitar Group, led now by guitar teacher Mr Lennon, played ‘Rumble’ and ‘Merry Christmas Everyone’, with the audience keenly singing along to the chorus of the latter tune. The Sixth Form band ‘Halcyon’ rounded off the programme with an original Christmas song and ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’.
After performing in Big Band and Senior Jazz, Ben Fisher, who plays the trombone said “The concert was great! It felt to me better than any previous year’s concert because of all the new really good and talented musicians who played. My favourite piece in the concert was ‘Chitlins Con Carne’ with Senior Jazz because I got to play an improvised solo and it seemed to go down really well.”
Heidi Porter played in the Flute Group and she said, “I really enjoyed the whole evening, especially playing Christmas songs in a full Perrins Hall. The two flute pieces – ‘Let it Snow’ and ‘Rudolph’ – were well known so they were even more fun to play. I wore a Santa hat to play in and I enjoyed the whole concert”.
Well done to all of the performers and thank you to the staff for another very impressive and much enjoyed concert. Thank you to parents, grandparents and friends for joining us for music, mince pies and good cheer!