Yes, I'm still working backwards.
Classic Holiday Hits featuring Jazz Trumpet Sensation Jonathan Dely and Band
Jonathan Dely, trumpet; Holger Marjamaa, piano; Ben Eunson, guitar; Raphael Pannier, percussion; Nicolas Hetko, keyboard; Josh Allen, bass; and Julia Biedry, guest vocalist
First things first. Really? My first Songbook of the season on December 16?!? Well, yeah. Songbook (new songs by up-and-coming theater composers) is usually the last Monday evening of each month. Due to renovations at the Bruno Walter Auditorium, there was no September Songbook. On the evening of October’s Songbook, I was attending a crackerjack reading/presentation of the book Spotless, by Sherman Yellen, at the York Theatre. I even got him to sign my copy. That’s another story—just ask! The last Monday in November found me decorating BabyBro’s house in Ohio and flying back to NYC. So December it is.
Unfortunately, it was not new music. And also unfortunately, the December new music evening was an evening that I was attending (on freebie tickets that I won in a raffle) a dynamite concert at Carnegie Hall, in the smaller Zankel Hall. But I digress.
So, on to Saturday’s concert. Mr. Dely is a very talented trumpeter. He and his band are mostly guys he met and hooked up with at Manhattan School of Music. They were a pretty much together jazz band, if a little green. Yes they threw melodies and solos back and forth but it was slightly studied and stilted—sort of textbook style. Not bad, just not loose and easy.
And the Holiday Classics were more of a mix of Classics and Holiday. When I Fall in Love was the opener and it had a nice swing to it (including a brief interpolation of Santa Claus Is Coming to Town). That type of interpolation is almost always a given when it comes to holiday concerts—I’m pretty much convinced that Jingle Bells can be added as a holiday fillip or tag to just about any song in December. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas followed. While featuring Mr. Dely, he was also generous with sharing the spotlight with the rest of the band members.
Ms. Biedry entered from the back of the house (with the requisite hand-held microphone) singing Baby It’s Cold Outside. It was sort of an odd duet, with vocalist and trumpeter. Still, it was relatively effective. Soapbox time. There really is no reason to have, in a 250-person house, all six instrumentalists and one vocalist amplified. Unless, of course, you’re relying on a sound engineer to give you the perfect blend. But that should be saved for the recording studio. One of the joys of hearing live music is hearing really live, as it sounds in the room, music. OK, off my soapbox now. I just felt as though I had to give it a try.
Winter Wonderland was followed with La Vie en Rose. The omnipresent and trending Hallelujah was followed with Mr. Dely’s own new age-y arrangement of My Favorite Things. Ms. Biedry was back with an in-the-house version of The Very Thought of You (once again duet style, with Mr. Dely also in the house). This was the rather low key finale. After some very supportive words from John Znidarsic, the brains behind all of the Songbook programming, Mr. Dely and Mr. Marjamaa presented an encore, My Funny Valentine.
Mr. Dely and all of his bandmates here have a pretty good feel for jazz, though they’re also more than happy to add their own twists and turns. An interesting concert, just not the Songbook that I was hoping for. To paraphrase Mr. Sondheim, well, maybe next month.
ConcertMeister
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