A packed house at Hanover Hall enthusiastically applauded the Dunedin Jazz Club’s toe-tapping celebration of Gershwin’s works on Saturday evening. Organised to celebrate the centennial of the premier of Gershwin’s most striking work Rhapsody in Blue, the programme included other big band arrangements and improvisations of some of his famous and enduring pieces.
Band leader Ralph Miller (trumpet) and other leaders Peter Claman and Colin Macandrew (trombone), Mike Gaches (trumpet) and Chris Whiting (tenor saxophone) all performed very well. Jodie Benson was in fine alto voice. Though some of the pieces tested her vocal range, her inflections are invariably spot-on. It has to be noted that the soaring glissando which marks the opening of the Rhapsody challenges even those whose nerves might not have got the better of them.
Highlights of the evening included the mellifluous Someone to Watch Over Me and How Long Has This Been Going On, the commemoration to the Cornish family’s life steeped in band music They Can’t Take That Away From Me, an exceptionally improvised Fascinating Rhythm and Summertime, the jaunty Nice Work if you Can Get it and, of course, Preston’s own arrangement of Love Walked in.
The sense of doing it for the love was palpable throughout the performance with all performers happily committed to their art. Calder Prescott was richly commemorated for his dedication to spreading the joy and for establishing the band now very ably directed by Nick Cornish (alto saxophone). Of course nothing happens without a production crew, so it is nice to see a programme which lists all office bearers and volunteers. While brass band music has a colonial history in Aotearoa, the big band sound arrived in the 1940s and remains under-recognised, so a big shout-out to those who happily keep the faith.
