PREVIEW
When Love Comes to Town
Cosmopolitan Music Jazz Orchestra & 6 Minute Warning
Thursday, March 22 at 7:30 p.m.
Old Strathcona Performing Arts Centre
8426 Gateway Blvd.
Tickets: $20 advance, $25 at door. Call 780-432-9333
Three years ago when Allen Jacobson received the go-ahead to create an 18-piece jazz orchestra under Cosmopolitan Music Society’s umbrella, he was immediately besieged to pair up with 6 Minute Warning for a concert.
“At the time I wanted to establish the jazz orchestra and give it some legs, some mileage and a foundation,” said Jacobson, who has now organized When Love Comes to Town with 6 Minute Warning for Thursday, March 22 at the Old Strathcona Performing Arts Centre.
Today, the CMS Jazz Orchestra has a top-tier reputation for playing standards from the Duke Ellington and Count Basie era as well as current original music scooped from the European jazz scene.
6 Minute Warning is also a well oiled six-man singing machine renowned for their upbeat rock, pop, and jazz a cappella stylings that draw from Boyz II Men, Take 6 and Michael Jackson. Their tight harmonies, seamless phrasing, seductive lead-solos and intricate beat boxing are a hallmark of their sets.
Up until this year, 6 Minute Warning’s bread and butter rotated around corporate gigs with only a handful of public shows each year. But at the moment, they are in transition and the concert with the jazz orchestra is a coming out of sorts.
The ensemble will sing a mixed bag of tunes from Pharrell William’s frothy confection, Happy, to Tennessee Ernie Ford’s 16 Tons, a protest song about the 1930s coal-miners' "debt bondage" to company stores.
The ensemble includes leader Tyson Kerr, tenor-beat box artist Brett Ludwig, bass Andrew Malcolm, gospel tenor Tim Noel and baritone Matt Raven. Former St. Albert Children’s Theatre actor-singer Sean Sonego just replaced the recently departed Luc Tellier, also a former SACT alumnus.
“We were floored by Sean’s energy and music. Plus he raps, something that's new for us,” said Brett Ludwig.
Although the two groups will perform separately, 6 Minute Warning and CMS Jazz Orchestra share the spotlight with When Love Comes to Town, orchestrated as an Allan Gilliland arrangement.
The jazz orchestra goes on to play the moderate rock tune Cross Hill, a piece Jacobson describes as a beautifully layered tone poem as well as Mike Tomero’s arrangement of Chick Correa’s Windows.
“It’s a standard jazz waltz, but it’s got a very challenging chord structure. To play it you have to have great soloists and a strong harmonic structure,” Jacobson said.
He is also introducing the Canadian premiere of Ed Partyka’s The Summer of My Discontent. Originally from Chicago, the bass trombonist moved to Europe in 1990 and is now on faculty at Austria’s University of Graz.
“It’s a very contemporary piece. It moves through straight-ahead swing to double time to a beautiful ballad and back again.”
The Cosmopolitan Music Society has established a series of concerts that have become community staples.
“This concert is a unique offering. Nothing like this has been done before. It’s the beginning of our orchestra and the society to do more collaborative work with other groups. It’s also great to hear new music that hasn’t been performed here before. This is the beginning of something great.”
