Mostly a Jazzy Christmas

The River City Big Band is one of the best Christmas gifts jazz fans can enjoy.

They are a tight, sophisticated 18-piece orchestra with seasonal arrangements that deliver a mellow vibe, a pure blend of light and dark that somehow manages to capture the spirit and essence of Christmas.

Based in Edmonton, these top-flight musicians know their material backwards and forwards. This year they’ll be mounting A Jazzy Christmas at the Morinville Community Cultural Centre on Saturday, Dec. 17.

Their guest vocalist is Chandelle Rimmer, a St. Albert resident who teaches at the MacEwan University music department.

“Chandelle is a true jazz musician with all the knowledge that goes with it,” says music director Larry Schrum. “She can adapt to any style or piece from a ballad to an uptempo jazz piece that requires improvisation to a more spectacular production number.”

And theatre critic and former CBC broadcaster Colin MacLean, who will emcee the evening, has written a script loaded with insider tidbits.

River City started its incarnation in 1995 as the Neill Corlett Big Band. Corlett was at one time lead trumpet with Tommy Banks Big Band. But in 1998, Corlett moved to Red Deer.

Schrum, a retired music director from both McNally High School and Harry Ainlay Composite High, picked up the baton and worked diligently to amplify the orchestra’s virtuosity.

By attracting whiz musicians such as composer/arranger Alan Gilliland, who also doubles as a trumpet player, the orchestra has built and maintained a sizeable audience.

A few years ago, the orchestra put together A Jazzy Christmas as a way to flesh out some of the most popular and classic arrangements of the holiday repertoire.

“Most of the stuff I knew was pretty cheesy. But a few of us got together and compiled everything we could find. We picked what we wanted and revised everything,” Schrum explains.

Bookending the concert is a spectacular Tom Kubis arrangement of Joy to the World even as the musical core creates a mystique blend adorned with a post-bop jazz.

A series of solos really highlight individual musicians prowess such as Doug Zimmerman (flugelhorn) in O Holy Night and St. Albert’s John Dymianiw (trumpet) in the slow ballad It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.

Of the dozen or so charts on tap, Rimmer sings about seven numbers including the up-tempo ballad Let It Snow and that old chestnut, The Christmas Song, popularized by Nat King Cole. She speeds up the tempo in Please Come Home for Christmas and Lonesome Christmas, a couple of shuffle blues that will rock the house.

“There are some different versions and some familiar tunes. There’s some jazz, but we’re not turning it into a jazz concert. We like to think it’s a fun show.”