Blog readers may have
noticed my absence from the blog during the past week, although the distaff
side of BSH has been well covered by Kath Jobes and Debra Milne. (Lance likes the distaff reference; if you
are puzzled, it’s something to do with weaving in Shakespeare, just ask
Lance). Anyway, I was away on a singing
holiday.
Thirteen of us formed a
scratch choir and sang everything from Bach chorales to music hall to folk
songs to jazz. It was all great fun, in
the beautiful Coniston area of the Lake District. On the final evening people who wanted could
perform solo so I jumped at the chance to sing jazz with the pianist from the
course. We decided to do All Of Me; Bye Bye Blackbird and Everytime We Say Goodbye. As we
rehearsed, up stepped another person from the group, who said he’d love to sing
as well. I’d planned all sorts of fancy
arrangements for myself, but hadn’t the heart to say ‘no’ so we sang together,
each improvising a little yet trying to blend.
It turned out that Mike, my fellow singer, had been doing jazz for years
and had a lovely light-toned voice. The pianist, who hadn’t played all that
much jazz before, managed to work out the chords no bother. I missed the flowing piano of a Gilligan or a
Law, but it was still good. The moral of
the story is that singers have to be prepared for anything, or anyone, that
crops up. The audience said they liked
it anyway!
Ann
Alex
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