This Young Musicians’ Programme concert, the second of two performances, presented the music of Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concerts in Sage One, Sage Gateshead’s magnificent, 1700 seats, state of the art concert hall. The project had been long in the making with frequent rehearsals over many months. A successful first performance took place on Saturday afternoon at Ushaw, Durham (photo by Kate Edis) , in the splendour of the former seminary’s chapel, and this Sunday evening concert concluded a weekend of music making under the aegis of the Young Musicians’ Programme (YMP).
Paul Edis and Matt Beckingham tutored respectively Jambone and Quay Voices (Jambone is Sage Gateshead’s youth jazz orchestra, Quay Voices the youth choir) throughout the 2016-17 academic year, culminating in this weekend of memorable public performances. Featured guests worked with Edis and Beckingham throughout the year and their participation in the project should, perhaps, be viewed as a contribution of equal, rather than superior, value to orchestra and choir.

Local superstar, Ms Zoë Gilby, rose to sing her first part; Heaven heard Gilby projecting effortlessly, the choir – none of whom were on a mic – could similarly be heard without difficulty.
Ellington’s Freedom suite comprising of seven parts introduced Matt Anderson. The Leeds College of Music graduate is primarily known as a tenor saxophonist but on this occasion, he played alto as much as tenor. Jimmy Hamilton or Russell Procope or Paul Gonsalves, Anderson played brilliantly under the baton of Edis. Gilby sang and Gilby gave the recitation Freedom is a word. In Sage One on the night, or at Ushaw the previous day, was there a member of the audience who attended one of the original Ellington concert performances?
Several of Jambone’s musicians are busy gigging musicians. No fewer than six of them played at Matt MacKellar’s jazz party on Thursday evening of last week and here they were taking on Duke Ellington! Trumpeters James Metcalf and Ben Lawrence were Cat Anderson and Cootie Williams. Or was it the other way round? Which ever, James and Ben met the challenge head on; exposed trumpet parts are surely trepidatious for the more experienced performer, yet the Jamboners gave it their best shot and hit the bullseye! Pianist Paul Edis must have been especially proud of Phillip Grobe’s mature performance at the Steinway grand. And the engine room boys…Matthew Downey playing guitar (a guitarist who gets the volume levels right!), Alex Shipsey, as steady a bass player as you’ll find, and the pocket dynamo himself, drummer Dylan Thompson, reading the dots, an eye on conductor Edis, and, seemingly, time to enjoy the whole thing. When your correspondent forms his first jazz combo DT will be ‘first call’ for the drum chair!
To complete this performance of Ellington’s Sacred Concert music Stockton on Tees-born Colette Serrechia joined Jambone and Quay Voices to contribute tap dance routines. A tap board set up at the front of the stage enabled all to watch Serrechia as she became another voice in the ensemble. David danced before the Lord and the closing section Praise God and Dance – Finale featured the terpsichorean talents of Serrechia, soaring Quay Voices and a cookin’ Jambone. The evening had been quite an occasion.
Russell
Zoë Gilby (vocals), Matt Anderson (alto & tenor saxophones), Colette Serrechia (tap dance)
Jambone: director: Paul Edis; saxophone: Nicholas Caughey, Ryan De Silva, Haaruun Miller, Ella Talbot; flute: Megan Robinson, Imogen Davies-Pugh; trumpet: James Metcalf, Ben Lawrence, Lucien Guest, Callum Mellis; trombone: Darcy Whyatt, Kate Garnett, Fabio Sousa; piano: Phillip Grobe; guitar: Matthew Downey; bass: Alex Shipsey; drums Dylan Thompson
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Quay Voices: director: Matt Beckingham; Jess Batey, Matthew Balme, Lindsay Booth, Zoé Buckthrop, Lucy Che, Peter Chisholm, Matthew Coe, Jasmine Colgan, Seth Collin, Esme Collin, Daniel Filipe, Charlotte Galloway, Laura Hewitson, Amy Langdown, Alistair McCubbin, Emily McDermott, James Petherick, Sarah Petherick, Faye Robinson, Elise Shields, Saffron Sims-Brydon, Frances Sutton, Rosa Thomas, Callum Ward, Jake Watson
1 comment :
Despite being a serious Duke man, I've never bothered with his sacred concerts, presumably for the same reason that, despite being the most thorough of thorough soul fans, I've barely touched upon gospel.
Nevertheless, I can't for the life of me think why it was about a quarter to a third full, and why anybody would not go to watch this in a splendid chapel in a splendid building just outside Durham, and I include family, friends and acquaintances in that.
As I keep saying, we accept the post-truth, fake news and alternative facts of the media and educators, more interested in Brian Wilson than Duke Ellington, at our peril.
It was Jambone at their best, and special mentions concurred for trumpeters James and Ben: Matt, Zoe, Quay Voices and, as a conductor sceptic, Lord Paul; and the tap dancing was a masterstroke.
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