Nostalgia tinged with jazz fills "Holiday
Cheer & All That Jazz"
“Holiday
Cheer & All That Jazz,” a Friday, Dec. 7, family holiday show that won’t
break the budget, packages favorite holiday tunes with festive big band music
and jazz.
The Purdue Jazz Band, along with American Music Review
and its singers, are featured in the free concert set for 8 p.m. Dec. 7 in
Loeb Playhouse of the Purdue Stewart Center.
Designed to capture the spirit of the season, the show
ranges from an instrumental “Disney
Salute” performed by American Music Review to such nostalgic vocal offerings
as “White Christmas” sung by Decolby Hill, a freshman pre-med major from Indianapolis,
and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” performed by Pete Mast, a senior
electrical engineering major from Chagrin Falls, Ohio.
Two singers with Lafayette roots - Sara Suppinger, a sophomore liberal arts major
and Hannah Niebrugge, a junior pharmacy major – add “Santa Claus is Coming
to Town” and “Santa Baby” to the mix.
Proving that holiday music flourishes in jazz arrangements,
the Purdue Jazz Band, directed by M.T. “Mo” Trout offers rousing versions
of “Here We Come a Wassailing” and “Deck the Halls” alongside new looks at
more reflective tunes like “Greensleeves” and “We Three Kings.”
To prevent holiday overload, and provide musical counterpoint
to the concert, both groups will slip in a handful of non-holiday numbers.
“The Shadow of Your Smile” and “Stella by Starlight” are offered by American
Music Review, directed by William Kisinger, while the Purdue Jazz Band adds
Pat Metheny's “It’s Just Talk” and Bill Holman’s Petaluma Lu.” The Jazz Band
closes the show with “American Patrol,” a jazz tune with patriotic overtones
that’s become a favorite of jazz audiences this fall.