Operation Acapella

A few weeks ago, a friend of my friend Catherine asked her if she could get a group of people to sing an acapella version of Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours.”  He wanted to ask his girlfriend to marry him. Catherine was the go-to girl for this part of the plan. She sings with the chorus, and she has a talented group of friends that can sing.

With two weeks to practice and a target date of Thursday, September 8th, the plan was executed at the Polaris Mall.  Liz emerged from JCPenney on a cue that was unbeknownst to her. A small crowd gathered as we began singing and some of our staged audience members took videos.

Suddenly, she realizes that her boyfriend is in the crowd. He takes her hand and walks her toward our acapella group. As we finish singing, he sinks down to one knee and presents a ring. She said, “Yes!”

Please watch the video and enjoy this happy moment!

Arnell – Bass & Beatbox, Kelli – Soprano, Eric – Lead, Catherine – Alto, and me – Tenor. (I’m usually a mezzo-soprano!)

Big Band for Grownups

I participated in the “Big Band for Grownups” workshop this summer offered by the Jazz Academy. It was such a great experience!  I saw a tweet about the workshop by Experience Columbus. The course description read:

Have big band / instrumental ensemble experience? None at all? Did you play an instrument in high school and interested in picking it up again? Do you teach instrumental music and wish to increase your skills in the big band genre? Then this is the class for you!

This ensemble is open to anyone interested in exploring the influential big band music of the bands that codified the style and sound since the 1940s – Ellington, Basie and Kenton. This class will concern itself with “approachable” works from the enormous libraries of these three bands and will be high school level unless the participants are able to do more!

It was if they were talking directly to me! I figured since I had most recently played the horn riff in Superstition on stage at the Lincoln Theatre and played a solo in “New York State of Mind” I should keep my alto sax out. Big Band music was calling me again!

The “final” for the workshop was playing at JazZoo at the Columbus Zoo. It was awesome! Jay Miglia was a fabulous director. I am hoping that a community jazz band will spring from this group. We’ll see! In the mean time, here we are playing Ellington’s classic “Take the A Train.” (Watch at 4m:00s. Jay will introduce our all female saxophone section.)