It’s my end-of-school-year tradition to publish the repertoire my ensemble sang over the year. With my fourth year at GRCC in the books, here are the pieces Shades of Blue learned and performed.
Shades of Blue had eight singers (2-2-2-2) in the fall semester and nine singers (2-2-3-2) in the winter. We were entirely remote in the fall semester, and transitioned to in-person rehearsals in March. We recorded four virtual projects over the course of the year, and had a live concert featuring one of those songs and two additional songs in early May.
In addition to working on learning music those recordings, we had two other educational experiences. First, we had a solo singing masterclass with Dr. Kate Reid of the University of Miami Frost School of Music. She spent two hours with us over Zoom listening and critiquing each of the singers on a jazz standard they had prepared.
Second, we attended the virtual Real Group Vocal Jazz Festival hosted by the School for Musical Vocations in Creston, Iowa. There we had the opportunity to attend 30+ Zoom masterclasses with experts from across the globe, and a 30-minute clinic with Peder Karlsson, founding member of The Real Group, and Dr. Jeremy Fox, a leading vocal jazz educator and writer.
Virtual Repertoire
Singing in the Rain – Arr. April Arabian Tini [UNC Jazz Press] – I have long loved this swinging a cappella arrangement – so much good music and good lessons to teach in it. It was our first project of the year, and set us off on the right foot. (I did re-notate the whole arrangement in Dorico – it helped me practice my new notation software and make something much more legible than the late-80s computer notation from UNC.
Love Walked In – George & Ira Gershwin, Arr. Steve Zegree [Hal Leonard] – This is a perfect gem of an arrangement, and I love everything about it. We collaborated with our GRCC Media Services Department to create something much more exciting than the typical Virtual Choir video.
Can’t We Be Friends – Kay Swift & Paul James, Arr. Jed Scott [Forthcoming] – I have long loved the Ella & Louis rendition of this song, and have long loved Phil Mattson’s vocal jazz arrangement of “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” that directly lifts Frank Sinatra’s phrasing. So that’s what I did with this arrangement. What better way to learn swing phrasing than to learn to sing like Ella or Louis?!
Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens – Joan Whitney & Alex Kramer, Arr. Darmon Meader [Newyorkvoices.com] – We didn’t get to perform this last year after programming it for our spring concert. So I reprised it this year, and am really pleased with how it came out.
Live Repertoire
Centerpiece – Harry “Sweets” Edison & Jon Hendricks, Arr. Jed Scott after Lambert, Hendricks, & Ross [Manuscript] – I wanted one more straightforward arrangement to perform with Shades in the live concert, and picked this: it’s 3-part, it’s fairly repetitive, and it’s a blues, which means it gave us the option to add some more improvisation to the concert.
Bumblebee – Anders Edenroth [Walton Music] – We started working on this virtually, and then were able to transition to performing it live in May. It was a big lift to be working on this late in the year as we were also learning to sing together and to make music in person after a year without. In the end, it came out really well. I love the intricate, interweaving lines of Anders’ writing in this – multiple interlocking lines that create the harmony contrapuntally rather than homophonically, as most a cappella groups would do.
In addition to the four virtual performances listed above, you can watch the entire Shades of Blue “Jazz on the Lawn” concert here. It features all the virtual performances, all the live performances, and many of the solo songs that we worked on with Dr. Reid. The streamed version premiered just last week.