I'm feeling all Christmasy now that the concert is done. On Saturday night, we hosted our annual "Amid the Winter Snow" concert at First Covenant, a tradition that we brought up with us from St. Joseph. It's always a great day when you can make great music with great friends and sing harmony with the one you love. And that, my friends, is what we did.
This year's concert featured the talents of four great groups: Voce, The First Covenant Sanctuary Choir, Jetlag in Reverse, and the Mill Pond Jazz Combo. Voce is latin for voice and is a mostly a cappella group. It's morphed over its three year existence, beginning with eight members from the choir originally, then swapping out a singer last year, and then going from 8 to 6 this year and swapping out 3 others. Featuring the talents of Becca Gardner, Beth Daniel, Amy Swanson, CJ Collins, Scott Newberg and myself, we opened the concert with "Christmas Time Is Here" and mixed ourselves in throughout the rest of the concert with the Blender's version of "Do You Hear What I Hear?" and Avalon's version of "Winter Wonderland" performed with the Mill Pond Jazz Combo.
The Sanctuary Choir which boasted 30 members this year, sang a wonderful rendition of "Sweet Little Jesus Boy", full of dynamic expression and tempo contrasts, this ballad was endearing to the listener and performer alike. The next song we sang is typically not a favorite of mine, usually because when I've heard it done before it's so difficult to get the alternating intervals in tune that it's painful to listen to. However, the choir did a lovely job of producing a quality performance of "Still, Still, Still". I know it had to be the favorite of someone in the audience. Then we stretched ourselves with an 8-part divisi arrangement of "O Little Town of Bethlehem", averaging about 3 people per part. My friend Wes said that when the choir produced their final chord, goose bumps ran up and down his arms. How cool. Sometimes I'm amazed at the effect that music can have on people, how it captures a moment in time and can cause us to feel something different than we come in with. The choir finished out their portion of the concert with Deke Sharon's "Thirteen Days of Christmas", a delight for people of all ages and chalked full of surpises.
"Jetlag in Reverse" was a phrase that came to me one day in a conversation. I was looking for a name for a band previously and had just been musing on my temperment for the day and how I felt like i had jetlag in reverse (which would be optimistic, energetic, and lively). After I said the phrase, I kept it in reference to a band that we put together just for the concert. That was three years ago. Jetlag this year featured the talents of Jim Bach on drums, Dave Roberts on bass, Laura Schuh on guitar, Beth Nordstrom on Keys, me on piano, and my wife and I on vocals. Throughout our 6 song set, we invited members of Voce to come up and join us on a song. It was a great way to spread the love, diversify our set, and alleviate some of the responsibility I felt, plus it created moments for the other singers to shine and offered a different timbre from song to song. Songs included "Come Now Our King", "Winter Snow", "God is With Us", "O Holy Night", "Joy to the World", and "Christmas Offering" and there was a theme that ran through the set: advent (waiting), the birth, the revelation, the celebration of Emmanuel, God with us.
At Pastor Dan's request, we sequestered the Mill Pond Jazz Combo for our headlining act, which was okay by me because I absolutely love listening to them jam and was honored that they would ask me to play along. Their 25-minute set was so lively and quick that you would have thought St. Nick himself had visited the building and left everyone with their favorite present. It was such a good vibe and everyone was in such great spirits after the concert was over. One of the highlights (and there were many) was getting to sing Avalon's version of "Winter Wonderland" with a great band like the Mill Pond Jazz Combo. Under the direction of Mark Freitas, it was a smashing good time.
This evening, there was something for everyone. Ballads, humor, a cappella, jazz, swing, folk, rock, improvisation. It was cool. In the middle of the night, Beth mentioned the text of one of our songs and encouraged everyone to focus on "Emmanuel, God with us" for the remainder of our season and that if we did, our hearts would be a little bit lighter. I pray that for you, that this Christmas season you would be able to focus on the fact that God is with us, God is in us, God is for us. Emmanuel.
Peace.
Brian
This year's concert featured the talents of four great groups: Voce, The First Covenant Sanctuary Choir, Jetlag in Reverse, and the Mill Pond Jazz Combo. Voce is latin for voice and is a mostly a cappella group. It's morphed over its three year existence, beginning with eight members from the choir originally, then swapping out a singer last year, and then going from 8 to 6 this year and swapping out 3 others. Featuring the talents of Becca Gardner, Beth Daniel, Amy Swanson, CJ Collins, Scott Newberg and myself, we opened the concert with "Christmas Time Is Here" and mixed ourselves in throughout the rest of the concert with the Blender's version of "Do You Hear What I Hear?" and Avalon's version of "Winter Wonderland" performed with the Mill Pond Jazz Combo.
The Sanctuary Choir which boasted 30 members this year, sang a wonderful rendition of "Sweet Little Jesus Boy", full of dynamic expression and tempo contrasts, this ballad was endearing to the listener and performer alike. The next song we sang is typically not a favorite of mine, usually because when I've heard it done before it's so difficult to get the alternating intervals in tune that it's painful to listen to. However, the choir did a lovely job of producing a quality performance of "Still, Still, Still". I know it had to be the favorite of someone in the audience. Then we stretched ourselves with an 8-part divisi arrangement of "O Little Town of Bethlehem", averaging about 3 people per part. My friend Wes said that when the choir produced their final chord, goose bumps ran up and down his arms. How cool. Sometimes I'm amazed at the effect that music can have on people, how it captures a moment in time and can cause us to feel something different than we come in with. The choir finished out their portion of the concert with Deke Sharon's "Thirteen Days of Christmas", a delight for people of all ages and chalked full of surpises.
"Jetlag in Reverse" was a phrase that came to me one day in a conversation. I was looking for a name for a band previously and had just been musing on my temperment for the day and how I felt like i had jetlag in reverse (which would be optimistic, energetic, and lively). After I said the phrase, I kept it in reference to a band that we put together just for the concert. That was three years ago. Jetlag this year featured the talents of Jim Bach on drums, Dave Roberts on bass, Laura Schuh on guitar, Beth Nordstrom on Keys, me on piano, and my wife and I on vocals. Throughout our 6 song set, we invited members of Voce to come up and join us on a song. It was a great way to spread the love, diversify our set, and alleviate some of the responsibility I felt, plus it created moments for the other singers to shine and offered a different timbre from song to song. Songs included "Come Now Our King", "Winter Snow", "God is With Us", "O Holy Night", "Joy to the World", and "Christmas Offering" and there was a theme that ran through the set: advent (waiting), the birth, the revelation, the celebration of Emmanuel, God with us.
At Pastor Dan's request, we sequestered the Mill Pond Jazz Combo for our headlining act, which was okay by me because I absolutely love listening to them jam and was honored that they would ask me to play along. Their 25-minute set was so lively and quick that you would have thought St. Nick himself had visited the building and left everyone with their favorite present. It was such a good vibe and everyone was in such great spirits after the concert was over. One of the highlights (and there were many) was getting to sing Avalon's version of "Winter Wonderland" with a great band like the Mill Pond Jazz Combo. Under the direction of Mark Freitas, it was a smashing good time.
This evening, there was something for everyone. Ballads, humor, a cappella, jazz, swing, folk, rock, improvisation. It was cool. In the middle of the night, Beth mentioned the text of one of our songs and encouraged everyone to focus on "Emmanuel, God with us" for the remainder of our season and that if we did, our hearts would be a little bit lighter. I pray that for you, that this Christmas season you would be able to focus on the fact that God is with us, God is in us, God is for us. Emmanuel.
Peace.
Brian
Posted by: |