It was a pleasant coincidence that the McGill Jazz Orchestra’s performance of Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker Suite coincided with the first veritable snowy evening of the year.
This fact did not go unnoticed by conductor Marianne Trudel who was quick to point it out jokingly before the band began their festive selections. “Cozy” wouldn’t be the first superlative I’d use for Tanna Hall but under the circumstances, it did feel as though we in the audience had assembled in the aim of getting toasty and losing ourselves in some classic 60s big band fare. Truly, we were only missing mugs of hot chocolate.
Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker is, of course, a darling of the public domain and has been (re)interpreted countless ways by countless musicians. Ellington and Strayhorn, however, managed to capture something truly special back in 1960 with their arrangement of this prolific Russian ballet; and The McGill Jazz Orchestra’s execution of it was more than solid. It was impressive, as it always is, to see such young musicians achieve such high levels of playing. Some of them, I would say, already have the chops to drop out of their studies and play professionally (I won’t say who in order to avoid potentially angry parents). Having said that, student concerts almost always have a few elements that are rough around the edges. We might call them small reminders that these young cats are, in fact, still learning.
It wasn’t until the third movement, for example, that the bass and drums finally imposed a more confident time feel and stopped acquiescing to those around them. Playing tentatively does nothing to serve the groove so it was a relief when they finally started to trust themselves. Additionally, some solos among the horns seemed to meander at times. Worth mentioning are the soloists who were, by contrast, quite intentional in their playing including Rafael Salazar, Shai Geballe, Maude Fortier, and Jeremy Sandfelder (Although Sandelfer is a more established jazz man in Montreal who found himself subbing on the night so this is perhaps a bit unfair to the students).
The second half of the concert featured Élizabeth Cormier singing a selection of Irving Berlin songs as they were arranged for Ella Fitzgerald. Having recently attended a Caity Gyorgy concert of identical repertoire, it was hard not to get a bit of déjà vu. I should say that Cormier, for her part, is a lovely singer with a nice tone and good stage presence; the one element that I would say needs improvement is her English diction. A troublesome word here and there betrayed her Quebecois accent which is perhaps not ideal when performing Ella’s repertoire but otherwise a harmless enough feature of her singing.
Overall I think the orchestra’s members can, and should, take pride in a job well done as their semester winds down. I have no doubt that, as long as the desire is there, these young players will continue to make strides in their musicality. For now they should probably catch up on some sleep before their winter session. And maybe reach for some hot chocolate.
photo: Tam Lan Truong
