UdeM | A tribute to the female voice inspired by the Big Band

On March 13, students from the jazz voice program and instrumentalists from the Big Band of the Université de Montréal’s Faculty of Music joined forces to create a concert in tribute to the female voice, in March, Women’s Rights Month. Michel Labrecque attended. João Lenhari, the Big Band’s musical director and a trumpeter himself, was excited as the concert began. Proud to present a tribute to the female jazz voice, the Brazilian-born musician, with a charming accent when he speaks (very correctly) French, expressed his delight that six of the seventeen members of his Big Band were women. “One day, they will be 50%,” declared João. Before the first note, the tone for the evening was set.

Then the music began, first with a Brazilian instrumental, Doralice, by Dorival Caymini and Antônio Almeida. You could sense a bit of nervousness among the musicians; they were students, after all. But very quickly, the atmosphere relaxed, the fingers loosened, and the magic of the ensemble took root.

Then the singers began, sometimes solo, sometimes in duos, always with the unwavering and complex support of the Big Band. Margaux Deveze, Marie-Soleil Lambert, Gabrielle Nessel, Marie-Eve Caron, Maude Brodeur, and Juliette Oudni are students in the university’s jazz singing program, but several of them have already embarked on professional careers. You can hear them in some bars and studios.

These voices are all different, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. But overall, the performances are very pleasant to listen to, especially during certain duets where the harmonies or vocal dialogues hit the mark.

The musical program ranges from Billie Holiday to Tom Jobim, including Cole Porter and Jerome Kern. Halfway through the concert, the most astonishing moment arrives: the six singers perform a cappella performance of “Central Park West,” an originally instrumental piece by the great saxophonist John Coltrane. Singer Gabrielle Nessel wrote the lyrics, and João Lenhari, who usually arranges instruments, did the vocal arrangement. For those three minutes, time stood still. The room levitated. We floated with these six voices, totally in harmony. So much so that the song was reprised as an encore at the end of the concert, and the entire audience remained. For its part, the student Big Band displays excellent performance. Each member has the opportunity to express themselves through short solos. It’s important to understand that these young musicians are still learning, and that the Big Band is a wonderful school of listening and musical solidarity.

There’s no doubt that most of them are destined for a professional musical career, like Benjamin Cordeau, the only graduate of the program who performed on stage playing the trumpet.

But above all, this concert gave way to the captivating arrangements of musical director João Lenhari, who seemed to be enjoying every moment of the concert. These arrangements were undoubtedly often inspired by his native Brazil, but not only that.

On April 16, the Big Band will return to the stage with a distinguished American guest: trumpeter Marcus Printup, a member of Wynton Marsalis’s Jazz Lincoln Center Orchestra. To be continued…

Photo Credit : Nina Gibelin Souchon