Vocal jazz students of the Lamont School of Music gained real-world performance experience last Wednesday night in the candlelit “Showroom” at Dazzle Jazz, a music venue on Ninth and Lincoln, that is entirely dedicated to supporting and maintaining jazz culture in Denver.
The event, which took place from 7 – 9 p.m., cost $10 for non-DU students, and $5 for students with a DU ID. Approximately 60 students, community members, parents and jazz-lovers alike attended the event.
Dazzle Jazz, founded in 2002 by Donald Rossa, is a hybrid restaurant, bar and music venue. Household names including trombonist Slide Hampton, saxophonist Richie Cole and bebop pianist Bob Dorough have performed at Dazzle over the years. Dazzle is a hot spot for local jazz musicians such as Bob Montgomery, Paul Romaine and Eric Gunnison. Gunnison is currently a jazz piano professor at DU and has been performing at Dazzle since 2003.
Nellie Quinn, a sophomore vocal jazz major from Denver who performed in both groups, expressed her enthusiasm about the Dazzle performance.
“It’s fun to think of all of the amazing jazz musicians that performed before us on that very same stage,” said Quinn.
Both the Vocal Jazz Repertoire combo and the Vocal Jazz Combo performed a set which included songs such as Stevie Wonder’s “Hey, Duke” and jazz classics like “Autumn Leaves,” along with a variety of free jazz and student originals.
The vocal repertoire combo performed first. Members of the ensemble consisted of vocalists junior musical theater major Jenna Bainbridge, sophomore vocal jazz major from Denver Sarah Dubetz, Nellie Quinn, freshman vocal jazz major from Golden Brendan Schuster and freshman vocal jazz major from Shanghai Smee Wong. The instrumentalists included junior jazz bass major Eli Acosta from Denver, senior audio production major Charlie Fitz from Atherton, Calif. on guitar, senior audio production major Joey Genetti from Westport, Conn. on piano and junior jazz drum major Jackson Hillmer from Larkspure, Calif.
“I think it’s good professional training because all of those students expect to be gigging regularly if they’re not already gigging regularly,” said vocal jazz professor Donna Wickham, who directs both groups. “It’s a good way for club owners and managers to get to know the individual musicians. There are a lot of students that started gigging at Dazzle because they performed there with my groups and the managers asked them to return.”
The Vocal Repertoire Combo focused on individual performance, and each singer in the group arranged and performed several songs with the same rhythm section, which included a grand piano, an electric guitar, an upright bass and a drum set.
After a quick set change, the Vocal Jazz Combo, which consisted of aforementioned vocalists Dubetz, Quinn and Schuster as well as junior vocal performance major Sam Barrasso from Aurora, collaborated with junior jazz bass major Hunter Roberts from Parker, jazz drum major from Saint Louis, Mo. Patrick Shields and graduate jazz pianist Jon Parker performed four songs. These included an arragement of local band Paper Bird’s song as well as one of Parker’s original tunes. The group of four singers and four instrumentalists collaborated in composing and arranging a variety of jazz tunes, from free jazz to fast-paced swing numbers.
The vocal jazz students have a wide range of styles, and each are encouraged to develop their own individual strengths through personal interpretation and song choice, according to Wickham.
Wickham, who organized the performance for her students, expressed the importance of music students having the opportunity to perform in an applied setting like Dazzle.
The proceeds from the Dazzle performance, around $288, will provide a small amount of funding for the vocal jazz program, which are used to augment the program by providing necessities like cords, microphones and monitors for the singers to use. The program has performed at Dazzle annually for the last five years.
In keeping with the vocal jazz program’s emphasis on real-world experience, the students of the vocal jazz program are currently working to compile a book of annotated musical transcriptions of the greatest jazz artists’ interpretations of classic jazz tunes.
The scholarly musical book is in the editing process and will be submitted to a publisher at the end of June, possibly to be released in mid-November. The book, which is a collaboration among students in the vocal jazz program, will have a companion CD and website.
Wickham is enthusiastic about the success of the vocal jazz program.
“Every time somebody asks me how the program is going I say the same thing. It literally gets better every single year. Success seems to breed more success. The students get better and stronger,” she said.
The vocal jazz program will have its final performance of the year this upcoming Friday at the Lamont School of Music’s “Flo’s Underground” in Room 130 of the Newman Center from 5-7 p.m.
