In a spring concert billed as “Reflections from the Third Stream,” the Capitol Hill Chorale presented Jazz Meets Classical, framed as a commemoration of the hundredth anniversary of cornetist Bix Beiderbecke. Frederick Binkholder led the Chorale and the Capitol Hill Chamber Chorus alongside guest cornetist David Jellema and the Capricorn Sextet — Larry Eanet on piano, Wells Gordon on bass, Howard Kadison on drums, Rick Rowe on guitar, and David Sager on trombone and vocals.
The Chamber Chorus opened with French part-songs by Debussy, Ravel, and Poulenc, and the Chorale’s women joined the sextet for Edward MacDowell’s “To a Wild Rose.” The Capricorn Sextet then took the stage for jazz standards and Beiderbecke compositions, including a reading by poet Rod Jellema of his poem “In the Dark” alongside Beiderbecke’s piano piece of the same title. After intermission, the full Chorale joined the sextet for a longer set of jazz and jazz-influenced choral works, closing with Charles Mead’s “Iroquois Prayer.”
Dan Miller served as the Chorale’s accompanist for the concert.
Program
- “Dieu! qu’il la fait bon regarder!” — Claude Debussy
- “Trois beaux oiseaux du Paradis” — Maurice Ravel
- “Luire” — Francis Poulenc
- “To a Wild Rose” — Edward MacDowell
- “Blue Lullaby” (from Prelude II) — George Gershwin
- “I’m Comin’ Virginia” — Heywood Cook
- “I’ll Be a Friend with Pleasure” — Maceo Pinkard
- “In the Dark” — Bix Beiderbecke
- “Star Dust” — Hoagy Carmichael
- “Blue River” — Joseph Meyer
- “Davenport Blues” — Bix Beiderbecke
- “Skylark” — Hoagy Carmichael
- “Old Gander’s Weeping” — Charles Mead
- “Snowfall” — Claude Thornhill
- “Circles” — Dave Brubeck
- “Iroquois Prayer” — Charles Mead
