Our holiday jams are always fun and last Sunday’s session was no exception. With a house band of pianist Woody DeMarco, Hank Allen on bass, and drummer Craig Thatcher it was bound to be a great afternoon. The band opened with a jazzy take on The Christmas Song and a fun bossa/samba arrangement of the Turtles hit, Happy Together.
We were honored to have pianist, Frank Frost sit in with the band play a few tunes for us. Young and Foolish was his first number and played with feeling. At 94 years of age, Frank’s still got it! He invited Jazz Society President, Sandy Cummings to join him on I Thought About You.
Santa and Mrs. Claus (Yvonne and Dave Bazinet in full regalia ) payed us a visit on their way to the harbor and honored us with the tune, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. Looking very Christmasy, Monica Langhorne, belted out Nat Cole’s L O V E.
Leea Beck and her son, Eli on sax had fun with Jingle Bell Rock. Linda Martin sang out a heartfelt, What are You Doing Christmas Eve? The parade of singers continued with Sue Masinarri singing a lovely version of All The Things You Are. Then The Trio, Cheryl Fontana, Jan Smith, and Natalie Wilson, had a good time with Horace Silver’s Doodlin’.
My Favorite Things was sung beautifully by Shawn Thies. Another wonderful pianist, Dick Dunlap was joined Hank Allen and drummer, Dick Weller on a couple of tunes, Over the Rainbow and Keith Jarrett’s, My Song. Amazingly, another great pianist in the audience, Matt McCarrin, sat in with the band and played a swinging What Is This Thing Called Love. Melody Collins favored us with her vocalese of My Little Suede Shoes backed up by Dillon Kearns on piano. Colene Riffo belted out The Beetles hit, Can’t Buy Me Love.
Maureen Strong gave us, In Mellow Tone and Jody DeMarcos sang a lovely But Beautiful. Ejé Lynn-Jacobs closed the afternoon with a heartfelt, What a Wonderful World. Yes, we do have many talented musicians and singers in our midst!
