Jazz Night 2010 and JAGS Choral Society Summer Concert

We can still hear them:  the notes from the music-making this past weekend. Straying into the Holst Hall on Friday 25 June you could be forgiven for thinking that Ronnie Scott had set up a school-age club in East Dulwich. Pupils of all ages in the Sax Ensemble, Big Band and Jazz Band blasted such favourites as ‘Final Countdown’ , ‘Moonlight Serenade’ and ‘I feel good’, and the Blues and Jazz Combos produced honeyed sounds of their own, followed by Michelle Osuocha with her original composition ‘Paper Aeroplanes’.  All of them were momentarily eclipsed by the staff band, Musician Impossible, (what can we say?) but then came boisterous Wonderbrass with 5 gorgeous tracks from their new cd, Out Of Sorts. You can buy the single, ‘Place Your Hands’ from iTunes for 79p and help them get into the top 75 this week. Do it! Please! All proceeds go towards our campaign for the Community Music Centre – a landmark building for local people.

Sunday 27 June, the hottest day of the year, with a small game of football going on somewhere, and our JAGS Choral Society are fanning themselves wanly between rehearsals. Suddenly it’s 6pm and adrenalin kicks in, energy surges and the summer concert has begun. Hadyn’s Symphony no.94 in G Major ‘Surprise’, two madrigals and then Hadyn’s Mass in B flat major ‘Harmoniemesse’. 

The small but appreciative audience heard some glorious sounds from Dulwich Chamber Orchestra, drawn from the local community, and was delighted with the performance of the four professional soloists and the choral society in Haydn’s challenging piece. The Choral Society, originally formed to support the girls’ singing with four-part harmony, now has a life and a following of its own. With performances like that, they deserve the recognition.

Just one question: one of the madrigals the Choral Society sang was called ‘Weep, Weep, Weep Mine Eyes’. What did the music department know that the English football fraternity didn’t?

Alison Venn