Glorious Gershwin
February 24, 2018
I love the music of George and Ira Gershwin. I love big bands. So when we signed up for our Lively Arts series this year, we jumped on this concert:
Michael Andrew is the leader and singer for the Gershwin Big Band, and he is fabulous! He's the epitome of the big band singer, so suave in his tux and groomed to the nines, his baritone rich and full. He even has some great steps!
The orchestra was brilliant! So full and fat, saxes and trumpets and trombones with standup bass, guitar, and piano adding color and bottom, all tied up together with the drums. The arrangements were inspired.
No big band is complete without a female singer, and Michelle Amato was just terrific. She had a lovely, clear voice with a large range, and her scattin' was perfect.
They played all of my favorites and more - I'd never heard Little Jazz Bird, for example, or Gershwin's early ragtime pieces. I kinda wish they'd played a longer bit of Rhapsody in Blue, but what they played was wonderful. I first heard most of the songs when I first watched Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies, but also knew many of them just from growing up and hearing them on TV when Sinatra or Dean Martin or Ella Fitzgerald would sing them.
Of all the great concerts we've seen at Montgomery County Community College, this was one of the very best.
Nice work if you can get it, and you can get it if you try!