BLENDING musical improvisation with soulful covers of popular songs, a 35-strong big band of Bahrain-based musicians from all walks of life are looking forward to striking a chord with jazz lovers early next month.
The Jazz Orchestra of Bahrain will be taking the stage on May 5 at the Dilmun Club from 7pm to 9pm – their first post-Ramadan performance since the group, which was formed just a year ago, took the stage at the Bahrain Food Festival in March.
“This is going to be our fourth major performance and we are excited to bring Big Band Jazz to the island,” Scott Rogal, the Canadian band leader who works as the Band Director at the American School of Bahrain (ASB), told the GDN.
“We recently played at the Bahrain International Jazz Festival and the food festival. We started out as just three people jamming together a little more than a year ago, growing to eight or nine in February last year, and since then, we have grown to 35 members as friends keep inviting friends to join. There’s something very exciting about the Big Band experience!”
Their two-hour set next month will include Unchain My Heart by Ray Charles, Take Five – the all-time best-selling song in the genre and a jazz standard first recorded in 1959 by the Dave Brubeck Quartet, Girl from Ipanema composed by Antônio Carlos Jobim, the Pink Panther theme composed by Henry Mancini, movie music from Harry Potter, and more.
Eight brass players bring the rhythms of the French horn, trombone, tuba and trumpet to the orchestra, joined by four vocalists, five saxophonists, three flutists, two clarinet players, two drummers, three keyboard players, one oboist, one bassist and a 10-strong string section, comprising violin, viola and cello players.
The musicians come from all walks of life, like 52-year-old pilot Soren Lundorf who has been in the kingdom for 18 months, and enjoys the ‘great rehearsals’ with the ‘fantastic group of people’.
Flautist Melissa Ransom, 40, who works as an English teacher at ASB was amongst the original ‘jammers’ before the band became an orchestra, and keeps coming back because it gives her an opportunity to play with and learn from musicians and singers of varying calibres.
Although most, like Mr Lundorf who joined a marching band when he was 10 and Ms Ransom who played in a big band throughout high school, have previous big band experience, the group has also made room for first-time big band performers.
Mr Rogal’s wife Suim Shin, who has been playing the violin for the last five years while also cheering on the big bands her husband started in previous countries where they taught, decided to finally take the plunge and play with the Jazz Orchestra of Bahrain.
Mr Rogal led the 21-strong Mekong Delta Big Band in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and also played in a big band in Hong Kong.
For Ms Shin, who works as a physical education teacher at ASB, playing in the Jazz Orchestra of Bahrain has given her a new and fun way of connecting with her husband and their 13-year-old daughter Mina.
Meanwhile, vocalist Gareth Mascarenhas, 41, jumped at the opportunity to branch out from singing Classic Rock, when Mr Rogal told him about the group over a game of tennis.
The Jazz Orchestra of Bahrain practises approximately once every two weeks at the ASB and are hoping to make appearances at more events and venues this year.
To learn more and join the band, visit https://www.facebook.com/groups/5XXXXXXXXX94789.
naman@gdnmedia.bh
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