​ Scenes From “A Night of Jazz"

​Scenes From “A Night of Jazz"
​By Ken DeLaat
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The White Cloud Rotary hit it out of the park once again with their 5th annual “A Night of Jazz” concert held Monday night featuring the talents to be found in each of the areas five high schools.

The jazz band from Hesperia began with a pleasant take on the Van Morrison hit ‘Domino’ and brought their four song set to a close with the beat driven energy of ‘On Broadway. Stephanie Purvis’ group proved to be a solid opener for a robust evening of music.
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Director Jamie Denslow has spent much of the school year on family leave with the new addition to the Denslow household so...

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...White Cloud’s inaugural entry into this event became a rather hastily assembled group who reportedly had played together just a short time.

Nonetheless this group did themselves proud tearing into the Chicago song ‘25 or 6 to 4’ and then kicking it up pretty good with a pretty hard-driving version of ‘Sing Sing Sing’.

The Fremont Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Mark Breza played with precision and poise while featuring some talented soloists who seemed confident in their ability to carry their role.

Newaygo Director Katie Baynes has a sassy sounding group who seem well connected to each other on the stage. They can slide from something peppy to a more mellow tune then follow it up by blasting out some powerful brass-based sound all in a pretty seamless fashion.
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The home team performed well as the evening’s closer. Grant featured some serious brass talent that included director Ryan Broome and gave the crowd a great finish to a wonderful evening of music.