Cuckfield Jazz Concert Review

The evening of March 5th saw the annual Ardingly College Jazz Concert return to Holy Trinity Church, Cuckfield. This year, the event was opened up to other school ensembles such as the Chapel Choir and String Quartet who rarely have the chance to perform outside of school. In total, six ensembles and three soloists have a variety of jazz inspired numbers ranging from Gershwin to Gjeilo.

The Jazz Band opened the concert with a vibrant rendition of the theme from M*A*S*H, followed by Buie, Cobb and Cordy’s Traces and Gershwin’s classic Fascinating Rhythm. The band was succeeded by saxophonist Freya Maurice-Jones with a rendition of Body and Soul. The Girls’ Choir then performed Chilcott’s Lullaby in Blue and were followed by Louis Edwards-Munro on violin, playing Piazzolla’s Milonga en Re. The first half was brought to a close with the college’s Schola Cantorum and Chapel Choir who sang Somewhere Over the Rainbow and Northern Lights and Ubi Caritas by Gjeilo respectively.

With the tone of the night set by a wonderful first act, the concert continued with the Schola Cantorum who showed their colours once more with Rutter’s arrangement of Skylark, featuring Emily Ward as the fantastic soloist, and Paulus’ emotional The Road Home. The Saxophone Quartet then performed Samba… Alla Turca, an exciting mash up of classical repertoire, followed by the String Quartet with an arrangement of Piazzolla’s Oblivion. It was then time for the Chapel Choir to shine once more with Chilcott’s Be Thou My Vision, Burton’s Deep River, and Todd’s Call of Wisdom and Lighting the Way, featuring Mr Smith on piano, Alvaro Lecubarri on drums, and Michael Tang on bass alongside Mr Thompson on piano and organ. To conclude the concert, the Jazz Band struck up again to play the Stevie Wonder hit Sir Duke before finishing with the electric Chicken by Ellis.

The concert proved to be a fabulous night for both the audience and all involved. Thank you to the music staff for making the event possible and to all the students who committed their time and energy to a wonderful night of music making. We look forward to the next one.