Clacton Arts & Literary Society

Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category

The Arts and Literary Society was doubly blessed on Monday evening when Tim Dickinson and James Sherlock presented ‘From Bach to Broadway’ without any Bach and plenty of Broadway. This engaging and versatile duo gave us arias from Mozart and lieder by Schubert. Tim’s rich baritone voice was truly beautiful and James was an amazing accompanist. He proved his brilliance when performing solos on the piano, from Gershwin to Chopin.

After the interval, it was Broadway and other well known and loved songs from the shows. They could have gone on all night but unfortunately, did not. However, we did hear a plaintive love song, written by Tim and played on the guitar and a wonderful jazz interpretation of Somewhere over the Rainbow by James. They ended their concert with Some Enchanted Evening. Certainly, it was just that!

The sponsors for this evening were Wingham Wyatt Investment and Estate Planning of Braintree.

Audrey Owens
Press Officer

The Arts and Literary Society was treated to a double portion of snow on Monday evening when the Snows presented their show ‘An Audience with Peter and Dan Snow’.
 
    This lively pair took us through their television series of the Battles of the 20th Century, highlighting the battles of Amiens in 1918, Midway in 1942, Stalingrad in 1942/43, Korea, Vietnam, the Middle East War of 1973, the Falklands and Kuwait.  It was surprising how much we did not know about most of these conflicts and fascinating to learn about them.
 
    After the interval, the Snows talked about their lives and the many interesting things they did.   They also answered many questions from the audience.   Dan told us about his great grandfather, who had been a General in the First World War and what had happened to him.

    We were also greatly entertained by Peter when he explained about the swingometer of general election night fame, how it had originated and how it has changed with the introduction of computer graphics.

Altogether it was a lively evening greatly enjoyed by the audience and the sponsors for this evening Coronation Toyota of Kirby Cross.   
                                                            Audrey Owens
                                                                Press Officer

Monday evening witnessed the final presentation in the first half of the Society’s current season. Tony Jacobs and his Fabulous Festive Five brought an evening of musical entertainment to a packed auditorium at the Princes Theatre that enabled the audience to forget the freezing temperatures outside. Billed as ‘Swing into Christmas!’ the repertoire did for the most part reflect the swing rhythms that constituted a packed programme.

Tony Jacobs is a very proficient vocalist and trumpet player and this was evidenced from the very first song with Irving Berlin’s ‘Alexander’s Ragtime Band’. This upbeat performance started the audience’s feet tapping and certainly lived up to the evening’s billing. Another Berlin classic followed – ‘It’s a Lovely Day’- with a superb double bass accompaniment by Paul Morgan that emphasised the musical skill of the five supporting musicians. The first festive number was an instrumental version of Ray Anderson’s ‘Sleigh Ride’ which featured some very adept piano playing by Jim Barry, an accomplished pianist who had also arranged much of the programme. The first half ended with a further Berlin classic made famous by Fred Astaire – ‘Putting on the Ritz’- which featured a virtuoso performance on drums by Neil Bullock.

In the second half the audience was treated to a showcase performance of the saxophone when Sue Greenaway presented her arrangement of ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’. This talented saxophonist had the whole audience in the palm of her hand and they were definitely swinging towards Christmas. The pace slowed somewhat as we were treated to the classic Julie Garland song – ‘Have Yourself a Very Merry Christmas’ which Tony Jacobs delivered with his usual panache. The evening culminated with the audience joining in singing ‘Do-Re-Me’ and ‘I‘m Dreaming of a White Christmas’ yet another Berlin classic and immortalised by Bing Crosby.
‘Swing Into Christmas!’ was an extremely entertaining evening fronted by Tony Jacobs who is well known to Society members and once again he did not disappoint them. No member of the audience had an excuse for not leaving the theatre with a spring in their step and humming some great Berlin classics.

The evening was sponsored by the Westcliffe Theatre.

Robert Pearce
Locum Press Officer

STATUS CYMBAL is the String Quartet with a difference. As well as playing the works of Mozart, Beethoven and all the other great composers for the medium, it is also able to bring the same dedication of performance to its own unique library of sparkling and witty arrangements of all kinds of popular music from Opera through Swing and Jazz to the great Musicals, Pop hits and Rock classics, including tunes by the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Abba and many more.

“Banish all previous conceptions of a string quartet from your mind – Status Cymbal are definitely different. They gave us a brilliant classical first half programme then a fun packed romp through the 20th Century in the second half. It was a pleasure having them with us and their performance was thoroughly enjoyed by our audience of over 800 members”.

Cindy Hardy
Clacton & North East Essex Arts & Literary Society – November 2005