'Absolutely fantastic!'

Michael Reckord, Gleaner Writer

"They're awesome!" That was one patron's opinion of the University Singers, whose 2010 concert season is now running at the Philip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts (PSCCA), Mona. And it was only half-time.

Later, as the audience filed out at the end of the show, other equally positive comments could be heard. For example: "I thoroughly enjoyed that," and "absolutely fantastic!"

The applause from the opening night audience showed that the enthusiasm was generally shared. Every item got its share, and with more than 20 pieces being presented, applause was plentiful throughout the two-hourlong show.

Franklin Halliburton conducted the early, mostly sombre, songs, their mood in keeping with the season's theme of honouring the late Rex Nettleford, the choir's artistic director and choreographer. What movement came from the members - women in gold and red, men in dark suits and white shirts - in those early numbers was generally slow and solemn.

The items included the spirituals I See the Ships Come Sailing (with Rochelle Brooks as the soloist), O Ellijah (given a wonderfully complex arrangement) and Deep River (with Anthony Alexander as the soloist).

Adjectives applied

During the singing, Nettleford's image was projected on to the cyclorama at the back of the stage.

From beginning to end, the choir's sound was rich, pure and controlled, and those adjectives applied as much to the full ensemble of about 30 as to the soloists. Ranging wide in styles and mood, the songs evoked just about all the emotions on the joy-gloom continuum.

But as all fans of the University Singers know, a concert by the group consists of more than singing. Audiences get total entertainment.

The rather muted colours worn in the first segment of the show are soon replaced by brighter ones: the women in peasant blouses of different colours, the men in brick-red waistcoats. The costumes are changed again throughout the show, and each set seems to be more colourful than the one before.

Also providing colour are the lights, which change to enhance the atmosphere of many songs. In fact, a particular phrase, especially the ending ones, may get a special lighting effect. For example, pink lighting predominates as Come by here, Lord ends

The movement, too, becomes progressively more cheerful. Thanks for the excellent, varied choreography must go to Kevin Moore, the National Dance Theatre Company (NDTC) dancer and choreographer who stepped smoothly into the movement director's role Nettleford vacated.

Moore was a student of Nettleford, the NDTC's artistic director and chief choreographer, and the singers' conductor Halliburton told The Gleaner that the choir's management took a "conscious decision" to continue with the NDTC style of movement.

Another of the concert's noteworthy components was the music provided by the group's band. Led by the versatile Kathy Brown, who is apparently uniformly competent in jazz, calypso, spiritual, reggae and American pop (and all those genres are heard in the concert), the band not only accompanied the singers but often played alone - while the singers were changing costumes off stage, for example.

Other pre-intermission songs were There's a Better Day A-coming (with soloist Jhana Williams), Hush, Somebody's Calling my Name (arranged by Kathy Brown with soloist Kristal Morgan), and Many Rains Ago (with soloist Marcelle Thomas). The full choir performing the bouncy Quincy Jones arrangement of Handel's Hallelujah chorus led into the half-time break.

A suite of poignant Michael Jackson songs - What About Sunrise, They Don't Really Care About Us and Hold Me - opened the second half. It was followed by six or seven Jamaican folk songs, including Under De Coconut Tree, John Gone a Foreign, Before Me Married, and Why Woman Grumble So.

It was then time for comic calypsoes, and for Heston Boothe, as soloist, to entertain with The Lost Watch and Stefan Sinclair with Love in the Cemetery.

The concert rose to a joyous climax with a medley of patriotic festival songs including, This is the Land of my Birth, No Weh Nuh Betta Dan Yard and Gi me Back mi Sweet Jamaica.

Nettleford would have been as pleased as the season's opening night audience was with the truly fantastic concert.