Sir Willard was in fine form

• Unexpected highs added to concert for arts foundation

Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

On Sunday's night of high culture at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel, New Kingston, there were lows and highs from Sir Willard White's voice as he performed for the Arts Foundation of the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts.

White's lows were, of course, not only expected but highly anticipated - after all, the programme announced him 'Internationally Acclaimed Bass-Baritone'. But the highs, which White urged his voice into unexpected registers on I Bought Me a Cat, chortling "honey honey" like the wife which completed his list of purchases, were a striking surprise.

There was another high, the final 'eh?' with which he ended If I Were a Rich Man - itself an unexpected inclusion as it was not on the programme. It was a replacement of sorts for three songs that were on the programme but were not performed, Joe Hill, Ma Curly Headed Baby and Mighty Like a Rose.

Surprises and all, Sir Willard, in tandem with soprano Sylvia Kevorkian at points and Roger Williams on piano throughout, lived up to the high expectations of the large audience, although the premature applause in one non-English song was a clear indication that at least some of the concert was above their collective heads.

The early quartet of non-English songs were short pieces, finishing with 'Da liegel der Feinde gestreckle Schar', Sir Willard, singing with precision expression and minimal stage movement. He started to infuse his engaging personality into the concert on the British folk song arrangements of Benjamin Britten, beginning with Foggy Foggy Dew.

"I tell my friends if you see me in a situation and you want to worry, make love instead," Sir Willard said.

Tongue-in-cheek song

And Foggy Foggy Dew turned out to be a tongue-in-cheek song about just that. The speed of his delivery was displayed on Oliver Cromwell, as it would in the second segment on the rollicking I Bought Me a Cat.

As impressive as his talent and track record are, White certainly did not appear overly impressed with himself, coming across as the man who had made good in the big wide world coming back home.

So he established the context for Madamina and, without seeming condescending, worked explanation of some of the lyrics before he sang. Kevorkian was excellent on Vedrai, carina, but when White rejoined her for La ci darem on their individual parts there was a striking difference between their respective volumes.

However, when their voices commingled, along with their hands as some drama was injected into the presentation, White adjusted his volume downwards.

The second segment of 'Sir Willard White in Concert' was appreciably longer than the first, not least of all because of his engaging between-song engagement with the audience. It was also, based on the applause, the section where the audience had its high, notably at the end of Bess, You is My Woman, done with Kevorkian. "Bravo!" someone in the seats furthest removed from the stage said. "Absolutely!" another person close by agreed.

Second segment

The suite of Old American Songs with which White opened the second segment set the pace for more familiar fare in the post-interval period. In Simple Gifts he sang "it is a gift to be simple/it is a gift to be free", which he then proceeded to live up to on I Bought Me a Cat, replete with the songs of a goose, pig, duck, hen and other barnyard creatures - as well as the final addition to the coterie, a wife.

Some Enchanted Evening went over very well, Kevorkian took on the well-known Summertime from Porgy and Bess before the 'bravo' number. And, after the surprise If I Were a Rich Man, White went to the root of his voice and the experience of the dispossessed with Deep River and Go Down Moses, ending the slated programme without the levity of This Little Light, as was indicated on the programme.

Still, there was the expected standing ovation and encore to the urging of the evening's other voice, host Paula-Ann Porter, the singers doing a song each, before Jeffrey Cobham said thanks, all around.