At the Palace Theater, Nancy Kelly and her jazz ensemble played a concert as the final event of Colgate University’s annual Arts, Creativity and Innovation Weekend. The Palace Theatre also hosts a series put on by Colgate faculty member, Brian Stark, visiting assistant professor of music, and Mark Shiner, a professional freelance percussionist, at the Palace Theater called Saturday Jazz.
Kelly, a New York local, is a blues-based jazz singer and vocal coach. She played with Will Gorman on organ, Carmen Intorre Jr. on drums, Joe Carello on saxophone and Dave Stryker on guitar. Kelly spent the week leading up to the performance as an artist-in-residence, and her ensemble also joined the student jazz ensemble at their concert on April 4.
Stark gave a short introduction to the show. Stark described how the ensemble worked with the 12 students in his jazz improvisation class in the week leading up to the concert.
“They did some great work getting [the students] to interact with the chord changes, getting them to sing, getting them to do all these things that instrumentalists are usually afraid of doing,” Stark said. “They just jumped up and did them. They were so empowered.”
The event was attended by students, faculty, parents and Hamilton locals, alike. One man in the audience said that he travels from Syracuse, N.Y., every Saturday to enjoy jazz at the Palace Theater. Attendees sat at large, round tables while servers circled with trays of hors d’oeuvres supplied by the Colgate Inn. They offered raspberry brie, tuna tartare and ceviche, to name a few. In the center of the room, a table was laden with cheese, fruit, crackers and other snacks.
The ensemble performed 11 songs in over an hour, including debuts of material that they are including on Kelly’s coming album, “Be Cool,” which is scheduled to be released April 18. Some of the covers they performed included Frankie Valli’s “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,” Joni Mitchell’s “Be Cool” and Herman Hupfeld’s “As Time Goes By.”
Between songs, Kelly emphasized the importance of doing new things. In her opinion, an artist should not copy old material but add their own personalized twists. The ensemble demonstrated this concept by adding a bossa nova twist to a traditional ballad by Shirley Bassey called “I Wish You Love.”
“How do people stay alive in jazz?” Kelly asked. “You come up with new ideas. We do not regurgitate something that’s been done and done and done.”
Sophomore Andrew Tatela, a member of the Colgate Thirteen and the student band Chalant, attended the concert out of interest in Colgate’s music scene. His favorite part of the show was a Charlie Parker tune.
“I liked the part where [Kelly] and [Carello] were singing and playing the same line in unison. It was very cool,” Tatela said. “You can get a good taste of Colgate’s music scene.”
The Mark Shiner Quartet, led by Chaplain and Catholic Campus Minister Mark Shiner, will perform at the next Saturday Jazz installment on April 12.
