There is a special blue in the sky that can be seen between dawn and sunset. Chansonniers refer to it, novelists too. Blue hour – the blue hour is suitable for concerts or at least as a program title. Like on thursday evening in the gymnasium of the meranian high school, while the sky was anything but blue.
But what brightened the spirits of the visitors from 7 p.M. Onwards was the concert by the MGL big band under the direction of iris arnal. In the end the big band should even become a very big band. The meranian high school not only has a great jazz band, but also a decent offspring of people interested in a style of music that emerged in the 1920s.
Blue program sheet
So for the last numbers after the break, even students from the lower school joined them on stage, until even a cast of 37 was reached. The blue program sheet for the blue hour, displayed near the gymnasium gym, featured lots of tunes rewritten for the big band style and written after the 1920s. Like "gonna fly now, bill conti’s world-famous hymn to the rocky movies. A great introduction, which gave a foretaste of the passion with which the at this point 23-headed big band would manage the evening.
At that moment it became clear that it was a pity that half of the seating remained empty. But those who had come, and who usually belonged to the ensemble members’ circle of relatives, were also able to enjoy an exceptionally well arranged version of the rhythm and blues classic "I heard it through the grapevine" look forward. But besides their musical skills, the big band proved something else: something like esprit de corps. At least there were young people playing who had already graduated from high school and who had been able to take a break from the school big band this summer. And yet someone like dennis streicher dutifully sits in the front row with his six-kilo baritone saxophone.
There was also a variety of styles to be heard, with an excursion into radio and thus into the demanding 16th-note range. Even a duet between bass guitar and trumpet should appear among the 16 numbers of the evening. From jazz to pop and between ambition and commitment, the one and a half hours passed, enriched also with infotainment by music teacher arnal. "Sing sing sing" was the first jazz piece to make it into carnegie hall. This is exactly what was heard with the clever drum prelude.