Spring Pops Concerts

Jazz Vocalist Amanda Carr

The Concord Band returns with Spring Pops concerts featuring jazz vocalist Amanda Carr, at the Performing Arts Center, 51 Walden St. in Concord. Tickets are available through our sponsoring organizations.

• 8pm Friday, April 11 sponsored by the Rotary Club of Concord. Contact Dick Hale 508-878-6577.
• 8pm Saturday, April 12 sponsored by The Emerson Hospital Auxiliary. Contact Jeri Ravis 978-264-2023.

The Concord Band will perform an exciting “Swing into Spring” program. Conductor James O’Dell welcomes returning jazz vocalist Amanda Carr, a multi-styled vocalist who has performed and recorded in the United States and Italy. According to Nat Hentoff of the Wall Street Journal, “Amanda is a pianist and composer, she sings and swings with the unaffected confidence of a genuine jazz improviser. She is an authentic musician.”

Guest Artist Spotlight: Renowned Jazz Vocalist Amanda Carr

Guest Artist Amanda Carr
Jazz Vocalist

Boston-based Amanda Carr, daughter of a big band vocalist and trumpeter, is a multi-styled vocalist/pianist who got her start professionally in the rock and pop genre. In recent years she has become a vocalist focused on fresh interpretations of the Great American Songbook, receiving critical acclaim as a jazz singer from listeners and some of the toughest reviewers around.

For over two decades, sheʼs performed and recorded both in the U.S. and Italy. Twice a feature story by respected writer and author Nat Hentoff in The Wall Street Journal, she garnered global exposure as he hailed her, “...a true jazz singer in a time of wannabes.” Sheʼs also featured in Hentoffʼs latest best-seller, “At the Jazz Band Ball: 60 Years on the Jazz Scene.” Among many guest artist appearances, Amanda has been featured vocalist with Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops Orchestra, legacy big bands such as The Artie Shaw Orchestra, Harry James Band, and the Glenn Miller Orchestra. Sheʼs headlined at the EuroJazz Festival in Italy along with James Moody and George Mraz, and recorded “Live in San Giorgio” with Trio Martinale in 1999. Her 2011 tour in Australia was exceptionally well-received.

Carr composed and performed award-winning music for two PBS documentaries with “The Story of Golf” garnering an Emmy Nomination and awards for her musical contributions to “Boston Red Sox: 100 Years of Baseball History”. Her original work with childrenʼs music for the “LilʼIguana” series is among her favorite composing and recording projects. Her most recent big band recording has been on multiple Jazz Best seller lists and debuted #32 on the National Billboard Charts in 2010. She founded “American Big Band Preservation Society” that same year, a not for profit that preserves the essence of American musical heritage.

With five jazz vocal recordings and distribution and airplay in dozens of countries, Amanda continues to perform with her own group while a popular guest vocalist with other ensembles. Currently, she is Artist Liaison for the esteemed organization, Boston Women in Media and Entertainment (www.bwme.org), publishing a monthly on-line interview series.

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Concord Band Soars in “Flights of Fancy”

On March 8th at 8 PM the Concord Band presented their Winter Concert, dubbed “Flights of Fancy,” to resounding appreciation by the audience.  Music Director Jim O’Dell and the trumpet soloist, Lewis Buckley, along with all of the band members have robbed me of the opportunity to criticize any aspects of this event, because this was as close to a flawless performance as I have ever witnessed.  The band played as a tight ensemble with impeccable intonation and magnificent dynamic control.  It was truly a delightful experience!  I am going to note these selections out of order, focusing on the aesthetic impact rather than the chronological.

Beyond the Horizon by Rossano Galante is a lush representation of the earth’s far-away bounds, and it features soaring melodic lines and majestically blended brass.  People who live in Glass Houses by John Philip Sousa, with movements titled The Champaignes, The Rhine Wines, The Whiskies and The Convention of the Cordials may seem to be a bit of an odd inclusion in a program about flight, but as Jim O’Dell pointed out in his opening comments, “You can get selections, called “flights”, of beers in a tavern, and these individuals are all capable of getting us a little high”!  The movements also take the listener to various countries around the world, on a potable voyage of the senses.  The band performed this whimsical number with facility and great good humor, a very satisfying piece indeed.