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Swingin’ Tenors
A Tribute to The Big Apple, the Mills Brothers,
songs of WW II, and The Rat Pack
Article and concert review by TG
On January 16, 2009, Homestead Community Concerts presented as
its second program of the 2008-2009 season, the 3 Swingin’
Tenors.
First a little bit about these three multi-talented
entertainers. Baritone Jack Alessi began his musical career as a
drummer in the early sixties working with his father, guitarist,
Don Alessi. He has performed with or opened for Tony Bennett,
Vicki Carr, Jerry Lewis, Louis Armstrong, Jimmy Durante, the
Mills Brothers, and many more as well as touring as the featured
vocalist with such big bands as Tommy Dorsey, Glen Miller, and
Stan Kenton. Jack is credited with the concept that brought this
trio together.
Tenor/Baritone Steve Marvin, a Berklee School of Music graduate,
started out as a drummer/vocalist. With roots as a R&B singer,
he is comfortable performing jazz, blues, and cabaret. Most
recently Steve has been performing a series of Concerts
celebrating the music of Frank Sinatra.
Tenor Jim Porcella, also a Berklee School of Music graduate,
started out as a drummer in his teen years. He began his vocal
career as a jazz singer in clubs, recording seven CDs along the
way. As featured vocalist he traveled with the Artie Shaw
Orchestra. He was the lead vocalist in Prima Vera!, a tribute
show to the music of Louis Prima and Keely Smith.
This writer got to sit and chat with the group as they dressed
and checked the order of tonight’s program. They are easy going
regular guys who seem to genuinely enjoy each others company.
Jack had seen The Three Tenors, the Three Irish Tenors, and the
Motown Tenors. Steve laughed and indicated that calling
themselves the three baritones just didn’t make it. They decided
that 3 Swingin’ Tenors had the right “ring” to it.
The ensemble hails from the Boston area. They were delighted to
be in south Florida. On January 16, Boston weather was clear,
sunny, and 32 degrees below freezing! Gentleman, welcome to our
winter. Their tour includes Benita Springs, Ft. Meyers, and
Ocala before heading back north.
The show opener was “It Don’t Mean a Thing”. You were
immediately struck with the possibility, especially when Jim
“scat” sang, that they were fans of the Mel Tormé school of
singing. It was light, sometimes airy, and rhythmic. Scat
singing for you non-jazz readers is using nonsense syllables
such as: … “Scooby doody wa-bah du-ba de-be du-wop” …to
melodically and rhythmically improvise. As a trio it was most
impressive and a great choice as the opener. The audience was
immediately won over. The lady sitting next to me said Jim even
looked a bit like Mel.
The first set was a smooth lounge sound Tribute To New York:
“New York, New York”, “How About You”, “Manhattan”, “Lullaby of
Broadway”, “Broadway” (in a bit of a swing style), “Autumn in
New York”, “New York on Sunday”, and ended with audience
applause to a reprise of “New York, New York”. In our
pre-concert chat, Jim twinkled telling me to note that they had
all started out as drummers so my attention was naturally drawn
to the percussion part of the accompaniment tracks. Subtle
differences: sticks versus brushes and rim versus high-hat
cymbals on the off-beats of 2 and 4, as well as balance of sax,
trumpet, and synthesized strings all within a smooth almost
understated sound provided the right support for the vocalists.
Congratulations to Jim Rice, musical director for much of
tonight’s program.
The next set was songs of Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack.
Included were “Luck Be a Lady” from Guys and Dolls with Jack
imitating Dean Martin and Steve pretending to be Jerry Lewis, an
imitation of Sinatra singing “Luck Be a Lady Tonight”, and a
Dean Martin-like version of “Ain’t That a Kick in the Head”. The
set ended with an audience favorite: “I Ain’t Got Nobody”.
At this point the ensemble took a singing break and entertained
us with their imitations of John Wayne, Gabby Hayes, Jimmie
Stewart, Humphrey Bogart, and Walter Brennan. Then back to
singing with a Mills Brother Medley of five tunes. The
synthesized string accompaniment supported this very smooth
medley. Jim’s had some fun pretending to be a trumpet. The last
tune: “Up a Lazy River”, which was immediately applauded, went
from a smooth ballad, to a swing section, and ended with a New
York Rockets-like finale. The first half concluded with
something new in their repertoire, a bit of Motown.
The second half opened with another new addition to their
repertoire, a Doo Wop Medly. This was one of the two favorite
sets of the evening. Some of the tunes took one back to
line-dancing in high school. Included were: “Blue Moon”, “Sha-Boom”,
“Earth Angel”, “16 Candles”, and more. The audience clapped
along with their favorite: “Get a Job”. Remember the TV
character Bowzer?
Next was a mixture of tunes from the 1960’s, more Motown
(complete with finger snapping, hand clapping, and other typical
Motown moves), an audience favorite “Chicago”, and Cole Porter’s
“I Concentrate on You”. This was followed by a solo section: Jim
doing a Nat King Cole Medley. Again another non-singing bit,
this time with imitations of Ed Sullivan, Arthur Godfrey, Johnny
Ray, Johnny Mathis, Billy Eckstein, and Jimmy Durante which
ended with an audience response: “Good night Mrs. Callabash,
wherever you are”.
The final and favorite set of the program was a World War II
Medley. The audience sang along to: “Don’t Sit Under the Apple
Tree”, “It’s Been a Long, Long Time”, “You’ll Never Know”, and
“Sentimental Journey”. The last two tunes: “Chattanooga Choo
Choo”, and “I’ll Be Seeing You” brought the audience to their
feet thanking the 3 Swingin’ Tenors with a standing ovation.
They sang one short encore: an unaccompanied version of
“America” which they dedicated to the troops now overseas. We
were excited, warmed, and entertained all evening.
Put Sunday, February 22, 2009, 2:30 p.m. on your calendar for
the timeless tunes of Tin Pan Alley, Broadway, and Hollywood as
Puttin’ On The Ritz brings American popular music of the 30s,
40s, and 50s to comes to Homestead. For tickets, call
305-235-8818 or 305-253-6620 or online. |
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