"This is a good time to do the Great American Songbook," says Kalamazoo Concert Band Music Director Tom Evans, and on Saturday, Feb 27 at 7 p.m., he makes good on that promise when the ensemble takes the stage at Chenery Auditorium for its “first-ever” pops concert. As always, admission is free.
Evans tells Cara Lieurance that the program idea came from a trumpet player who had long suggested the concept. After tucking the idea away for years, Evans finally found the right season — and the right soloist. Principal second flute player Linda Dickey connected him with New York-based cabaret vocalist Jennifer G. Roberts, a Farmington Hills, Michigan native with deep Michigan roots.
Roberts explains that cabaret, her specialty, is an intimate art form rooted in storytelling — typically performed for audiences of fewer than 75 people — quite unlike the 80-piece concert band backing her Saturday night. She traces the genre's origins to tiny New York rooms, citing legendary vocalist Mabel Mercer as a foundational figure. Evans adds that the Great American Songbook itself grew largely from Tin Pan Alley, the early 20th-century New York hub where composers like Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and George Gershwin first sold their music as sheet music to the public.
Saturday's program opens with a Broadway Showstoppers medley featuring tunes such as "Everything's Coming Up Roses," "People," and "With a Little Bit of Luck." Roberts performs selections including "It Don't Mean a Thing," "Stormy Weather," and "I Can't Give You Anything But Love," with the band opening and closing each half of the show on its own. The concert closes with Irving Berlin's "Puttin' on the Ritz."
Roberts is also finishing a new piano-vocal album with musical director Ted Firth, previewed on air with an unreleased recording of Gershwin's "Nice Work If You Can Get It."
The Kalamazoo Concert Band's next concert follows on April 18, also at Chenery Auditorium, themed "April in Paris."
The interview was summarized by Claude AI and edited by the author.