I did a fun thing this week. I played in the pit orchestra for a local vocal group, The Old Mill Singers. I’ve done a good number of pit orchestra gigs over the years, most recently when my kids were in middle school, and they’ve always been a good time. Rick from my jazz group is the regular drummer for their show, and he asked me if I’d like to play a solo for one of the songs. The group is about thirty or forty singers, doing mainly choral and choir type arrangements of traditional and pop music, show tunes, and that kind of thing. There were a few soloists too.
One of them, Savia, sang I Will Always Love You, following Whitney Houston’s arrangement, which includes an 8-bar sax solo. This is by no means an easy song to sing. In fact, it’s a real tour de force, beginning with a long a cappella intro, and full of expressive turns and melisma, and has a big dynamic range and very wide melodic range, with a dramatic pause and key change towards the end, where she goes really high and belts out the chorus before returning to quiet sensitive tone for the ending. Savia is an excellent singer and really nailed it. It was a high point of the show. My solo came in about halfway thru. She wanted me to pretty much follow the solo on the record, but there’s alot of free expression in the phrasing, so I learned the basic shape and improvised on that, and it worked out just fine.
The rehearsals and performances were at a school up in Braircliff Manor. The orchestra included Rick on drums, a piano player, a bass player, and a few others who played on just a few tunes, including a viola and a guitar/ukulele. Savia and everyone there were really nice people, and when it was done they said they’d like me to come back for their Christmas show.