This week we have the pleasure of bringing you two different performance groups in one evening. First a jazz duo of guitar and trumpet, secondly a local group that specialises in full vocal harmony arrangements of contemporary songs.
Robert Wannell on jazz guitar with Michael Henley on trumpet. Robert and Michael have both played in the shop on previous occasions and have seriously impressed listeners with the maturity and proficiency of their performances. Both are success stories of the encouragement of jazz in the Ottawa High School community as players in the high-calibre Nepean All-City Jazz Band, and they were each recipients of scholarships to Ontario jazz mecca Humber College in Toronto. Now well into their College studies they are back home in Ottawa for a few days, and we are fortunate to be able to welcome them for a duo reunion at Gaia Java this Friday. Come along and hear how their skills have evolved as a result of playing with other jazz greats from across the province.
A cappella contemporary vocals from Harmonic Generation. This group specialises in taking contemporary (i.e. ‘pop’) tunes and adapting them to be performed with voices only, which is known as a cappella since they used to perform that way in the chapels of early churches back in the middle ages. But they didn’t sing pieces by the Beatles, Sting, Daft Punk or Michael Jackson back then. So times and styles have changed, and the singers of Harmonic Generation have a lot of fun working up these complex arrangements of favourites from the last few decades (and occasionally beyond!). This Friday at Gaia Java they will be giving an acoustic preview of some of the songs to be performed at their upcoming concerts in Bells Corners and Arnprior (for more details of those see www.harmonicgeneration.ca ). Come along and compare the faces in the photo with the current line-up; you may recognise the odd coffee-shop owner in there (and I do mean odd!) and enjoy some familiar toe-tapping tunes. You could either go and see Pitch Perfect2 at the movies or you could come to Gaia Java and hear some a cappella live. Or do both.
Robert Wannell on jazz guitar with Michael Henley on trumpet, and Harmonic Generation on Friday June 5 at 7:00pm at Gaia Java.