Big Orchestra meets Big Band

Thanks to more than a decade of techies-gone-wild, we now live in a state of Click-N-Change instant gratification. Our laptops, desktops, ultras, airs, pads, pods, smart phones and 100-plus channel remotes equip us for perpetual immediacy, and there is not enough Ritalin worldwide to ease our self-inflicted ADHD.  

This is the new us. Click-N-Change is how we receive, manage and channel information. 

It is also how we entertain ourselves and how we are soon to be entertained.

A case in point: 250 Years of Greatest Hits, a concert slated for Saturday (March 10) by the Symphony of North Arkansas (SoNA) and The Fayetteville Jazz Collective. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. at Walton Arts Center.

Moving through the program is as easy as, well, the click of a mouse.

CLICK: music by GLENN MILLER
CLICK: music by MOZART
CLICK: music by STRAVINSKY
CLICK: music by DUKE ELLINGTON
CLICK: music by GLUCK
CLICK: music by HENRY MANCINI
CLICK: music by BEETHOVEN
CLICK: music by LUIS PRIMA
CLICK, CLICK, CLICK…

The symphony orchestra and the jazz big-band will be on stage side by side. Both groups will play hits from the classical and jazz genres, interwoven into a continuous musical fabric, according to the SoNA website.
 
Maestro Paul Hass will CLICK the musicians through two and a half centuries of memorable music. The 250 Years of Greatest Hits is a welcomed program format that is innovative and ambitious. However, it is the music selected by SoNA and the collective that will rightfully claim the center stage spotlight. 

Jazz Collective spokesperson Ben Harris said that trumpeter Chase Cavalier approached SoNA Music Director Paul Haas, about the possibility of a combined performance. Harris gave credit for the "250" idea to Haas.

"The 250 years of hits idea was his from the start, and we loved it," Harris said.

The Collective, formed in 2009, is a traditional 18-piece jazz big-band. The Northwest Arkansas group performs swing era classics and modern age big-band music and also features original music by local composers.  The "250" concert will include Rick Salonen's "El Lobo Cuarenta.”

If your visits to the concert hall are limited this year, this is one to put at the top of your consideration list.  For more info, including a list of music to be performed, go to SoNa's website. 

A Creative Conversation with Paul Haas and KUAF 91.3 FM news director/”Ozarks at Large Producer” Kyle Kellams will take place at 6:45 p.m. in the Starr Theater.  It is free and open to anyone with tickets to the concert.