Friendly battle of bands ensues between classical and jazz bands

FAYETTEVILLE — Duke Ellington was right. There are just two kinds of music. And all of it was good at the Walton Arts Center Saturday night (March 10).

So many great gadgets provide us with music today.  Everything from iPads to gas pumps at Walmart. Occasionally we forget that one of the original giver-of-music gadgets is still around and perhaps still the greatest of them all — the concert hall. On Saturday, the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas (SoNA) under the direction of Paul Haas and the Fayetteville Jazz Collective Saturday reminded their audience that a great live concert hall performance is a joyous occasion. 

During a pre-concert discussion hosted by Haas and KUAF’s Kyle Kellams, the much-used Ellington quote — "There are just two kinds of music; good music and that other kind." —  set the stage, so to speak, for the concert that would follow. The innovative 250 Years of Greatest Hits program switched back and forth in a sort of battle format with friendly fire selections coming from the classical orchestra and the classic big-band.

Without segue and very little discussion from the podium, some musical "switches" worked better than others, but since both ensembles performed with passion and skill, title or genre placement didn't seem to matter much once the music restarted. 

Although audience favor seemed to be easily won with any selection involving horns (i.e. SoNA's brilliant "Fanfare," rousing "Firebird" finale and everything the horn-rich that the Collective played) it was the SoNA string-drenched choices that gave the program balance and provided some of the orchestra's finest moments. 

SoNA's Mozart intermission curtain-closer followed the Collective's stellar "El Lobo Cuarenta," and SoNA’s “Nimrod” by Edward Elgar, near the program's end, followed the Collective's knock-your-socks-off "Sing, Sing, Sing."

Tough acts to follow.

The Fayettville Jazz Collective's love and respect for "In the Mood" was evident from the ascending first bar.  The audience instantly recognized the iconic work from recordings and films, but Saturday night they were reminded of the joy that a live "In the Mood" experience brings. 

Few tunes in the history are as connected to a time and place and frame of mind as "In the Mood."  With affection and skill and passionate historical accuracy, the Collective conjured up musical time travel so powerful that it was difficult to avoid being swept away by it. The audience was transported to the pre-World War II United States, where nostalgia dictated an era's good times.

It is interesting to note that the "In the Mood" that wowed the WAC audience Saturday was a 10-year overnight success story. Nine years before Miller struck No. 1 gold with "Mood," Wingy Manone recorded it as "Tar Paper Stomp." Then Fletcher Henderson recorded it as "Hot and Anxious."  TinPan Alley songster Joe Garland rearranged "Hot and Anxious" and cooled the song title down to "In the Mood." Then Artie Shaw's band played "In the Mood," but at eight minutes — five minutes too long for 78-rpm records — it was not recorded. 

Glenn Miller's crafty editing skills got "Mood" down to the the three minutes that would fit on one side of a 78-rpm recording.

The rest is history.

In a career filled with sensational hits, "In the Mood" was Glenn Miller's most sensational, and thanks to the Fayetteville Jazz Collective, in an evening filled with sensational performances, "In the Mood" was one of the more sensational performances.
 
In a concert rife with high-octane numbers and individual performances, the audience had few moments to recover. The concert was a joyous occasion that filled WAC’s Baum Walker Hall with dance hall gold.  Many SoNA fans were introduced to the Fayetteville Jazz Collective and vice versa.

And that was a good thing.