Latin jazz arrangements of Stevie Wonder’s discography led the audience down to the dance floor Monday night at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater during a performance by the Jacobs School of Music’s Latin Jazz Ensemble.
The two-hour performance featured 11 songs originally composed or influenced by Wonder. Additionally, the set featured two Wonder songs arranged into the Latin jazz style by master’s students in the ensemble: “Sweetest Somebody I Know,” arranged by percussionist Dylan Shane, and “Another Star,” arranged by violinist Zoe Shepard.
The Latin Jazz Ensemble contains a diverse range of students, from doctoral students to first-year undergraduates. They have been working on the set list for Monday night’s performance twice a week since the beginning of the semester.
The ensemble is directed by professor of practice in jazz studies and jazz trombone Wayne Wallace, with lecturer in music Andy Miller stepping in to serve as the rhythm section coach and adjunct lecturer in music Rachel Caswell helping with vocals.
Wallace said he chose to have the ensemble honor Wonder not only because of his vast influence on music, but also because Wallace is a huge fan of his work.
“It was a love project for me,” Wallace said. “Stevie Wonder to me, he is a genius, really. A genius, so I just try to follow the footsteps of giants.”
While Wonder was the main inspiration for the set list, the group stayed true to its roots as the Latin Jazz Ensemble, taking inspiration from the traditional harmonies of Latin jazz then highlighting other Latin genres, like salsa.
“One of the things that really defines, like, the same Latin jazz, the Latin part of it, is looking at like, Latin America, the Caribbean, specifically Cuba, Puerto Rico, places like Colombia,” Miller said. “Many of the folkloric forms are tied to many of them, just percussion and vocals and dancing.”
As the house lights began to dim and the stage lights brightened, revealing the ensemble with instruments in hand, Wallace took to the microphone at the front of the stage. He briefly gave the audience a verbal preview about what was to come within the next two hours, emphasizing the inspiration from Wonder and asking audience members if they brought their dancing shoes.
The first song on the set list was “Fingertips, Part 1,” which was adapted into a Latin jazz two-part piece by Wallace and inspired by Wonder’s song “Fingertips” that was written and composed by Wonder’s teachers Henry Cosby and Clarence Paul. The song featured six solos from students within the ensemble.
With a swift movement of Wallace’s hand toward the ensemble, an arrangement of Wonder’s “Overjoyed” by Wallace began next, showcasing the talents of trumpetist Nadia Suben, bass trumpetist Jessica Barrick and alto saxophonist Elvin Debrucker throughout their lively solos.
As the sound of Debrucker’s alto saxophone concluded “Overjoyed” with a vibrant melody, Wallace began to speak into the microphone for a second time. He explained that the next two songs on the set list were composed by Shane and Shepard, illustrating the hard work the two students put into their respective pieces.
Wallace retreated from the microphone, letting Shane’s arrangement of “Sweetest Somebody I Know” speak to the audience through its Latin jazz spin on Wonder’s song. His arrangement featured a solo of himself on vibraphone and freshman Dawson Kerchief on tenor saxophone.
As the audience’s cacophony of praise for Shane’s arrangement began to dwindle, Wallace waved to the jazz students to begin Shepard’s arrangement of “Another Star,” featuring solos from pianist Liam Campbell Carpenter and trumpetist Rob Starling.
"Sweetest Somebody I Know” and “Another Star” marked the beginning of Shane and Shepard’s arranging experience, being the first time the master’s students had composed for a large ensemble. The arranging process proved to be a huge learning experience, teaching the two students aspects of musical arrangement they never thought of before.
“Arranging is kind of an uncovering process,” Shane said. “It’s uncovering all these little bits of, like, Stevie’s genius and then trying to put our own spin on it, because you put in on a completely different spot on the chart.”
As they began working on their arrangements with guidance from Wallace and Miller, Shane and Shepard started by finding the tritones within the original composition. A tritone is a musical interval composed of three whole tones.
From there, the students began to play with the music, trying different notes and scales to see what they would like in their arrangement.
“Well, a lot of trial and error would be the first thing. I think one of the first lessons we had on arranging, we talked about finding the tritones. Finding the half steps in the tritones is a good place to start,” Shepard said. “And most of it was just experimenting, seeing what you like the sound of.”
After “Another Star” the ensemble continued playing through another seven songs. As the students’ fingers danced across their instruments, the audience began to feel the music and follow suit. Wallace said audiences have made a tradition of flooding to the dance floor for the past three years.
The audience and the ensemble grooved together until the final song, which was the final half of the beginning song “Fingertips, Part 2.”
The Latin Jazz Ensemble will present its second performance of the semester April 20 at the Musical Arts Center.
Editor’s note: Nadia Suben is a writer currently on staff at the IDS. She was not involved in the reporting, writing or editing of this story.
