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Boléro, Blue Danube & Valkyries At The Jazz Corner
by Martin McFie
Justin Varnes Orchestra The Jazz Corner Classical meets Jazz Hilton Head Island,SC October 20, 2019 As a precursor to the two main pieces of music in this Sunday lunchtime program, the Justin Varnes Orchestra played the most famous waltz ever written, Johann Strauss' II “Blue Danube." The instantly recognized theme was so well-known it had kitsch value, the audience clapping along in time. There was that ironic, impish humor which Duke Ellington brought to ...
read moreThe Justin Varnes Orchestra's Rhapsody In Blue At The Jazz Corner
by Martin McFie
The Justin Varnes Orchestra The Jazz Corner Rhapsody in Blue Hilton Head Island, SC May 12, 2019For Mother's Day luncheon, The Jazz Corner presented another in their “Classical meets Jazz" series of concerts, “Rhapsody in Blue."The opening clarinet trill, a scale, then the slowly extruded glissando had the edgy, haunting quality of an emergency siren winding up to announce the theme. The opening measures of “Rhapsody in Blue" may be ...
read moreJustin Varnes Orchestra's Peer Gynt Suite At The Jazz Corner
by Martin McFie
Justin Varnes Orchestra The Jazz Corner Peer Gynt Suite Hilton Head Island, SC January 20, 2019 Written in five acts of rhyming Danish verse, Peer Gynt is a play by Norwegian Henrik Ibsen, which was set to music by fellow countryman Edvard Grieg. Where does the jazz come in? Like so much jazz, it comes in through the door marked “Duke Ellington" with “Billy Strayhorn" sharing the office. In the early '60s, while The ...
read moreEllington's Nutcracker at The Jazz Corner
by Martin McFie
Justin Varnes The Jazz Corner Hilton Head Island, SC December 15, 2017Every Christmas is the Nutcracker Season for ballet aficionados. The legendary composing and arranging skills of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn also make it Nutcracker Season for jazz aficionados. In 1960, Ellington and Strayhorn wrote their version of the famous Tchaikovsky ballet. A big part of the Duke Ellington sound came from extending the instruments in his big band, wood blocks ...
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