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The Mid America Freedom Band of Kansas City contributed to the holiday spirit with a wide selection of seasonal music in collaboration with PerformOUTKC and the infamous Mr. Grinch at Unity Temple, the concert home of MAFB.

Musical selection of the Sunday afternoon concert included extended jazz band and choir arrangements of well-known Christmas repertoire. "Home for Holidays," "You’re Mean One, Mr. Grinch," "Christmas Time is Here," "Joy to the World," "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," and many other staples of holiday music brought the audience together in celebration.

Although the music was generally well performed, the musicians themselves seemed to lack the holiday spirit. The first half the concert failed to inspire joy which is what Christmas music should be all about.

The band gave significantly better performances and showed better unity on up-tempo songs. They caught the groove on "Three Jazzy Kings," "Joy to the World," and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." The last song before the intermission, "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,"was the highlight of the concert. The baritone saxophone solo by Brian Heinen stood out.

Slow tunes, like "Silent Night" and "A Child is Born" fell apart at the seams due to harmonic imbalance. This had nothing to do with the skill level of the players, rather, it seemed like they lacked connection to the music. Some of the slow numbers sounded as if they were sight-read.

PerformOUTKC singers joined MAFB on the stage for "Christmas Chopsticks," "Wondrous Star," and a couple other tunes. Their performance however became a victim of improper microphone placement. Singers were situated around a single microphone on the side of the stage. Some of them lined up on the stairs, thus the microphone barely picked up half of the voices. Consequently, the most audible voices were the secondary harmonies, and the main melody was lost in the amplification.

Despite the problems seemingly caused by the timidity of the players—quite ironically—the Grinch was there to save the day. Following the opening number the Seuss-themed classic, "You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" introduced the emcee of the concert, the Grinch himself. Playwright and stage director Philip “blue owl” Hooser, fully dressed as the Grinch, took the stage between pieces and introduced each tune with an original commentary written for the day. He was funny, clever, and witty. As much as I hate to admit, the Grinch indeed stole the show.

Concert also introduced the newly formed traditional jazz ensemble Mighty-Mo Combo, a sub-set of MAFB, with a premiere performance. The saxophone quartet, another sub-set of the band, provided high-energy lobby music during the intermission.

Despite its ups and downs, it was a Sunday afternoon well spent with a good dose of Christmas music at Unity Temple. 

REVIEW:
Mid America Freedom Band
Holidays and All That Jazz
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Unity Temple on the Plaza
707 W. 47th St., Kansas City, MO
For more information, visit http://mafbmusic.org/

Top Photo: Mid America Freedom Band

By Nihan Yesil

Classical, New Classical, Jazz, Theatre Contributor
Nihan Yesil is a composer/performance artist and currently a candidate of M.M.Composition at the UMKC Conservatory. She composes both acoustic and electroacoustic music and has a strong interest in experimenting with the perception of sound and language.

Nihan started studying classical music with her father, M. Emin Yesil, at an early age and earned a bachelor's degree in Jazz Composition in Istanbul, Turkey, studying with Lawrence D. "Butch" Morris, Ali Perret, and Aydin Esen. She participated in festivals and artist residencies inclduing the Henry Mancini Institute, Czech-American Summer Music Institute, Brevard Music Festival, Electronic Music Midwest Festival, Women in New Music, Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposium, Escape to Create Artist-in-Residence Program and I-Park Artists' Enclave Residency where she also served as a selection committee member for the composition program. Her compositions have been performed at number of venues both in Turkey and the U.S.

Her favorite activity is experiencing or witnessing any form of artistic creativity. Nihan is a big fan of the Internet and keeps several blogs where she presents her unsolicited opinion on different subject matters.