Swing into Christmas
BROADACRES - Getting into the spirit of the festive season, Broadacres resident Adam Howard will be behind the sounds of the Swingin' Christmas musical spectacular that will fill the air this year.
Taking time away from composing and producing music for many South African artists like Freshlyground and Steve Hofmeyer, Howard will be lending his talents to the swing-inspired concert that will showcase jazzy renditions of traditional Christmas songs.
Steeped in a solid musical background, Howard boasts a classical music degree from Guildhall School of Music in London and founded Howard Music in Bryanston. He also formed the Johannesburg Big Band two years ago.
The show materialised after Howard began looking into ways to introduce the Johannesburg Big Band into the public arena by presenting various themed concerts to several casinos and public venues.
Howard said that Swingin’ Christmas is unlike any musical endeavour he had undertaken before.
“The concert is definitely different, we’ve never done a big band concert. We have some amazing arrangements of classic Christmas songs and I can promise that you’ve never heard them performed this way before,” he said.
The former principle trumpeter for the Philharmonic Orchestra of Pretoria added that it may be the first time that a 17-piece big band has performed a concert of only Christmas songs in Johannesburg.
The Johannesburg Big Band will accompany well-known vocalists such as Cito of Wonderboom-fame and Pixie Bennett of Idols SA, who will sing popular Christmas songs like Jingle Bells and Let it Snow.
The concert will be held at the Lyric Theatre at Gold Reef City on 30 November at 8pm.
