Cover image: Swing Into the Night! at Kaleidoscope Festival. Supplied

Swing Into the Night!

A Perth Symphony Orchestra Big Band Experience

Centennial Park, Kalgoorlie-Boulder, 13^th September

There’s something a little bit extra about live music being enjoyed outdoors. The open-air ambience gives an elevated atmosphere of vibrancy. True, there’s always a risk of uncooperative weather, but the risk paid off for this event. The temperature stayed moderate and although Mother Nature teased at rain throughout the evening, it never amounted to more than a brief sprinkling that didn’t bother anyone.

The extensive grassed area of Centennial Park provided plenty of space for crowds to get comfy with camp chairs and blankets and ample room for children of all ages to run around and play safely. The Soundshell is of significant enough size that there are no bad positions to view a performance from.

Swing Into the Night! Was a Perth Symphony Orchestra (PSO) big band performance as part of the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder’s new Kaleidoscope festival. A weekend of celebrating community, creativity and culture.

People were greeted to a park filled with facepainting and roaming fairies, a superhero running craft activities, and a food van, ice-cream truck and fairy floss stall, complete with lines of kids and parents creating a fun and energetic vibe before the official show.

The opening set started precisely on time at 6pm (something this particular audience member always appreciates) with a string quartet playing Bridgeton-style arrangements of modern pop hits. The music was great. Every song familiar but given new life with the classical twist. People continued to arrive during this opening, but as an outdoor event, it meant it didn’t disturb the enjoyment of patrons already settled. Around 2000 people attended the event in total.

After a short break, the big band commenced, again right on time, which kept the momentum rolling. The dozen PSO musicians were joined on stage by eight John Paul College Jazz Band Members and three of the school’s teachers.

Mark Underwood, one of the singers and sometimes conductor, introduced the medley from Earth, Wind, and Fire set and it included solos from some of the students. I happened to be sitting near Rosalie Scott, the Musical Director of John Paul College and learned it was part of a PSO initiative of workshops and mentoring earlier in the year.

“What’s so special about music is it breaks barriers of generations… playing together is one of the ways we share our expertise. It really opens up that world as a career… the opportunity to engage with some of the best musicians WA has, it’s really exciting.”  Rosalie Scott.

As the evening continued, Mark Underwood was joined by fellow singer, Bronwynn Sprogowski, taking turns to sing solos, and a lovely “Unforgettable” duet in the style of Nat King Cole and Natalie Cole. Mark also engaged with the audience by adding interesting facts about various songs and making local connections where he could. He also added light humour and demonstrations around some of the instruments and techniques. The audience showed particular enthusiasm with their parts in the band’s version of Minnie the Moocher, which got increasingly more complicated with the combinations of Heidi, Heidi’s and freestyle scatting to amusing results.

Despite his gentle urging throughout the night inviting people to dance, it wasn’t until the very last number and inevitable encore did people finally take him up on the offer. (isn’t it always the way?) And really, who can sit still when the Frank Sinatra-made famous New York, New York starts belting out? The final two numbers had three pyrotechnic fountains shooting chemical sparks into the air as a closing pizzazz of flair.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening of modern hits, swing standards and entertaining banter. Special mention to the sound and tech team as well. The sound quality for this event was excellent, no matter where across the expansive park you were listening from.

I highly recommend and would go again whenever the opportunity next presents.