Review: Jazzmanix Winter Concert

Last night, we at the Tab were invited along to the Jazzmanix Winter Concert for an evening of vocal performance from Southampton University’s largest choir. First off, it would take […]


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Last night, we at the Tab were invited along to the Jazzmanix Winter Concert for an evening of vocal performance from Southampton University’s largest choir.

First off, it would take far too long to individually review each of the a cappella acts that made up the first half, and would be unnecessary since they were all equally strong vocally. All put on a stellar performance with ingenious arrangements (special mention must be made to ‘Six Song Emotional Breakdown’) and a cover of a Destiny’s Child gospel song by ‘Sister Act’ stood out especially in this half.

The latter half of the evening was filled with whole-choir numbers. The soloists, Ore A-Williams, Nina Narain, Liv Chant and Sarah Moir (I really wanted a chance to use the pun ‘Are You Ready For A Moiracle?’) were all astoundingly powerful performers, and had earned their place as soloists in a choir where to be a strong singer is the norm. Though many of the songs were religious gospel choir music, if you didn’t appreciate the musicality and the sound the choir produced, you’ve entirely missed the point. As someone who isn’t religious, I still found this half incredibly easy to enjoy, and was especially blown away by the number ‘If I Tell God’. Credit is certainly due to the musical directors, Evie Asio-Okwalinga and Joe Nurse.

The Jazzmanix Choir performed together in the second half

The final coveted 5th star in this review is not out of reach of Jazzmanix, if in time for their next outing, they address a few minor issues I found with the concert. Whilst Josh McDonald was a witty compère throughout the first half, in places causing me to laugh out loud, several of the individual acts tried to create laughs, some successfully and others not so much. In future a slightly more polished and coherent introduction from the groups would be welcomed so that momentum is not lost. Furthermore, a common lack of confidence was seen in the smaller vocal groups. It was not so obvious as to be a problem, but in places some of the movement that groups had incorporated was under performed, or carried out with a slight air of trepidation, whereas it could have been brilliantly effective (and where it was meant to be, funny) if the performers had given it some more gusto.

These criticisms are minor, and for a society finding its feet after recently losing many longstanding members to graduation, the show really was a fantastic expenditure of an evening. I’ll definitely be heading back for the Spring Concert, held at Winchester next year. Each and every performer should feel proud.

Jazzmanix can be found on Youtube, TwitterFacebook and their website, jazzmanix.org