News

The South Shore Symphony jazzes it up

Madison Theatre hosts symphonic arrangement of an old 70s favorite

Posted

For two nights in November, The South Shore Symphony, along with the Rockville Centre Guild for the Arts, presented “Jazz and the Classics,” performing “Steve Barta’s ‘Symphonic Arrangement’ of Claude Bolling’s ‘Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano’ at the Madison Theatre at Molloy College, featuring jazz great Hubert Laws on flute, Jeffrey Biegel on piano, Michael Molloy on string bass, and Evan Biegel on drums.

The 1975 original, “Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano,” was a Grammy-nominated collection of seven movements that was originally released as an album by CBS Masterworks Records and Columbia Masterworks. It was nominated in 1975 for a Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance, and was on the Billboards top 40 chart for 530 weeks.

“For me, it sounds very complete with an orchestra,” said Biegel. And it was.

On the evenings of Nov. 20 and 21, audiences were treated to a concert that began with Ferde Grofe’s Grand Canyon Suite, then continued with Piano Concerto N. 2 Opus 18 by Sergei Rachmaninoff and arranged by Laws, who played flute on the piece. Biegel accompanied on the piano.

The performance culminated with the symphonic arrangement of Bolling’s piece. Scott Jackson Wiley conducted.