Ouachita Stories

Ouachita Baptist University’s Department of Music will present a joint concert featuring Ouachita Sounds vocal ensemble and the OBU Jazz Band on Tuesday, Feb. 28. The concert will be held at 8 p.m. in Jones Performing Arts Center. Admission is free and open to the public.

The Jazz Band will perform “Come Out Swinging” by Larry Neeck, “Smooth” by Rob Thomas and Itaal Shur, “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing” by Stevie Wonder and “The Best of Sly and the Family Stone” by Silvester Stewart. The Jazz Band will also perform two songs by Sting, “Wrapped Around Your Finger” and “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic.” Ouachita’s Jazz Band, which includes 22 student musicians, is directed by Dr. Craig Hamilton, OBU’s Lena Goodwin Trimble Professor of Music and director of bands.

Soloists Micah Brooks, a sophomore musical theatre major from Rockwall, Texas, and Clay Mobley, a freshman music major from Wylie, Texas, will perform Norman Gimbel’s and Pablo Beltran Ruiz’s “Sway” with the Jazz Band. The Jazz Band also will perform “God Bless the Child” by Arthur Herzog, Jr. and Billie Holiday accompanied by Kayla Walker, a senior musical theatre major from North Little Rock, Ark. Aaden Jones, a senior musical theatre major from Little Rock, Ark., will sing Stevie Wonder’s “You Are the Sunshine of My Life” with the Jazz Band.

All members of Ouachita Sounds will perform with the Jazz Band for two numbers. They will perform the GLEE arrangement of Freddie Mercury’s “Somebody to Love” and “My Shot,” a song from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton.

Ouachita Sounds also will perform five other songs, including Kristen Anderson-Lopez’s and Robert Lopez’s “Let It Go,” John Mayer’s “Waitin’ on the World to Change,” Edwin Hawkins’ “Oh Happy Day,” James Huey’s “When I Think about the Lord” and Victor Young’s and Edward Heyman’s “When I Fall in Love.”

“My favorite song is ‘My Shot’ from Hamilton,” said Kayla Walker, a singer in Ouachita Sounds and a senior musical theatre major from North Little Rock, Ark. “It’s a super fun song, we all get into it and the band just sounds amazing on it!”

Performing together allows the two groups to explore a wide range of music styles and allows the members of both groups to perform in a different concert atmosphere from their typical performances.

“We will be performing a big variety of music, from jazz standards to pop a cappella to contemporary music theatre numbers,” said David Stanley, director of Ouachita Sounds and instructor of music. “There will be a little something for everyone.”

“I think the audience will enjoy the pieces that Jazz Band and Sounds do together,” Walker noted. “It really does feel like a professional concert when you have a full band behind you.”

“You get a dose of big band jazz, a cappella voices and then a smooth combination of the two worlds,” said Blake Turner, a junior music major from Forth Worth, Texas, and first chair trumpet in the Jazz Band. “This concert has a lot to offer, and I’m really excited for it.”

For more information, contact Dr. Craig Hamilton at [email protected] or (870) 245-5137, or contact David Stanley at [email protected] or (870) 245-4160.

 

By Katie Smith // Photo of Jazz Band by Abbey Fowler

February 20, 2017



Ouachita Sounds has 10 members including Brooks, Mobley, Walker and Jones. Other members include Haley Morrison, a junior physics/math and secondary education double major from Hot Springs, Ark.; Robert Pilcher, a sophomore worship arts major from Maumelle, Ark.; Emma Pitts, a sophomore musical theatre major from Clarksville, Ark.; Libby Villegas, a sophomore music major from Wylie, Texas; Cody Walls, a junior musical theatre major from Huntington, Ark.; and Emily Weeden, a senior worship arts major from Rogers, Ark.;

Members of Jazz Band include:

Saxophones: Christopher “C.J.” Slatton, a junior music education major from Paragould, Ark.; Sierra Westberg, a sophomore music education major from Arkadelphia, Ark.; Austin Clements, a freshman music major from North Little Rock, Ark.; Nathan Bateman, a junior music major from Perryville, Ark.; Andrew Lockhart, a junior worship arts major from Rogers, Ark.; Andrew Martin, a senior musical theatre major from Hot Springs Village, Ark.; Haley Reed, a freshman music education and worship arts double major from Benton, Ark.; and Morgan Taylor, a sophomore music major from Hot Springs, Ark.

Trumpets: Blake Turner, a junior music major from Forth Worth, Texas; Alexandra Lawson, a senior accounting major from Texarkana, Texas; Justin Trostle, a freshman music major from El Dorado, Ark.; and Tyler Sanders, a sophomore music major from Arkadelphia, Ark.

Trombones: Jason Potts, a senior music major from Springdale, Ark.; Cayli Campbell, a junior music major from Texarkana, Texas; Bryson Clegg, a sophomore music education major from Malvern, Ark.; and Rachel Clifton, a senior musical education major from Alma, Ark.

Rhythm: Weston Wills, a senior worship arts major from Norphlet, Ark.; Jonathan Miles, a sophomore physics major from Arkadelphia, Ark.; Beaux Schmidt, a sophomore music major from Wylie, Texas; Caleb Smith, a junior music education major from Conway, Ark.; Brandon Lovelady, a senior music major from Hot Springs, Ark.; and Zack Willis, a senior music major from Redfield, Ark.