all events

Connie Evingson at SOhO
updated: Feb 18, 2013, 9:45 AM

By Jack Huber

What do the following songs have in common?: "Girl From Ipanema", "Canadian Sunset", "Bluesette" and "Killing Me Softly with His Song". Right! The famed Norman Gimbel wrote the lyrics to all of them.

The Sunday afternoon concert at SOhO was presented by the Santa Barbara Jazz Society and was entitled "Connie Evingson Pays Tribute to Norman Gimbel". For her first set, Miss Evingson sang nine Gimbel tunes, including the four mentioned above.

Backed up ably by Chris Judge on guitar, Jim Connely on bass, and Kevin Winard on drums, Miss Evingson sang two full sets, plus a few "unplugged" tunes as she called them, since Kevin had to leave early for a gig in L.A.

It is easy to see why her most recent CD "Sweet Happy Life" was Number 10 in the nation on the Jazz Week Chart, and in the Top 100 for the year 2012 on jazz radio. Miss Evingson's voice is perfectly suited to both jazz and pop styles, being especially "sultry" in the low range.

It was a pleasure to listen to Miss Evingson's renditions of Gimbel tunes plus another ten or so from other artists all the way from The Beatles' tune "Can't Buy Me Love", to Lerner & Lowe's "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face".

In short, it was a wonderful musical afternoon.

By the way, you can hear Miss Evingson and listen to her music for yourself. Just Google: "Connie Evingson YouTube" and up will pop twenty or more of her tunes, many of which she performed at SOhO on Sunday.

A bonus...

The drummer, Kevin Winard, was a student at DPHS when I was teaching vocal music there. Never could get him to sing in the choir. After he graduated, however, he sang professionally with Matt Catingub [KAT-n-goob], saxophonist, woodwind artist, conductor, pianist, vocalist, performer, composer, and arranger.

Besides enjoying Connie, it was also great to see Kevin and talk with him a bit about what he's been doing the past few years.

# # # #

This event was covered by an Edhat subscriber who received *free tickets* for this event. Free tickets are a special privileged for paid Edhat Subscribers... Click Here to buy your subscription today!

7 comments on this article. Read/Add

# # # #