Cheltenham Jazz Festival: The Ruach Mass Choir and guests - GL1, Gloucester

Wednesday 29th April 2009

This is a Crackerjack review of Cheltenham Jazz Festival: The Ruach Mass Choir with guests: Mica Paris, Ian Shaw, Alex Wilson and Jason Yarde. Do you agree? Rate and review this event.

Crackerjack rating: 9 / 10.

The venue for the launch of this year’s Cheltenham Jazz Festival? GL1 in Gloucester of course. Not the obvious choice but when I saw the crowds queuing around the block for the event it was clear they required somewhere of this size.

People of all ages flocked to see the Ruach Mass Choir perform alongside special guests, Mica Paris, Ian Shaw, Alex Wilson and Jason Yarde as well as choirs from Beaufort Community School and Stroud High School.

The choir entered the stage to huge cheers and they soon had the crowd clapping along. We were even treated to a guitar solo which was technically brilliant although the sound was lost in a room which is essentially a gym.

Encouragement was given to greet the people to our left, right, in front and behind with a “good evening – nice to see you” which only increased the sense of good feeling which filled the room.

Jason Yarde arrived on stage to show off his Saxophone skills and following his fantastic rendition of Danny Boy, was joined by Alex Wilson who accompanied him on the keyboard in one of Yarde’s own compositions.

The school choirs did a fabulous job and after being told they only had two sessions to learn four songs (that’s an hour a song) it was hard to believe they would have had time to learn the words let alone the tune! Several solos from various pupils delighted the audience and each received their own round of applause.

The voices of the 80 strong Ruach Mass Choir had no trouble raising the very high roof and songs such as Oh Give Thanks to the Lord had everyone joining in. Not content with the audience joining in from the floor though, people were asked to come up on stage for a rip-roaring rendition of This Little Light of Mine. Dozens got up for their moment in the spotlight, some even felt brave enough for a solo.

When Ian Shaw came on he told us “sing along if you feel like it, if you don’t more fool you!” and sing along we did to Somebody to Lean On and then a stunning version of the soul classic Long Time Coming.

Mica Paris was handed the mic to close the show. Giving us a taste of her new album, with her new, soon to be released single, Born Again, this should undoubtedly be a chart topper.

Finally, with Mica taking the lead, she was joined on stage by all the stars of the show to finish with Amazing Grace. Everybody got out of their seats and it was the perfect climax to a truly uplifting evening.

If the rest of the Jazz Festival is half as much fun as the opening concert, it’s sure to be a huge success.

Jamie Ross

This is a Crackerjack review of Cheltenham Jazz Festival: The Ruach Mass Choir with guests: Mica Paris, Ian Shaw, Alex Wilson and Jason Yarde. Do you agree? Rate and review this event.