Broncho Legacy and the Odessa High School Jazz Band will join forces for a trip down memory lane for the K-OHS Radio Hour.
The show will feature tunes from the 1940s, professional swing dancers and excerpts from radio shows of the time like “Fibber McGee and Molly,” “The Lone Ranger” and “The Shadow.”
It is set for 7 p.m. March 3 at the OHS Performing Arts Center. Cost is $5 and free for students with ID.
Head Choir Director Jayson Hart said this is the first time he knows of that the choir and jazz band have presented a show together.
Broncho Legacy has 10 of the top chorale members and the jazz band has about 26 members, Hart said. There are about 130 students in the choral program.
He added that he first got the idea for the show last November.
“I saw a great opportunity for our two programs to come together and join. They do fantastic music with the jazz band,” Hart said.
Some of the songs planned are “Moonlight Serenade,” “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,” “Sentimental Journey,” and a new song called “Peroxide Swing” by Michael Buble done in swing style.
The professional swing dancers will be on stage with “Peroxide Swing” and “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,” Hart said. Also planned are “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” which Hart said is actually from the 30s, and “Chattanooga Choo-Choo.”
For the radio excerpts, Hart said there will be a special effects table so the audience will hear the horses coming down the mountain for “The Lone Ranger,” for example.
“The program itself does not have a storyline other than the fact that it’s just an hour program from the 1940s featuring 40s music and excerpts from these radio programs,” Hart said.
A recent Thursday was the first day Legacy had rehearsed with the jazz band, but Hart said rehearsals have gone well. They will have more combined rehearsals this week at the OHS Performing Arts Center.
“It’s going to be a fantastic program,” Hart said.
Hart has been head choir director since November 2017 when former Head Choir Director Michael Marcades retired due to illness.
Hart had been assistant choir director at OHS for two and a half years. He was previously at Bonham and Crockett middle schools.
This is also a homecoming for Hart because he is a 1990 OHS graduate and he was in band and choir when he was in high school there.
Seventeen-year-old senior Courtnie Reed, a Legacy member, said when Hart told them about the show they were excited because they had never done something so “big and amazing.”
“I think it’s awesome because we’ve never really gotten with the band and done things and coming in here and listening to the band play made me so excited and happy because they sound so good,” Reed said.
Feliciti Rodriguez, an 18-year-old senior, said she thinks the show is a good change of pace.
“… It’s way different than previous stuff we’ve … been doing. It’s a cool change,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez added that she’s a fan of decade music.
“I was hoping for 50s or 60s, but I like the 40s,” she added.
Angelica Ruiz, a 16-year-old sophomore, plays the saxophone in jazz band and Luke Kidd, also a 16-year-old sophomore, plays the drums. Both said it was a neat idea.
Kidd said the sound gives the feel of a full band.
“I think it’s a good way to get all of us together and play some good music. It’s a little challenging because we have never played with a choir before, but it’s pretty fun,” Ruiz said.
