By: Simon Husted
Jazz enthusiasts will be reunited with their favorite classic guitar hits Thursday at the Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center. And if you’re not a jazz enthusiast now, listening to the Six String Circus play on stage may force you to become one.
Readers familiar with the Mardi Gras Jam competition this past February may already know who the Six String Circus is. The band of 10 jazz guitar players from Hutchinson Technical High School received a spring into local stardom after beating 14 other high school bands in the Battle of the Bands competition during the festival.
Jacob Morrison, Anthony Mirabelli, Ritchie Kurkowski, Jordan Sanchez, Dominique Thelwell, Stephen Potenzo, Charlie Verrastro, Andy Othman, David Lotz and Troy Haggins will be making a return to the stage to play more than a dozen songs.
The band covers blues, Latin and gypsy acoustic jazz. Bernard Kunz, the faculty advisor to the Six String Circus, said most the songs played during the concert will be classic hits the band has polished over the years, including “Isn’t She Lovely” by Stevie Wonder, “Entre Dos Aguas (Undecided)” by Paco de Lucia, “Flor de Luna (Moonflower)” by Carlos Santana, “Sad Samba (Make me a Memory)” by Grover Washington Jr., “Hideaway” by Freddie King and “Coming Home Baby.”
The largest portion of the classics to be performed will come from the founder of gypsy guitar jazz, Jean “Django” Reinhart, such as “Minor Swing,” “Topsy,” “Les Yeux Noirs.”
In recent discussion, Kunz added that Six String Circus doesn’t just play songs written by legends; some of the students also come up with their own pieces, including two songs which will be performed Thursday.
Nevertheless, Kunz said that out of all of the songs played at the concert, the band shows its best work playing “For Sephora”, a song originally written by Rosenberg Trio, a Dixie Jazz band from Holland.
“This is the first year we’ve gotten such a successful group together,” Kunz said.
Thursday, June 3rd, 7 pm
Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center
341 Delaware Avenue
Buffalo, NY 14202
Admission: $6, students $3
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Photo by: Joseph Verrastro, parent of band member Charlie Verrastro