When Kate Reid, director of the Frost School’s jazz vocal program, stepped onstage at Gusman Concert Hall last Friday to introduce legendary quartet New York Voices, performing with her students in a Valentine’s Day concert, she was visibly emotional. “The music of this ensemble shaped my musical life,” she said. “Thank you for being here to witness musical history.”
Arguably the world’s most famous and influential jazz vocal group, New York Voices visited the Frost School of Music last week. They rehearsed and performed with Frost School students; and taught classes for them and visiting high school and community college singers in a daylong Jazz Vocal Invitational on Saturday.
But New York Voices’ visit, part of the 37-year-old ensemble’s extended farewell tour, was much more than a stellar appearance by a famous group as they prepare to disband. It was a living, singing memorial to the evolution of jazz vocal music that New York Voices has done so much to shape, and to the generations of singers for whom the group has been central to their art form.
“The outpouring of ‘because of you, I’m doing what I’m doing’ has been incredible,” said Peter Eldridge, New York Voices’ baritone. “All the people leading jazz vocal programs have said we were a big part of their journey. You hope you have an impact on people. That’s a real testament that we have inspired people to teach or sing vocal jazz.”
Reid is one of those people. In 1989, she was studying at Western Michigan University under Steve Zegree, a founding father of college jazz vocal programs, who brought in the recently formed New York Voices to perform and teach. Over the years, Reid studied and sang their growing repertoire. She taught their music to her students after taking over leadership of the Frost School’s jazz vocal program from its founder, Larry Lapin, another progenitor of college jazz vocal studies.
Reid’s journey has been echoed in the multiplying jazz vocal programs at colleges and high schools – all drawing from the New York Voices songbook.
“Their sound is an iconic part of the fabric of modern-day vocal jazz,” Reid said backstage at Gusman Saturday. She called Friday’s concert, with Lapin in the audience, and New York Voices and her students onstage singing the music that had been foundational to all of them, “a surreal moment. The trajectory of this music all converged last night.”
The sold-out concert featured New York Voices joining the Frost Jazz Vocal II, Frost Jazz Vocal I, and Frost Extensions ensembles in a seamless and emotionally heightened blend of harmonies and generations. The show included New York Voices’ vocal arrangements of jazz instrumental classics like Duke Ellington’s “Caravan” and Oliver Nelson’s “Stolen Moments.”
“They could all be our children,” New York Voices soprano Lauren Kinhan said of the Frost School students. “You have this soul and capacity to deliver this music in such a mature way,” said fellow soprano Kim Nazarian. “Vocal jazz is in good hands, people!”
Leah Rutherford, a first-year student in JV I, was over the moon at learning from and singing a solo with a group she’d idolized since high school. “Meeting people you look up to is amazing,” she said. “When they tell you that you sound great, that’s incredible.”
The connection was equally exciting for Maria Quintanilla, a third-year doctoral student who is Reid’s teaching assistant and the leader of JV II. “When I started, they were my inspiration,” Quintanilla said. “They have always been a part of my musical journey as a student, vocalist, and educator.” In her first semester teaching JV II, Quintanilla taught them New York Voices’ “Open Invitation” – which the student ensemble performed Friday. “That was a full circle moment,” Quintanilla said. “To hear New York Voices at this stage in their career was incredibly inspiring and fulfilling. How precious for younger students to see that and run with it. It makes me excited for the future.”
New York Voices changed jazz vocal singing in many ways. They channeled the complexity of instrumental jazz, bringing a new level of sophistication and musical verve to jazz singing. They expanded the repertoire; adding Brazilian and Cuban music; arranging pop songs by the likes of Stevie Wonder and the Beatles. The finale of Friday’s concert was an exuberant performance of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” with all the Frost School students.
New York Voices has always been devoted to jazz education. All four members have teaching careers and have run a summer workshop since 2008. As they wind down their ensemble, they have become more aware of their legacy.
“This genre tends to connect back to a lot of university and high school programs,” said Darmon Meader, the group’s tenor, on Saturday. “So many of these programs are dying to have people work with their students.”
They praised Reid and the Frost School’s jazz vocal program. “If kids ask where they should go, we have a short list of five schools, and Frost has always been one of them,” Meader said.
“You want to send good people to good people,” Nazarian said. “Kate knows what she’s doing and cares about kids and music.”
Their packed Frost School schedule showed that they cared as well. The group worked almost continuously from Wednesday evening, when Meader (fighting the flu) and Kinhan came for an informal talk with Frost School students. Saturday’s Jazz Vocal Invitational had them teaching intensive classes and coaching jazz vocal students from Miami Arts Studio (MAS) and Miami Arts Charter (MAC) high schools and Miami Dade College (MDC), with a masterclass at Gusman for both visiting and Frost School students.
During the masterclass, the quartet listened with admiration as the MAS students sang an acapella number, with one student beatboxing the rhythm and another busting out in a gospel-ish solo that had Eldridge literally jumping for joy. The quartet answered questions and talked about their journey, how they cultivated their creativity, and balanced expression and technique. They also asked the students about their favorite artists, smiling as they said “you” but called out names like Lauryn Hill, Samara Joy, Moonchild, and Tiny Habits.
Afterward, first-year Frost School student Jules Piché, who’d sung a solo with New York Voices the night before, seemed exhilarated. “POW!” Piché said, making a my-head-exploding gesture with both hands.
“I feel so grateful to be able to do this because they’re retiring,” Piché said. “I want to be an artist, but at some point, I also want to teach and be a part of that next generation. This feels like the start of a full-circle moment. It makes me so much more excited for what comes next.”
