Moonlight and Magic
Annapolis Big Band’s annual Paradise concert a trip back to a different time
Richard Bennett and Dave Hankinson sit on the back patio at Ellenhurst, Hankinson’s estate on the edge of the Annapolis River. They’re talking about swing music and the upcoming Moonlight Concert in Paradise Aug. 13 – and the bits and pieces that go together to make the night magic.
They’re members of the 18piece Annapolis Big Band that hosts the annual concert as a fundraiser for the local community hall. Just maybe they believe in magic. It’s not that far fetched, as you watch the moon rise over the carriage house while the band plays Moonlight Serenade.
Bennett, who directs the band, remembers one year it was cloudy and looking like rain. From Florida to Newfoundland was a blanket of cloud, he says.
“The only place the moon was shining was Paradise,” said Hankinson. “The rest of Nova Scotia was just black.”
“God likes jazz,” adds Bennett. People come in t-shirts or tuxedos. They bring food and tables. They bring kids and grandparents. And for many, it’s the highlight of the summer. Expect about 1,000 people who like jazz. hours earlier so I didn’t have a lot of time under my belt with the band,” said Bennett. “I came that night to do the show and I was just setting up over here on the verandah and I looked out – I looked out at this sea of all these wooden folding chairs and people coming in tuxedoes and stuff. I remember looking out and thinking ‘I’m in The Great Gatsby.’ I was immediately transported back in time. It was like, ‘Wow! This is amazing’.”
He talks about the magic of a summer evening, with the moon and live music – back in the swing era with the war, soldiers, dance halls, and Glenn Miller on the radio. In the Mood wasn’t just a song, it was how you felt on the dance floor. It’s all you can squeeze in the night before you ship out.
“It’s like a time portal,” said Bennett. “You travel back through time.”
All they had was radio and records. No iPods, no YouTube. No smart phones.
“So the real thing was to get to that live music. And it was everywhere. Absolutely everywhere,” said Bennett. “People don’t realize, Duke Ellington and Count Basie played Greenwood during the war. This is just a return to a time when music was huge to people. It was a release. It was a total release from all the stuff that was going on in their lives.”
Over the years, the magic of the moon has not been lost on concert organizers. This will be the 18th Moonlight Concert in Paradise and it has evolved in a way that could make this year’s edition one of the most memorable – especially the second set. It’s about the moon and it’s about the mood.
“That whole second set we’ve sort of dedicated over the years – it’s basically all moon tunes,” said Bennett. “That’s the idea behind it. And if it’s not the moon, then it’s the sky, or something to do with looking up – Over the Rainbow, Moonlight in Vermont – all those sorts of things.”
And it gets better. Musician and retired radio personality Barry Hawkins has turned that whole set into a simulated radio show.
One of the big challenges, they say, is to vary the pro- gram each year.
“We’ve upgraded the band considerably over the last few years,” said Hankinson. “We have three singers now instead of just the one singer – we have one male, two females. All with very different styles.”
Vocalists are Donna Lynn Holmes who has been singing with the band for a while; they added Andy Duinker last year and this year they brought in Margo Corkum from the Kentville area.
“They bring very different approaches to the singing,” Bennett said.