The Peanut Gallery Jazz Trio will present, “It’s a Jazzy Christmas,” at View on Saturday, November 24 at 2 p.m. during An Adirondack Christmas on Main Street weekend. The family-friendly performance will take the audience on a musical journey reminiscent of a 1940s radio drama, when a news flash suddenly announces that the Christmas spirit has been lost.
The Jazz Trio, with help from the audience, steps up to save the day.
“The show is all about saving the holiday spirit and it keeps the kids engaged and interested in jazz,” said Salvatore Prizio, a cowriter of the show.
Prizio, a guitarist and Director of Programming at Massry Center for the Arts at the College of St. Rose in Albany, said the concept for the performance came about when he was trying to figure out a way to introduce jazz to a younger audience at the center.
He thought a holiday show would be an interesting way to present it and sat down with David Gleason, a member of the Peanut Gallery Jazz Trio, to toss around some ideas.
Gleason, a pianist, composer and educator, did the composing and musical arrangements for the show while Prizio took care of the production and arrangement of the story.
Rounding out the jazz group are bass player Mike Lawrence, who teaches strings in the Schenectady City School District, and drummer Pat Sweeney, also an educator, who has performed, recorded and toured with such outstanding artists as Pat Metheny, Frank Gambale, and Ronnie Earl.
Classic holiday hits arranged in a jazzy style for the show include Sleigh Ride, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, and the ensemble’s own version of Mr. Grinch, from The Grinch WhoStole Christmas.
The show will also feature songs from the Peanuts holiday special, A Charlie Brown Christmas, including Jingle Bells, Oh Tannenbaum, and Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.
Prizio, who worked 10 years in the record business in New York City before moving to the Capital District, said last year’s show at Massry Center sold out so quickly that a second show had to be added.
Tickets for the show are $15 or $10 for members and students. Children ages six and under are admitted free.
For more information or to purchase tickets call View at (315) 369-6411
