The Daily News (Halifax) HFX Arts, Thursday, August 4, 2005, p. 19
Television documentary showcases young talent Comes through, loud and clear
Smulders, Marilyn
The TV special Jeri Brown - The Spirit Comes Through marks the end of a journey. The auditions and the rehearsals for a group of 15 young singers from the communities of North Preston and Cherrybrook led to the bright lights, the TV cameras, the moment in the spotlight at a filmed-for-broadcast performance at beautiful St. Matthew's United Church in Halifax.
An end and a beginning, too.
The Spirit Comes Through Singers of Nova Scotia now launches as a choir with hopes of performing on a stage near you soon.
"We gotta keep it going! That's what we need - to have someone put their faith in us, to give us the confidence to go out and perform. We've been asking for this all our lives," says Marko Simmonds, 23, the enthusiastic music director of the new 15-voice choir. A native of North Preston, he just graduated from the Berklee School of Music in Boston.
"What we have here is a little gold mine and it took Jeri here to give us the exposure."
Sitting beside Simmonds at New Scotland Pictures' Halifax office, a radiant smile spreads across Brown's face. The renowned jazz vocalist and six-time Juno nominee says seeing the documentary come together was a dream come true. A charismatic performer with a mighty voice - she was a headliner at the recent Atlantic Jazz Festival - Brown nevertheless let others take a turn in the spotlight for the TV special. You'll be blown away by the depth of their talent; chosen soloists include Gilbert Downey, Jenika Simmonds, Jonathan Munro, Tiyaila Cain-Grant and Kienya Smith.
"That's the whole idea. I wanted to show how the process can be done. So we went into these communities and looked for the talent," says Brown, who divides her time between Halifax and Montreal, where she's a music professor at Concordia University. "And now the training doesn't stop. We go on from here."
Co-directed by Charlie Cahill and Kely Lyons of Halifax's New Scotland Pictures, the hour-long documentary traces Brown's talent search, the 10-week rigorous mentoring and rehearsal process, and leads to the TV cameras at St. Matthew's. It's amazing to see the young singers change from their jeans and hoodies into sparkling gowns and spiffy tuxes; to transform from gum-snapping cell-phone chatterers to polished, professional singers.
Eighteen-year-old Gilbert Downey, one of the featured soloists from Cherrybrook, says the day of performance was "intense."
"It was real hot standing under the lights, with your feet hurting," he says, as his friends laugh. "If you were itchy, you couldn't scratch. If you had to sneeze, you couldn't sneeze ..."
"(Jeri) expected so much from me, more than I was used to doing," says Kienya Smith, 27, who sings with St. Thomas United Baptist Choir in North Preston. "There were obstacles, like could I express myself more? Could I get my nerves under control?"
Adds 14-year-old Jonathan Munro of Truro: "What can I say about Jeri? She is a stellar person. She is so kind with her words that you feel you can do anything. She brings out so much in me - in all of us."
WHAT: Jeri Brown - The Spirit Comes Through
WHERE: Bravo!
WHEN: Saturday, 10 p.m.
