Marion Evans is a music legend and a teacher of music legends. He is a Grammy-winning arranger and bandleader whose orchestrations have spanned the decades from Tommy Dorsey to Tony Bennett, with performances ranging from big-band to Broadway and from television to the night-club scene. The great Quincy Jones is among his proteges.
On Tuesday, March 2, Evans’ artistry will share the stage with Lamar University student and alumni talent for an exciting evening of Lamarissimo! jazz. To celebrate the series’ 20th Anniversary Season, Lamar’s award-winning Jazz Band “A” will join the In Flight alumni ensemble to perform special arrangements by Evans and some of his former students.
The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Julie Rogers Theatre, 765 Pearl St. in downtown Beaumont, sponsored by BGI Contractors Inc. Performers will treat their audience to such favorites as “That Old Feeling,” “Lover,” “Besame Mucho,” “Midnight Sun,” “You’re My Thrill,” “Thou Swell,” “Never Say Never Again,” “Night and Day” and “In the Still of the Night.”
Evans will attend the concert and conduct clinics for Lamar music students during his stay. .
“Marion Evans may well be the most influential musician you’ve never met,” said Wayne Dyess, now in his 33rd year as Lamar’s director of jazz studies. “You’ve heard his songs a thousand times. He’s a two-time Grammy winner with 65 Gold Records on his walls, though you won’t see his name in bold print on most album covers.
“From the closing theme song on ‘The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson’ to the Eydie Gorme classic ‘Blame it on the Bossa Nova,’ he has earned his way into the musical lexicon and the Library of Congress, not as a singer or a songwriter, but as one of the foremost musical arrangers and orchestrators of the 20th century.”
Evans earned his Grammys for Gorme’s “Blame it on the Bossa Nova” and Steve Lawrence’s “Go Away Little Girl.” Now 83, he has taught and mentored such music legends as Jones; Patrick Williams, who wrote for TV’s Mary Tyler Moore and Bob Newhart shows; and Torrie Zito, who arranged John Lennon’s “Imagine” LP, as well as for Bennett, Frank Sinatra and Barbra Streisand.
As a special Lamarissimo! attraction, the Magnolia Garden Club will host a pre-concert reception to showcase its 2010 Garden Club of America Flower Show from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the theatre lobby. This event, featuring hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar, will be open to holders of season or individual tickets to Lamarissimo!
The concert will feature Sarah Scoggins and Bill Keating on vocals, in addition to several student soloists. Scoggins, a graduate of Silsbee High School and Lamar, is choir director at Cedar Bayou Junior High in the Goose Creek school district in Baytown. She has been a frequent Lamarissimo! headliner. Keating, a Beaumont resident for more than 20 years, is originally from Winnie, where he is involved in a family business. He is a guitarist and vocalist for the contemporary Christian band Altar Ego at Wesley United Methodist Church. Both Scoggins and Keatings are vocalists with Dyess’s popular Night & Day Orchestra, another alumni-filled big band.
Student musicians in Lamar’s Jazz Band “A” hail from across Southeast Texas and beyond:
Saxophones – Nicholas Cantu, Orange; Michelle Melancon, Nederland; Larry Oliver, Port Arthur; Kara Phillips, Vidor; Terrence Quesenberry, Nederland; Kevin Rash, Saginaw.
Trumpets – Aaron Barnes, Silsbee; Matt Byars, Lumberton; Kirby Tanner, Nederland; Robert White IV, Beaumont; Cameron Wolfe, Houston.
Trombones – Marissa Bell, Vidor; Eric Rose, Nederland; Austin Wolfe, Houston; Carl Woodall, Vidor.
Tuba – Gannon Miller, Nederland.
Rhythm – Khanh Thai, Port Arthur, guitar, Jarvis Bennett, Lufkin, piano; Canice Njoku, Houston, and Cody Schatte, Orange, drums.
Dyess also directs the In Flight jazz ensemble, which he describes as a mix of community players, most of whom are Lamar alumni and current Lamar students – a who’s who of musicians whose “day jobs” represent a cross-section of professions throughout Southeast Texas, from educators to physicians. Members, who meet each Thursday evening for six weeks before the concert, include:
Saxophones – Larry Oliver, Port Arthur; Mike Smith, Lumberton; Steve Travis, Port Neches; Fred Turner, Beaumont; Doug Wright, Houston.
Trombones – Dr. Bert Brown, Beaumont; Kevin Heckaman, Anahuac; Lanny Marshall, Kirbyville; Carl Woodall, Vidor.
Trumpets – Kerry Coleman, Dr. George Hoffman, Ray Gonzalez, Beaumont; Sarah Jordan, Harrisonburg, La.
Rhythm – Dr. Graham Avery, Jim Ellis and James Pickens, Beaumont; Ben Quinn and Neil Quinn, Sabine Pass; Victor Johnson, Gainesville.
One father-son team will grace the stage: Neil Quinn and his son Ben Quinn. The In Flight student musicians include undergraduates Oliver, Woodall, Jordan and Johnson and graduate student Coleman, who serves as Dyess’s assistant.
Marion Evans’ Broadway billing includes such shows as “The Boy Friend” with Julie Andrews, “Happy Hunting” with Ethel Merman, “House of Flowers” with Pearl Bailey and Diahann Carroll” and “Mr. Wonderful” with Sammy Davis Jr. On television, he arranged scores for Steve Allen, Perry Como, Johnny Carson, Sid Caesar and Imogene Coco, Jackie Gleason, Arthur Godfrey and Ed Sullivan, as well as “The Hit Parade.”
His recording credits read like a musical history, with stars like Bennett, Garland, Gorme, Lawrence, Jane Froman, Merv Griffin, Howard Keel, Burt Bachrach, Gordon McRae, Helen O’Connell and Julius LaRosa. His arrangements for vocalist Jaye P. Morgan are featured on more than a dozen albums.
After a stellar “first” career, Evans dropped out of the music scene for 25 years. In the late 1950s and ’60s, he was considered by his peers to be the Toscanini of popular musical arranging: 11 Broadway shows, 17 television shows and hundreds of recordings for the biggest stars of the time. Then, without warning, he left the music business to pursue a career in the business world, according to the website of Don Sheldon, a vocalist who shared Evans’ return to music.
In his other career, Evans was a pioneer in the development of “back-office” software for financial institutions. In 1995, he met Sheldon, whose life-long dream was to become a Sinatra-style singer. After tutoring him for several years Evans began writing arrangements for Sheldon. Seventeen top New York musicians turned out on Aug. 5, 1999, to record their album.
“The time was ripe,” Evans said. “It was like riding a bike. Man, it felt good.”
Evans attended the Julliard School of Music and Birmingham Conservatory of Music, as well as Auburn University, where he studied engineering.
The concert is open to Lamarissimo! season-ticket holders. Individual tickets, $15 for adults and $10 for students, will be available in the theatre box office before the performance. Admission is free to students of Lamar University in Beaumont, with valid LU identification. The season will conclude with the Cardinal Singers and Lamar Dance Company April 29. The Lamarissimo! Concert Series is presented by the Department of Music. Call (409) 880-8144 for additional information.
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Magnolia Garden Club contacts:
Bel Lamb, Flower Show Chair, (409) 892-6356
Paige Windham, Publicity Chair, 892-5370 or 781-6572
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