Newbury’s got 50 Soul Reasons to be cheerful

Soul Reason Choir and Group Sax present Songs of Love, Hope & Humanity at Arlington Arts on Saturday, July 20

Review by Brian Harrington

Soul Reason are a choir of around 50 people with their own live band accompaniment under the musical direction of conductor Maia Hendrickx-Nutley. Tonight they presented a wonderfully varied programme of music, much to the delight of a packed Arlington audience.

Group Sax, a four-piece sax combo were, at times tonight, augmented by a guest trombonist and also played with Soul Reason on some songs. Their setlist was also hugely varied and, like Soul Reason featured some imaginative, interesting and surprising choices of songs across a wide spectrum of musical genres.

With up to 60 people on stage at times just the logistics of moving people on and off are a daunting challenge but it was all handled with calm efficiency, with the result that the musical content was never overshadowed.

Soul Reason opened proceedings with a Latin tinged arrangement of the Stevie Wonder song Another Star from his 1976 album Songs in The Key of Life, a perfect choice, given the theme of the evening. They followed up with their version of Fantasy the Earth Wind and Fire song before including music from Al Jarreau, Lennon & McCartney, Carly Simon and James Taylor just in their first set.

Group Sax took to the stage with their arrangement of Louis Armstrong's "What A Wonderful World" before including versions of Sweet Child O' Mine (the Guns 'n' Roses track) and a lovely arrangement of the Beatles song Blackbird as well as the Lucky Chops track Coco. Did I mention how varied the programme was?

For me the highlight of the first half was the final piece, taken from Babel by Peter Churchill which tells the story of the Tower Of Babel, as it occurs in Aztec mythology. Quite magical.

The second half was as varied as the first, and featured more clever arrangements of often surprising songs, opening with Group Sax's arrangement of Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen), but including Soul Reason's lovely cover of Because by the Beatles.

The selective use of some excellent soloists on some songs added extra interest for the audience before an ensemble finale which included Fly Like an Eagle (Steve Miller Band) and, as a great and well deserved encore, the Aerosmith song Dream On.

Absolutely wonderful.