Performance: Morris County, NJ
23-Feb-07
TENORS TIMES THREE IN CONCERT TONIGHT;
AFRICAN AMERICAN SINGERS CAN DO IT ALL
By Jessica Parrotta
Few performers can promise a concert with music spanning 400 years. Performing eight styles of music is a juxtaposition the Three Mo’ Tenors are known for. The group will appear tonight at the Community Theatre in Morristown.
These classically trained tenors don’t just sing opera. Besides classical music, they perform jazz, gospel, soul, spirituals, rhythm & blues, the blues and Broadway songs as well.
“This show is versatile; it gives you the opportunity to explore all the facets of our music, which is what makes it a lot of fun,” said Ramone Diggs, one of the tenors on tonight’s bill.
The idea for a trio was conceived by Marion J. Caffey, a veteran Broadway performer, choreographer and director. He was inspired by a PBS special featuring the original Three Tenors, Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti.
Caffey thought there were a number of African-American tenors who could sing opera and various other styles as well who were not being seen by the public, said the group’s producer, Willette Murphy Klausner.
Using two tenors he already knew, Thomas Young and Victor Cook, Caffey began to hold auditions for additional members to begin a movement of bringing black tenors to the spotlight.
Today, Caffey has added another cast of singers and additional choreography in performances. The group that will perform at the Community Theatre is composed of Diggs, Phumzile Sojola and Kenneth D. Alston Jr. Because of the show’s great vocal demands, up to eight performances a week, the trios alternate members for performances.
Caffey, Klausner and art director Mark Banning have introduced 10 African-American tenors to audiences so far. In 2001, the tenors were televised on PBS’ “Great Performances,” which RCA released on video.
“Regardless of the theater or the audience, we get a quite a wonderful response,” Klausner said. “The response is usually unanimous at the end of the show.”
Eight of the tenors performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland last August. During their three weeks there, they performed 18 shows.
“I had an absolute blast,” Diggs said of his time there. “These are things you remember forever,” he said of his opportunities to travel.
“We learn so much from one another and each one has their own uniqueness. … You can only stand there in awe of what you’re watching,” Diggs said of the tenors.
The first act of the show is mostly opera, starting with the kind of more vocally intensive pieces that the original tenors performed.
“They are the standard,” Klausner said. This opening is done “to establish our credentials in the world of opera.”
Tonight’s show will open with Verdi’s “La donna e mobile” from the opera “Rigoletto.” It will be followed by an aria, or solo, by each of the tenors.
Next up are Broadway songs, including “Make Them Hear You” from “Ragtime” and “This Is the Moment” from “Jekyll and Hyde.”
The pace picks up during the second half, with more dance movements and some new school, contemporary hits.
For rhythm and blues, they perform “Let the Good Times Roll.” The piece was adapted from the musical “Five Guys Named Moe.”
For jazz, it’s Cab Calloway’s “Minnie the Moocher.” The blues segment includes a tribute to Ray Charles, “To Ray, With Love,” which includes “Hit the Road, Jack” and “Georgia on My Mind.”
A gospel segment includes “Let the Praise Begin.” Hip hop and R&B are represented in the “New School Medley,” featuring “If I Ain’t Got You” by Alicia Keys, Usher’s “Burn” and R. Kelly’s “Step in the Name of Love.”
The spiritual category includes “Hush, Somebody’s Calling My Name.” For soul they offer “I Believe in You and Me.”
The mission of the tenors, Klausner said, is “to showcase the talents of the black tenor … so that in five to 10 years one of our tenors will be at the top of opera. We’re hoping to make that difference,” she said. “They have the voices.”
All of the tenors are classically trained, a requirement in auditions. Klausner, who is one of the judges, said prospective members usually sing three or four types of music and are even asked to dance.
Diggs, 33, became one of the tenors three years ago in Philadelphia, during his last semester of graduate studies at the Curtis Institute of Music, where he majored in opera performance.
Originally from Amarillo, Texas, he previously was recruited while still in his undergraduate years at the institute.
“I actually wasn’t going to sing,” Diggs said of that first audition. He was feeling sick and exhausted at the time, being near the end of an opera. He wanted to cancel but showed up and sang anyway, and soon was called back with news that they were interested.
Diggs, busy at school, took a cue from his health and stayed to finish school, joining the group four years later.
The tenors performed recently at the 17th annual NAACP Theater Awards in Los Angeles. That performance included “La donna e mobile,””Let the Good Times Roll” and their “Soul Medley.”
Diggs has worked with all of the tenors.
“We were thrown into a process none of us were familiar with. … You find yourself learning together, and that kind of creates a bond,” he said. “Going back on the road is like joining family again.”
When asked if he has a favorite piece of music, he retreated with a pause and began to name one and another.
“I think I love them all,” he said. “When I sing one, I miss the other.” But he said, “I love opera; that’s what I set out to do.”
This will be the tenors’ first performance in Morristown. For more information, visit www.threemotenors.com.
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Jessica Parrotta can be reached at (973) 428-6574 or [email protected].