Final performance set in LSU jazz series

• By ROBIN MILLER
• Arts writer
• Published: Jun 28, 2009

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It’s nice to stage a theme show every once in awhile.

Now, it doesn’t happen all the time. There have been some seasons in the Hot Summer Nights, Cool Jazz series where there were no themes at all.

No, just cool jazz as only the LSU Jazz Faculty Trio can play it. And it is very cool.

“But we decided to do at least one concert with a theme this year,” Willis Delony said. “We did a Frank Sinatra show last year, and it was popular. This year, though, we wanted to do a show concert that focused on the works of one composer.”

So Johnny Mercer came to mind. Delony’s career is filed with Mercer songs.

Oh, Delony plays piano in the Jazz Faculty Trio, by the way. He’s joined by Bill Grimes on bass and Brian Shaw on trumpet. And keeping the beat is Baton Rouge drummer Troy Davis.

Anyone who’s ever had a chance to sit in on the group’s rehearsal before the concert can testify that the experience is as rich as the performance, itself. Maybe even richer.

For it’s during this time when everything comes together. The group shows up about an hour before the concert with no plan set in stone.

The guest musician shows up, and ideas are thrown out. How about starting it out this way? Or let’s play this one instead.

No, wait, has anyone ever heard this one? OK, you start it, and we’ll join in.

And just when everything comes together, it’s not really a guarantee. The group may change its mind and play it differently at the concert.

It’s jazz, after all.

“But, you know, we may do a little more rehearsing for this concert,” Delony said. “It’s different from the others.”