The Highway One Jazz Choir Sunday, May 13, 2006 at 3:00 p.m. at the Gualala Arts Center

The Highway One Jazz Choir celebrates 24 years of singing together with a concert on Saturday, May 12 at 3:00 p.m. at The Woods at 43300 Little River Airport Road in Little River and again on Sunday, May 13 at 3:00 p.m. at the Gualala Arts Center at 46501 Old State Highway in Gualala. This will be the last year for the director, Carolyn Steinbuck, who teaches at both Santa Rosa Junior College and College of the Redwoods. The choir will be accompanied by Steinbuck's mother Marion James, piano, Daney Dawson, bass, and Dan Albrecht, drums.

Steinbuck recalls,

"...the 'birth' of the jazz choir in Peter Reimuller's living room, a year after I had started directing the South Coast Community Choir. A few of us stood around and talked about the possibility of starting a jazz choir and read through a couple of arrangements. The first year, we rehearsed on Thursday nights after the rehearsal of the 'classical' choir, and some people stayed for both rehearsals.

The first few years, we had a large group and we memorized all of the music. The performances were electric and we got quite a following. We sang at the Boonville Fair one year, along with a tape that our accompanist Tyler Lincoln made, since there was no piano there. We did the same one year at the Mendocino Art Center, outside.

We tried different venues over the years, the Arena Theater, Crown Hall in Mendocino, at Elk, but our best audience has always been in Gualala. The past 12 years or so, we have performed at an adult community, the Woods in Little River, where our present accompanist, Marion James, lives."

Joann Harris, who has sung from the beginning, remembers,

"...to have been a part of the incredible leadership of Carolyn, being a part of her relationship with each of us and her relationship with her mother, experiencing the relationships of husbands and wives, many couples as choir members, of fathers and daughters and mothers and sons and daughters, experiencing relationships of rhythm and percussions of live music, so many of us with small voices together blending into large voices, the harmony, the live human voice music of the coast choir has given me great joy."

Admission is free as a gift to the community, though donations are requested to help cover expenses, including rent. The choir hopes to continue for the next year with a new director and meeting place, as they all want to keep on singing! Refreshments will be served.

The Gualala Arts Center, located at 46501 Old State Highway in Gualala, CA,
is open weekdays 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and weekends from noon to 4:00 p.m.
Please call (707) 884-1138 for more information, or email info@gualalaarts.org.

Serving the coastal communities of northern Sonoma & southern Mendocino Counties.