The Mel-O-Chords span four decades of melody and song
For the Mel-O-Chords, Montclair’s dynamic vocal ensemble — this is a momentous season. This year, the chorus is celebrating its 40th anniversary.
For the past 40 years, the Mel-O-Chords has been entertaining New Jersey music lovers with it unique repertoire of Broadway show tunes, operetta classics, and pop favorites. But for their first concert of the 2008-2009 season, the chorus has opted for a nostalgic change of pace — as they perform the music of Motown on Saturday, at the Westminster Arts Center in Bloomfield.
The concert will include a roster of popular hits made famous by Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, Martha and the Vandellas, The Jackson Five, The Supremes and The Temptations.
"It seems appropriate to choose music from a genre that dates back to our beginnings in the 1960s," said Tony Asaro, who took over as musical director of the Mel-O-Chords last August, "In the ’60s, a record label out of Detroit known as Motown, captured the ears, hearts, and imaginations of the entire country. It was the first African-American-owned record label to feature African-American artists who achieved great crossover success on the pop charts. For over two decades, Motown redefined popular music in America and beyond."
The "Motown Sound" — characterized by prominent and melodic electric bass lines, tambourine-accented backbeats, and particular chord structures — would forever leave its legacy on rock ’n’ roll, according to Asaro. In addition, the music of Motown revolutionized American culture and American politics. For the first time in history, white audiences listened to, danced to, and purchased black music. This cultural phenomenon fueled the Civil Rights Movement, and led to great change in our country’s attitudes and laws.
"We are at a time that is not unlike the time of Motown," Asaro told The Times. "Our country is at war. The economy has left many communities struggling. New technologies are shifting the way we conduct our lives, and changing social mores. This music, a music that so clearly spoke to that similar generation of Americans, still speaks to us today.
"It sends a simple message of human unity," Asaro added. "We each pray in our own way for this planet, and for the people who inhabit it. With this concert, we pay homage to the music of Motown, the artists who created it, and to the country that embraced it."
The Mel-O-Chords’ previous conductor, Vince Peterson, and Tony Asaro grew up in the same hometown in California — San Bruno — just outside of San Francisco. Although they ran in the same music circles for years, and knew many of the same people, Peterson and Asaro did not meet until 2004, when they were both applying to graduate schools in New York City. Asaro was applying to the NYU Musical Theatre Writing Program, and Peterson to the Mannes School of Music. When both got into their respective graduate programs, they decided to move to New York and become roommates. Peterson has since moved to Astoria.
Early in 2007, Peterson wanted to do an all-Beatles concert with the Mel-O-Chords in the autumn, and was looking to commission composers to write arrangements of Beatles pieces. Asaro mentioned that he would be excited to write "Eleanor Rigby" for the group.
"That fall, the Mel-O-Chords rehearsed and performed my ‘Eleanor Rigby’ arrangement, not an easy feat, with a string quartet. I went to a few rehearsals to talk to the chorus about the piece," Asaro said. "Right away, I could see that this was an extraordinary group.
"When Vince [Peterson] informed me privately in 2008 that he would be leaving the Mel-O-Chords, I mentioned that I’d be interested in applying for the directorship," Asaro went on to explain. "I submitted my résumé just after he made his formal announcement, and was named musical director last August."
The Mel-O-Chords were founded by Jean Macnamara in the summer of 1968 with the encouragement of Montclair Operetta Club President A. Duncan Kidd and the Donna Schultz, West Essex Regional School music supervisor, who became the ensemble’s first musical director.
"The name Mel-O-Chords was chosen using the first letters from the Montclair Operetta Club — M.O.C. It was the hope that the singing talent displayed in the main stage productions would be gathered together into a musical program capable of traveling to organizations in Montclair and surrounding communities and acquaint them with the same quality of music presented in MOC’s fall and spring productions," said Macnamara.
"The original ‘Chords’ were chorus singers from MOC’s main stage productions," she said. "They had to be able to sing four-part harmony, as well as give solo performances. In 1968 there were eight members in the group. By 1969, the group had expanded to 11 members.
"Jean Kidd, the MOC president’s wife, was the publicity manager and Bruce Byrne was the staging director. The group also devised their own background scenery which traveled with them to each performance."
Jay Pumphrey, who sings bass, has been performing with the Mel-O-Chords since 1972. And at age 83, Norton Babson is the oldest member. Both were active in the Montclair Operetta Club as well.
Pumphrey started with MOC in 1972 in the chorus of "Fiddler on the Roof" and was invited after the show to audition for the Mel-O-Chords. Directed by Donna Jean Schultz, there were eight "Chords"; two on each vocal part. Over the years, the group has had seven directors, including the current director, Tony Asaro. During that time, Pumphrey appeared in approximately 30 shows with MOC. Although the chorus, at one point, grew to 44 singers, it has hovered around 20 to 25 ever since, Pumphrey pointed out.
The Mel-O-Chords have performed all over the New York/New Jersey area, appearing at Liberty State Park, in an outdoor concert with thousands of attendees, and in municipal summer concerts in Montclair, Clifton, Livingston and Floral Park. For many years, the chorus was a fixture at First Night Montclair and prior to Comcast, Suburban Cablevision annually taped their February concert and aired it all year.
The chorus used to bill their traveling repertoire as "Broadway in Your Backyard." Since then, their repertoire has grown to include selections from other genres, including jazz, gospel, big band and music from the "Great American Songbook."
One of Pumphrey’s personal special moments came at Liberty State Park with an audience of 2,500 people. "I performed ‘Trouble’ from ‘The Music Man,’ starting the number from a seat in the middle of the crowd and slowly moving up and onto the stage in time for the big chorus entrance — then finishing the number with them onstage." he recalled. "I will always remember the sight of that standing ovation and the roar of the crowd.
"Our two most recent directors — Vince Peterson and Tony Asaro — are both exciting, passionate professionals out of New York, who have been instrumental in taking the quality of our performances to the highest level I have ever experienced with the Mel-O-Chords," Pumphrey said. "For me, this is the most disciplined, best-blending, and highest-quality vocal group that I have ever sung with — a tribute to our 40 years of giving our best at every performance."
Joan Finn - The Montclair Times
(Nov 12, 2008)