Press Release from City Arts, April 13 - May 3, 2004
Song and story
Janet Hammer shows why she's popular in San Diego
By John Gennaro
The Janet Hammer Quintet performed as part of a free concert held in Seville Theatre on March 9. The campus radio station, KSDS 88.3 FM, and Jazz Live presented the concert. Half-filled and hot, the theatre gave the band surrounding Hammer incredible acoustics to make for a very enjoyable night of jazz.
Free jazz concerts are conducted by Jazz Live, or RTVC 132, a class in which students learn on the job how to produce an actual concert from their teacher, Dave Drexler. Every four weeks, each student in the class is given a certain duty to uphold on that particular night. Tasks such as handling lighting, microphones, security, and even the actual broadcast of the show on 88.3 FM must be mastered and put into action for the concert to work perfectly.
Dean Metzner, who was handling hospitality on the night of the concert, said, "We don't have an actual classroom. We learn on the job, and it's challenging. There are going to be some screw-ups, but that's the best way to learn how to do something the right way."
The band started off the set by playing their first song without Hammer's singing, showcasing their skills on their particular instruments. Every member of the band, which included Richard James on Piano, Joscha Oetz playing a stand-up bass, Toby Ahrens keeping the tempo on the drums, and Gerald Nolan mastering both the saxophone and the flute, put on a jazz exhibition as each performer got his own solo.
After the first song, Hammer came out to a very enthusiastic crowd and took her place in the front of the stage. From that point on, the audience was in the palm of Janet Hammer's hand as she mesmerized them with her beautiful voice. Singing some of her own songs and a few covers of jazz classics, including a beautiful rendition of Thelonious Monk's "Round Midnight," Hammer proved exactly why she is currently one of the most popular singers in San Diego.
In between songs, she took the time to tell the audience little tales about each song and to express thanks towards the audience and her band for the night. One particularly beautiful song was simply done by Oetz on bass to accompany Hammer's songbird voice. After 12 long, solo-filled songs by the band, Hammer thanked her band and the audience one last time before leaving the stage and a cheering audience.
Hammer is very active in the county, singing with many bands in many styles including jazz, rock, contemporary and even renaissance. She is the music director for a few different ensembles, including the Church of Today Music Ministry, and also gives private voice lessons from her studio at the Scripps Performing Arts Centre. She currently has five albums out that can be purchased through her Web site, www.janethammer.com.