Jazz Mass tonight

Published: November 20, 2009

WATERBURY – Imagine an unlikely marriage of a dignified and seemingly somber Latin Mass with somebody like tenor jazz saxophonist Coleman Hawkins playing free-wheeling riffs at the breaks. It sounds impossible but perhaps plausible only in the minds of fans who have attended the last several concerts of the Mad River Chorale. Fifty singers have been rehearsing a challenging but rewarding vocal composition, “Missa in Jazz,” every Monday night since August in a basement room of the Sugarbush Conference Center off German Flats Road. The concert will be presented tonight at 7:30 p.m. in St. Andrew’s Church in Waterbury and on Sunday, Nov. 22, at 4 p.m. in the Warren School auditorium. The instrumental accompaniment includes Michael Zsoldos on saxophone, Mary Jane Austin on organ, and Dov Schiller, percussion.

Tickets are $15, $12 for students (under 12 free); for reservations, call (802) 496-4781.