Concert: Two Part Invention 2025

Concert: Two Part Invention 2025

Musical duo, Bill Schuck and Hadi al Saadoon, showcase Jazz, the great American song book, and the piano, trumpet, and flugelhorn.

By Christina Reed
The Hired Pen

“Jazz is a mental attitude more than anything else. It uses certain processes of the mind, expressed spontaneously through some musical instrument”—Bill EvansJazz is many things, and difficult

to define. It’s as much a feeling as it is a musical score. And, a few characteristics are established in the jazz music world, including complex chords, call and response vocals, rhythms, and improvisation. Bill Schuck, playing the piano, and Hadi al Saadoon, playing the trumpet and flugelhorn, are giving a special concert, showcasing jazz compositions, and “standards,” better-known “great American song book,” says Schuck. Join this special treat on Sunday, January 26, at 2 PM, at Bishop’s First United Methodist Church, in the Sanctuary. Concert tickets are $20, and students with ID are free. The proceeds help the many services the church provides, such as United Methodist Services, and the Trustees’ Maintenance Fund. Also on-site the church hosts the Eastern Sierra Student Center providing a safe, after-school space for elementary and junior high students (state funded program).

Schuck’s group, normally a quartet, was specially tailored to just two instruments for this winter concert. Schuck explains, “In a duo, everything is structured differently from a quartet. The arrangements are ours.” The duo will also “pay tribute” to some musical masterpieces. Schuck is looking forward to this new musical ensemble, and he’s also excited to share his love for jazz. Schuck plans on sharing some “standards” in the jazz world of music, like ”On Green Dolphin Street” (composed by Bronislaw Kaper/lyrics by Ned Washington: 1947) and a well-known jazz favorite from the 1950s. And, there’s an homage to Chopin, Maurice Ravel, and Béla Bartók. Schuck notes, the songs being performed represent and “speak to the influences of a jazz musician.”
“Jazz is not just music, it’s a way of life, it’s a way of being, a way of thinking”—Nina Simone

“Bring on all the jazz,” says Schuck, and he’s performing some of his more favored tunes, as well. Schuck enjoys the rhythmic, subtle, but “memorable melody, and harmony,” and he notes, jazz

isn’t as well understood, perhaps, as other musical genres. However, Schuck immediately reminds you of Duke Ellington, the sounds of the big band, swing music, ragtime, spirituals, and the improvisation, which is a hallmark of jazz music. Schuck hopes by “providing examples,” past and present, to bring the subtle musical appreciation for jazz that embodies his duo. And, as with all of the concerts Bill Schuck undertakes, the audience is a participating member of the concert, with its own moods, and tempo. Enjoy a Sunday afternoon concert for the New Year, and treasure a piece of our local American songbook.