The Journal

Issue date: 3/22/07 Section: LifeStyle

Media Credit: Ashley Gieseking Webster University Symphony Orchestra performs March 18 at the Community Music School in University City.

It was a performance that fittingly included the declaration of March 18 as Jeanne Trevor Day in St Louis. Trevor, the jazz singing legend, accompanied by the St. Louis Jazz Quartet and the Webster Symphony Orchestra, filled the E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall with the diverse sounds of classical, jazz, blues and popular music.


After Trevor's nearly 40 years of performing in the St. Louis area, Alan Carl Larson, the director of the Webster Symphony Orchestra, by proclamation of mayor Francis Slay, recognized the singer. At intermission, Larson presented Trevor with a plaque and spoke of her legacy. A visibly touched Trevor gave a warm thank-you acceptance speech, and shaking her head in disbelief walked off the stage.


About 350 fans of St Louis music were then treated to a seminal performance, a capstone in the career of one of the great St Louis musicians. It lasted about two hours and went from sweeping, grand emotion-tugging ballads to jazzy sounds that were reminiscent of smoky jazz bars in the heydays of Gaslight Square in downtown St. Louis, where Trevor first built her legacy in the '60s.


Trevor has been a singer, performer and teacher to many aspiring students in St Louis for the better part of four decades, working with the organization called Young Audiences of St. Louis. The organization works with elementary and secondary school-aged children to encourage greater exposure and participation in the arts, and maintaining diverse cultural heritage.


She has been associated with the Webster jazz program since the '70s, and has collaborated with the program on several occasions.


Larson said he had come up with the idea of asking Trevor to perform last year after being an admirer of Trevor's work for many years.


"I had seen her perform many times in the past and decided it was time to recognize her contributions," Larson said. "We came up with the idea and ran it up to the mayor's office and Slay agreed to name March 18 Jeanne Trevor Day."


Larson compared Trevor with Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holliday, the definitive voices of jazz singing.


"I used to see Ella perform in Chicago when I was young and I have listened to a lot of Holliday's music," Larson said. "Trevor is different because she can do many styles. She's not just a jazz singer."

Continued...

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