By Scott Smith
Times Record • ssmith@swtimes.com
The music and pop-culture influence of Nat King Cole will be heard and felt by Fort Smith Symphony fans this month.
Led by music director John Jeter, the symphony will perform its “Nat King Cole Songbook” concert at 7:30 p.m. April 18 at the ArcBest Performing Arts Center, 55 S. Seventh St. The concert will feature acclaimed jazz singer, musician and multiple Juno Award nominee Denzal Sinclaire, who will sing some of Cole’s best-known material, said Jeter.
“We’ve had a change in our schedule, where we now will be featuring Denzal Sinclaire and this concert,” he said. “Originally, we were going to have singer Dee Daniels perform, but due to unforeseen circumstances, we had to make a change.
“But we definitely are trading A-list players for this concert,” Jeter added. “Denzal Sinclaire is really fantastic. In the jazz and pop music circles, he’s a household name. We are very lucky to have him, because he is a very prominent jazz vocalist and instrumentalist.”
Based in Canada and a four-time consecutive recipient of Jazz Report Magazine’s Male Jazz Vocalist Award, Sinclaire is known for performing “all types of music,” he said. Sinclaire will sing Cole favorites like “Route 66,” “Mona Lisa” and “Day In, Day Out,” while the songs “Amazing Grace,” “Smile,” “Straighten Up and Fly Right,” “Always On My Mind,” “I’ve Got the World on a String” and “Nature Boy” will help round out the evening.
“He has even done a fair amount of acting on television, so he’s a great find,” Jeter said of Sinclaire, who won the National Jazz Award for Best Album in 2004 and France’s Choc Jazzman Award in 2007. “We’re lucky this worked out so smoothly.”
Symphony fans also will be treated to the musicians’ performances of Leonard Bernstein’s “Overture to Candide” and George Gershwin’s “An American in Paris,” two pieces that always are crowd favorites, he said.
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