The patriotic salute through song is a jazz, doo-wop and barbershop benefit concert honoring veterans of all wars.<\/b>
\nLAGUNA WOODS \u2014 When Ernest Leard began his 24 years of service with the Navy, it started with the Vietnam War. He would make two off-coast deployments from the U. S. Hancock, support combat troops with airstrikes and eventually retire as a commander.
With a cappella barbershop harmonies playing on repeat in his head \u2014 reinforced by his mother\u2019s self-taught talent sung around the house \u2014 he left for war. When he came back, it was to strum-heavy folk music, protesting his overseas efforts.
\u201cThe music that came back with me was about how the government was falling apart, how people weren\u2019t sure what was going to happen to the country. It was all just turmoil,\u201d the Vietnam veteran said. \u201cI\u2019ve always seen music as something you could turn to and listen to in order to get away from that feeling.\u201d
Regardless, Leard still carries a tune.
Leard will be taking part in a patriotic salute through song on Saturday, Nov. 10 in \u201cRockin with the Vets,\u201d a jazz, doo-wop and barbershop benefit concert honoring veterans of all wars.
\u201cWe chose these genres because we\u2019ve selected music from each of the war eras \u2014 from World War II to the present \u2014 rather than just settle for the standard patriotic stuff that everybody would normally hear or see around this time of year,\u201d program director and conductor Douglas Custance said. \u201cThese are songs that (soldiers) would have known and heard when they were serving.\u201d
Barbershop, along with swing and big-band, died in the war. The country was forever changed \u2014 even its sound.
Leard\u2019s first order of business was signing up for choir classes within the Village, supplemented with those offered at Saddleback College Emeritus Institute.
\u201cI\u2019ve gone back to an old love,\u201d Leard said, one that still gives him goosebumps every time he hears \u201cthat perfect chord\u201d of harmonies blended as one.
The loud, clashing symbols and brass band standard has tired Custance, a Saddleback College Emeritus Institute professor who teaches a variety of musicianship and music appreciation classes on campus and around the Village.
Instead, he\u2019s opted for throwback tunes to serve as a tribute to the times.
\u201cFrankly, I think (everyone is) quite overloaded with patriotic stuff on a patriotic day,\u201d he said with the audience in mind. \u201cI certainly am.\u201d
The program will feature a four-month-old, 15-member group \u201cThe California Jazz Project,\u201d the \u201cMelody Makers,\u201d a 50-member, mixed-gender barbershop chorus, an octet \u201cEight is Enough\u201d as well as other small group ensembles and solo performances.
One of those ensembles includes a mother-son duet, Custance said.
\u201cThey just have the greatest sound together because they have the same musical gene pool.\u201d
Focusing on veteran-centric themes, Custance said, many of the songs lyrically drive home a soldier\u2019s wartime plight of the heartache that comes with being away from family and the tragedies of losing friends, lovers and time.
Performing in three groups for the event, Village resident Barbara Frink is most excited for the barbershop numbers.
\u201cIt\u2019s just comfortable, wonderfully warm, all-American music,\u201d she said, naming earworms like Doris Day\u2019s GI favorite \u201cSentimental Journey\u201d and the 1954 hit \u201cGoodnite, Sweetheart, Goodnite.\u201d \u201cThey\u2019re the kind of tunes that you want to sing and hum along to.\u201d
Traditionally, barbershop groups are all-male quartets, however, Custance has been allowing women into his group for 12 years.
\u201cWe were ahead of the curve on that,\u201d he said with pride.
Just this summer, a leading barbershop singers organization, the Barbershop Harmony Society, made history in opening its membership to women after 80 years of gender exclusivity. At the time of establishment, the society was strictly an all-white, men-only club, despite the African-American roots quintessential to the genre. It wasn\u2019t until 1963 that the civil rights movement inspired a change in policy \u2014 to admit people of color.
\u201cThe excitement for me is the quality of the barbershop chorus right now. They are as good as any chorus I\u2019ve heard or been involved in,\u201d Custance said. \u201cThey know their stuff, and they know they know their stuff. It\u2019s going to blow the roof off the auditorium.\u201d
Over the 39 years he has worked with veteran benefit groups, Custance estimated this to be his 150th event on Village grounds and that his teams\u2019 overall efforts have totaled to about $45,000 worth in charity. This year, net proceeds will be donated to the Wounded Warriors Project.
\u201cThis is the music that was special to veterans and this show is to honor them,\u201d Custance said. \u201cI want people to leave having had a great time, with an increased desire to step up and help in any way they can.\u201d
What: \u201cRockin with the Vets\u201d benefit concert
When: 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 10
Where: Laguna Woods Village Performing Arts Center
Tickets: $5 to $15, available at the Performing Arts Center box office, 949-597-4288
Information: Call Barbara Frink at 713-858-9499 or babsfrink@gmail.com
Note: For Laguna Woods Village residents and their guests only<\/p>\n

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