Stacie Boord, Columbus Jazz Orchestra perform ‘Home for the Holidays’

On Nov 28, 2022

For many of us, the week after Thanksgiving means finishing off the remnants of Turkey Day leftovers and chasing holiday sales.

For the Columbus Jazz Orchestra, however, the week is all about making merry music swing.

Every year, the orchestra performs its signature holiday program, “Home for the Holidays,” and this year is no different: Concerts will take place Nov. 30 through Dec. 4 in the Southern Theatre.

This year, Artistic Director Byron Stripling will be joined by guest vocalist Stacie Boord, also the CEO and director of education at Shadowbox Live. Together, they will perform Christmas classics new and old — but all with a jazzy, swinging spin.

The Dispatch spoke with Stripling and Boord about the upcoming concerts.

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Boord to join CJO for the first time

Several years ago, Boord, who has not previously teamed with the orchestra, was sought out by Stripling after he heard several of her performances on YouTube.

“I had been to Shadowbox before and seen a couple of things, but I had never heard Stacie,” said Stripling, who found a video of Boord performing “Merry Christmas Baby,” an R&B tune associated with Otis Redding.

“She made it happen, and I was sold,” Stripling said. “Plus, Columbus loves her and knows her, and so that’s why I hired her.”Boord, who will perform “Merry Christmas Baby,” “Jingle Bells,” “Winter Wonderland” and other seasonal favorites, is excited to make her debut with the organization.

“My degree was in opera. I’ve done, obviously, tons of rock, tons of blues, tons of musical theater,” Boord said. “I’ve certainly sung jazz-influenced songs, but I’ve never done a set and I’ve never been with this jazz band before. This is new for me.”

What will help set Boord at ease, though, is Stripling’s easygoing manner on stage, which involves conversing with the audience and artists alike.

“To be onstage with Byron, he’s so charismatic,” Boord said.

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Other concert highlights

Also on tap during the performances will be “Joy to the World” and the Elvis Presley song “Blue Christmas,” a showcase for keyboardist Bobby Floyd and saxophonist Michael Cox.

“That always rocks the house,” Stripling said of the latter. “We just do it our own CJO, big-band way.”Stripling said that most Christmas songs work well in jazz arrangements.

“I’ve been doing ‘God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen’ with orchestras,” he said, referring to the traditional English carol. “We made it like a funk thing. It is killing it — people go crazy.”

For Stripling, the concerts are personal

“Music is a central part of the holidays — of my life but also of the holidays,” said Stripling, who approaches this year’s “Home for the Holidays” with an even greater sense of appreciation: He lost his brother in January and his father in August.

“(Growing up), it was all about ‘The Andy Williams Christmas Album,’ it was about the Johnny Mathis Christmas album, it was about the Nat King Cole Christmas album,” Stripling said. “The hardest thing for me is, when I hear them now, is that I don’t start tearing up. Those memories are directly connected.”

In leading “Home for the Holidays,” Stripling will bring those memories and associations with him as he leads the orchestra — but he plans to let the music do the talking.