For the past year and a half 30 Hartford residents who are homeless or housing/food insecure have come together to make music at “Cleo’s Place”, the street name for a soup kitchen beneath Christ Church Cathedral. They gather to sing soulful renditions of popular songs like Hey Jude or Lean on Me, and they sing often for community events downtown. Now this group, called the Music Moves Hartford Street Choir, is joining Connecticut singer/songwriter Orice Jenkins, his band, and the Cuatro Puntos String Quartet for a rousing weekend of concerts in 3 Connecticut cities. Jenkins, who recently hit #11 on the international iTunes Jazz Chart, will be the lead singer for this program titled Centennial Cole: 100 Years of Nat King Cole. Cole was most famous for songs like Unforgettable and The Christmas Song, but Jenkins will perform his own soulful arrangements of the less popular but nevertheless timeless tunes released on his Centennial Cole album.
“We’ve created a family, a safe place full of smiles and song. We are all ecstatic to be taking the stage alongside Orice” says Kevin Bishop, music director of the Music Moves Hartford Street Choir. The program, founded by Cuatro Puntos and Christ Church Cathedral Hartford, meets on Wednesdays at the MANNA Community Meals soup kitchen and on Tuesdays at the South Park Inn shelter.
Orice Jenkins, the Music Moves Hartford Street Choir, and the Cuatro Puntos String Quartet will appear in Norwich on Friday, October 4 at 7:00pm at Christ Episcopal Church and in Hartford on Sunday, October 6 at 3:00pm. There will also be an intimate performance with just Orice and the string quartet in Glastonbury on Saturday, October 5 at 7:00pm at the Lutheran Church of St. Mark.
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