Poptet!

(Hamilton, OH) - The masterful musicians of the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra dazzled the Fitton Center with its recent Poptet performance.

If the difference between a pops orchestra and a symphony orchestra is its rhythm section, then the Poptet proved on February 17 why the Cincinnati Pops is one of the best in the world.

The five-member combo not only turned classical into jazz, mashed up Bach and The Beatles and roared through blues and boogie-woogie tunes, but also made an oboe a lead instrument, let an electric bass carry melody and introduced the audience to the exceptionally versatile EWI (electronic wind instrument).

The setlist not only highlighted different instruments, but also a range of musical genres.

ACT I

It Don’t Mean a Thing (Duke Ellington) I Love Being Here With You (Peggy Lee)

Shaker Tune (Aaron Copland) Picnic Suite (Claude Bowling)

Piano Prelude (George Gershwin)

Pavane (Gabriel Faure)

Norwegian Wood (The Beatles)

I Will (The Beatles)

It Had Better Be Tonight (Henry Mancini)

ACT II St. Louis Blues (W.C. Handy) Jimmy Bryant’s Boogie

Cool (Leonard Bernstein)

Icarus (Ralph Towner/Paul Winter Consort)