The band, consisting of Candace Taylor, vocalist; Jeff Matlock, upright bass; George Buckner, drums and Josh Lawrence on keyboards, was reassuringly loose and vibrant on songs that are so often played and sung with too much reverence, warhorses like “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To,” and “All of Me,” but for the Majestic Jazz Band these sounded a fresh and spontaneous as a concert on the summer solstice should.

Taylor's voice was a continuous ribbon of sunlight ranging through verses, choruses and bridges with a sound that was evocative of freedom on an evening a couple weeks from July 4th.  The band members kept up a winsome interplay, their points and counterpoints lending great interest to tunes by George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Fats Waller, Burt Bacharach, Bill Withers and many more. 

The concert drew a good crowd, who set up their chairs in a crescent around the outside of the 1874 Courthouse as the band played on the front entrance porch.  

The next concerts in the series take place July 19th with William McNally, a pianist who will play selections by Texarkana-born composer Scott Joplin and August 16th with the Arkansas National Guard 106th Army Jazz Band.