Past and present merge at 50th reunion concert
Original members of Delta NaNaNa joined other alums and today’s students to provide a rockin’ night of fun for 1975 alumni.
By Janel Shoun-Smith | 615-966-7078 |
Dean Carl McKelvey, foreground, was instrumental in establishing the Delta NaNaNa concert at Lipscomb. Founding members of the 1950s-style show reunited at Bisons Weekend in November for a 50th reunion concert.
Lipscomb University’s 50th reunions often include a night of entertaining nostalgic music, but the Class of 1975’s reunion this past November featured a particularly unique performance that blended Lipscomb’s past and present.
The original members of Delta NaNaNa took the stage in the Shinn Event Center along with a few other Delta NaNaNa alumni and a crew of current students who stepped up to reach the high notes for the group.
When the Class of 1975 reunion committee floated the idea to bring back the original members to perform, they found that some originals were reluctant to perform because of age, said Ernie Clevenger (BA ’75), a Delta NaNaNa original and member of the Board of Trustees.
However, former Delta NaNaNa performers Gary Jerkins (LA ’70, BS ’74) and Jerry Cover (BS ’75) and Lipscomb’s Associate Professor and Director Emeritus of the School of Music Brown Bannister came up with a solution: recruit current students “for lead and backup singers, and musicians to complement (and support) the old regime,” said Clevenger. “It worked beautifully.”
Not only did reunion attendees enjoy the music, but the intergenerational experience was valued by the young and old performers alike.
Students Bannister selected to perform included: Braxton Algood, musical director; Gordie Molin, drummer and percussionist; Titus Thomas, keyboardist; Isaac Bivers, guitarist; Roni Bates, Zerita McAttee and Ryker Lacy, background vocalists; Kate Marcino, trumpet, Reece Hoffman, trombone; and Brett Hawley, saxophone.
“I wanted these students because they are so gifted but also have stellar character,” said Bannister. “I knew they would love getting to know and work with the group. The result was fantastic! The students said they would do it again in a heartbeat!”
Delta Nu participated in Bison Day as 1950s greasers.
In 1973, members of Delta Nu participated in Bison Day by performing 1950s songs that had re-emerged as popular tunes due to the professional group Sha Na Na, says Clevenger. After their performance on the steps of then-Alumni Auditorium, Dean Carl McKelvey (BA '53) asked the group if they could do a full-length performance, and the first Delta NaNaNa (yes, the name was inspired by Sha Na Na) concert was born.
Then held on the auditorium stage, the concert packed the venue with students dressed in bebop ’50s outfits. The original members played annually until they graduated, several in the Class of 1975. They then returned periodically for five- and 10-year reunions, said Clevenger.
First performance on stairs of Collins.
According to the 1998 Backlog, the concert continued to be an annual event for 22 years, with Delta Nu and Delta Sigma members playing popular music of the era until 1995.
After a year’s break, the concert was revived in 1997 with a show that included about 50 club members playing a selection of tunes from each decade since the 1950s. Since then the concert has been held by the club on and off through to 2015, sometimes at Homecoming, sometimes at other times in the school year.
For the 50th reunion performance in November, original Delta NaNaNa members Steve Staggs (LA ’71, BS ’75), Jim Lawrence (BA ’76), Tom Billington (A ’74), Andy Wood (BS ’76) and Clevenger joined fellow alums from other years, Gary Jerkins (LA ’70, BS ’74), Jerry Cover (BS ’75) and Michael Puryear (A) along with 10 current students in the School of Music.
McKelvey was also on hand at the reunion to commemorate his role in the first Delta NaNaNa performance.
“When I first met the Delta NaNaNa group at Singarama several years ago, what struck me was this: the value of doing something a bit risky/courageous, doing it together, doing something musical, had formed this deep bond and laid the foundation for friendships that lasted a lifetime,” said Bannister. “To me, that was a DNA worth celebrating and replicating.”
The reunion concert was no easy task. Preparation took several meetings of the students to write up charts and arrangements for the songs, and a couple of rehearsals with performers both old and new were scheduled prior to the reunion show, said Bannister.
Not only did the Delta NaNaNa alums perform their favorite nostalgic throwback tunes, they “insisted that the students perform three songs on their own prior to the combined performance, said Bannister.
According to Clevenger, several of the original Delta NaNaNa members went on to become successful physicians, including the late Lex Simpson (BA ’74), who he described as the “electric center of Delta NaNaNa.”
After Simpson’s death due to complications from Parkinson’s Disease, Jerkins, Cover and Lipscomb officials established a scholarship in his name for use by the George Shinn College of Entertainment & the Arts Imagine House program, the production arm of the arts college.