THERE is something absolutely charming about downtown Kingston on a Sunday morning.

Gone is the hustle and bustle of crowded streets and honking horns, sidewalks are clear, the breeze from the Kingston Harbour is able to make its way up the streets, which head due north from the waterfront. One is also able to admire the imposing architecture which lines the city’s streets, but gets lost during the work week and on shopping days.

Add to the tranquility of the sleeping Sunday city, the sound of jazz, and what you have is an intoxicating elixir worthy of an overdose.

That seems to have been the intention of the Ward Theatre Foundation when they staged Jazz for the Ward at the Institute of Jamaica Lecture Hall in downtown Kingston yesterday.

The event featured the grande dame of Jamaican jazz, vocalist Myrna Hague, saxophonist and flautist Nicholas Laraque accompanied by Dr Carol Ball on piano and keyboards.

The appreciative audience which grew to nearly three-quarters of the hall, was treated to some beloved jazz standards delivered in a manner which would make the creators of the work proud.

Hague in her inimitable style, clearly was giving patrons a taste of what is to come this weekend when she takes to the stage for her concert Simply Myrna. She transported those gathered to a calmer, gentler time and place with her renditions of Wonderful World, My Funny Valentine, Fly Me to the Moon and Misty. She could simply do no wrong when she belted Who Can I Turn To, demonstrating the control of voice required to effectively deliver such a piece to maximum effect. With Dr Ball on piano, Hague also mastered the Charlie Chaplin-penned Smile from the 1936 film Modern Times.

The hall erupted in applause once she introduced the perennial George and Ira Gershwin favourite Summertime, from Porgy and Bess. This was to be another of the morning’s moments as Hague demonstrated her prowess, wrapping her voice around the standard and handed it to her audience, who loved it to the last note. The experience was made even more the richer, with the subtle highlights throughout and a stirring solo by sax player Nicholas Laraque.

She was set to close with My Romance featuring a flute solo from Laraque, but the audience would not let her go, so she obliged with a finger-snapping version of Our Love is Here to Stay.

For his part, Laraque, an Alpha Boys’ School alum, blew his audience away with a number of popular tunes but it was his rendition of Cherry Pink that caused the audience to take note. He had their attention from his opening notes to this classic, and when he added some swift hip movements, the predominantly female audience had even more fun. His set also included a tender and touching rendition of the Carpenters’ Superstar. Laraque’s haunting treatment captured the tragedy inherent in the Karen Carpenter story.

Dr Ball was, ‘on the ball’ all morning moving from keyboards to piano accompanying both acts.

Yesterday’s concert was part of the efforts by the Ward Theatre Foundation to raise funds to restore the theatre located in the heart of the city by December 2012, to coincide with its 100th anniversary.