On Friday, March 17, 36 Madison Avenue, Drew’s tenor-bass a cappella group, hosted the thirty-sixth Jamfest a cappella concert. This concert aligned perfectly with the group’s thirty-sixth anniversary, and celebrations were in order.
This year’s Jamfest drew the largest crowd of attendees in Drew a cappella history. Multiple generations of 36 Madison Avenue alumni were invited back to celebrate alongside crowds of Drew students and cast family members. All who attended enjoyed the music and supported their friends and loved ones.
The show also revived a former Jamfest tradition of inviting a guest a cappella group to perform in addition to Drew’s three groups: 36 Madison Avenue, On A Different Note and All Of The Above. For this Jamfest, Mad Ave invited American University’s a cappella group On A Sensual Note to perform.
With fantastic comedic skits and knockout performances––including On A Different Note’s performance of “Back to Black” by Amy Winehouse, On A Sensual Note’s performance of “Fireflies” by Owl City, All Of The Above’s performance of “Genius” by LSD and 36 Madison Avenue’s performance of “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley––the concert was an immense success.
For the final number, 36 Madison Avenue’s alumni song “Seven Bridges Road,” the stage was swarmed by a crowd of a capella alumni who all returned to their alma mater to celebrate the group’s 36th anniversary. Among them was Joe Discher (C’91), the man who founded the group three and a half decades ago in 1987, who gave a heartwarming speech about seeing the club flourish and thrive decades after he graduated.
“Once upon a time, in the fall of 1987––yes, I’ll say the year—in a stairwell in Tolley dorm, four guys got together… and started making harmony. And how could we have imagined that thirty-six years later, the group would still be here? I want to congratulate all of you, all of the a cappella groups, for your traditions and what you’re doing, because it’s something that brings joy to a lot of people. And I especially want to congratulate the Mad Aves,” said Discher.
Ethan Govea (‘23), the former music director of 36 Madison Avenue, personally attested to how much the group has meant to him, on his journey in music which started back in middle school. “And that experience [in Mad Ave] really solidified how I viewed myself as a musician and how I viewed the creation of music with a group of people. And music aside, this is my favorite group of people to be with on campus for sure.”
Be sure to look forward to even more amazing music from Drew’s a cappella groups in their final concert of the 2022-2023 school year later on this semester, and check out 36 Madison Avenue’s thirty-sixth anniversary album, “The Blue Album,” available on various streaming platforms.
Chloe is a sophomore majoring in English with a creative writing emphasis and minoring in Spanish.
