Building on the success of its summer park series, the Trail District Arts Council is launching a monthly “Winter Cabaret”.”
The first concert in the series is Thursday featuring Tangerine Swing, a Nelson group that will be appearing as a quintet and performing some up-tempo Christmas songs along with jazz standards.
“We thought the community could use a little more music to help us through these long dark winter nights,” said arts council manager Betty Seinen.
“The Muriel Griffiths Room is a nice, intimate for setting for Tangerine Swing and the other acts we have in mind for the series.”
The Nelson group was named after the song “Tangerine,” written by Victor Schertzinger and Johnny Mercer for the 1942 film “The Fleets In.”
The “swing” was added after lead singer and pianist Diane Ermacora’s mother mistakenly added it and they decided they liked the double-barrelled name even better.
Ermacora was smitten with the music of the Big Band era of jazz after attending a swing workshop in Sorrento in 2000.
“It is such a fun, lively style of music. Even though a lot of people say they don’t listen to jazz, they start tapping their feet when they hear swing.
“Most everyone knows a few standard swing tunes such as ‘Ain’t Misbehaven’, ‘Sunny Side of the Street,’ and ‘I’m Beginning to See the Light.’”
The other core member of the group is David Mitchell on stand-up bass, with other musicians joining the line-up depending on the performance.
The Trail session will also feature Ron Butler on trumpet, drummer Eric Johnson, and saxophonist Michael Mayrhofer.
In addition to the old jazz favourites, the performance will include some Christmas songs with some different arrangements.
“There will be a little bit of a twist to the usual Christmas songs,” Ermacora said. “We’ll be doing ‘I’ll be Home for Christmas’ as a fast swing piece and ‘Let It Snow’ as Latin number.”
Thursday’s concerts starts at 7:30 p.m. in the Muriel Griffiths Room, located on the second floor of the Community Centre next to the Charles Bailey Theatre.
Admission is $5, and there will be beer and wine, coffee, tea, and a few treats for sale.
Teck Metals is sponsoring the series.