In addition, we have a special guest joining us for this concert. Joel Benson, who performed with the Purdue Jazz Band for several years and won a Best Vocalist award at the prestigious Elmhurst College Jazz Festival, will be singing a number of Frank Sinatra, Bobby Darin and Michael Buble tunes that are sure to be real crowd pleasers. These include Summer Wind (Sinatra), Clementine (Darin) and Save the Last Dance for Me (Buble). We’re really excited to bring Joel in for this special performance.

Be sure to bring your lawn chairs and blankets!  We’ll see you there.

This was our first performance at Dash-In and featured a jazz quartet: Matt Cashdollar on tenor, Todd Ward on trumpet/flugelhorn, Casey Stansifer on bass, and Kevin Haydl on drums.

Everyone had a great time playing at this new venue – definitely an excellent place for jazz.

Keep an eye out for future dates when we’ll be out there again. I know you’ll enjoy it!

Below is a pic for our February 8 performance.

As always this concert had lots of great big band Christmas music, a few sing-a-long carols so everyone could take part in the Christmas cheer and cookies, refreshments and lots of chit-chat afterwards.  This year we introduced a great new tune – “The Little Drummer Boy” as recorded by “Airmen of Note”, the premier jazz ensemble of the United States  Air Force, that featured our drummer, Kevin Haydl.  We also broke out the “Frosty The Bluesman” again which gave me (Jason Klingaman) a chance to warm up the ‘ol pipes.

There was no charge for the concert but as always and in the Christmas spirit of giving, there was a free-will offering collected for the local Delts chapter.

See below for a photo from a past Christmas concert.

The weather, as was typical of our 2010 performance season, left a little to be desired but everything went great and we really appreciated the hospitality of the Roanoke community.  Thank you!

This has quickly become one of our favorite places to perform and it’s not hard to see why.  The atmosphere is so relaxed that it’s just really easy to lay back and enjoy playing.  There is always a great turn-out at Jefferson Pointe which increases the energy level significantly during the show.

This year we had to do engage in some fierce battle with the weather – it felt like a hurricane was coming through (there did happen to be one on the East coast at that time…).  Despite that, though, we had a GREAT crowd who stuck through it and the band didn’t lose too much music to the wind so we were able to keep the show going.

Thanks to all who came out – we hope you had a lot of fun!

We had a really nice mix of classic big band (I’ve Got You  Under My Skin), some great blues charts (Every Day I Have The Blues), Latin (The Gentle Rain) and a few pop tunes (Dance to the Music) thrown in for good measure.  We continued to play some of the great tunes that we used in 2010 like Cole Porter’s “You Do Something To Me” and an up-tempo version of “Till You Come Back To Me”.

The News Banner – Aug 2, 2010 pg 2

We were thrilled to have perform in Bluffton for the first time at a really nice outdoor facility – the Kehoe Park.  This performance was a part of the Kehoe Park Summer Concert Series.

We be used a lot of the same tunes as in the Foellinger concert but there were some differences.  We opened up the concert with a simple blues tune called “One More Blues” and opened it up so nearly everyone in the band took a couple choruses of blues solos, which was really fun.  We played an excellent Tom Kubis arrangement of “When You’re Smilin’” which has become one of our favorite numbers this year as well as a Basie-style tune called “Queen Bee” composed by Sammy Nestico. 

Dawn sang a really nice mix charts covering everything from Latin (“Gentle Rain”), jazz (“Don’t Get Around Much Anymore”), blues (“Every Day I Have The Blues”) and R&B (“Fever”).  Most of these tunes are new for that band this year. 

In addition to these new tunes, we pulled out some great tunes that we haven’t played for several years like a fun New Orleans style arrangement of “Just A Closer Walk”.  And for the big band purists out there, we played the original version of “Sing Sing Sing” featuring our drummer, Kevin Haydl, as well as a few other big band classics.

Finally, one really cool thing during this concert was that the audience was able to get their hands on some maracas (a Latin percussion instrument) and shake them furiously during a couple Latin tunes that the band played.  We love audience participation!

We did some additional preparation for this event and had a 100% new line-up of tunes from last year…not a single repeat!  So we had plenty of new and fun tunes for eveyone .  We played an excellent Tom Kubis arrangement of “When You’re Smilin’” which has become one of our favorite numbers this year as well as a Basie-style tune called “Queen Bee” composed by Sammy Nestico.  And, the band always enjoys playing at least one upbeat pop tunes so we threw in a rousing version of “Dance to the Music” to make sure things didn’t get too serious. 

Dawn sang a really nice mix charts covering everything from Latin (“Gentle Rain”), jazz (“Don’t Get Around Much Anymore”), blues (“Every Day I Have The Blues”) and R&B (“Fever”). 

In addition to these new tunes, however, we pulled out some great tunes that we hadn’t played for several years like a fun New Orleans style arrangement of “Just A Closer Walk” and we performed the classic ballad “God Bless The Child” which featured Dr. Paul Worfel on trombone.  For the big band purists in the crowd we played the original versions of “Sing Sing Sing” and Earl Hines’ excellent alto sax feature “Harlem Nocture” which featured our lead alto, Mark Fritz.

Performing at Foellinger always seems to inject an extra boost of energy into the band…and this year was no exception!  We all had a great time and I think the crowd did, too.  Below is a picture from our appearance at Foellinger in 2009.

Unfortunately we did run into a bit of weather…the band was only able to perform from 8 until almost 9pm, cut a half hour short by a storm coming in complete with a tornado warning! But at least we got an hour or so in and had a good time. Thanks to Old Settler’s for having us.

See the website for more information - http://fortwaynebigbandjazzfest.com/.  See below for a poster.

There were 4 big bands performing for this event, each playing a 50 minute set starting on the hour beginning at noon.  The Blue River Big Band’s set was from 2:00 – 2:50pm.  There was also an “All Star Band” playing from 4:30 – 5:30 made up of players from the 4 big bands and several BRBB players participated in that as well.

The event was outside at the public library in downtown Fort Wayne - click here for Google Maps.

Hello.  I want to personally invite you to a special combined Benefit Concert for Crossroad Children’s Home presented by the Blue River Big Band www.blueriverbigband.com and the CHORDS Vocal Ensemble. www.ChordsMusic.org I encourage you to attend this program because, firstly, it is for a really good cause – www.crossroad-fwch.org – and secondly because I selfishly want you to hear two music ensembles that are very dear to my heart.  I have been playing in the Blue River Big Band since very near its beginning in 2001 and singing in the CHORDS Vocal Ensemble since 1989.  Both these music groups are excited about performing together — I sincerely hope you will call 484-4153 x 2002 and purchase tickets for you and your friends — tickets are only $10.00 each, tax-deductible, and I GUARANTEE you will receive every penny back and more of fun entertainment at Sweetwater Auditorium on Thursday, July 8th, at 7:30pm.  Both the event poster and the entire program are attached to this email.  Also look for an article about this concert in the News-Sentinel on Thursday, June 24th!  Bring some friends and enjoy a wonderful evening of music in a BEAUTIFUL new auditorium!  Thank you!  JPZ

Blue River Big Band and CHORDS Vocal Ensemble

I’ve Got You Under My Skin

Back Home Again In Indiana

Sway - Dawn Ward, Vocal Soloist

Route 66 - Dawn Ward, Vocal Soloist

La Rubia - Mark Fritz, Saxophone Soloist

Battle Hymn Of The Republic

America The Beautiful - Dawn Ward, Vocal Soloist

• Blue River Big Band •

Star-Spangled Banner

To The Flag An American Trilogy - James Zanker, Soloist

If God Be For Us

Since Jesus Passed By - Shawn Westbrook, Soloist

From The First Hallelujah To The Last Amen!

• CHORDS Vocal Ensemble •

TEN-MINUTE INTERMISSION

How Great Thou Art / Majesty

I’m Feelin’ Fine! Operator - Dawn Ward, Vocal Soloist

• CHORDS Vocal Ensemble •

I’m A Believer

Come In From The Rain - Dawn Ward, Vocal Soloist

Trombone Boogie

When You Wish Upon A Star - James Zanker, Trumpet Soloist

Respect - Dawn Ward, Vocal Soloist

• Blue River Big Band •

Then Came The Morning

In God We Still Trust - Shawn Westbrook, Soloist

Hallelujah To His Wonderful Name

• CHORDS Vocal Ensemble •

Standing On The Promises

This time, though, was a little different – our vocalist, Dawn Ward, joined us to sing on quite a few tunes.  We played tunes that we had not performed much in public including “How High the Moon”, “Night and Day”, “I Get a Kick Out of You” and lots of others.  We also had a guest drummer with us – Brandon Ford from Fort Wayne, and a guest keyboardist - Tim Reed from Manchester College.  As we like to say…a good time was had by all!

We debuted several songs that we’ll be featuring throughout the year including “You Do Something To Me”, “Every Day I Have the Blues”, “When You’re Smilin’”, “Deed I Do”, “Fever” and quite a few more.

The weather was a bit of a concern that day but the forecast was not very definitive so the concert was still held outside.  Quite a few people showed up despite the chance of rain and we did okay for awhile but about 30-45 minutes into it I noticed all of the umbrellas come up at once!  A handful of people did leave but many brave souls endured – some stayed under their umbrellas while some came and joined the band underneath the pavillion.  We were all one big happy family!  It was a lot of fun.

Jazz is an art form that is truly meant to be enjoyed live and, in my opinion, in a casual, intimate setting like this one.  We featured several members of the band and had a new keyboardist from Warsaw join us – Jim Pattison.  This was a really enjoyable evening - thanks to all who braved the cold and joined us!

Brewha Coffee House is located at 120 N. Main Street in Columbia City, IN and can be reached at 260-248-4111.  Visit www.brewhacoffeehouse.com for more information about Brew’ha.

Here’s a pic from our November performance at Brew’ha.

Here is a sneak peak from the new album.  This song is called Sway and has become a fan favorite!  See the Video tab under the Media Gallery for a full clip of this tune.