Whether you call it a meeting, party, dance, concert, or jazz gathering, the Sunday afternoon event is attractive to dancers, listeners, students, and musicians. We simply call it a good time, and hope you will continue to support this celebration of America's great music. Each party starts at 1:00 PM at the Pasco Eagles on Sylvester Street.
“Opus” is a swinging, danceable jazz band with roots in the big band era and branches in swing and Dixieland. It is one of those bands that always leaves us wanting more.
Every spring, we are happy to book this fun-loving group of talented musicians, led by Luke Danielson. Opus features Luke’s tight arrangements of many jazz classics. Luke is well known for his arrangements and for his melodic style of improvisation on the trumpet. He features just the right harmonies in tight ensemble playing, and he leaves plenty of room for improvisation. In other words, the band is great to dance to, interesting to listen to, and will leave us with many happy memories. Luke has many years of experience, both as a sideman and as a leader, and knows above all how to make an audience get up and smile. He is a musician’s musician, a listener’s musician and a dancer’s musician. And he has the good taste and good fortune to employ the best Tri-Cities sidemen, and the discernment to let them do what they do best.
Luke will lead an eight-piece band for this event. Does it get better than this? I’m not sure, but I hope you will be there to decide for yourself. As always, the best part of our events is greeting our friends and introducing some new friends to America’s greatest art form. We hope you will be able to join us.
As you will recall, we have an election each spring to select new board members to help run the Jazz Society. The newly-elected board meets to elect officers (president, vice president, secretary and treasurer). None of the board members are paid, but all have a chance to help the Society.
We welcome all nominations for Jazz Society board members. The only requirements are a paid membership and willingness to serve.
If you may be willing to serve on the board, or if you would like to contribute in any other way, please contact a current board member. We will be accepting nominations until May 20, and will be holding elections at our June event. If you would like an absentee ballot, please contact your Board President or send us an email.
As always, your board members are working to serve you, the Jazz Society members. Please contact us if you feel there are ways in which we can serve you better.
If you are interested in enjoying local events, please check out our friends Mary Lou and Steve at www.GrooveTC.com. This site lists just about everything there is to do here. Also, you can hear them on the smooth jazz station, 101.9, on Thursday evenings (5:00-7:00 PM)
The Red Hot Jazz Archive at www.redhotjazz.com is loaded with interesting information about early jazz. There are many recordings of rare and wonderful jazz made before 1930. And it’s perfectly legal to download and enjoy these recordings, because they are old enough to be in the public domain.
Thanks to Appleby’s Restaurant, Tri-Cities Starbucks, Jazz in the Olympics, and Prosser Wine and Hot Jazz Bash for the raffle prizes. The raffle proceeds go to the Sami Semmern scholarship, which supports at least one student each year by sending them to a summer jazz camp.
There is a great event coming April 17-20, the Prosser Jazz Festival. This event features many of the best Northwest traditional jazz bands. Find out more about the Prosser Wine & Hot Jazz Bash here.
Port Angeles, Washington, will host Jazz in the Olympics on April 25-27,2008. Go to JazzOlympics.com for more information, or see their poster for a full list of bands.
Sundays: Second and fourth Sundays of the month, REAC band at the Pasco Eagles, 1:00 PM
Wednesdays: Dance at the Pasco Senior Center, 7:30 PM
Fridays & Saturdays: Bookwalter Winery and Tagaris Winery
I’m not sure how many folks have checked out the Seasons Music Festival. It is held in the Seasons Concert Hall in Yakima. One of Yakima’s old historic churches has been converted into an excellent performance venue, and “boasts fine architecture, outstanding acoustics, and elegance of the great concert halls of Europe.” Besides that, they serve great food and wine during performances. The Seasons Music Festival (each spring and fall) is a nonprofit organization.
Many of our members have enjoyed the tapes and CDs we bring to the membership table each month. We haven’t really had a chance to explain the ideas behind our jazz lending library.
The library was started by a major donation from our friends Cheech and Estelle Bellefeuille. As charter members of the Tri City Traditional Jazz Society, and were among the first and most enthusiastic early members. When they moved to be closer to relatives a few months ago, they donated a huge amount of music, primarily on cassette tapes and CDs. The wanted to help the Jazz Society, and they were eager to have others enjoy the music they love so much.
After some consideration, the board decided the best way to use this gift is just to pass it along. We do not charge for loaning the items, we just ask our members to enjoy the music and bring the tapes back when they are done. We have a large inventory of music, and will continue to bring a box of tapes to each event. So, please enjoy this gift of great American music from our friends Cheech and Estelle!
Stan Pitman - President 943-9414
Dave Clark - Vice President 967-9347
Lori Tyler - Secretary/News 946-1932
Marv McKenzie - Treasurer
John Bell
Lee Burger
Jack Jones
Joannie LaChapelle
William Murray
Other Committees:
Advertising: Open
Equipment: Ron Monk/Ron Lynch
Sunshine: LaDona Madison
Newsletter/Website: Stan Pitman
We can be reached at this email address.
