The St. Johns River City Band with John Pizzarelli at the 2008 Jacksonville Jazz Festival. John Pizzarelli performs many of the big band standards of Frank Sinatra. David Luckin of WJCT’s Electro Lounge was in the VIP area and commented to me that he had not heard the Band play since Hemming Plaza years before. His quote – “Wow, these guys are good.” Of course, some of us already knew that.
Jazz Fest 2008 – the warm-up set was fantastic. One thing for sure, the River City Band has first rate musicians that can really play a tune and keep it tight. So sorry for the moving camera, but I was panning over heads that popped into my viewer and I was trying to multi-task – tap my feet, snap my fingers and steady the camera!
River City Back Beat – We renamed all of our ensembles this past year – finally! River City Back Beat is the ensemble that performs in schools. We call it “Kool Jazz for Kids.” The core musicians are Peter Miles, drums; Jason Anderson, keyboard; Eric Riehm, saxophone; Farris Nix, double bass; and Chris Creswell, trombone. We also added Dot Wilder as vocalist. With a vocalist, we have been able to teach the children that they carry an instrument with them everywhere they go – their voice. It’s really kool hearing 6 and 7 year olds skatting! And to think that music teachers may be cut in the school budgets! Budget cuts will probably affect organizations like ours that get contracts from the school board. Your support and advocacy to keep the arts in school is critical.
Skatting with Dot Wilder – Dot and her husband, Doug, raised three great kids. As a mom and a musician, she can really relate to the kids in our school shows. Music is a great tool for bringing people together and making even shy people shine. By the way, we spell skatting with a “K” to keep it consistent with Kool Jazz for Kids.
Yuletide Swing 2007 – The St. Johns River City Band holds a holiday concert each year in early December. We have partnered with the Jacksonville Public Library for the past two years and we love performing in the Hicks Auditorium – it’s a very intimate setting for a Big Band concert. By the way, I used an elbow rest to record these video clips (some day I’ll remember to bring the tripod) – but it was really hard not singing along with Lisa.
Playing beside the Main Street bridge made famous in so many Superbowl images, the band plays a saucy tribute to the Old Man River himself.
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Book the band for your next event. Big events can enjoy the full ensemble. Smaller events can schedule one, two or more musicians.
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