By Malcolm Holt
Special to the Record
This week’s jazz at The Little Red Church in Comox cryptically offers an opportunity for time travel.
As vocalist Dale Graham told me, “Time isn’t a strict progression from cause to effect, but rather a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff.
Taking the immortal words of Doctor Who to heart, the members of Indigo Jazz Quintet invite you to travel in time with them on April 27t.”
Indigo Jazz has been a shape-shifting and time-travelling force in local music for 15 years. Founding members Dale Graham (voice) and Rick Husband (guitar) were joined by bassist and music educator John Hyde in 2010. That trio has remained at the heart of the group, with a stellar collection of guest players over the years.
Jay Havelaar (trumpet) and Jonathan Fairbank (drums) add their considerable skills to the group for this show. Havelaar joined Indigo for the first time in 2014, with his warm, full sound and fluent lines making an instant hit.
“Jonathon makes his debut with Indigo Jazz this month,” said Graham. “Originally from Black Creek, he recently moved back to the Comox Valley from Vancouver. He studied at Capilano University jazz school and worked for several years in cover bands, jazz sessions and recording studios. He’s an intuitive musician with great time and a confident touch on the drums.”
The configuration for the band may be new, but the set of tunes for this concert ranges deep into the past. The venerable Tea for Two was penned 100 years ago, but it gets a very modern framing with a 7/4 time signature. Duke Ellington, Thelonius Monk, and Antonio Carlos Jobim contribute tunes from the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s.
Joni Mitchell’s Carey and Gordon Lightfoot’s The Way I Feel came up in the folky ’60s but for this show they are reimagined with a jazz sensibility. And the band’s funky take on the Rodgers and Hart tune I Didn’t Know What Time It Was best sums up the theme for the evening.
Join Indigo Jazz for this time-travelling concert at The Little Red Church on Thursday April 27, part of the ongoing Thursday jazz series hosted by the Georgia Straight Jazz Society.
Doors open at 7 p.m., downbeat at 7:30, tickets at the door $15 members and $20 non-members. 2023 memberships ($20) will be for sale at the door.
Visit georgiastraightjazz.com to see the schedule of upcoming spring and summer concerts.
Malcolm Holt is the president of the Georgia Straight Jazz Society.