Swing Fever is Catching …at Orcas Center

The Swing Fever Horns

Orcas Center will present one performance only of the San Francisco-based Swing Fever on Saturday, September 26 at 7:30 pm.

As Jazz Now said, “Swing Fever keeps its music alive without turning it into a museum piece. If this is the band’s mission, it is a successful one, as demonstrated by the band’s notable longevity and popularity.”

With a deep-seated passion for the big band sounds of the Swing Era, Swing Fever has been playing the music of the 30s and 40s since 1978. Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman, Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong, Glenn Miller, Louis Jordan, Billie Holiday, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart, Irving Berlin, Hoagy Carmichael, and Harold Arlen are among the Swing Era greats included in their repertoire of over 1,700 songs.

Under the direction of bandleader Bryan Gould, Swing Fever has released three CDs, two of them with Clark Terry, trumpeter with both Duke Ellington and Count Basie. The band and Terry have performed together many times at the Monterey Jazz Festival. A fourth CD, from live tour performances with Buddy DeFranco and Terry Gibbs will appear this Fall.

In addition to a full complement of swing band instrumentation – trumpet, saxophone, clarinet, trombone, bass, drums – the band’s sound is completed with featured vocalist Denise Perrier, about whom Jazz Now has written, “Artistic integrity is behind the sincerity you hear in Denise’s singing.”

“Swing is forever,” claims Ken Speck, band leader of local swing band, Orcatrazz. Ken and Karen Speck, Cherie Lindholm Real Estate, have provided generous underwriting for the Orcas presentation of Swing Fever. Artist lodging is graciously provided by Camp Orkila.

Tickets for the 7:30 pm concert are $24, $16 for Orcas Center members, and $10 for students. For more information or to purchase tickets, please visit www.orcascenter.org or call or 360/376-2281 ext 1 during box office hours, Thursday-Saturday, noon – 4 pm.