The 19-piece NMA Big Band, now in its 51st year, swings into Pat’s House of Jazz at the Osborne Bay Pub in Crofton with vocalist Sydney Needham for another show-stopping performance on Sunday, Nov. 18.
Needham’s voice is as big as the band. Her full-throated, soulful jazz vocals never fail to wow the crowd.
From Latin to swing, New Orleans-style jazz to fusion and funk rhythms, the Nanaimo Musicians Association band plays it all.
Made up of local professional musicians, Vancouver Island University music students and alumni and VIU professors, the band carries on the jazz tradition of mentoring the next generation.
Leader Bryan Stovell says the band has given emerging talents their first step to the professional scene and has awarded tens of thousands of dollars in music scholarships. Proceeds from the show will provide scholarships for emerging talent from the mid-Island area.
“Many of the band’s members have gone on to successful careers including Diana Krall, Phil Dwyer, Ingrid and Christine Jensen,” Stovell says.
“More recently, saxophonist Connor Stewart has left us to pursue a career in New Orleans and tours around the world. Last spring, award-winning high school alto saxophonist Kenton Dick, who was invited to play at the prestigious Monterey Jazz Festival, left us to study at Berklee School of Music in Boston,” he says.
“Our 2017 scholarship winner, composer/arranger and guitarist Jesse Marshall, and Darin Nicolle, our long-term bassist and 2018 scholarship winner, have been accepted into the University of Toronto Masters in Music program.”
Stovell, who teaches jazz theory and improvisation at Vancouver Island University, is a recipient of the Marshall McLuhan Distinguished Teacher award for both B.C. and Canada.
Sunday’s concert is part of the Pat’s House of Jazz series, presented by the Chemainus Valley Cultural Arts Society at the Osborne Pub, 1534 Joan Ave. in Crofton.
Reservations are recommended for this popular band. Admission is $20. Tables will be held until 1:30 p.m. Showtime is 2 p.m. For information, call 250-324-2245 or visit http://osbornebaypub.com.