The Salmon Arm Jazz Club will be ending its concert season on a high note with The Old Guys, a senior seven-person supergroup assembled by Sandy Cameron.
Cameron says he conceived the group while living in Victoria, thinking it would be neat to have some of his Victoria musician friends visit Salmon Arm and play a concert.
The name The Old Guys, Cameron explains, comes from local sax player-made good, Richard Underhill, creator of The Shuffle Demons.
“Richard wrote this tune, The Old Guys, a 16-bar blues, as a tribute to the jazz artists he listened to as he was growing up and was influenced by,” said Cameron. “I decided that I fit into this group, knowing Richard since I arrived in Salmon Arm 38 years ago and having performing with him many times. Richard graciously sent me charts for the song, which is on his album, Tales From The Blue Lounge.
The band will perform the title song, plus a variety of swinging jazz to delight any jazz lover. Made up of mostly “old guys,” the band members come from around the province. They include trumpeter Donnie Clark, well known as a Vancouver studio, radio and TV music producer and world wide touring jazz performer, and frequent jazz club performer, comes from Boswell. Pianist Don Ross, the senior member of the group, hails from Kelowna. Trumpeter Chuck Howard comes from Victoria. Longtime Okanagan Symphony Orchestra principal clarinetist, Doug Sonju, from Armstrong, joins “The Old Guys” this year and brings his sax along with his clarinet. Bill Lockie, another local old guy who worked with Richard Underhill, will be on stand-up bass. Brummer, Gareth, (The Kid), Seys, rounds out the seven count.
The show will be the Salmon Arm Jazz Club’s final one for the season. It takes place at the Nexus at First, at the Salmon Arm United Church, at 7 p.m. on, Thursday, June 14. Admission is by donation. For more information, visit jazzsalmonarm.ca.
-Submitted by Sandy Cameron.