Get ready to take a trip back in time as Swing Patrol plays the Vernon Jazz Club stage this Saturday night.
The band will be performing favourites from the ‘30s and ‘40s including Choo Ch’Boogie (Louis Jordan), Air Mail Special (Benny Goodman), Honeysuckle Rose (Fats Waller), and It Don’t Mean a Thing (Duke Ellington).
Swing Patrol is Scott Robertson (leader and drummer), Glen Tremblay (trumpet and vocals), Ben Henriques (sax and clarinet), Ron Thompson (guitar), and Brent Gubbels (bass).
Robertson is an active working band leader, drummer, teacher, and clinician who is the front man for this band as well as the Scott Robertson Trio.
He has released two albums, Swing Patrol and No Expiry Date.
“Swing Patrol is inspired by my father, Morris Robertson,” he said. “While my dad was never a musician, he taught me to love the swing era.”
Roberston grew up listening to his father’s big band music collection on vinyl.
His father was a transport sergeant for the Canadian army. Growing up, Robertson particularly loved the stories of how his father would shuttle the Canadian Auxiliary Services orchestra around Europe.
“One incarnation of that orchestra was called Swing Patrol. The new Swing Patrol name is a nod to my father and the musicians he worked with during the Second World War.”
Robertson was also influenced by a former drum teacher who was a student of Joe Morello and played with the Dave Brubeck Quartet.
“Because of his influence, I was listening to Dave Brubeck Quartet recordings when I was in my teens. I was drawn in by the way he could play time and swing,” said Robertson.
Also a pipe band drumming teacher and judge, Robertson leads workshops across Canada and the western U.S. He is a triple A judge for the B.C. Pipers Association and judges pipe band competitions throughout the Lower Mainland, the Okanagan, Washington, Oregon, Utah and Calgary.
Tremblay is a veteran musician who can be heard on radio broadcasts and recordings with the likes of Michael Bublé, The Jazzmanian Devils, and the Al Foreman Blues Band.
His style is reminiscent of his swing era trumpet idols Louis Armstrong, Cootie Williams, Hot Lips Page and Roy Eldridge.
Henriques made a name for himself on the Montreal jazz scene as a musician, band leader, recording engineer, and educator.
He has released two albums, The Responsibility Club and Captain Awesome, with the first rising to number one on the airwaves and winning second jazz album of 2009 by Radio Jazz Plus.
Thompson was a founding member of Hugh Fraser’s Vancouver Ensemble of Jazz Improvisation (VEJI) and has played with such jazz notables as Rosemary Clooney, Frank Foster, Joe Henderson and Don Thompson.
He fronts his own group, Gypsalero, and is the guitarist for Dal Richards, StringFever and Swing Patrol.
Thompson can be heard on albums playing alongside Michael Bublé, Raffi, and Ray Condo and his Ricochets.
Gubbels plays a wide variety of musical styles and has studied classical bass with David Brown of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
He can be heard on recordings by Oscar Lopez, Gypsalero, Juno nominees Susan Crowe, the Hard Rubber Orchestra, and Compadres, as well as Juno winner James Keelaghan.
You can check out the band at www.scottondrums.com.
Swing Patrol takes the stage at the Vernon Jazz Club (3000-31st St.) Saturday at 8 p.m. Doors open at 7:15 p.m. Tickets are $20 at the Bean Scene, Bean to Cup, and at www.vernonjazz.ca
The Vernon Jazz Society will be holding its annual general meeting Oct. 5 at 2 p.m. This meeting is open to the general public and will be held at the Vernon Jazz Club.
