Cool September nights, sunny days, what could be more perfect? Why, the multi-talented Henry Piovesan opening the Vernon Jazz Club season this Saturday night.
Playing piano and his prized 1955 Hammond B3 organ, Piovesan will be joined by Walt Musekamp on guitar, Dan Oldfield on drums, and Aaron French on bass.
Henry’s Heroes offers up an evening of high-energy, funky R&B favourites and some Piovesan originals including his classic Purple is All About You.
Tunes include Billy Preston’s Will it Go Round in Circles, Solomon Burke’s None of Us Are Free, George Benson’s On Broadway, and a few “funkified” Beatles’ classics.
“Also expect some standards redone a la funk,” promised Piovesan.
Known for his eclectic, versatile style, Piovesan’s creative juices were nurtured from an early age.
“I grew up listening to many styles and was amazed by blind players like Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder who were obviously not reading the music,” said Piovesan.
One quality that makes Piovesan’s gigs so exciting is the groove he creates rocking with the band.
“Jam, jam, jam… play together and let it happen,” said Piovesan. “You have to connect musically –– that’s when the magic happens.”
Much in demand, Piovesan recently performed solo piano at the prestigious TED Talks event in Penticton on an 1875 nine-foot Heintzman concert grand piano.
Piovesan is very busy in the recording studio as a session player for various local artists such as Orlando Perusini, Abby Gregori, Loesje Jacob, and Jay Megyesi.
He also performed recently with blues queen Kath Raeber at the Rarearth Music Festival and with John Lee Sanders last New Year’s Eve.
Piovesan started playing in bands when he was 15, eventually ending up at Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music, where he earned a bachelor of music studying with musical greats like Chuck Mangione, Mike and Pat Metheny, Gary Burton, and Quincy Jones.
When not performing live, Piovesan is kept busy with his PianoJam Recording and Instruction Studio. He offers recording, producing, and arranging services, and specializes in teaching improvisation and composition. He is also a senior instructor at the Center for Arts and Technology in Kelowna where he teaches music producing courses and scoring for film, television, and video.
Musekamp is known to Vernon audiences as Raeber’s right-hand man in Kath and the Tomkats.
A standing member of the legendary Samsara, Musekamp is currently working to amalgamate his computer expertise as a system analyst with music, experimenting with his guitar synthesizer to produce a variety of sounds, such as the steel drums.
Oldfield and French are fellow Brits, playing and touring together for about six years.
“We make a great rhythm section,” said Oldfield.
Oldfield lays down a solid groove from funk to folk and everything in between. Drumming since eight years of age, he gigs with a variety of artists on stage and in the studio.
French, 22, started playing bass when he moved to Canada in 2003. He and Oldfield have both toured with two-time Juno winner Greg Sczebel of Salmon Arm.
Henry’s Heroes take the stage at the Vernon Jazz Club, 3000-31st St., Saturday at 8 p.m. Doors open at 7:15 p.m. and tickets are $20 ($15 for jazz society members) available in advance at the Bean Scene and Bean to Cup coffee houses.
