The Vernon Jazz Club welcomes Sabrina Weeks and Swing Cat Bounce to the stage this Saturday night.
The band will be performing high energy, award winning original songs and will also be covering legends such as Etta James, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, and BB King.
Weeks will be joined by Mike Hilliard on guitar and vocals, Steve Soucy on piano, Neil Brun on bass, and Ed Hilliard on drums.
Music has always played an important part in Weeks’ life. She started performing when she was five and since then has shared the stage or opened for performers such as Colin James, Tom Lavin and Powder Blues, Steppenwolf, Jack de Keyzer, and the Downchild Blues Band.
“Blues is a powerful music. It’s vibrant. It’s passionate. It can sad. It can be celebratory. I feel that it’s really the only complete music where it’s always exactly what you need at the time,” said Weeks.
Voted as Best New Artist at the 2011 Maple Blues Awards, Weeks has charted on the top 10 on the global blues RMR charts, voted in the top 10 by the Blues Underground Network, was nominated for a B.C. Interior Music Award for Blues Album of the Year, and was voted in the top 100 by Real Blues.
About performing this powerful genre she says, “I love the exchange. Every performance is like a journey. There’s ups and downs. There’s powerful high energy moments and more intimate moments.”
Mike “Hot Licks” Hilliard has recorded and toured throughout Canada, the U.S., and Asia. He has appeared on stage with Colin James, Steppenwolf, Powder Blues, The Guess Who, and Stonebolt.
Soucy has been a professional musician for the past 40 years. He has written and recorded more than 1,000 songs and can be heard on hundreds of albums.
He is also a successful producer who has recorded hundreds of artists over the years. He has won B.C. Country Music’s Keyboardist of the Year five times in a row. He can be heard performing regularly with Le Mo Nay, a romantic music duo with Julie Masi from the Parachute Club, as well as with Uptown 10, a 10-piece dance band.
Brun began performing in bars and jazz clubs at the age of 12 and was awarded a special citation from the International Association of Jazz Educators at the Cleveland Tri-C Jazz Festival in 1998.
Over time, he has contributed to more than a dozen albums, ranging from jazz and funk to independent film scores.
Since moving to B.C. in 2005, he has played more than 500 shows with a variety of local artists.
Ed Hilliard is also another seasoned musician who has been playing professionally for more than 40 years.
After studying with Roger Flock, head of the percussion department at Humber College, Hilliard became a member of the band Steamer. The band recorded three albums with one of their songs, Don’t Say Goodbye, becoming a top 10 hit.
Hilliard has worked as a cruise ship musician for Holland-America, Cunard (Queen Mary 2), Celebrity, and the P&O Sun. He has recorded with famed Canadian producer Jack Richardson (The Guess Who, Alice Cooper, Bob Seger, Kim Mitchell,) and has worked with other musicians such as Gary Guthman, The Rankins, and Doug Riley.
Sabrina Weeks and Swing Cat Bounce hit the stage at the Vernon Jazz Club (3000-31st St.) Saturday, Nov. 28 at 8 p.m. Doors open at 7:15 p.m. Tickets are $20 at the Bean Scene and at www.vernonjazz.ca with a $5 rebate at the door for members. Cash only bar. The show is sponsored by Expressions in Time.
