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COMING ATTRACTIONS in & around Redding and Northern CA...

Where we've been and what's on the schedule:

Did you miss this one? Don't miss the next one...

2010

March  5  --  The Big Band at the Sequoia School auditorium with other local entertainers, including the fantastic enterprise Starship, donating in the effort to raise funds for aid to Darfur.

March  6  --  The Big Band is back at the Sequoia School auditorium in a great tribute to our veterans. For more information, call the school.

March 13  -- This will be the Rivercity Jazz Society's 11th annual Youth Jazz At The Mt. Shasta Mall Day. Nancy & Steve will be there all day representing our band and the RJS, listening to young players from as many as a dozen local high and junior high school bands.  Music all day Saturday in Redding's Mt. Shasta Mall Food Court. Join us !!!   And          Ask about the new 501(c)(3) Straight Ahead Big Band Institute we've organized to support big band music in the Redding area. Donations will gladly be accepted and are tax deductible. Check it out:

March  20  -- the Jazz Combo featuring some great young musicians will be playing for Shasta College faculty at their annual dinner.

March  27  --   The Big Band at the Boondocker Ball to help in the major fundraising for the proposed new Northern California Veterans' Museum. This is going to be built off of Knighton Road, out toward the Redding Airport, and will be a huge facility dedicated to all who have served.  Check out some photos from last year:

HO! HO! HO!  The CD IS FINISHED. 

We did it  !!

We're making a list! WE WILL BE DISTRIBUTING THEM SOON. Reservations for your copy gladly taken. OR send $15 to 1725 Chicory Court and we'll send you one.  Ask about discounts for multiple CD orders.

2009

some of last year's fun - -

April 22  --   We had the Big Band at Sequoia Middle School for a Wednesday evening of fun and music with Deb Scott's great kids and us playing lots of swinging music for the benefit of their program. This has been great for the kids and the school, so call Sequoia now and plan to attend next year.

         Also check out http://www.redding.com/news/2007/mar/22/big-band-big-heart/   

June - July ? - the Big Band & Anderson's Mosquito Serenade - the Wednesday evening concert series. Watch for our date(s). Bring your lawn chairs and dance in the shade of the big trees down by the river. We'll post more information and a link as soon as we have it.

Sept 12  -  the Jazz Combo was at Riverview Country Club helping the United Way kick off their year with a Celebrity Waiter Gala. Call them at 241-7521

Oct 10  -  a small Jazz Trio, wedding cocktails and a beautiful bride. Congratulations, Alexis!

Oct 17  -  the Jazz Combo at the Cascade Theater for a fun Saturday night to benefit the Schreder Planetarium and Whiskeytown Environmental School, both facing severe budget problems these days. Sponsored by CH2M Hill.

Oct 22 - the Big Band will return to the Soup Kitchen this event was cancelled last year, but it will be back bigger and better next year! 

Dec 20 - the Big Band at the Elks' Lodge at the invitation of the Rivercity Jazz Society, for their December/Christmas concert and dance. 

Check back soon for more 2010 - it's going to be a great year ! 

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Look for our  CDs available at various outlets.  In Redding you should be able to find them at the Turtle Bay gift shop, Bernie's Guitar, Clyde's Home Entertainment,, and from our friends at Tops Sunset Market. Also available soon at select stores in Palo Cedro, including Music Max, & at Weaverville's Highland Art Center.

They are also all available through www.CDbaby.com. 

Nancy said it’s time for a Christmas CD from the Straight Ahead Big Band, and we wanted to do it last year, but too many things got in the way. Stuff happens. As before we crammed the whole group into the Patchcord studio; we got most of the music recorded in one very long afternoon, Feb. 21, 2009. There was a little more work to do, and we got that done on May 6. Thanks to everybody who helped make this all happen. Players on this CD are Bob Hansen on Piano, Tom Andrews on Bass, Dave Westfall on Guitar, and Tracy Manuel on Drums. Of course Nancy Fischer is the vocalist. Saxes are Steve Fischer, Lou Polcari, Mitch Hawley, Tyler Spencer and Ken Reed. Ruth Polcari is our flutist. Trumpets are Sal D’Acquisto, Dick Morris, George Goehner, Carlo Fazio and Paul Senn. Trombones are Todd Wright, John Schlenz, Steve Clausen, Ron Largent and Bill Corum. We are very fortunate to make music together as a group over the years. It is only with difficulty that we change. Last year we lost our long time friend and tenor sax player, Craig Williams. He was and is in our minds and hearts as we put this album together. On a much happier note, we are pleased to be featuring our new drummer, Tracy Manuel, who had never done anything like this - not too surprising since she just recently turned sixteen! She brings a fun fresh perspective to us old guys in the band. Special thanks to her mom & dad, Laura & Kent, for letting her join us and driving her to rehearsals and gigs. 

Under the leadership of Steve Fischer, the 18-piece Straight Ahead Big Band plays a wide variety of music associated with famous big bands, and especially the "straight-ahead" style of bands such as those lead by Count Basie. (Hence the name of the group.) 

The band started in Redding about twenty years ago, as a rehearsal band, when its founder and former manager moved up from Santa Cruz with a folder of big band charts. Before long there were 16 musicians from Redding and the surrounding Northern California area molded into a swinging group with a nice big band sound. 

It wasn’t long until people began hearing the band and asking it to play for various events, and since then there have been many concerts, club dates, fairs, festivals, parties and weddings all over the north state. The group has grown a little and changed a few personnel over the years, as happens in the band business, but Steve and a couple others of the original group are still in it and going strong, and many of the others still fill in when schedules permit. 

Steve & his wife Nancy have squeezed the band into Redding’s Patchcord Studio several times now, producing four big band CDs:"First Take," "Second Track," "The Third Time," and now "All I Want 4 Christmas," plus a combo CD, "Take Six."  All CDs offer a fine variety of ensemble work, solo instrumentals and vocals in a most enjoyable big band style. If you have a chance to catch the big band in a live setting, you’re in for a real treat, because there is nothing that compares to a real full sized band of this type, and this group does it very well, indeed. 

Whether for listening or dancing, there will be something for every fan of big band music at each performance. Besides Count Basie, there are the familiar sounds of Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, Woody Herman, and Stan Kenton to listen for, as well as newer music in the genre and tunes written and arranged by some of the band's past and present members. The big band sound that filled America's dance and concert halls for years is alive -- swinging and thriving right here in Redding!!!