Click here to buy CDs, or to hear more samples of the music.

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

Jul 17  -  the Jazz Combo at the Holiday Inn for a fun evening to benefit disabled veterans in Northern California. Besides food and dancing, there will be a fun Fifties fashion show! For tickets & information call Maria Villezar at (530) 221-4985

July 23 & 24  -  the Jazz Combo at Joe Catanio's Turtle Bay Cafe. Come on down for dinner and fun music in this great setting by the Sundial Bridge. He makes a mean martini, too!

Oct 09  -  the Jazz Combo at the Cascade Theater for a fun Saturday night sponsored by CH2M Hill. Last year's event benefited the Schreder Planetarium and Whiskeytown Environmental School. Help a good cause and you get to dance on stage right in front of the band!

Oct 21 ?  - the Big Band will return to the Soup Kitchen this event was cancelled last year, but it will be back bigger and better in 2010! Keep your eyes on the papers (or here) to confirm the date and time.

Nov 21  -  the Jazz Combo at the Redding Elks' Lodge for the Rivercity Jazz Society's monthly concert and dance. That's a Sunday, from 1:00 to 5:00.  Let's pack the joint and show them how much support local music has in Redding! 

April 28  --   We had the Big Band at Central Valley High School for a big Spaghetti Feed and concert with the student musicians. We do all we can to help keep music in our local schools! 

March  27  --   The Big Band was swinging 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:

March 13  -- This was the Rivercity Jazz Society's 11th annual Youth Jazz At The Mt. Shasta Mall Day. Nancy & Steve were 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 next year !!!   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  5  --  The Big Band was 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.

HO! HO! HO!  The Christmas 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. This is a marvelous gift for anybody on your gift-giving list!

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 the 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. Note that Deb has finally retired to enjoy the good life, so let's get a big crowd for her successor and really support the kids!

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

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

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 Next Generation, and from our friends at Tops Sunset Market. Also available at select stores in Palo Cedro, including Music Max, & at Weaverville's Highland Art Center.

Also all available through CDbaby.com. 

Or contact us directly for as many as you want.

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!!!