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Click
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of the music.
COMING
ATTRACTIONS in & around Redding
and Northern CA...
Where we've been and what's on
the schedule:
Look for the Big
Band or the Jazz
Combo at one of the following
dates...
2008
March
2009 ? -- We
will be sponsoring the Rivercity
Jazz Society's 10th annual Jazz At
The Mt. Shasta Mall Day. Nancy &
Steve will be there all day
listening to young players from a
dozen or so local high and junior
high schools. 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 will be tax
deductible.
March
2009 ? -- We will have the Big
Band at Sequoia Middle
School for a Wednesday evening of fun and
music with Deb Scott's great kids
and us playing some 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 that evening. Also check
out http://www.redding.com/news/2007/mar/22/big-band-big-heart/
April
2009 ? will be the
fifth Redding Jazz Festival, put on by the
Rivercity Jazz Society.
Three days of the
world's best bands! Expect
to see our Jazz
Combo in full swing! Go
to www.rivercityjazz.com
and get details on the whole fun
weekend. This
is great fun, so be sure to tell
everybody you know to look forward
to this event - Call
RJS now for details - 244-6033 or
378-1404.
May 10
- the Jazz
Combo will be at
Anderson's Frontier Senior Center with the
all the lovely dancers. Join us and
practice your tango! this is the
last dance of their season, so join
us again in the Fall !!!
June 1
- the Jazz
Combo will be at the "Taste
Of Redding" in the
Sculpture Garden at City Hall on
Cypress Avenue. This event features
food & beverage tasting from
local purveyors, and great live
music from several local groups.
Come on out Sunday from Noon to 4:00
PM. This is a great afternoon for a
small fee that benefits several
Redding causes. For more information
call the City of Redding.
June 26th - the Jazz
Combo will support a
Chamber of Commerce mixer 5:30 -
7:30 at Jazz
Under the Bridge.
Contact the Chamber
for further information.
July 11 &
12 - the Jazz
Combo will return to the Turtle Bay Cafe at the
foot of the great Sundial Bridge.
Bring your friends and enjoy another
evening of music with a bite
to eat and a glass of wine in this
magnificent setting.
We're getting a
lot of calls for the July through
October period, for weddings and
parties.
Don't
forget us for your Christmas
parties.
Call now and book yours!
Oct.
30th
- The Big
Band returns to the
Redding Vet's Hall for the annual
Soup Kitchen benefit for the
"Power To Seniors"
program, helping low income senior
citizens afford their monthly
utility bills. This great cause is
supported by tremendous food donated
by local restaurants and exquisite
gift baskets donated by local clubs
and business organizations. The big
band will play roughly from 5:00 -
7:30 as the soup is served and gifts
are raffled off.
Dec. 21st
- The Big
Band will be at the
Redding Elks' Lodge for the
Rivercity Jazz Society's monthly
concert and dance. We'll be
playing some Christmas tunes and many of your old favorites.
Come on down from 1 PM - 5 PM;
admission is only $12 for non-Jazz
Society members. Or join the RJS now
and get a year of concerts for $5
off each month.
More
to come - check back soon!
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Look
for our CDs
available at various
outlets. In Redding you should
be able to find them at Bernie's and
the Turtle Bay gift shop. They
are all available through www.CDbaby.com
and Tower Records. Also
available at select stores in Palo
Cedro & the Highland Art Center
in Weaverville

In
March of 2004, we squeezed into the
studio again, on two nights with the
big band and late one evening with the
combo, and played some music.
The results were the big band's
"The Third Time" and the
combo's "Book Six."
Nancy wants to record some Christmas
music next, so we'll see where that
leads us.
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.
In the year 2000, Steve & his
wife Nancy squeezed the band into
Redding’s Patchcord Studio, played
through 14 tunes and produced their
first CD, entitled "First
Take." In March of 2002, they
hit the studio again for a couple of
sessions, and in May their next CD,
"Second Track" was born.
Two years later, the band squeezed
into the same studio and recorded
"The Third Time" and 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!!!
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