Think beyond swing!
Annual jazz and blues festival expands to include wider mix of genres
A band that’s swinging doesn’t have to play swing music. That’s something the organizer of the 2008 Think Swing! Jazz and Blues Festival wants to make clear.
When Garrin Hertel organized the first Think Swing! festival in Spokane three years ago, it showcased a collective of genuine New Orleans jazz and blues musicians in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Since then the festival has expanded, incorporating 17 local, regional and national touring acts that range from traditional, western and gypsy genres across seven venues in Spokane and Sandpoint this weekend.
“I wanted more styles and we’ve got a great selection of traditional styles mixed with more modern styles,” said Hertel, who partnered with the local Jazz Guitar Society to bring in jazz virtuoso Andreas Oberg as one of the main attractions this year.
Other highlights at the festival include the return of 2007 Think Swing! headliner Casey MacGill’s Blue 4 Trio, the Hot Club of New Orleans and the Texas-based Hot Club of Cowtown.
The Think Swing! Jazz and Blues Festival kicks off tonight with the River of Music – a circuit that features bands at seven different venues around downtown Spokane, with chances to win tickets to the rest of the festival – plus Oberg and MacGill co-headlining at the Davenport, and Portland’s Stolen Sweets swinging through The Panida Theatre in Sandpoint.
“(The River of Music) is a way to get younger people who go to those clubs to come out for the rest of the festival – like Symphony on the Edge at the Knitting Factory, trying to reach out and say, ‘This is not just for swing fanatics,’ ” Hertel said.
The festival continues Saturday with a dance-intensive all-day jam at the Knitting Factory highlighted by the Hot Club of New Orleans, in addition to concerts at the Davenport and in Sandpoint.
Think Swing’s grand finale show on Sunday at The Spokane Masonic Center features Spokane’s highly regarded 20-piece Bob Curnow Big Band, which will be playing mostly dance numbers with intermingling blues, as well as the Hot Club of Cowtown – featured on “A Prairie Home Companion” and NPR – injecting classic country with traditional jazz instrumentation for a distinct flavor of western swing.
“This is going to bring a lot of people together,” Hertel said. “All the dance bands are multigenerational in this truly American art form,” Hertel said. “Swing dance in America is like Salsa to Brazil.”