FRIDAY 4:00 pm HISTORIC EAGLE HOUSE SATURDAY 8:30 pm ADORNI WATERFRONT CENTER HOT CLUB of COWTOWN
WESTERN SWING, HOT JAZZ
Festivals/career highlights include the Women in Jazz series (part of Jazz at Lincoln Center), the Cambridge Folk Festival (UK), the Glastonbury Festival (UK), the Fuji Rock Festival (Japan), Byron Bay Blues & Roots Festival (AU), the National Folk Festival (US and AU), the Stagecoach Festival, the Winnipeg Folk Festival (CA), Waiting for Waits Festival (SP), the grand opening of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tennessee, The Barns at Wolf Trap, the Rochester Jazz Festival, the Strawberry Festival, the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, traveling as US State Department Musical Ambassadors to Azerbaijan, Armenia, Algeria, the Republic of Georgia, and the Sultanate of Oman, and being inducted into the Texas Western Swing Hall of Fame. The band's name comes from two sources: "Hot Club" from the hot jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist Stephane Grappelli's Quintette du Hot Club de France, and "Cowtown" from the western influence of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys and other early Western swing combos; as well as the band's love of fiddle tunes, hoedowns, and songs of the American west. In the summer of 2020, upright bass player Jake Erwin retired from the band and was replaced by Zack Sapunor, who was with the band until mid-2023. Currently the Hot Club of Cowtown performs as a quartet or trio with guest artists regularly joining in, including Beau Sample on upright bass and Dave Biller and Matt Munisteri on guitar or steel. Hot Club of Cowtown celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2022. hotclubofcowtown.com SPONSORED BY mark & val jansen
Whit Smith (from Cape Cod, Massachusetts) and Elana James (from Prairie Village, Kansas) met through an ad in the classified music section of The Village Voice in 1994. They played together in New York City before moving to San Diego in 1997, where they spent a year playing for tips and building up their repertoire. In 1998 they moved to Austin, Texas and two years later added Jake Erwin (from Tulsa, Oklahoma) on bass. Since the late 1990s, HOT CLUB OF COWTOWN’S star has continued to rise as its reputation for jaw- dropping virtuosity and unforgettable live shows has become the band’s global brand. Lauded for its “down-home melodies and exuberant improvisation” (The Times, London), the Hot Club has always woven a combination of seemingly disparate styles together to its own magical effect, setting up camp “at that crossroads where country meets jazz and chases the blues away” (The Independent), remaining “conscious always that above all else, the music is for dancing and an old-fashioned good time” (New York Times). The band’s musical alchemy has been described as “another breathless journey in the Texas tardis” (The Times, London), while American Songwriter observed that “the excellent three players of this band could be doing anything but have chosen to honor the greats of jazz and swing with their sound.” The Belfast Telegraph calls the Hot Club of Cowtown “a pretty much perfect country trio at the very top of their game,” and Jon Caramanica of the New York Times says they are “an arsenal full of technique and joy.” The Hot Club of Cowtown has toured extensively worldwide for over twenty years, both on its own and with artists including Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Gatemouth Brown, the Avett Brothers, Dan Hicks, Bryan Ferry, Roxy Music, the Squirrell Nut Zippers, the Mavericks, the Dustbowl Revival, and others.
www.rcmfest.org | redwood coast music festival
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