Saturday, July 24, 2010
Dave Downer talks about holding together a big band in the shrinking world of retro rock.
Dave Downer doesn't mind if you call The Rhythm Rockets a dictatorship. If you ask him, that's just what it takes to preserve the old-school stylings of big band and swing in one group for 14 years running. Downer, the band leader and guitarist, organized The Rhythm Rockets back in 1996 with a specific mission in mind. In its current form, the band features Nicole Kestler as the sultry lead vocalist; Mark Fornek on drums; Jeff Snyder, Mike Bielecki and Ron Dulin rounding out the horn section with their saxophones and Michael Quiroz on bass. Keeping seven musicians all on the same page can be tough, but having a vision is helpful. "From day one, I had a path I wanted to take with the band and kept on that path," Downer said. When the band …
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Friday, July 23, 2010
The La Grange singer and musician describes what the blues is really about: rising above life's trying moments.
Take the rock and psychedelia of 1960s Philadelphia, mix in the working-class country music influences of Cleveland, top it off with good old-fashioned Chicago blues and you'll get Harry Garner. Oh, and don't forget to sprinkle in some hard times throughout. "I want to mix psychedelic, country and blues, a little bit of rock and put it all together and make it just something newer," Garner, who lives in La Grange, said in a recent interview. "You have to make each song your own." The leader of The Harry Garner Band, one of the three headliners at the first annual La Grange Park Jazz and Blues Festival on July 24 at Memorial Park in La Grange Park, brings his classic Seydel harmonica and powerful vocals to the table, but it's never been all…
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132 E Oak Ave, La Grange Park, IL
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The local musician, performing at the First Annual Jazz and Blues Festival in La Grange Park July 24, knows which rules to break.
Jim Gary doesn't look like a rule-breaker. His midwestern accent, white goatee and light polo shirt do not exactly exude rebellion. Sitting across from him at First Cup Cafe in Elmhurst, Ill., his hometown, the first sign of his contradictory nature was the order he placed with barista. How could it be that a singer/songwriter who cut his teeth playing coffeehouses in Michigan, back when folk music was in its heyday, shuns a cup of Joe? Well, he was always there for the music. "I played a lot of coffeehouses and I don't drink coffee," he told me. "I mean, that's where acoustic music was going on, so that was the place to be." While Gary enjoys playing with lyrical and musical perceptions, even the genre with which he is most closely …
41.825204
-87.871499
Memorial Park
132 E Oak Ave, La Grange Park, IL
/articles/festival-headliner-songwriter-jim-gary-talks-music-art-and-the-future-of-folk
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