PORT ANGELES — Carey Rayburn was still a young man when a certain woman said hey, you ought to take swing dance lessons.
Nah, said Rayburn, who holds a degree in trumpet performance from the University of Washington.
“I’m not asking you. I’m telling you: Take swing dance lessons,” said this woman.
So he did. He’s been hooked ever since — so much so that Rayburn and his band, Good Co, will provide a swing dance class right before their show this Saturday night.
When the sextet is playing up on stage, the music is flowing and the dance floor is filling, “that is an amazing feeling, one that everyone in the band lives for,” added Rayburn.
He describes Good Co’s sound as “growling speakeasy, with an added dash of the electronic funk so desperately needed in today’s hectic workaday world.”
The Juan de Fuca Foundation for the Arts is presenting Good Co at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Elks Naval Lodge ballroom, 131 E. First St., with the dance lesson beforehand at 5:30 p.m.
Tickets to this show, one in the foundation’s Season Concerts series, are available at Port Book and News in Port Angeles and at JFFA.org. Prices range from $10 for ages 17 and younger, $15 for students ages 18 to 21 with valid student ID, and $30 general.
Good Co played the Juan de Fuca Festival some years back, and Rayburn remembers the Elks Lodge ballroom as “a wonderful place” for a dance concert.
“We’re an electro swing band, combining electronic music and early jazz … the music from the ‘20s and ‘30s was all about dancing and having a good time,” said Rayburn, adding that Good Co’s lead singer, Katrina Kope, is in full command of that mission.
“She is an amazing vocalist, a power on the Seattle music scene,” ever since she was a student at Cornish College of the Arts.
Kope is not only a fun person to tour with, Rayburn said, she’s also an extraordinary presence on stage. Not every skilled musician is a great performer, he said.
Of Good Co’s particular style, Rayburn said it’s something different from what concert-goers might expect.
“A lot of people think they don’t like jazz,” he said. His advice: “Be a little adventurous.”
Good Co works hard to live up to its name and entertain everybody in the hall, Rayburn said.
“The whole point of the band is to facilitate good times,” he said.
“Good Co puts on such a fun show. Their energy truly is contagious. You can try to sit still, but before you know it your toes will be tapping, your head will be bobbing, your shoulders will be shaking,” added JFFA Operations Manager Kari Chance.
“You might as well just get up and dance.”
