EDITOR’S NOTE: The Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce canceled the Friday shows on Tuesday, after this story had been published, due to COVID-19 infections discovered among some of the production crew members. Friday tickets will be honored Saturday or can be refunded. More information will be in Wednesday’s Peninsula Daily News.
After more than a decade gone, the Jazz in the Olympics festival is back with a different sound.
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, the swing band that has played the Hollywood Bowl and the Super Bowl halftime show, is the headliner, with a performance at 7 Cedars Casino’s Club Seven this Saturday night along with the Navy Band Northwest jazz ensemble.
That follows Jazz in the Olympics’ opening night on Friday, when singer LaVon Hardison and the Stardust Big Band will appear at the Naval Elks Lodge ballroom in Port Angeles, and vocalist Jean Lenke and saxophonist Jeff Kashiwa will play at 7 Cedars Casino.
Tickets for the shows at 7 Cedars, 270756 U.S. Highway 101 east of Sequim, and at the Elks, 131 E. First St., Port Angeles, can be purchased at olympicjazz.com. All events welcome all ages, with doors to open at 5:45 p.m. for show time at 6:30 p.m. The website also has details about the performers, who reflect the jazz genre in a variety of ways.
Unlike the previous version of Jazz in the Olympics, which focused on the Dixieland style, the festival has been upgraded to encompass many jazz forms and target enthusiasts in the Seattle-Victoria-Portland, Ore., area, according to a news release from the Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce.
Tickets are expected to sell out prior to the festival weekend, the chamber said.
For three years, the Port Angeles chamber has been working with local jazz enthusiasts, venues and former Jazz in the Olympics organizers to bring the annual festival back into being. The pandemic delayed it all, but 2022 has turned out to be the year of return.
“I can’t recall a more renowned and nationally popular band that has come to perform on the Olympic Peninsula in recent memory,” chamber executive director Marc Abshire said of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.
The seven-piece band is named after an autograph lead singer-guitarist Scotty Morris received from the late bluesman Albert Collins.
“To Scotty, big bad voodoo daddy. Love, Albert Collins,” he wrote.
More than three decades later, the retro swing outfit has a long resume. Gigs have included Super Bowl XXXIII with Stevie Wonder and Gloria Estefan in 1999, playing television’s “Dancing with the Stars” and appearing in the 1996 movie “Swingers.”
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy shares Saturday evening’s bill with the Navy Band Northwest; tickets are $75 per person or $100 for the VIP package.
On Friday night, it’s a mix of local and national artists. Lenke, a bandleader and singer, has a festival ensemble including drummer Angie Tabor, keyboardist Francesco Crosara, bassist Ted Enderle, guitarist Chuck Easton and saxophonist-flutist Chris Bickley.
Lenke and her band will be paired with Kashiwa, a Seattle-born artist known for his music with the Rippingtons and the Sax Pack. Now teaching music at Shoreline Community College, he has released his 11th solo record, “Sunrise.”
Hardison, who will appear Friday with the Stardust Big Band, is a classically trained singer who has released four solo albums and won honors including the Earshot Jazz 2017 Vocalist of the Year.
Tickets to each set on Friday are $50, or $75 for the VIP package.
For more information about Jazz in the Olympics, contact the Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce at events@portangeles.org or 360-452-2364.
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Jefferson County Senior Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3509 or durbanidelapaz@peninsuladailynews.com.
