SEQUIM — Olympic Theatre Arts will welcome back the jazz ensemble Friends of Brubeck on Saturday and Sunday.
The group will perform at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday on OTA’s Main Stage at 414 N. Sequim Ave.
Reserved seating tickets are $20 each. They are available online at olympic theatrearts.org/OTA, at the theater box office — which is open from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays — or at the door, if available.
Performing will be pianist and bandleader Linda Dowdell with Craig Buhler on reeds, Ted Enderle on bass and Terry Smith on drums — all popular musicians on the Peninsula.
Joined by vocalist
Joining them again, this year from New York City, will be vocalist Elinore O’Connell.
“Dave Brubeck is a household name in much of the world,” Dowdell said. “When he died in 2012, saxophonist Craig Buhler suggested we perform some of Brubeck’s memorable songs at a local gig.”
Since that time, the duo has become a quartet, focusing not only on Brubeck’s classics such as “Take Five,” “Blue Rondo a la Turk” and “It’s a Raggy Waltz,” but also on other songs as well, arranged in styles that blend classical and jazz music with a somewhat “Brubeck-ish” result.
Dowdell finds Brubeck’s music inspirational due to its classical and improvised mix. No stranger to odd or mixed meters, she has logged many years with dancers, choreographers and musical theater composers, performing with such artists as Mikhail Baryshnikov and Yo-Yo Ma.
Buhler has always had an interest in Brubeck’s longtime musical partner Paul Desmond and has spent the past several decades trying to “get inside Desmond’s head.”
Enderle is known as the “Groove King” and Smith the solid rock for the band.
O’Connell’s career ranges from appearances on Broadway to First National Tours (“Les Mis,” “Aspects of Love,” “Ragtime”) and features a wide range of musical genres with songs from Cole Porter to Nina Simone.
She has traveled to the Peninsula for the past five summers as a teacher for the Musical Theatre Intensive for Teens, a two-week workshop at OTA directed by Dowdell.
‘Dynamic group’
“These young people are exploring careers in the very competitive fields of theater and performance. I enjoy training them up to the levels expected in the industry and then completing my stay by performing with Friends of Brubeck — such a dynamic group of musicians,” O’Connell said.
For more information, call 360-683-7326.
