SEQUIM — Two big bands, swing and a Hawaiian style dinner: It could only be the Jazz Dinner Dance to benefit Sequim High School’s music program this Saturday night.
“We have a bunch of new things I put on the set list,” said Craig Buhler, leader of the Stardust Dance Band, a 17-piece outfit specializing in swing and other vintage dance music. Stardust teams up with the Sequim High School Jazz Band and its leader Vern Fosket for this dinner and party in the cafeteria at Sequim High, 601 N. Sequim Ave.
Doors will open at 6 p.m. Saturday with dinner at 6:30 while Fosket’s band takes the stage. Tickets at the door are $15 for singles and $25 for couples, and that includes dinner and a chance to win a portrait package from Ernst Fine Art Photography.
After the Sequim High jazz band’s set, Stardust will alight, to play “15 songs, or something like that,” Buhler estimated. His band, whose musicians range from teenagers to octogenarians, will dish up numbers such as “Save the Last Dance for Me” and “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy.”
Buhler urges the guests to ask the high schoolers to dance — they definitely know how to swing, he said.
“It is great to see teenagers and senior citizens on one dance floor in one evening,” added Karen Holtrop, one of the Band Boosters organizing Saturday’s annual event.
“If you don’t dance, you can just eat and listen to good music,” knowing that your attendance helps Sequim’s young musicians play at home and away. Sequim High’s jazz band is set to appear at the Spokane Lilac Festival this spring, Holtrop noted, along with many other venues.
“The high school has a great band program, with so many learning and performing experiences for the kids; it’s a good program to support,” she said. And the dinner will be flavorful: pulled pork, teriyaki chicken, rice and salad.
A traditional high point of the evening comes when the Stardust Dance Band and Sequim High School Jazz Band get together on stage; the 30-plus players have been known to bring on that Glenn Miller classic, “In the Mood,” Buhler added.
For more information about the event, phone coordinator Susan Lorenzen at 360-477-2677, and to find out more about Stardust, search for “Stardust Big Band Sequim” on Facebook and on YouTube.com.
