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Tag: Live Music

Eddie Piccard – Music of New Orleans and All That Jazz

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Eddie Piccard will once again be serving up “All That Jazz” at the First Street Community Center on Saturday November 19 at 7:00 p.m.

Eddie Piccard Jazz Quartet

For each Mount Vernon appearance Eddie offers a special highlight, and this year’s performance will offer “Music of New Orleans.”

“My first instrument was a trombone,” Piccard said. “And one of my heroes is the Texas trombone player, Jack Teagarden. It is always a kick to play piano with Dixie groups. The contrapuntal effects of group improvisation add excitement to the music.”

The first part of this year’s program will feature the Eddie Piccard Quintet. This group plays hot traditional favorites and cool Shearing melodies, as well as warm Latin tunes. Eddie will be on piano and vocals, Craig Dove on bass, Jon Wilson on drums, Rich Martin on vibes, and Dave Richter on guitar.

For the Dixieland part of the program the quintet will be joined by the Busch Brothers – Marty on trombone, Larry on trumpet, and Luke on clarinet.

“We really like playing for the audience at the Community Center,” Eddie said. “And this group will have a swinging, toe-tapping sound that people will really enjoy.”

Eddie Piccard grew up in eastern Iowa, and began playing music at an early age. He left for larger venues in Chicago, Florida and on the west coast. But he came back to Iowa in the 1980s and has become a jazz icon in eastern Iowa. People still talk about the jazz club he and his wife Dallis opened on Mount Vernon Road in the 1990s. Patrons remember a sophisticated spot that offered unforgettable nights of music. Eddie now plays regularly in Cedar Rapids and the surrounding area, as well as in the Chicago area and the Twin Cities.

Tickets are $15 and can be purchased at Bauman’s Clothing Store or at the performance.  You can call (319) 895-8692 for more information.

As with most performances at the First Street Community Center, patrons are welcome to bring a favorite beverage and purchase a Community Center cup.

Performers

Eddie Piccard has been a professional musician and a jazz artist since he left college. Before coming home to Cedar Rapids, he had extensive experience in the jazz world playing in Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, and San Francisco, sometimes opposite such musicians as George Shearing and Ramsey Lewis. As Piccard fans know, Eddie both plays and sings in a wide variety of styles.

Jon Wilson, talented musician and percussion educator, has performed and recorded with many original bands including Jake Kaligis and Driver. A much sought-after drummer since moving to Cedar Rapids in 2000, he has continued to work in several musical genres and plays regularly with Eddie Piccard.

Craig Dove plays piano, upright and electric bass, guitar and is an accomplished vocalist. He has performed throughout the U.S. and in London. He has recorded solo and with a variety of musicians. Craig is also the Medical Director of Rehabilitation Services at St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids.

Rich Martin got his first taste of jazz as a boy hearing Gene Krupa in Sing, Sing, Sing.  He grew up surrounded by music and was able to see some of the greatest performers of the time, who remain his idols. Rich has been known to levitate when a tune starts to swing.

Dave Richter comes from Dubuque to perform in All That Jazz. He is well-known in northeast Iowa as an accomplished guitarist, bassist, and banjo player. He performs in Iowa, Wisconsin, and the Chicago area.

Larry Busch is a veteran of the Guy Lombardo, Wayne King, and the Al Pierson Orchestras.  He has been leading his own big band for many years and is currently the leader of the Dixieland Allstars.

Marty Busch, a trombonist, has toured with Al Cobine, Johnny Mathis, Dick Jurgens, The American Vintage Orchestra, and the Larry Busch Big Band.

Luke  Busch has played with the Dixieland Allstars, the Mad City Funk, and his own SKA band.

This concert is made possible by:
Burke Investments – Fred Burke

And the following investors in the arts:

  • Jerry Kaalberg
  • Bauman and Company
  • David Osterberg
  • Kay Johansen
  • Steward Baxter Funeral & Memorial Services
  • Neal’s Water Conditioning Services, Inc.
  • Cornell College
  • Koppenhaver & Associates, PC
  • Central Appraisal-Andy Wolfe
  • Iowa Physical Therapy PC
  • The Sun Newspaper

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Live Music – Malcom Holcombe – LilFest Fall Music Series

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Saturday, October 22, from 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm the First Street Community Center’s Uptown Theatre is pleased to be hosting the “real deal” North Carolina backwoods picker and songwriter Malcom Holcombe.

picture of Malcom Holcombe

It is Malcolm’s perception of the world that make his songs hit you like a gunpowder blast. His gruff and tough delivery is a primordial power full of grit, spit and anthropomorphic expression.  — Ray Kennedy

Ray Kennedy is a Nashville 5-time GRAMMY award winning producer of Art Garfunkel, Lucinda Williams, Taylor Swift, Buddy Guy, Greg Brown, Joan Baez and Steve Earle, to pick a few names from his star-studded studio.

Ray continues:  “Malcolm Holcombe is fiercely striking every time you encounter him on or off stage. You just get sucked into his extraordinary world of the twisting of words and wisdom that come from a bottomless well. The melodies and fierce rhythms wrap his narrative into an event where you find yourself at his unique musical carnival. Then suddenly he slays you with a sweet love ballad…”

Trends come and go. What is real is the ground beneath our feet, the sky above us, the struggle to earn a living. These are Malcolm Holcombe’s timeless subjects and the spin he puts on them makes our journey here more bearable.

… and that’s a pretty good nod to the effect of hearing Holcombe sing. If you’ve not seen him in a live setting, this is what you have to do. His presence is spooky and timeless, as one imagines it was like to see Son House or Leadbelly. No emotional stone is left unturned.  — Craig Havighurst, Nashville

Here is a couple of videos from his YouTube Channel:

The LilFest Series at Uptown Theatre in the First Street Community Center brings worldwide quality performances to an intimate concert setting. These artists follow in the footsteps of performers like Nathan Bell, Chad Elliott, Phil Heywood, Radoslav Lorković, Guy Mendilow, Claudia Nygaard, Jim Post, James Lee Stanley, Eric Taylor, The Sweet Potatoes, Lucie Thorne and The Yearlings. Deeply rooted songs and stories of passion and power for our modern lives.

BYOB with purchase of Uptown Theatre Sippy Cup.

HOW MUCH:   Suggested contribution for the Concert $20.00.
Subscription Sponsorships for the series, @ $100 each ensure center front section seating.

TICKET/SPONSORSHIP QUESTIONS: Nancy Emrich Freeman, 847-256-0000

For further information, additional photographs, interview arrangements: http://www.MalcolmHolcombe.com or mail to: [email protected]

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LilFest’s Fall Music Series – Jim Post’s “Mark Twain and the Laughing River”

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jim-post-as-mark-twain

The Uptown Theatre in The First Street Community Center of Mount Vernon, Iowa is pleased to be hosting award-winning singer/songwriter/actor/historian/musician & Mark Twain interpreter, Jim Post as he performs “Mark Twain and the Laughing River” on October 8th @ 7:30 pm.

The LilFest Fall Music Series premiers its first music and theatre show.  Inspired by the little-known fact that Mark Twain sang tenor; played banjo, guitar and piano; and loved to show off at parties, Jim Post created an exceptional musical experience about Twain’s childhood.

In Mark Twain & the Laughing River, the wit and wisdom of American humorist Mark Twain comes alive as Jim blends his skills as a storyteller, actor, historian and musician to take you through Twain’s youth to his early writing career right up to the point of his first big successes. Twain’s humor takes you from dialogue to song, from stories to historical fact, from laughter to nostalgia. Post has written very effective and melodic folk songs that punctuate the stores, truly communicating Twain’s greatness.

A performer of many stripes, Jim Post wrote and performed the pop duo Friend & Lover’s “Reach Out of the Darkness” which became a Top Ten hit in the summer of 1968. During the ‘70’s and ‘80’s he was a solo songwriter performing at places like in Chicago’s Earl of Old Town and in the great festivals around the midwest and into Canada. He produced the record album Gathering at the Earl of Old Town, which included the first recording of Steve Goodman’s “City of New Orleans,” later performed by Arlo Guthrie and many others.

Show Details

A winner of The American Library Association Award.

“Mark Twain and the Laughing River is nothing less than brilliant, and each sentence and song is a gem.” (Smithsonian Institution)

“Jim Post is one man tour de force – part musical, part drama and thoroughly entertaining.” (Washington Post)

Note: BYOB with purchase of Uptown Theatre Sippy Cup

Cost: Suggested contribution for the Concert $20.00.  Subscription Sponsorships for the series, @ $100 each ensure center front section seating.
TICKET/SPONSORSHIP QUESTIONS: Nancy Emrich Freeman, 847-256-0000

For further information, additional photographs, interview arrangements:  www.JimPost.com or mail to: [email protected]

The LilFest Series at Uptown Theatre in the First Street Community Center brings worldwide quality performances to an intimate concert setting. These artists follow in the footsteps of performers like Nathan Bell, Chad Elliott, Phil Heywood, Radoslav Lorković, Guy Mendilow, Claudia Nygaard, James Lee Stanley, Eric Taylor, The Sweet Potatoes, Lucie Thorne and The Yearlings. Deeply rooted songs and stories of passion and power for our modern lives.

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Concert and Dance – The Stompers Play After Homecoming

Website AdminDance, Gymnasium, Music, News
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Friday evening, September 30 beginning at 9 pm, come listen and dance to ‘The Stompers’ performing in the Gym of the First Street Community Center.

The Stompers band are Iowa’s Rock and Roll Music Hall of Fame recipients and the 2016 Alumni Association’s Community Impact Hall of Fame winners. Playing 60s music that all ages will enjoy!  After the Homecoming Game, come have some fun and listen or dance to some of The Stompers members playing right here in First Street Community Center’s gym where they will be playing.

Open to all, no charge.

picture of The Stompers from the 1960's

ABOUT THE STOMPERS

The Stompers band, with members Bill Bauman’66, Steve Edwards’65, Brian Harman’69, Greg Harman’65, and Randy Harman’68, are this year’s Community Impact recipients.

Jo Clark’64 says in her nomination “Before there was a Mount Vernon High School Alumni Association, there were the Stompers. This group of MVHS graduates is more than a senior citizen high school rock ‘n’ roll band. The Stompers have served as a bond between Mustangs since 1963. The Stompers returned to Mount Vernon every fall for over twenty years, bringing people from all over the United States for their performances. Classmates who hardly knew each other in high school often become friends at a Stompers Reunion Concert. The music is important, but not the most important thing in these gatherings. The spirit and camaraderie of the room trumps all. The Stompers will tell you they don’t sound like they did in the 60s, but you never hear anyone complain. To many of us, it’s almost like a fall evening at Manny’s Corner on Main Street in 1963.”

From 1963 to 1965, the Stompers stomped. These boys from Mount Vernon toured Eastern Iowa ballrooms, Danceland in Cedar Rapids, DanceMor in Swisher, and more. It all started at Manny’s Corner, an little pizza parlor, just down Mount Vernon’s Main Street from Cornell College. Friends grew to crowds, grew to lines on the sidewalk. As the British invaded, The Stompers grew their hair long. They wore tight pants, ankle boots, and turtleneck sweaters. They sang and screamed and duck-walked across the stage like animals.

Their performances at Manny’s Corner put them on the Eastern Iowa map. Before long, The Stompers had gigs every weekend and on many week nights. They earned $100 to $150 per performance. Their original song ‘I Know’ made it to the local airwaves. Girls screamed at every venue. The Stompers fronted the likes of The Animals, the Everly Brothers, and Chuck Berry.

“I Know” gained a notoriety long outliving the band. “I Know” made it as high as #19 on a number of regional charts. In recent years, “I Know” has surfaced on garage-band-loving stations and is considered by many a collector’s item and has been featured on EBay and on-line garage-band forums such as GaragePunk.com.

The summer of ‘65 brought the release of a second record “You’re Gone” by Greg that peaked at #24 on regional charts

In ‘69, Steve, Greg and Randy along and with young brother Brian Harman joining the band, opened a show for The Paul Butterfield Blues Band at Vet’s Coliseum in Cedar Rapids. This turned out to be the precursor to a series of annual reunions.

In 2006 The Stompers band was inducted in the Iowa Music Hall of Fame.

Here’s some YouTube “videos” with their music:

This event is brought to you by:

Logo for the Mount Vernon Community School District Alumni Association

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