They may not be trending on Spotify, but Joe Piccolo and the Swing Cats have a killer horn section that generates energy and excitement wherever they perform.
This coming Saturday, the up-tempo, horn-driven dance band pulls all the stops with Blood, Sweat & Brass, a three-set smokin’ show at Shakers Roadhouse.
The nine-man band, with five players from St. Albert – John “Yash the Stash” Dymianiw (trumpet), Allen Jacobson (trombone), Ralph Pretz (guitar) Jean-Francoise Picard (bari sax) and Bruce Mohacsy (bass) have a broad range from Big Band Swing and Motown to funk, jive and improvised jazz.
“We are featuring some great horn band music you don’t get to hear performed live as often as it should be. When we play, it’s a big sound and we put on a good show,” said Dymianiw.
Always flexible in customizing their songs, the band will focus mainly on the music of legendary Blood, Sweat & Tears, a band that generated a “fantastic” catalogue of songs that still hold up today.
The contemporary American jazz-rock group, combining eight to 10 musicians at any given time, was most notable for fusing rock, blues, pop, horn arrangements and jazz improvisations into a hybrid later known as jazz-rock.
“Blood, Sweat & Tears was a wonderful combination of jazz, funk and R & B. It was a wonderful fusion. It was so powerful with its songwriting. It was a very sophisticated band and David Clayton Thomas had this husky, gravelly, powerful voice you could identify whenever you heard it,” Dymianiw added.
Two BS&T songs The Swing Cats will perform include God Bless the Child, a slow bluesy tune that switches into Latin and swing as well as the award-winning single Spinning Wheel.
To balance out the evening, other established groups peppering the set list include Chicago, Lighthouse, Room Full of Blues, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Powder Blues Band.
Ontario bandleader and saxophonist Joe Piccolo, the driving force behind the Swing Cats, is musically rooted in the history of the Motor City Blues and R&B tradition.
“Detroit was right across the border and Joe learned from the great Detroit artists and he brought all that to Edmonton,” said Dymianiw.
Dymianiw and Piccolo first met when both worked at St. John’s Music – Dymianiw as a school sales representative and Piccolo as a repair technician.
“In the summer, schools would send their instruments to us to be cleaned or fixed and Joe would take some portion and do it at his house. At that time Allen Jacobson worked as the other school sales rep. From there Joe wanted to create a nine-piece blues band and he began to gather material.”
Whether they play selections from Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, Nat “King” Cole, Joe Cocker, The Temptations, James Brown, Stevie Wonder or any other iconic music, the band always finds the right groove.
“It’s one thing to hear a recording. Hearing a song live with the power of a band behind it is almost like taking you back in time when it was first performed.”
Preview
Blood, Sweat & Brass<br />With Joe Piccolo and Swing the Cats<br />Saturday, March 25 at 9 p.m.<br />Shakers Roadhouse<br />15004 Yellowhead Trail<br />Tickets: Advance $10, door $15 Available at Shaker’s Roadhouse or at [email protected]
