Start the car, I know a whoopee spot
Where the gin is cold, but the piano's hot ...
If there is anyone on the Semiahmoo Peninsula who knows all there is about all that jazz, it is Alexander Browne and his Boulevardiers.
While he may not agree, humble as he is, those who know Browne and his band — or anyone who's been to one of their shows — can attest to how accurately they play the authentic jazz dance band music from the Roaring '20s and Flirty '30s, staying true to the original orchestrations of the era.
The band, which has appeared at such events as the Red Serge Gala, the White Rock Jazz and Blues Festival, galas for Peninsula Productions and this year’s White Rock Sea Festival, is bringing back their signature, Prohibition-era sound to Uptown White Rock for one night only, on Nov. 30, in the lounge at 1469 George St.
Browne noted that original arrangements are key to band's sound, explaining many who sing and play popular standards from the era "seem compelled to rework them into traditional jazz, swing or bebop styles."
"I find the real orchestrations of the era, with their period voicings and harmonies and stylistic twists, have a charm and atmosphere all their own," Browne, also a longtime reporter for the Peace Arch News, said.
"When you hear them, it’s like time-travelling back to the Prohibition era.
Browne has always liked the music of the era, even when he was as young as six years old, living in England.
"There was a popular act in England called The Temperance Seven, and they played old-style dance and jazz band arrangements. They were deliberately eccentric and quaint — not trying to swing everything. They were produced by George Martin, of Beatles fame," Browne recalled. "I was fascinated by all the arranging tricks, jazzy intros, modulations and endings even then. When I was a little older, after we emigrated to Canada, and my parents gifted me re-issues of records by the original artists of the era, I was hooked. I wanted to perform the music myself."
He purchased his first 1920s published stock arrangement — a 1928 two-for-one chart of Lonesome In The Moonlight and Jeannine, I Dream of Lilac Time — at New Westminster's Salvation Army when he was still a teenager, only about 15.
"I’ve since been lucky enough to find more arrangements at antique stores or flea markets and have had older musicians, or their surviving relatives, donate or sell large quantities of yellowing, old orchestral charts to me," he noted. "For example, my good friend Cindy Sleeman very kindly gave me boxes of arrangements that used to belong to her late mother, the distinguished Canadian composer and musical director Anita Sleeman."
His library has expanded so much, he's lost count, he admitted.
"I must have well over 500 tunes in my library now, more than 200 from 1923 to 1933 alone — many more than we could ever play in one evening."
The band, a seven-piece group of seasoned professional musicians from throughout the Vancouver area who excel at their chosen instruments (piano, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, saxophone, tuba and drums) can play everything from classical music to jazz and rock, Browne said.
Most band members played with him in an earlier group, the Aristocrats of Swing.
"For the last decade or so, since I started focusing on my first love — music from the late 1920s and early 1930s — I’ve called the band the Boulevardiers, which seems more typical of the era."
People don't have to be into the era's music to enjoy the show, however.
"We’ve had people at our concerts literally as young as 11 and as old as 95 — and everything in between," said Browne.
"Young people like the energy of the Jazz Age, tunes like Puttin’ On The Ritz and The Man From Harlem. Others like the romantic feel of ballads like Dream A Little Dream Of Me and waltzes like Paradise. For other people, it evokes soundtracks of early talkie musicals or old gangster movies. The music seems to appeal to people of all ages, and everyone gets something different out of it."
Show goers needn't worry about knowing all the proper dance steps, he said.
"We’ve played for swing dancers, ballroom dancers and people who just like to get up and move around to the music," Browne said.
"When dance bands first started playing jazz, over a hundred years ago, there were no set styles like East Coast Swing or West Coast Swing, and everybody made up the steps as they went along. The important thing is to have fun – that’s what we’re there for, and it makes us very happy to see other people simply having a good time."
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the music begins at 7 p.m. at the Nov. 30 show.
Tickets for the event ($35) are available at the door, or in advance at Five Corners Cafe, 1173 Johnston Rd. (cash only at both locations).
