On October 8 it was Jazz Night at the Effie Arts Collective. The western Canada tour of the Casey Thomas-Burns Band played a lively show. The band consisted of band leader Casey Thomas-Burns on trombone and vocals, Riley Poystila on bass and Clement Pytel on drums. They are all from the Lower Mainland. Well known keyboard player Neville Bowman from Kelowna was added for this part of the tour.

The Casey Thomas-Burns Band played a number of well known and a few obscure jazz standards, R&B classics, movie musical hits and even a bit of gospel and traditional jazz. This talented band wasn’t afraid to challenge themselves with a few “off beat” tunes such as Blossom Dearie’s “I’m Hip” and a cool arrangement of “I Want You Back” originally done by the Jackson 5. They also had fun with a reworked version of Fats Domino’s “Blueberry Hill” and “Georgia on My Mind,” which was made popular by Ray Charles. It was refreshing to see that Casey Thomas-Burns chose to cover two wonderful Canadian jazz musicians, Diana Panton and Bria Skonberg in her sets. Other jazz favourites were “Let’s Fall in Love’ and “Give Me the Simple Life.”

The Effie was nearly full and the audience was very enthusiastic and clapped after the many solos. All band members were given solo space for some improvisation.

Near the end of the performance bassist Riley Poystila played an inspired part of a song called “Point Nemo” and all evening, did a great job on the double bass and some background vocals. Thomas-Burns handled her emcee duties with aplomb and traded the trombone and vocal duties seamlessly. She is a talented trombonist and her vocal range was impressive. Bowman covered the lead duties on keyboards when she sang and also played some wonderful solos. Clement Pytel had a very smooth touch with the brushes and chipped in a background vocal or two. The Casey Thomas-Burns Band are continuing their tour and hope to be recording in the near future.

Upcoming at the Effie on October 19 is a psychedlic-pop-funk band Ginger Beef, featuring Warren Tse, the Calgary Flames organist. This band certainly has jazz influences, and will be well worth seeing. Local Jared Doherty will be an opening act.