Three local musical luminaries plus one shining special-guest visitor should add up to a glorious Saturday afternoon of Christmas songs and other spiritual sounds.
“It’s the idea of merrymaking and fun right up until the official end of the holiday season,” said Vancouver pianist and music producer Jim Fischer. “It’ll be an acoustical celebration of Twelfth Night.”
Fischer said he used to cut off his Christmas repertoire as soon as the holiday was done, until he caught another pianist in downtown Portland who was still going strong with yule music, well into January.
“No Jim, you play Christmas songs until Jan. 6,” instructed this brother pianist. That’s because, in many Western Christian traditions, Christmas is actually a 12-day observance that winds up with the Epiphany, aka Three Kings Day — a feast and celebration of the visit paid to the baby Jesus by those three pilgrims from the East.
If You Go
• What: “Twelfth Night of Christmas” concert featuring Jim Fischer, Cathy Bolton, John Standefer and Keith Collins.
• When: 2 p.m. Jan. 6.
• Where: First Presbyterian Church, 4300 Main St., Vancouver.
• Cost: Free; donations accepted.
• Info: www.jimfischer.net or www.cathybolton.com
Three friends
Three Fischer friends will join him for this 75-minute “mini-concert,” and you could call one a pilgrim from the East.
Fischer met Cathy Bolton, a spiritual singer-songwriter from Michigan, when she was providing music for Christian author (and Ashland, Ore., resident) Neale Donald Walsch’s touring “Conversations with God.” Bolton’s song “Remember Who You Are” appeared alongside ethereal music by stars such as Yanni and George Winston on a Windham Hill compilation CD — and since then has been adopted by many self-help groups and websites that love its positive, encouraging message. To take a listen, go to YouTube and search on Cathy Bolton.
“She has an angelic voice,” said Fischer, who is working with Bolton on her latest CD as producer and pianist. “She has done six CDs in my studio, but none of my local fans have heard her live. I thought it was time.”
And, because Vancouver fingerstyle guitar master John Standefer has also contributed to Bolton recordings in Fischer’s northwest Vancouver studio, Standefer was invited to the gig as well.
“John is an outstanding fingerstyle player,” said Fischer. “The two of them will bring the folk-singer side and I’ll bring the jazzy side.” Plus, completing the quartet will be bass player Dr. Keith Collins, another musician who works regularly in Fischer’s studio when he’s not busy with his day job — as a Hazel Dell dentist.
“He put himself through dental school playing the bass,” Fischer remembered. “I think he was the first kid in Portland who had a Fender electric bass. He got all the gigs and put himself through dental school that way.”
Amid all this remarkable talent, here’s the most remarkable thing about what’s sure to be a happy, uplifting concert: it’s free.
