Are you ready to put on the ritz in downtown Vancouver?
The homegrown Ne Plus Ultra Jass Orchestra will launch a monthly concert and swing-dance series Friday at the Providence Hall ballroom in Providence Academy, bringing sweetly old-school music to one of Vancouver’s most eminently historical buildings. It’s part of the monthly First Friday Art Walk sponsored by Vancouver’s Downtown Association.
The brainchild of Vancouver’s own Sammuel Murry-Hawkins, the Ne Plus Ultra Jass Orchestra specializes in recreating the lush, romantic, occasionally naughty, eminently danceable sounds of the pioneer jazz bands and hotel orchestras of the 1920s and ’30s. As conductor and singer, the tuxedoed-and-tailed Murry-Hawkins leads his 11-piece band through a catalog of classics by the likes of George Gershwin, Irving Berlin and Duke Ellington.
Putting on your personal ritz and letting loose with the Lindy Hop are not mandatory but they sure will bump up the fun. So will gawking at the recently remodeled, spiffed-up Providence Academy digs while you’re there.
General admission tickets are $10. Outside food and nonalcoholic beverages are welcome. Visit www.historicmusic.org for more information.
