Hear the music that accompanied 16 million members of the “Greatest Generation” as they marched off to war, the music that lifted spirits on the front, and welcomed soldiers home. The Royal Garden Swing Orchestra, under the direction of Warren Balfour, will perform their big band sound August 11 beginning at 4 p.m.
Made up of the finest professional musicians from the region, the group is celebrating its 27th year performing with a musicality rarely heard today. Balfour has played with superstars like Roger Williams, Bobby Vinton, Toni Tennile, The Temptations and the Manhattan Transfer. The 11-piece band is comprised of energetic brass, saxophones and rhythm sections and plays “swing” standards (old and new), high-driving jazz and Latin music including Tito Puente and Antonio Carlos Jobim and sounds bigger than the average big band. The bands members include: Scott Liddi, Bob Harway, Ron McCarley, Bob Sennett, Mitch Latting, Bruce Scott, Bob Bennett, Gary Drysdale, Ken Hustad, Darrell Voss and Warren Balfour. With over 200 original arrangements of memorial songs from the swing era to modern classics, theirs is a sound to be heard.
The group has produced three albums together: Under the Influence-Swing That Is!, Manuscript Series, a recording of all original and special arrangements of Bob Sennett, the band’s baritone sax player, and Best Foot Forward, winner of the “Best Little Big Band” recording for 2008 from the DiskMaker’s Alliance in New York. This 15-track collection of mostly instrumental jazz swing performed by an orchestra “that harkens back to a bygone era” wrote Glen Starkey of the New Times, “when musicians wore tuxedos and had an air of elegance about them.” This album has been played extensively on radio stations throughout the United States, including KCBX. Arrangements on this recording are from Tom Kubis, Bob Sennett, Dan Higgins, Billy May, Marty Wright, Mark Taylor, Milt Kleeb, George Stone and Dave Becker. A fourth album is in process.
The big bands of that long-ago era, by musical icons such as Basie, Miller, Ellington, Dorsey and Goodman, provided the jazzy, upbeat sounds for tough times during the Depression and World War II. This ultimately became the most popular kind of jazz in the 20th century, and remains popular today.
Seating is limited, reserve early on-line at slobg.org/royal-garden-swing or pick up your tickets at Eve’s Garden Shop. Cost: $20 members; $25 non-members. Indoor concert, doors open at 3:30 p.m, concert begins at 4 p.m. Free docent led tour of the Garden begins in the Preview Garden at 2:30 PM. No-host bar. A $3 fee is charged for parking by San Luis Obispo County Parks in El Chorro Regional Park April through September on weekends and holidays.