You can dress in purple, green and gold and adorn yourself with long beads for next Friday's Mardi Gras celebrations in Coquitlam.
On the heels of its sold-out New Orleans Jazz funeral concert on New Year's Day, the Creole Jazz Band kicks up another party at the King of Lutheran Church to mark the annual festival, which starts Feb. 9.
Coquitlam's Kevin Yeates said the program will be a mix of "upbeat, joyous-sounding music with a trumpet, clarinet and trombone involved in a dog fight as they're playing the melody and improvising over that."
Among the Dixieland tunes the five-piece brass and string ensemble will play include Just A Closer Walk With Thee, That's A Plenty, Tiger Rag, St. James Infirmary, After You've Gone and Bourbon Street Parade.
Yeates, who has a classical music background, said he got hooked on Dixieland jazz by chance after a band leader recommended he try out for his group. "It was the most fun audition I'd ever had," he said.
"I didn't know that was jazz because I had the misconception that jazz was the modern jazz but it's so far removed. In fact, many people have suggested we take out the word 'jazz' from our band name because they get confused, too, but New Orleans is where the genre started. It's the original jazz."
Since the Creole Jazz Band formed (it's currently made up of Scott Sproxton on clarinet, Mike Lord on trombone, Ken Steele on tuba and Arnie Backer on guitar/banjo), it has played dozens of gigs around the Metro Vancouver area — "mostly Legions, bars and restaurants," the cornet player said.
And, each time, the response has been positive. "The hard part now is to find the time to get together to perform," Yeates said.
• Tickets for the Mardi Gras concert on Friday, Feb. 5 are $10/$5/$30 (family) at the door of the King of Life Lutheran Church (1198 Falcon Dr., Coquitlam). For advance tickets, email [email protected]. Showtime is 7:30 p.m.
