Musicians with the Coquitlam-based Pacific Symphonic Wind Ensemble will be loosening up a little for their last number at their next show.
On Saturday, the classically trained group will be joined on the Evergreen Cultural Centre stage by a jazz trio to play Chick Corea's Spain, a piece arranged by PSWE musical director David Branter.
Branter, a jazz saxophonist, invited his colleagues René Worst (bass), Bill Sample (piano) and Buff Allen (drums) to spice up the Iberian-themed concert. "We'll be venturing into new territory with the jazz band," he said.
But while it's a Spanish-styled night, there'll be other countries represented, too, by composers and arrangers.
PSWE will perform Emmanuel Chabrier's Espana, rhapsody for orchestra, a number penned in 1883 after the French musician returned from a trip to Spain; its melody may be known to older audience members as it was the basis for Hot Diggity (Dog Ziggity Boom), a popular song made famous in the 1950s by crooner Perry Como.
Next on the program is a piece by Spanish nationalist Enrique Granados Campina, from a set of his piano tunes. Still, the concert centrepiece will be from another French composer, Claude Debussy. Iberia is the most popular of his three orchestral Images (the arrangement PSWE will perform is by a Japanese musician). "It's a significant challenge for the band because of its delicate playing," he said.
And an adaptation of El Corpus Christi en Sevilla, a piano piece by Isaac Albéniz, follows before the jazz trio takes up.
L'Espana is PSWE's penultimate show of the season, with its last recital, titled Hands Across the Border, on June 13.
Tickets at $20/$15/$12 for L'Espana on Feb. 21 at 8 p.m. are available by calling 604-927-6555 or online at evergreenculturalcentre.ca.
