Victoria jazz singer pays tribute to crooners in charity show
Jazz singer Joe Coughlin keeps alive works of legendary performers like Sinatra, Vaughan
IN CONCERT
What: Salute to the Saloon Singers Where: Dave Dunnet Community Theatre 2121 Cadboro Bay Rd. When: Thursday, 7:30 p.m., doors open at 6:30 p.m. Tickets: $30 (advance); $35 at door Reservations: rmts.bc.ca, Oak Bay High School
When Joe Coughlin’s brother came to Victoria from Ontario to see Coughlin’s Frank Sinatra 100th birthday celebration benefit concert two years ago, he couldn’t help but notice the predominant demographic.
“He said: ‘This audience is getting older. You only have a certain window of opportunity here,’ ” Coughlin said. “In 10 years, people are going to say: ‘Who the hell is Frank Sinatra?’ ”
In an era when rappers and millennial-friendly pop stars have taken over from crooners on talk shows, there’s a kernel of truth to his joke.
“Times change and styles change,” Coughlin acknowledged, although that has never dampened the award-winning jazz singer’s passion for paying tribute to legendary singers of decades gone by.
He will perform another such homage at Oak Bay High School’s Dave Dunnet Community Theatre on Thursday night, this time in a show titled Salute to the Saloon Singers.
Like his 2015 Sinatra tribute, his musical celebration of the music of Ol Blue Eyes, Tony Bennett, Sarah Vaughan, Mel Torme, Ella Fitzgerald, Carmen McRae and others is doubling as a fundraiser.
It’s in support of Oak Bay Rotary Foundation’s Sno’uyutth Legacy Fund, a scholarship for Indigenous students graduating from Oak Bay High School.
“[Event organizer] Joe Blake is a really persistent gentleman, and we need to raise another seven or eight thousand to put the scholarship fund to bed,” the Windsor, Ont.-born musician said.
A saloon singer himself, Coughlin’s Salute to the Saloon Singers is as good a fit as the venue, which accommodates his motorized wheelchair.
“I picked eight singers who shaped how I was going to perform this kind of music, singers I listened to when I got interested in this kind of music,” said Coughlin, whose show is a pared-down version of a full-blown Great American Songbook concert tribute he performed with the Windsor Symphony Orchestra at that city’s Cleary Auditorium, on the same stage where he made his debut as a jazz singer in 1981.
He’ll be accompanied by pianist Miles Black, guitarist Bill Coon, acoustic bassist Ken Lister and drummer Hans Verhoeven.
Coughlin was pumped about his quartet, in part because it will mark the first time he has worked with Coon since 2009, when he was named male vocalist of the year for the second consecutive year at the National Jazz Awards.
One of the unique things about the show is its acknowledgment of musical greats such as Mabel Mercer, who influenced singers such as Bennett, Vaughan and Peggy Lee, he said.
“She was a great influence on Ella [Fitzgerald] and Billie Holiday, and Frank [Sinatra], too. She gave a more rhythmic approach.”
He also mentions Mildred Bailey, the so-called “queen of swing,” who was a major influence, yet not as well known for that despite her flourishing musical career in the 1930s.
The challenge, he said, is having to choose from such a wealth of material for a show that will feature about two dozen songs performed over two sets.
One of the highlights is The Right To Love, the Peggy Lee hit written by Lalo Schifrin that Coughlin recorded for his first album in 1981.
“It’s a great song that was popular around the civil-rights era of 1963,” he said. “It was about interracial [romances], but it was adopted later by the LGTBQ [community]. We all have the right to love who we want to love.”
Other highlights include South to a Warmer Place, Frank Sinatra’s 1981 hit that Coughlin recorded in 1997; and Dreamsville, the ballad Henry Mancini wrote for the TV series Peter Gunn.
“Yeah, there will be some recognizable tunes in there,” Coughlin said.
“I can guarantee there’s no stinkers in the bunch.”