CANORA — As part of the 2021/22 Stars for Saskatchewan Concert Series and presented by the Canora Arts Council, Blue Moon Marquee performed for an enthusiastic and appreciative audience at Canora Composite School on March 4, even though it had been snowing all day. And judging from the response of the performers, the feeling was very mutual.
“Thank you so much for coming tonight, for braving the elements to share the evening with us,” said Jasmine (Jazz) Collette, whose musical versatility amazed those in attendance. In addition to singing, she plays stand-up bass, drums with her feet, and when her hands aren’t busy on the bass, she also plays the cymbals.
Al (A.W.) Cardinal, her partner in music and in life, is a gifted guitar player with an unforgettable raw, bluesy singing voice that commands the attention of the audience and won’t let go until the end of the final encore. Joining the duo on their current Scream, Holler & Howl tour was Darcy Phillips, an accomplished piano and organ player who has been the music leader for Jann Arden, a popular Canadian performer, for over 25 years.
“It’s been two years since we’ve been able to perform for real people so this is really great,” said Al as he greeted the audience.
Blue Moon Marquee treated the Canora audience to an evening of mostly original music; influenced by early blues, swing, jazz and ragtime pioneers.
In addition to being the name of their current tour, Scream, Holler & Howl is also the title track of their upcoming fifth album, which was one of the highlights of the concert.
Saddle Sore Saloon is a song Al wrote about an old saloon in his home town of Rocky Mountain House, Alberta. “When I was of age, I heard of this place called Saddle Sore Saloon. My mom was there a lot, so I wrote this song for her. Sadly enough, the saloon isn’t there any more.”
Repeatedly throughout the evening there was spontaneous applause in the middle of songs for the impressive performances of the three musicians.
Over and over, the musicians expressed their gratitude for once again being able to perform for live audiences.
“During the pandemic we had to do live streaming with no audience which was weird, we had to imagine we had a full house of fans. We kind of felt like idiots,” shared Jazz.
Another original song from the concert was Runaway Lane where they paid tribute to one of their major influences, Django Reinhardt. In his teens, Reinhardt was badly burned in a fire, and had to re-learn the guitar using only two fingers. This was said to be the start of a whole new style of music, now known as “Gypsy Jazz.”
During the concert, Jazz shared with the audience that she grew up on a dairy farm in the badlands of Alberta.
“When I lived there, we had community dances all over. We would get together and just dance all night.”
As a tribute to these memories, she wrote Ol’ Alberta, another song off their new album. Repeatedly throughout the evening, Jazz encouraged audience members to “get up and dance” if they felt moved in that direction.
The concert included a sprinkling of covers of the favourite music of Jazz and Al. A song that really got everyone’s toes tapping was Bloodshot Eyes by Wynonie Harris, including that memorable line, “Don’t roll those bloodshot eyes at me.”
The fans at the concert obviously had a great time, because they wouldn’t allow the musicians to leave without an encore, which was Tossin’ & Turnin’ by Bobby Lewis.
Jazz said the two of them were first brought together by their mutual love for early blues and jazz music.
“The music we play is diverse, inspired by anything that has a groove. That includes poems, characters, native stories, different cities. Our original music is inspired by early blues, folk, jazz, anything that had a different slant to it, including freaky, funky calypso.”
There are may reasons why music is important, but one of the biggest is that it brings people together.
“We enjoy it when people get together to celebrate live music,” shared Jazz. “It’s important for us and for society in general. Music is very healing medicine in many different ways, been an integral part of culture in the beginning.”
Since they’re both from small prairie towns, Jazz said they were thoroughly enjoying their concert tour through rural Saskatchewan.
“We feel comfortable in places like Canora. We can relate to the people and the lifestyle. We’ve toured in big cities and performed for large crowds of thousands of fans, which is great. But it’s always nice to leave the cities and get back to the rural life.”
At the end of the concert, the members of Blue Moon Marquee made a point of expressing their support to the people of Ukraine and their loved ones.
“We know there’s a large Ukrainian population in the Canora area. We want to say we stand in solidarity with you and hope for a peaceful solution to the conflict with Russia.”
