Alberta born, Duncan B.C. based blues/ gypsy blues duo Blue Marquee are enjoying a change in scenery, but are excited to come back to Alberta in support of their new CD “Gypsy Blues.”
They play a special show for the Lethbridge Jazz Festival at the Slice, June 13.
“We’ve been living north of Duncan for a year. It’s wonderful. And we don’t miss the snow,” said bassist/ drummer/ vocalist Jasmine Colette. A. W. Cardinal plays guitar and sings in Blue Moon Marquee. They have been playing together for four years.
“ We’re right between Nanaimo and Victoria and there’s a great scene there, so we play with a lot of people,” she said.
They embark on a 40 date cross-Canada tour in support of the CD, which isn’t officially released until June 17, though they will haver hard copies for the tour.
“We’ve recorded CDs with a full band before, but we did this one just the two of us. We did it at Afterlife Studios which is the old Mushroom studios and we recorded all of it in two and a half days,” Colette said, adding fans are always asking them about a CD featuring just the two of them, so they were happy to make one.
“The title really describes our music. We‘re influenced by a lot of blues but also Django Reinhardt classical music, she described.
“It really is all original. There’s also swing and New Orleans jazz and Tom Waits, which is kind of jazz so they’re all mixed together, which is exciting,” she said.
“We wanted to record a CD that was as close to the live performance as possible,” she said.
”We‘re really excited about it and we’ve almost got enough material for another album. We’d like to record it in the Fall. It probably will be with a full band,” she said.
She enjoys playing with Cardinal.
“ We’re both old souls, so we write about a lot of current topics. We write about our family and friends. Society today is so technology driven so we write about people just trying to figure things out,” she said.
“We‘re also partners in life. We do everything in life together. And we play together so much we’ve learned to almost read each others’ minds. We’ve played with other band members, but even they miss some of the subtle nuances of the music,” she said.
They are excited to play the Lethbridge Jazz Festival— one of eight they got booked for this year including Barrie, Toronto, Ottawa, Saskatoon, Edmonton and Regina.
“It’s nice. We were lucky. We were requested to play all of these festivals. We feel really lucky. In Lethbridge the Slice brought us in and the Jazz Festival is helping with the show,” she said.
“We‘re glad we could make it work. We’ll be playing two sets. We’ll be playing songs from the new album and songs from the older album and some new songs,” she said,
adding usually they have to contact festivals about playing.
“Usually you have to apply,” she said.
They are also playing shows in New York and Chicago this summer.
Blue Moon Marquee play the Slice at 9 p.m., June 13. At 9 p.m Tickets are $10
There is a $10 cover. They are also at the Twin Butte Store on June 11.
