Boomshack expands on jazz to get people dancing

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While it isn’t officially part  of the Lethbridge Jazz and Blues Festivals., Nanaimo based jazz/ dance band Boomshack plan to get your  feet moving at the Slice Saturday, June 16.Boomshack make their Lethbridge debut this week. Photo submitted
 “This will be our first tour off the Vancouver island experience. We’re just playing four shows in Alberta and four in B.C.,” said trumpet/ trombone player Dave Bamford from his living room in Nanaimo, where he is hanging out with drummer Graham Villette.


 The band formed after meeting and making music together through the jazz program at Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo.


“We were really influenced by two local bands playing a lot. And we enjoyed playing together and making music together,” Villette added.
“I actually joined the band six months, a year after the other guys because their original drummer was away for the summer, so I filled in and joined the band playing auxiliary percussion. I enjoyed it so much, I got some stuff like bongos and joined,” he continued, adding the band expands on their jazz roots by incorporating a variety of musical styles including Latin, funk, rock and pop.
“And a lot of reggae,” Bamford added.

 “We want to create a sound including  a lot of our influences, but it definitely is not jazz,” Bamford said, noting their were influenced by a couple of  Nanaimo bands including Dope Soda and Bananafish.

 “They were really active in 2013,” he said.
 “ And we’re influenced a lot by Five Alarm Funk from Vancouver. Though we aren’t as theatrical,” Villette said.


“There’s no sharks flying across the stage,” he chuckled.
“ We’re used to playing jazz music and wearing suits on stage, though we don’t in this band,” Bamford continued.
“Internationally we’re really influenced by Snarkfish and  Australia’s Cat Empire. We love the Cat Empire. We love how they combine so many styles,” he said.
 
“Our music is fast paced, exciting dance music. Our lead singer and tenor saxophonist Theo (G Hughes-Ridgway) comes up with the most creative ideas,”Villette said.


“It’s so much fun. We experiment with funk, hip hop and rock. There‘s so much energy,” he enthused.
“And we’re all multi-instrumentalists, so there’s a lot of jumping around between instruments. We don[t want any one song to to sound the same as the others,” Bamford added.

–By Richard Amery, L.A. beat Editor
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