It has been a long time boogie woogie pianist Michael Kaeshammer has played Lethbridge.
He is excited to play the festival at the Yates Theatre, June 14 and hopes to check out some of the other acts playing on the Saturday before he and his trio, bassist/ trombonist Nick LaRiviere and drummer Roger Travassoss are flying to the UK the next day out of Calgary.
“ If there is anything else happening on the day we play I will, but we have to fly to the UK the next day,” said Kaeshammer from Kelowna where he is spending time with his girl.
“ It has been a while. I’ve only played Lethbridge twice. The first time was solo in the late ’90s and the second time was with Anne Murray,” he recalled.
He also hasn’t prepared a setlist, though he will be playing a few songs from his last CD “With You In Mind— a tribute to Allen Toussaint.”
He has always been a fan of Toussaint’s playing.
“ I grew up listening to a lot of New Orleans music. I got interested in New Orleans music through him. I got to play a festival with one and realized just how many great songs he recorded,” Kaeshammer said.
He plays in several different incarnations including a six piece band, the trio and a ’60s band, but is bringing the trio to Lethbridge for the Jazz Festival.
“ Nick plays his trombone through a harmonizer so it sounds like a bigger horn section,” he said adding he doesn’t have set plan for the Lethbridge show.
“I never have a set list because it is nice to go into a show without any preconceived notions of what it is going to be, but it will be a fun, upbeat, New Orleans style show,” he said adding he also plans to try out some of the 50 new songs he has written for his next album which he plans to record at the end of the year.
He is doing some crowd-funding for the new album through www.pledgemusic.com/projects/michaelkaeshammer
“ I haven’t had a great experience with labels. They own the masters, so you can’t do anything with them,” he said.
“And a lot of artists use Kickstarter and Pledge, so I think I’d try it out,” he said adding crowd-funding also gives his audience a chance to play a bigger role in the new album.
“I want to have more creative control of my art,” he said adding once the new CD is recorded, he will seek out another record label.
He noted playing the new songs live gives the audience more input into the new album.
“By playing them live you get to see what works and what doesn’t ,” he said adding audience response tells him what songs work best.
“ I’m just excited to come and play the festival,” he said.
Michael Kaeshammer and the Ellen Doty Quartet play the Yates Theatre at 8 p.m., June 14.
Tickets cost $45 in advance, $50 at the door.
