Art Chowder January | February, Issue 19 | Page 52

S
pokane was about to be treated to
a taste of true legacy American music,
a good amount of which was originally
created and performed right here in the
city by musical legends including Bing
Crosby, his little brother Bob Crosby,
Mildred Bailey, and Al Rinker plus
a plethora of very talented local and
regional jazz and swing artists.
Hosting a wide variety of musicians and
vocalists who became part of The Viktor
Navorski Swing Band, Garrin and Robert
eventually teamed up with John Bole
(now CEO of Yoke’s Fresh Markets)
and brought in vocalist Heather Villa to
form the very successful Spokane band
Six Foot Swing. Heather invited pianist
Mary Chavez to join the band and it
52 ART CHOWDER MAGAZINE
continued to grow in both membership
and popularity.
Six Foot Swing was developing into a
highly successful all-round variety jazz
band, so Garrin and Robert decided to
expand the region’s jazz legacy even
further by forming yet one more Spokane-
based musical ensemble which would lean
even further towards the re-creation of
that early Hot Club sound.
I believe you can see where this might
be leading to now! Employing their
philosophy of creating more of that
“serious fun,” they once again, very much
with tongue in cheek, came up with “Hot
Club of Spokane” as the name for their
new band! And why not? “There’s a
Hot Club of Detroit, Hot Club of San
Francisco, Hot Club of Norway, even a
Hot Club of America, and now we have
our very own Hot Club of Spokane,”
quipped Garrin!
And sizzling hot they truly are! This
vibrant and enthusiastic ensemble of
musicians and vocalists come together
to perform a wide variety of infectious
toe-tapping traditional jazz standards, hot
swing, and beautiful melodies, some of
which may date as far back as the 1920’s.
The band strives for authenticity and
whenever possible acquires the original
charts and arrangements to get as close
to the original sound as it can. The band
in essence can often become a virtual
“musical time machine!”