[Dixielandjazz] Riot Expected At Dixieland Concert

[Steve Barbone]

Riot expected at concert

Rob Vanstone, The Leader-Post - Wednesday, April 11, 2007  (Regina Canada)

Fans of fine music should enjoy the Riot act. The Regina Riot -- a Dixieland
group -- is featured at the next Regina Jazz Society concert, to be held
Friday at Le Bistro (3850 Hillsdale St.). The band is as colourful as its
name would suggest.

"Yeah, we hope that a fight breaks out at the concert, just like in the
1930s -- with sticks and bats and everything," bandleader-trumpeter Kevin
Kasha jokes via e-mail. The group also includes Chris Jacklin (saxophone),
Scott Peters (trombone), Jeff McLeod (piano), Al McWilliams (bass) and Corey
Taylor (drums).

"What I think is great about this music is the universal appeal," Kasha
says. "Even rappers and metalheads like Dixieland music. Even when you are
playing the blues, it sounds happy. It's like going to Disney World. You
always leave with a smile on your face. The music is happy, rhythmic, bouncy
and fun. In fact, it's a riot! Hence the name."

"It is quite a riot to have as much fun playing music," Kasha continues.
"Then the audience has fun, and then the musicians have more fun, and on and
on. It's the antithesis of a vicious circle."

Kasha formed the Riot with former Lions band cohort Ted Warren, an elite
drummer who is now based in Toronto.

"About 10 years ago, when I was thinking of something different to get a gig
at the Saskatchewan Jazz Festival, I contacted (organizers) and told them I
had a Dixieland band for the festival, and so they hired me," Kasha recalls.

"At this point, it became clear that I needed to get a Dixieland band
together in a hurry! So I 'borrowed' some charts from the Lions Band, called
some friends, and we tried to have a rehearsal before our first gig up at
the festival."

"Unfortunately, we couldn't all get together at the same time so we did our
first gig cold -- which was similar to the reception we received when we
started our first tune with the piano in the wrong key. Someone had hit the
'transpose' button on the keyboard and transposed it up two steps. We have
retained that feeling throughout the history of the group and have never had
a rehearsal -- and it shows! To say that the group is 'loose' would be like
saying New York is a big city."

The band is noted for its looseness -- as in humour -- especially when Kasha
does his priceless Louis Armstrong impression. "However, the bigger
highlight will be our other singer, Chris Jacklin," Kasha points out.

"We have an audience participation number where the audience becomes Chris's
backup singers. It is a song written especially for Chris, called 'Little
Dixie Chris,' and it really has to be heard to be believed.
Sometimes, the band members can't believe it themselves."

"We are used to playing background music, although it often seeps into the
foreground when we can't contain ourselves," Kasha says. "The frightening
thing is when we do a concert such as this. Then Little Dixie Chris will
lean over and say, 'Now what do we do? The people are actually listening to
us.' "

There will be more fine listening one week later (April 20), when a quintet
led by Carter Powley will pay tribute to the masters of melody -- Charles
Mingus, Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington.

The aforementioned Jazz Society shows begin at 8:30 p.m