If you love traditional standard Jazz, straight from the Great American Songbook featuring such icons of music as Irving Berlin, Rogers & Hart, Cole Porter, George and Ira Gershwin and Johnny Mercer (who Russ Scruggs calls “the Shakespeare of Music”) you won’t want to miss RiverMUSIC on Friday, August 3rd, with the 42 Street Jazz Band at the RiverLink Performance and Sculpture Plaza, 144 Riverside Drive from 6 to 10 pm.
This is the third concert of the five-concert series RiverLink is sponsoring. The remaining two RiverMUSIC concerts will feature Sirius B and the Blood Gypsies on August 24 and Yo Mamma’s Big Fat Booty Band with special guest The Fritz on September 14.
The 42 Street Jazz Band is led by Russ Scruggs on guitar with veteran members including Gloria Johnson as soloist, Jim Lane on trumpet, Roger Mittendorff or “Dodge Montana” on drums, Kevin Lampton on bass, and Joe Lavin on clarinet.
The Great American Songbook features songs written from just before World War I through shortly after World War II. If you love the music performed by Mr. Fats, Thomas “Fats Waller”, Louis Armstrong, Billy Holliday, Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra you won’t want to miss this magical night of music and dancing under the stars by the French Broad River.
The event features beer by New Belgium Brewery, wine, and presecco, and a variety of food trucks. Bring a chair or blanket and plan on coming early and staying late. The gates open at 5 pm and attendees are encouraged to bike, boat, walk and park only in spots designated for RiverMUSIC parking WCQS jazz expert Dick Kowal will be our master of ceremonies for this magic night of jazz on the river.
RiverLink is especially grateful to its sponsors of RiverMUSIC: Chaddick Foundation, New Belgium Brewing, Pisgah Investments, Sundance Solar, Asheville on Bikes, Blue Ridge Bio Fuels, WCQS, The River 98.1, and Phil Mechanic Artist Studios.