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The Big Steam Band started in the 1980s as a night school course in "Intermediate Swing Band", taught by Whitney Smith (no relation). We had a core group of amateur players, and when we got a gig, we would fill out the lineup with top session players in the lead chairs. |
In this way, I got to perform and record with some of the best musicians in town, people like Pat LaBarbera, Don Thompson, Russ Little, and Steve Crowe, as well as vocalists like Dinah Christie, Diane Heatherington, David Sereda, Louise Pitre, and an as-yet undiscovered Holly Cole, seen here singing with the band at the Sutton Place Hotel in 1986. That's me in the centre. |
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The band faded out in the early nineties, but Whitney brought it back a few years later, and it continues today with an all pro lineup. |