Candice McMahon
Special to The Morning Star
The Vernon Jazz Club prides itself on not only providing the best jazz groups from the Okanagan, Vancouver and eastern Canada, but also on broadening our patrons’ awareness of jazz by including distinctive and notable jazz artists from around the world.
Dutch Grammy winners Ineke Vandoorn and Marc van Vugt have brought their jazz duo back to Canada on their east-to-west tour. They began their tour in Toronto, performed in Saskatchewan and Alberta, and are playing six concerts in British Columbia, including a residency and concert with the jazz program at Capilano University. After beautiful British Columbia, they will complete their five-week tour giving two final concerts in Ottawa and Montreal.
On their Canadian tour, the duo is experimenting with a new repertoire uncovered when they locked themselves up in a house in southern France. At the end of the tour, the duo is set to record the new repertoire.
On their previous tour across our country in 2016, Vandoorn and van Vugt’s music was warmly received and the audiences really connected with what they were doing. Subsequently, they received many invitations to return and, luckily for us, they not only accepted, but planned this 10,000 km extravaganza.
Vandoorn and van Vugt explore the boundaries of both improvisation and lyrical songs, creating their own world with their funky arrangements and modern music full of rich harmonies and haunting melodies.
Vandoorn is known throughout the world for her highly acclaimed book on singing, Singing From the Inside Out. Published in 2016, this book is becoming a standard among jazz and pop singers and teachers.
Vandoorn’s exceptional and warm vocals are supported by solos full of detours by composer and guitarist van Vugt. Although there are obviously echoes of different styles like jazz, the virtuoso Brazilian choro, and the fairytale-like (pop) music of Scandinavia, their music is unmistakably their own.
Vandoorn was pleased to discover so much jazz music being played in North America, even in the malls. Jazz music is basically restricted to jazz clubs in the Netherlands, but in Canada the audience is much more familiar with what constitutes jazz and are more appreciative of the musicians’ creativity through their improvisations.
Ineke Vandoorn and Marc van Vugt will be onstage at the Vernon Jazz Club, 3000-31st Street, March 24 at 8 p.m. Doors open at 7:15 p.m. Cash only bar on site. Tickets $20 online at www.vernonjazz.com and at Expressions of Time (2901-30 Ave), with a $5 rebate at the gig for VJS members.
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