The community was moving their feet and swinging to the beat as the Johnny Summers Little Big Band performed at the Sylvan Lake CommunityCentre Saturday evening.
Organized by Jazz At The Lake, the music was beautiful and the dance floor was always full.
The room was decorated to the tune of a 1940’s theme including cardboard cutouts of people dancing, a white bench set up for photographs and music notes adorning the room.
Ticket sales were high that night with attendees stating it was worth every penny spent.
With rainy weather outside, it was the perfect escape for people to come and have fun indoors.
“It’s a fantastic night. The weather worked in our favour this weekend because we had people who had planned to go out of town for the long weekend and asked if we had tickets for sale because they were staying home,” said Jazz at the Lake co-founder, Eric Allison.
This is Johnny’s ninth year performing at Jazz at the Lake and if you hear him once, you want to hear him again said Allison.
Together with the Little Big Band, they had everyone swinging away.
It was no problem if you didn’t know how to swing dance before hand, there was also a dance teacher who taught several people how to move their feet before the evening began with many relishing the new moves they were taught.
Swing Into Spring is the second of four concerts being held in Jazz At The Lake’s seasonal concert series.
Recently organizers announced that the full festival would be brought back in 2017, as next year will also be the 15th anniversary of Jazz at the Lake.
Listening to Johnny sing and his band play music ranging from between 1935 and 1945 certainly was an evening to remember.
Johnny also kept it modern by singing some Michael Jackson and followed it up with a riveting rendition of an Elvis Presley song.
Being enthusiastic and having fun while performing is part of who Johnny and his band members are, however they also take their music seriously.
“I take the music very seriously but I don’t take myself that seriously,” Summers said. “I’m just trying to groove.”
He continued on to say how he and his band take the music they perform very seriously and said they rehearse it very hard, but once on stage performing they try to let a little loose.
“We just try to grove and swing,” Summers said. “We try to have fun with the crowd and the dancers and really whatever kind of event it is.”
With dancers consistently being on the dance floor people were definitely having fun.
This was Summer’s hope. He wanted people to enjoy the concert and they most certainly did.
“Music should be something that uplifts people when they come to a live concert and they get something out of it,” Summers said. “It’s not just going to something because they think they should be. I want to make sure they are feeling elated, hopeful, uplifted and moved emotionally.”
The edition of Jazz At The Lake’s seasonal concert series will take place on August 20 with ‘Sounds of Summer’. The concert features Juno andGemini award winning artist, Tommy Banks.
Tickets are available online at www.jazzatthelake.com.