Meet the Bands!
Band Leader: Josh Roberts
Friday Night: Josh Roberts Quintet
Josh Roberts is a jazz guitarist, band leader and arranger who has been performing for the swing dance community for 20 years. Josh's sound and repertoire is inspired by the great bands of the 1930’s and 1940’s such as Jimmie Lunceford, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Chick Webb and Duke Ellington. Josh brings original arrangements as well as his adaptations and transcriptions of both swing-era classics and lesser-known gems. His bands have featured at numerous swing dance events including Camp Jitterbug, the Northwest Balboa Festival, Portland Lindy Exchange, Balhalla, Big Sky Weekend and Lindy Bout.
Saturday Afternoon: Ben MacRae's Eastside Second Line
Band Leader: Ben MacRae
Vancouver BC based musician and pastor Benjamin MacRae (he/him/his) specializes in modern music and the spoken word, blending influences from across diverse traditions of music and Christian spirituality through a progressive, inclusive, compassionate and intersectional feminist approach. A believer in truth and reconciliation and the movement towards decolonization, Ben lives, works, worships, and plays on the current, unceded, ancestral, and sacred territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
Saturday Night: The Rugcutter Dance Orchestra
Band Leader: Michael Coury
The Rugcutter Dance Orchestra led by Michael Coury specializes in original arrangements in the style of the great dance orchestras of the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s. This is a band that loves to play popular music for dancers and listeners of all ages and that also features some of Vancouver’s best musicians.
