Jazz Band entertains auto show crowd

Feb. 24, 2005
By Tait Hilmer
Staff Writer

Take the “A Train” if you want to get to Harlem in a hurry, as the Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn song suggests.  If you are the St. Ambrose jazz combos, take Third Street to the Davenport River Center. 

On Thursday Feb. 10, director Eugene Bechen took his two jazz combos to the eleventh annual Iowa-Illinois Regional Auto Show, not to look at cars, but to perform.  Amongst the Volvos, Fords, Dodge trucks and the BMW roadsters, came jazz music.

The bands played for a banquet awarding scholarships to high school seniors.  This was not the first time the St. Ambrose jazz band has been invited to play and most likely will not be the last.  Terry Van Dike the director of promotions for the auto show sent a letter to Bechen inviting the jazz band back for years to come.

Bechen enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere at the auto show, because the performers were not nervous to solo or be creative.  He was a little worried because this was the first time the jazz ensemble preformed as two small seven-piece combos, due to the lack of instrumentation.

“The combos are working out really well, more people get to play than in the big band,” Bechen said.

Bechen was not the only one who enjoyed the low-pressure confines of the Davenport River Center.

“We could just have fun, and not worry about screwing up,” tenor saxophone player Kyle Ware said.  “Last year the jazz band played on a balcony and was for the most part ignored.  This year was much better, because we were in the show room where it was intimate and we were given much more attention.”

The two bands filled time for two hours while patrons perused around the show room floor snacking and drinking.  While one combo was playing the other was able to walk around the show room floor and look at the vehicles and partake in the free food and drinks.

“I really liked the free time we had when the other combo was playing, it was much better than playing the whole two hours and having no time to look around,” pianist Ellen Pagan said.

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