Casey MacGill and the Blue 4: Music and Style

Casey MacGill's Blue 4 Trio performs music that swings. Some have called it the Nat "King" Cole Trio meets the Mills Brothers. Others have called it Fats Waller meets Fats Domino. Slim Galliard meets Fred Astaire. Its music from the ''20's to the '60's, all happening at the same time, woven into a seamless, beautiful whole. At the core of the sound are the band's sometimes sweet, sometimes rough-hewn three-part harmony vocals and a piano-ukulele-bass-and-drums rhythm section that swings along in a variety of textures. Their debut recording as a group, "Casey MacGill's Blue 4 Trio", features 10 trio tracks and 2 quartet tracks. Says Casey: "My other projects were like oil paintings, constantly being tweaked and refined. The Blue 4 Trio CD is my watercolor, I put the paint on and what you get is what you get." The result is soft, loud, happy, sad, raw, mellow, with an honest mistake or 2 thrown in for good measure. It is a real band playing real music.

Casey MacGill is the heart and soul of the band. From California, he is a classic Hollywood character in appearance and style. MacGill plays boogie-woogie, swing, and stride piano. He blows a lyrical cornet, and his most unique instrumental voice is a 6-string tenor ukulele. He has been singing and arranging vocal harmonies for almost 30 years, in a career that stretches from Los Angeles (Mood Indigo, feature films "Frances" and "Swing Shift") to Spokane, WA (The Spirits of Rhythm and the neo-swing classic CD "Jump") to Broadway (The musical "Swing") and finally to Seattle. "I've played a lot of music with a lot of people," he says "and one thing I've learned is to tailor my arrangements to the individual musicians. Its gives each musical situation a unique sound." He steers the band from his piano bench, alternately cruising along and sweating feverishly, switching intuitively between the ukulele and the piano and the cornet, singing and scatting, sometimes all within the same song.

Mike Daugherty came to Seattle from Baltimore, Maryland--a fact that is not lost on anyone. He played drums in punk rock bands in his hometown. In the Pacific Northwest, he founded and led the Yes Yes Boys, a popular early jazz and hokum band that featured Del Rey on Ukulele. Almost everything about his style is East Coast, from his bowties to his whiskey-cum-loudmouth singing style. Brash, yes, b
Community Concert Association
Thursday, February 25, 2010 at 7:30 PM
Ocotillo Performing Arts Center
310 West Main Street
Artesia, NM 88210
Phone: (575) 746-4212
Website: www.artesiaartscouncil.com
E-Mail: director@artesiaartscouncil.com
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