I think it’s fair to say anyone attending last summer’s Fill the Cupboard musical fundraiser for the Harvest Food Bank at The Jam Factory would have been blown away by what they heard.
Not only did the inimitable Auntie Kate, Dave Roland and Tom Bowler get the ball rolling in fine style, but the crowd was then treated to something quite unexpected: a five-member horn section accompanying the R&B/rock sounds of Salt Spring’s SugarBeat band.
Earlier in the year, SugarBeat had released Roots, their first album of original songs, at a launch party at Mateada. As well as current band members Sarah Morris (vocals), Greg Pauker (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Mike Stefancsik (percussion) and Dave Roland (bass, vocals), saxophone player Alan Ett, who had played on a few Roots cuts, was among those taking the stage.
“We played at the CD release party, and had so much fun,” recalled Ett. “Bill Henderson sat in and it was just this crazy, great time. And so they said, ‘Why don’t you be in the band?’”
Ett is a musician, composer and arranger who moved to Salt Spring from Los Angeles with his wife Sheila a few years ago, after decades of working in the industry, primarily as a composer and producer of music for television and film.
By the time the outdoor August concert came along, the already brilliant songs on Roots had been transformed by Ett and the newly formed Salish Sea Horns. Since then they’ve merged their talents and energy to create the just-released Brass Roots CD.
“It’s pretty phenomenal,” said Ett. “It’s kind of Earth, Wind & Fire meets the Rolling Stones. It’s really fun. The horn players and the talent that’s here on Salt Spring is the other thing that made it all possible.”
Salish Sea Horns members are Ett on tenor and soprano sax, Wendy Milton on alto sax, Chris Watt on baritone sax, Derrick Milton, trumpet, and John Whitelaw, trombone.
Pauker, who is an internationally known sound engineer and audiovisual system designer and does sound for many live local shows, explained the process of turning an existing album into a fresh brass-infused version. Firstly, SugarBeat had lots of material to work with from their sessions of recording Roots.
“We like to record everyone as much as possible as a group, rather than sitting in front of your computer and typing out tracks,” Pauker said.
Horn arrangements were then done by Ett, with some assistance from industry colleague Jim McMillen, to coalesce with the existing group recordings.
The expanded SugarBeat band continues to meet weekly and members are working on about 10 new songs, with horn parts included at the start this time.
“When we get together, Alan does a lot of things, we come up with ideas, we kind of go through everything and might say, ‘Yeah, that’s great. Let’s go in that direction.’ It’s a really nice process,” said Pauker.
Speaking more about their live performances, Pauker said, “We leave a lot of openness, where we can interact. There’s a structure of the song, but then there are parts where we just go with whatever works, and that’s a great thing about playing with Bill [Henderson] too, because he’s always had that in his music. He never plays the same song.”
“It’s very gratifying to be associated with these guys,” added Ett, “because everybody has the same kind of ethos. The basic driving force behind the band is to communicate life through music, and that’s very cool. And you know, overall, if you do a concert somewhere, and one person walks out of the room away from the concert having their life changed — feeling better for one day, one hour — we’ve succeeded. We’ve done something important.”
In addition to playing with SugarBeat, people attending the Gumboot Gala last October will undoubtedly remember Ett playing saxophones with Henderson on his Chilliwack hits, or with other musicians at the Jazz at the Harbour House weekly Wednesday series.
SugarBeat’s founding members — Pauker, Stefancsik and bass player Bob Delion — had played together on and off for years, and connected with powerhouse vocalist/songwriter Morris about five years ago. Delion more recently had to step back from playing, which is when Roland was recruited.
Another food bank fundraiser — which was spearheaded by the new non-profit Salt Spring Groove organization with support from local corporate sponsors — will hopefully take place again this summer. In his role as a Lady Minto Hospital Foundation board member, Ett is involved with a series of fundraising house concerts, and other possibilities are in the works.
Copies of Brass Roots in CD and vinyl form are available from sugarbeat.hearnow.com/brass-roots/ or by emailing Pauker at gpauker@sculptorsystems.com. It can be heard through sugarbeat1.bandcamp.com and other streaming sites.