A jazz band that started at Chilliwack Senior Secondary will have lots to celebrate when they gather for the first time in five years for a reunion performance.
The Big Bang Jazz Band (also known as the 51st Eight) is marking its 25th anniversary and celebrating the 40th birthday of its founder and the only remaining original band member, Colin ‘40’ Farquhar.
They’re calling the May 5 concert in Chilliwack a ‘birthday festacular’ where people will hear the sounds of New Orleans Mardi Gras, the roaring ’20s hot jazz and speakeasy swing.
The band, which includes Juno Award-winning trumpeter Bria Skonberg, formed thanks to the motivation of then 15-year-old Farquhar and CSS music teachers Rob Hopkins and Gary Raddysh.
Even though Farquhar lived in Sardis, the clarinet player ended up attending CSS because of its music program. It was 1998, he was in Grade 10, and he barely knew anyone at school.
“I knew two people in the whole school and the two music teachers,” Farquhar said. “Nobody knew who I was.”
He was a unique teenager. Farquhar wore Top Gun style glasses and a brown leather, snap-brim newsboy hat, giving him the appearance of someone much older.
“There was this joke started that I was a narc working for the RCMP.”
Teachers Hopkins and Raddysh helped connect Farquhar with other music students.
Farquhar had experience with CSS’s sound equipment after using it while volunteering at the Chilliwack Dixieland Jazz Festival. A CSS ska band called The Good Life needed a sound guy and they were given permission to use the school’s sound equipment provided that Farquhar was the one in charge of running it.
When Farquhar showed up in his glasses and hat, members of The Good Life had no idea how old he was.
“They nicknamed me 40. There’s this whole generation of punk bands in Chilliwack that have no idea who Colin Farquhar is, but they know who 40 The Sound Guy is.”
That nickname has stuck ever since.
Two and a half decades later, 40 is finally turning 40. His birthday is Friday, April 28.
When asked in mid-April his thoughts on turning the big 4-0, he said he felt “great.”
“I figure it’s like Benjamin Button, I’ll start aging backwards,” Farquhar said with a laugh.
As founder and co-leader of The Big Bang Jazz Band, Farquhar has performed hundreds of shows in Vancouver, Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, and Florida on clarinet, saxophone and vocals. He plays keyboards, organ and woodwinds with Chilliwack favourites The Maybelles, and has performed with local legends The Vacationers, Calvin Rempel, and numerous musical theatre productions. He has been a mainstay member of the Moonliters, the Fraser Valley’s premiere big band, for the past 20 years and co-founded a Benny Goodman inspired combo named ‘Slipped Disc’ that has closed out major swing dance events.
Although Farquhar has been with The Big Bang Jazz Band for all of its 25 years, many have been with the band for almost as long.
Skonberg joined in 1999 when the band was in its second year, along with Vashti Fairbairn (piano) and Lukas Matheson (trombone and vocals). Josh Roberts (guitar and banjo) came along in 2002 and Jennifer Hodge (bass, sousaphone and vocals) joined in 2003.
On drums will be Mike Daugherty from Seattle. He’s filling in for Benji Bohannon who won’t be able to make it to the concert. Bohannon joined the band in 2008, taking over after original drummer Jeremy Roberts played with the band for 10 years.
The Big Bang Jazz Band is Chilliwack’s longest running jazz band. In 2002, the group played at the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee. Five of the eight members had graduated by 2001, but they stuck together and continued to headline jazz festivals throughout the U.S. and Canada for about 10 years.
In 2018, they performed for a packed crowd in Chilliwack as they celebrated 20 years.
Not only does their 25th anniversary ‘birthday festacular’ concert on May 5 fall within a week of Farquhar’s 40th birthday, but it’s also at the same time that the Chilliwack Dixieland Jazz Festival would happen back in the day – the first weekend in May.
“The history of the band and the jazz festival are extremely intertwined,” Farquhar said.
He added that he’s looking forward to seeing everyone again, not just the band members, but fans, teachers, friends and others who’ve supported the band over the past 25 years.
“It’s a reason for us all to get back together and hang out, just to have a kind of a family reunion,” he said. “We’re looking forward to having a good time, getting together and hopefully seeing a bunch of the audience members we saw over the years.”
The Big Bang Jazz Band’s 25th anniversary concert – a.k.a. ‘40’ Turns 40, a.k.a. the ‘Birthday Festacular’ – is set for Friday, May 5 at 7:30 p.m. at Evergreen Hall (9291 Corbould St.). Tickets are $20 or $10 with student ID. This event is all ages, plus there will be a jam session.
Tickets can be bought online at big-bang-jazz-band.tickit.ca/events/18848.
The band will also be performing at a swing dance event in Vancouver on May 4, and they have a sold-out concert in White Rock on May 7.
Looking for more events taking place in and around Chilliwack? Check out What’s happening Chilliwack in our community section
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