Chicago vocal quartet Cooler by the Lake usually performs a cappella. But for the summer festival season, the singers have found themselves accompanied by Airflow Deluxe, a full-tilt Dixieland jazz band.
The combination has proven to be a bracing change of pace, according to Mark Burnell, Cooler by the Lake’s bass vocalist and arranger. “All of a sudden, we have an eight-piece band behind us, including a banjo player and a bassist who doubles on tuba. For us, that’s a real nice punch.”
Stylistically, the two ensembles make for somewhat unlikely bedfellows. Airflow Deluxe musical director John Grune concentrates on blues, jazz and novelty tunes of the 1920s and ’30s. Burnell and his group pick up roughly where Airflow leaves off, beginning with the astringent harmony ideas introduced by bebop jazz players in the late ’40s.
Burnell, 39, first became enamored with jazz-inspired vocal harmonies by listening to Manhattan Transfer. In his late 20s, after picking up a music degree at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, he became a man on a mission after hearing a record by ’50s vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks and Ross.
“They were the ones who really knocked me on my can,” recalls Burnell. “It became a sort of obsession for me to hear everything they’d done. They made nine albums, and I had to get every one of them and bury myself in their work.”
Group leader Jon Hendricks’ mastery of vocalese–the practice of setting lyrics to recorded instrumental solos–had a liberating effect on Burnell. “I loved the freedom of what he was doing. I realized there were no limitations on what you could accomplish as a vocalist. You could sound like a trumpet, or a sax, or a martian.”
Cooler’s concerts with Airflow are likely to have a low “martian” quotient, but Burnell says the traditonal material they’re performing has a far-out quotient all its own. “You have to remember that Dixieland was considered the wild music of its day. You can kind of tell from the titles of the songs we do: `Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Jive’; `Goofus’; `Digga Digga Doo.’ There’s a certain reckless quality to it. So John gave us the charts, we learned the songs, and now we’re wailing away. And we’re all having a great time with it.”
Cooler by the Lake also features singers Daniel Spichiger, Phoebe Fuller and new member Susan Prischmann. The quartet performs at 7 p.m. Sunday with Airflow Deluxe at Disney Park, Wellington and Blesterfield Road, Elk Grove Village. Free admission. Call 815-765-3000.
– Author Yvonne Navarro talks about turning screenplays into novels Wednesday at Barnes & Noble Bookstore, 590 E. Golf Rd., Schaumburg. Navarro, a Chicago writer, handled the novelization of “Species,” the science-fiction movie now in area theaters. Navarro starts talking at 8 p.m. Call 708-310-0450.
– New Colony Six plays olden oldies from the ’60s at 7 p.m. Saturday as part of the Bartlett Bonanza, hosted by the Bartlett Chamber of Commerce. There will also be an arts and crafts fair, an antique car show, carnival rides. The events take place in downtown Bartlett on Main Street; at Bartlett Plaza at Main Street and Devon Avenue; and at Bartlett Park on Oak Street a half-mile south of Lake Street. Hours are 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Call 708-830-0324.
– Texas blues guitarist W.C. Clark makes a rare Midwest appearance Saturday at 9:30 p.m. at the Cabana Beach Club, 1550 N. Rand Rd., Palatine. The veteran bluesman, a mentor to the late Stevie Ray Vaughn, has appeared on PBS’ “Austin City Limits.” Cover charge is $4. Call 708-776-9850.
– Cornfest ’95, the annual fundraiser for Community Church of Rolling Meadows, is Saturday. There will be an arts and crafts fair, children’s activities and corn. Festivities run from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on church grounds, Kirchoff and Meadow Roads, Rolling Meadows. Admission is $6; $5 for senior citizens; or $3 for children 10 and under. Call 708-255-5510.
