St. Gabriel’s Celestial Brass Band, the Dixie Giants and the Russian River Ramblers

buy ticketsWhen: Sunday, June 7
Where: Dry Creek Vineyard
3770 Lambert Bridge Rd., Healdsburg
Time: Noon – 3 pm. 
Tickets: $25 includes wine glass
ticketsTicket link

“Healdsburg Jazz-Wine Club” members (not DCV Club members) can redeem their June Selection free ticket for this event.
Festival Seating: Doors open at 11 am, no outside alcohol, low chairs allowed. See FAQ.

New Orleans Day on the Green

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St. Gabriels Celestial Brass Band

Come festival time, Healdsburg gets its Crescent City groove on with a special outdoor “New Orleans on the Green” celebration. A new tradition in the making at the festival, expanding on the Dixieland concerts in years past, this special and savory outing in the ambience of the Dry Creek Vineyard promises to be a great way to spend the afternoon, with food vendors and sumptuous wine offerings to go along with the timeless, party-ready sound of vintage New Orleans jazz.

Mardi Gras Menu – view PDF
SHRIMP CREOLE, GUMBO, RED BEANS & RICE, SIDES AND DESSERT

St. Gabriel’s Celestial Brass Band

From another corner of the day’s musical mardi gras, St. Gabriel’s Celestial Brass Band moves deeper into the tradition of New Orleans music, and specifically into the great and indigenous tradition of the brass band, falling roughly into the modernized yet rootsy style of the Dirty Dozen and Rebirth Brass Bands. In other words, authenticity and the stuff of Louis Armstrong meets the various worlds of Stevie Wonder, James Brown and Herbie Hancock, all with the might of funky brassy, dance-able conjurings.

Drummer Tom Wiggins formed the band back in 1990, and over the years, the dozen-plus-strong personnel has included musicians who migrated from New Orleans to the Bay Area, which has always had a strong sense of community and cultural simpatico with Louisiana. Band members include Willy Jordan (drums), Dwight Carrier (accordion), Washboard Mary (washboard), Alan Williams (trombone), Sonny Fairley, Paul Branin and Ken “Snakebite Jacobs (saxophones), Tom Wiggins (percussion), Mike Rinta (tuba), with Tom Poole and Shane Cox (trumpets).

The Dixie Giants

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The Dixie Giants

More trad jazz goodness, with some modern twists, will pour forth courtesy of The Dixie Giants, a newer band dating back to 2012, and banjoist Dan Charles, clarinetist Casey Jones, trombonist Jason Thor and Jesse Shantor on alto saxophone, with a rhythm section of drummer Ricky Lomeli, Nick Pulley on sousaphone, and Ab Menon on percussion (with some banjo and melodica on the side). The Dixie Giants also take care to tend the historical roots of tradition New Orleans jazz, and the lessons and songs of Satchmo and Kid Ory and their ilk, but also lend a “trad jazz” approach to modern tunes from the pop and rock hit parade.

Russian River Ramblers

Going straight to the historical musical source, Russian River Ramblers, formed in 1992, takes its New Orleans musical cause seriously. Calling on the ‘20s-era music, as heard in Storyville and by such early jazz architects as Jelly Roll Morton, Bunk Johnson, and Louis Armstrong, as well as the waltzes and spirituals heard in New Orleans early in the 20th century, The Russian River Ramblers is a rare group in America–and the world–dedicated to the spirit of a bygone, but still vital, era. The band includes Carl Elze on tuba; Joel Hernandez, on guitar; Peter Martin, piano; Charles Moller, clarinet; Steve Schaffer, trumpet; and Dave Stare (founder of Dry Creek Vineyard) on banjo.

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