The Bastion Jazz Band
The Oaks Restaurant, 7-9 pm, Friday, January 24, 2025 with Joe hatherill - clarinet, Nick Mintenko - stand up bass, Denny Box - drums, and Stephen Brown - piano and vocals. Come on down and give us a listen. God willing and the creeks don't rise, we will be there. Also, it's best to make a resevation.
Stephen Brown and the Bastion Band
The band, a group of like minded, unamplified musicians, formed in 1982, perform traditional New Orleans jazz, roots country, blues, and R & B. Lyrical, bluesy, and unhurried, the Bastion Band treats fans to an evening of music rarely heard outside of the Crescent City. Featuring compositions of Jelly Roll Morton, WC Handy, Bessie Smith, and Louis Armstrong, plus roots country, folk, blues, and rock music from the golden era, the Bastion Band carries on a tradition that's been alive for over one hundred years. We are a four to six piece band and our lineup sometimes changes. God willing and the creeks don't rise, this is the band for most shows when we are a six-piece: Stephen Brown - piano, guitar, and vocals (me, I am there all the time), Joe Hatherill - clarinet, Nick Mintenko - double bass, Denny Box - drums (almost always, however he does wander off to Salt Spring Island once in awhile), Aaron Watson - guitar, accordion, and saw (yes, the saw), and Alfons Fear - trumpet.
Music in Victoria, review of U/Victoria concert, January 14, 2012
"When it comes to jazz, I feel the same way that S.J. Perelman felt about medicine: I don't know much about it, but I know what I like.
Unfortunately, among the much that I don't know about is New Orleans-style traditional jazz, which must make me almost uniquely unqualified to review the second part of Saturday's recital, in which tubaist (is there really such a word?) Eugene Dowling celebrated his first half-century of playing one of music's ungainliest (in the purely physical sense) instruments.
Still, as far as I know, I was the only person clutching a notebook and pen in the hall on Saturday and so my opinions, uninformed as they are, will, faute de mieux, have to do...
After the interval Dowling was joined by (or, looked at another way, he joined) the Bastion Jazz Band for almost an hour of spirited and enjoyable music.
I was slightly disconcerted to realise that I was familiar with just over a third of the music they played - I'm really not that old. Nor, as noted above, am I really qualified to make more than a few general observations about their "set".
The first such is to remark that Dowling fit right in to the band - and I do know a little about playing in a band - and clearly feels completely at ease in their very different idiom. His bass lines were perfect and his soloing most impressive.
The band themselves, whom I had not heard before, are no slouches either. Their ensemble is marvelous and achieved with very few obvious signals, as one would expect from a group that has been together for almost three decades.
Highlights of the set included the transformation of the standard 3/4 of "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" into a rousing 4/4 stomp, the a capella vocal chorusing of "This Little Light of Mine" and Aaron Watson's remarkable soloing on the saw in "Out in the Cold Again"; for once, it would actually be appropriate to refer to it as the "musical saw". And I cannot forbear to mention what looked rather like a Lurex Nehru jacket worn by Stephen Brown. Very "showbiz".
A most enjoyable celebration indeed."
Deryk Barker
CDs and a bit of Bastion Band history
On January 30, 2011, after 14 & 1/2 years of every Sunday, 6 - 9 PM, at the Blethering Place in Oak Bay, BC, the Bastion Jazz Band played its last night. It was a great party and a great run. A big thanks to all of you who have come to hear the band and supported us over the years.
Update to the above, On June 1, 2014, the new owners (Ditza and Nick) of the Blethering Place, now called The Oaks Restaurant, instituted a live music policy. The Bastion Band plays there ever few weeks on Fridays from 7-9 pm. It's a great show and the food is super tasty and reasonably priced, Please come on out and catch the show.
CDs recorded at the Blethering Place
1. Taking It Easy at the Blethering Place
2. Take Two at the Blethering Place
also, our not so new CD recorded at Apparition Music
3. Stephen Brown and the Bastion Band featuring Eugene Dowling