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The Speak Easy Living Room Series elevates the end of Winter with a touch of class: the lovely and talented Kate Hammett-Vaughan, accompanied by Chris Gestrin on piano, and charming and wonderful Joanna Chapman-Smith, all the way from Toronto. This show will warm the cockles of your heart and soothe the stirrups of your ears.

The Speak Easy is an East Van community effort to promote live shows supporting amazing local musicians and touring artists in an intimate listening environment. It's an opportunity to engage in a really cool cultural activity with your neighbours and friends. Everyone's welcome.

Tickets are $10 at the door only. All proceeds go to the performers. Doors open at 8:30 and music starts around 9pm. There's a short intermission between the two performers. There will be a bar serving wine and beer for a small cost. I imagine some kind of tasty baked good will find its way into the mix, too.

Kate Hammett-Vaughan

Since moving to Vancouver, BC from her home province of Nova Scotia in 1979, Kate Hammett-Vaughan has established a reputation as one of Canada’s most individual and creative jazz vocalists. Her wide-ranging knowledge of jazz singers and song make her one of the West Coast’s most respected teachers of the art of jazz singing.

As a performer, Hammett-Vaughan’s improvisational instincts and ease with all manner of material set her apart from many of her contemporaries. Her highly personal and expressive vocal style incorporates the breadth of her musical interests, from straight-ahead soulful ballads to hard-swinging grooves and improvisational adventures. The remarkable duo of vocalist Kate Hammett-Vaughan and pianist Chris Gestrin has over 15 years of music-making history. They have collaborated on a number of recordings, two of which have received JUNO nominations, their wide-ranging repertoire includes jazz standards, art songs, country tunes, and more. Intimate and inviting music.

Joanna Chapman-Smith

Winner of the 2010 Independent Music Award for best acoustic song, JOANNA CHAPMAN-SMITH has played concerts and festivals from Australia to Denmark. Since setting out as a solo performer in 2006, she has performed in over one hundred cities on four continents, while her critically acclaimed release CONTRARIES has received airplay in more than fifteen countries. Her third European tour is slated for Spring 2012, with other dates scheduled for Canadian and American cities.

Joanna developed her cosmopolitan tastes growing up in multicultural Toronto in a family with Italian-American, New Zealand and Brazilian roots and a well-nurtured thirst for new cultural experiences is unmistakable in Joanna's music. In addition to jazz, folk and classical, her songs also show the influence of many other musical forms, from klezmer and Balkan choral music to tango and flamenco. She is a skilled guitarist, pianist, and clarinetist, but her live shows also feature other, less conventional instruments, many of her own creation.

Come one, come all. It's going to be an incredible, spell-binding night of songs from two incredible women and one outstanding man. I hope you take this opportunity to hear some fantastic music in our living room.

All the best and thank you for supporting live music in your community.

Stay tunes for another outstanding Speak Easy concert next month...April promises a musically diverse program of some of Vancouver's hottest musicians: Lisa Miller's Q (featuring Lisa Miller, Steve Smith, Jesse Zubot, and Dylan van der Schyff) and Dave Sikula & Khari McClelland DUO! Oh yeah, babies!