Every time boogie blues pianist David Vest gets a bunch of people out of their seats and onto the dance floor, he figures his job is done.
“My shows are very lively — they’re all about the audience,” said the 66-year-old Alabama native, who relocated last year to Victoria after marrying a Canadian.
While Vest has written the occasional political song, and even included other people’s on his albums (ie. Willie Dixon’s It Don’t Make Sense, You Can’t Make Peace is on his latest CD, Rock a While, Vest said he’s all about playing the kind of boogie-woogie that gets people jumping up and shakin’ their bootie.
“I play where the left hand and the right hand are playing independent of each other,” said Vest, who will perform at the Get Your Freak On Halloween Dance and Costume Party on Friday, Oct. 29, at the Elks Club in Red Deer.
A critic once called Vest, who wrote the first demo song ever recorded by Tammy Wynette, and played with the Jimmy Dorsey Band, “a dazzling virtuoso pianist.”
Vest reacted by angrily marching into the guy’s office to tell him he missed the point of the show — which was to get people moving.
“If you can’t dance . . . it’s like the saying goes, don’t sing, if you ain’t got that swing,” said Vest, with a chuckle.
While he’s known for some time that “everybody’s favourite musicians — from Leonard Cohen to Neil Young — are Canadian,” Vest said he was still surprised to discover after moving to B.C. “how many great musicians there are up here.”
One of them is Vancouver bassist Jack Lavin, a founding member of the Power Blues Band, who will perform with Vest during his Alberta tour. His other band members, from Portland, Ore., are drummer Jimi Bott, formerly of the Fabulous Thunderbirds, and guitarist Peter Dammann, who played with Paul deLay and was inducted into Oregon’s Music Hall of Fame.
Vest said he’d have a hard time pulling together a better bunch of musicians — and he’s played with greats, including DeLay, Big Joe Turner, Zeke Clements, Lavelle White and Floyd Dixon.
While the David Vest Blues Band has performed at the Edmonton Blues Festival, it’s never played in Red Deer before.
Vest’s message for anyone planning to attend his concert is: Get set for some high-energy blues music that draws on gospel, jazz and even traditional country. “They’ll be dancing to some old-time music, just like in the roadhouses of the ’40s and ’50s. . . . It’ll be a good vibe, with a little bit of country feel.”
The self-taught pianist said he’s still trying to do what he’s always aimed for: “To play on piano what John Lee Hooker can play on guitar.”
The Halloween party, hosted by the Central Music Festival Society, is on from 8 p.m. at the Elks Lodge, 6315 Horn St. in Red Deer. Door prizes are available. The cover charge is $20. For more information, go to www.centralmusicfest.com
lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com