Nearly sold-out August 2 show traces its roots to a 2006 festival born from Hurricane Katrina relief
SPOKANE, Wash. This August, the Hot Club of Spokane (HCOS) brings acclaimed New Orleans trumpeter and vocalist Marla Dixon to Hamilton Studio in Kendall Yards for a performance with the organization's Red Hot Kitten Stompers, a show that closes a circle twenty years in the making.
It started with a phone call. In July 2006, Garrin Hertel and Robert Snow began planning what would become the Think Swing New Orleans Jazz Festival, a benefit at the nonprofit CenterStage/ella's supper club conceived to bring work and respite to New Orleans musicians in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The inaugural festival featured four bands from New Orleans, including the New Orleans Jazz Vipers, the Palmetto Bug Stompers, Linnzi Zaorski, and St. Louis Slim, and was recorded in full by Spokesman-Review writer Som Jordan for the paper's weekend blog and podcast, The 7.
That 2006 festival planted the seed for what became the Hot Club of Spokane, a band first, leading later to a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of jazz, swing, and local history.
“Robert Snow is a fourth generation New Orleans musician that I got to know on trips to New Orleans prior to Katrina. After the storm, we got to talking about how Spokane could help New Orleans musicians. That’s when we came up with the idea for a festival at CenterStage,” said Garrin Hertel, HCOS Founder and Executive Director. "Twenty years later, almost to the month, we're still bringing New Orleans musicians to Spokane stages. Getting to do that with someone of Marla Dixon's caliber feels like the right way to mark the anniversary."
Dixon, a veteran voice in New Orleans' traditional jazz scene, joins the Red Hot Kitten Stompers on August 2 for what has become one of the Hot Club of Spokane’s most anticipated shows of the year, continuing the organization's monthly sold-out run at Hamilton Studio that began in January 2024.
Originally from Ontario, Canada, Marla Dixon is the leader, trumpeter, and vocalist of the New Orleans-based Shotgun Jazz Band, celebrated for its traditional New Orleans jazz played in the spirit of the great Revivalists. Dixon moved to New Orleans in 2009 after years of pilgrimages to the city, and mentored under the great Orange Kellin, a legend of the New Orleans jazz revival. She has since toured North America and Europe with the Shake 'Em Up Jazz Band and been a featured performer at festivals in England, Denmark, and Australia, and today is a fixture of Frenchmen Street, which is widely considered one of the hottest traditional jazz scenes anywhere in the world.
Tickets are extremely limited, with only a handful remaining. Interested patrons are urged to reserve seats immediately at hotclubofspokane.org.
Event Details:
What: Marla Dixon with the Red Hot Kitten Stompers
When: Saturday, August 2, 6pm
Where: Hamilton Studio, Kendall Yards, Spokane, WA
Tickets: $50 in advance, $60 at the door. Get tickets at hotclubofspokane.org
About the Hot Club of Spokane
The Hot Club of Spokane is a Washington nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of jazz, swing, vintage dance, and local history. Co-founded in 2007 by Garrin Hertel and Robert Folie, the organization has grown to include three resident ensembles, the Swingtet of the Hot Club of Spokane, Zonky Jazz Band, and Red Hot Kitten Stompers, and produces regular performances, community events, and educational programming throughout the Inland Northwest.