Jazz Mele performs at Hilo Elks Club

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The Hilo Hep Cats Swing Dance club invites you to Swinging Saturday Saturday featuring the Jazz Mele band in a rare performance at the Hilo Elks Club.

The Hilo Hep Cats Swing Dance club invites you to Swinging Saturday Saturday featuring the Jazz Mele band in a rare performance at the Hilo Elks Club.

Jazz Mele will play your favorite jump blues, swing, jazz standards, Latin and other great dance music upstairs at 150 Kinoole St. in downtown Hilo. Beginner lessons start at 7 p.m. with dancing from 8-10 p.m. Entry is $10-$20; or bring a pupu and get in for $5. Kids 12 and under are free.

Long time jazz vocalist and bandleader Lou Ann Gurney organizes and leads Jazz Mele. She assembles some of the best musicians on the island to insure that audiences have a superior listening and dancing experience.

Saxophonist Robin Jensen is an exceptional player who expresses unique musical ideas and sounds like no other. She’s been playing saxophone since elementary school, in part because she comes from a musical family.

While growing up in Germany, Alex Czerny learned to play piano from his father, a professional musician. He’s outstanding in many styles including jazz and tango. Alex works also as a piano tuner/technician.

By day Loren Antolik is a mild-mannered computer specialist with the U.S. Geological Survey at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, but he handily exchanges that role to become a top-notch guitarist and bassist in the evening.

Noa Eads has loved to play drums since he was 2 years old. He’s a graduate of the University of Hawaii at Hilo and also of Gary Washburn’s Honokaa High School jazz music program. He currently teaches that very program while Washburn is on sabbatical.

Info: 982-6012.