Big Band honors Al Cobine

The Al Cobine Big Band blew out the back room of Bear’s Ale House and Eatery on Thursday.

The show was a tribute to Al Cobine, a famed jazz musician who died at age 82 this past May, and part of the Jazz Fables Concert Series.

At 5 p.m., people began to file into the venue.

A half hour later, at the show’s scheduled start time, the room was full to capacity.  
“I expect a very good show,” Bloomington resident Nick Zellers said. “They have to seat the people with the band, practically.”

Zellers said Al Cobine was his neighbor in years past.

Cobine, a Richmond, Ind. native, won several awards for his music. Though Al Cobine passed, his legacy lives on through his band and music.

“My dad heard his music at all hours of the night,” he said.

“I heard them yesterday on the radio,” said Isabelle Darcy, an assistant professor in the Second Language Studies Department at IU.

Like Zellers, Darcy said she anticipated a good show.

“Because it was eight dollars,” she said, laughing.

“Yeah, the price goes up the better the show is,” said Doreen Ewert, associate professor in Darcy’s department and the director of English Language Instruction.
 
Ewert said she has been in and out of the Bloomington area for the past 20 years and originally hails from Winnipeg, Canada. She has seen the band six times.

“I always enjoy them,” Ewert said. “I enjoy jazz.”

As the show started, Mike Lucas, the director and piano player of the band, stepped up to the podium and read the crowd a list of benefits taking place in Bloomington this weekend.

The Big Band, it would seem, has a big heart.

The band is a 17-member jazz ensemble featuring a brass, woodwind and percussion section, accompanied by piano and bass.The Al Cobine Band played jazz standards and arrangements by the likes of Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn and Henry Mancini as well as Bloomington native Hoagy Carmichael.

“Things ain’t what they used to be,” Lucas said as the band started its two-and-a-half-hour set. “I’m hear to tell you that, boys and girls.”