Sentimental Journey Big Band

Currently the band is comprised of by 18 - 20 local musicians from all walks of life, some who still have'day jobs' and some who are retired lawyers. engineers, nurses, biologists, entomologists, accountants, teachers etc. The band is led by Drew Smith, a retired music teacher from Ontario, who joined the band in the trumpet section in 2007. Drew has steadily updated the band's music library with arrangements by band members, past and present, like John Hughes, Jack Innes and himself, as well with commercial arrangements of more contemporary tunes that complement the bands swing era repertoire. The band's musical presentations have been very enthusiastically received by audiences at private parties, weddings, celebrations, anniversaries, as well as seniors events.

The Sentimental Journey Big Band offers a varied, upbeat and balanced evening of good, lively, instrumental and vocal music, for listening and dancing, or just plain old reminiscing. The big band sounds are punctuated with inspired solo features and are accompanied by the rich deep contralto voice of Ruth Evans who's vocal renditions of favourites such as The lady is a Tramp, Ain't Misbehavin', Hello Dolly and When I Fall In Love, continue to mesmerize listeners.
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These days in 2025, our vocalists include Marina, Drew and Rob Rollingson. As our audiences grew up in a time later than the classic big band repertoire, our music set lists have shifted too. The music of Neil Diamond, Jimmy Buffet, disco, soul and bossa nova are now part of our programming.

Currently the band is comprised of by 18 - 20 local musicians from all walks of life, some who still have'day jobs' and some who are retired lawyers. engineers, nurses, biologists, entomologists, accountants, teachers etc. The band is led by Drew Smith, a retired music teacher from Ontario, who joined the band in the trumpet section in 2007. Drew has steadily updated the band's music library with arrangements by band members, past and present, like John Hughes, Jack Innes and himself, as well with commercial arrangements of more contemporary tunes that complement the bands swing era repertoire. The band's musical presentations have been very enthusiastically received by audiences at private parties, weddings, celebrations, anniversaries, as well as seniors events.

The Sentimental Journey Big Band offers a varied, upbeat and balanced evening of good, lively, instrumental and vocal music, for listening and dancing, or just plain old reminiscing. The big band sounds are punctuated with inspired solo features and are accompanied by the rich deep contralto voice of Ruth Evans who's vocal renditions of favourites such as The lady is a Tramp, Ain't Misbehavin', Hello Dolly and When I Fall In Love, continue to mesmerize listeners.
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These days in 2025, our vocalists include Marina, Drew and Rob Rollingson. As our audiences grew up in a time later than the classic big band repertoire, our music set lists have shifted too. The music of Neil Diamond, Jimmy Buffet, disco, soul and bossa nova are now part of our programming.

We provide our own sound system if needed, included in the fee quote. If your event would like to use our system for announcements, speeches, etc, we can work with you no additional fee if used during our contracted timelines