Rossini's in Kits has closed. This is very sad news. Not only does it represent the demise of yet another Vancouver jazz venue, but a number of us called Rossini's our musical home, with many of us getting our musical starts in Vancouver at Rossini's. I had the great privilege of working weekends there with Linton Garner for about 5 years in the mid-late '90s. Denny Clark and Eve Smith were mainstays. Michael Buble worked there, as did Amandah Jantzen from Portland, Debbie Duncan from Minneapolis, and Roy Reynolds, who had spent 9 years with the great Stan Kenton band and was his favourite sax player. I had the pleasure of working with all of them. In fact, at one point, I think I had backed up every singer in Vancouver! Many musicians wandered in just to blow a bit and keep their chops up. I met David Priest there and we went on to establish a 15-year relationship as the David Priest Trio, doing two CBC 'Hot Air' shows and performing at the Kaslo Jazz Festival in the process.
Arnie and Rossini's will be missed.
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Hi Bob: Thanks for your support of Rossini's over our 18 your span.It was a great place for all of us to enjoy the fantastic local performers as well as the international ones as well. We are upset it had come to this to close Rossini's, but with the landlord not wanting to extend us a long lease it would have been impossible for us to go forward with the plans we had to renovate and rieninvete Rossini's . We had some investors with some good capital to help with this project, and without a good lease it was simply not a good business desicion to invest in. So a big thank you to all of you that made Rossini's the premeire Jazz club in Vancouver for 18 years.
ReplyDeleteRegards
Shayne May and Family