Music in the Park opens with Bon Bon Vivant
Bon Bon Vivant and their New Orleans sound are at the Main Street Park Amphitheater in Monmouth on Wednesday (July 10). Their show begins at 6:30 p.m. Admission is free. Submitted photo.
Get ready for something different.
New Orleans’s very own Bon Bon Vivant kicks off this year’s Music in the Park summer concert series at the Main Street Park Amphitheater in Monmouth. The show begins at 6:30 p.m. Admission is free.
BBV was here last year, and their performance was one to remember.
“I had folks comment six to eight months after they played, saying they couldn’t believe they were hearing this good music in Monmouth,” said Suzanne Dufner, community and economic development director. “When I heard they were touring through the Pacific Northwest again this summer, I knew we had to have them back on stage to round out the many different performance genres that Monmouth Music in the Park supports.”
This year’s performance, at the very least, will be brassier. Given that there will be five musicians on stage, not four like last year.
Band members are Abigail Cosio, Jason Jurzak, Dean Marrquin, Jeremy Kelley and, making his Music in the Park debut, trombonist Ellis Seiberling.
Band members took time to answer a few questions, which were asked by Polk County Free Press publisher Lance Masterson, who also took the following two photos.
Now for the interview:
ABIGAIL COSIO
What's new with the band? Any new members, single(s), album release(s) and/or awards and recognitions?
Cosio: We just released a new single, Last Nights Glitter, the first track off our upcoming album. LNG is a song about having a great time out, then reliving it through the little bits of souvenirs that are tied to the memory... in this case it's glitter.
We thought it a perfect song for summer, waking up after a festival or concert with the music still playing in your ears, grinning from the good time you had. We hope the folks at our Monmouth show will relate. The song is available on all the music streaming platforms.
We are also touring as a five-piece band this summer. We have brought our trombonist, Ellis Seiberling, along for this tour to add to the horn section. It has made for a bigger sound, which we are really enjoying.
What has the past year been like? What can you tell us about your West Coast tour?
Cosio: This last year has been good to our band, trekking along on the independent music landscape. We went home to New Orleans last fall after our summer 2023 tour and began playing regularly around town while continuing to record songs for our upcoming album. We toured Hawaii last summer, and we get a chance to return again this year.
This is your second straight appearance in Monmouth. What brings you back to our fair city?
Cosio: The climate! We are happy to be invited back to Monmouth, leaving New Orleans in the summer to tour has made sense for us. We get a chance to play for new audiences out here while getting away from that notorious Louisianan summer heat.
When we return in the fall we don't tour much as the city provides us with great audiences during our busy year, and we spend this time recording as well. Touring allows us to travel and meet new people, discover new venues and listeners. So summer touring has helped expose us to new audiences. The circus has to travel, after all.
How will this year's show differ from last year's performance?
Cosio: We will be bringing new songs with us, a whole new batch of handmade merch, and we will have a fuller sound with another horn player this year. A stage full of brass, with our sousaphone, saxophone and trombone adding a robust backbone to our storytelling songs.
Any additional comments?
Cosio: We have a video to accompany our Last Nights Glitter track release. It's a day in the life of a NOLA musician, with some incredible light projections by our friend Monica Rose Kelly, and videography by Landon Larsen.
Check it out and be sure to follow us on social media platforms for more music, merch and videos.
JEREMY KELLEY
Publisher’s note: Jason Jurzak and Dean Marquinn took turns answering these questions when interviewed last year:
How has New Orleans shaped you as musicians?
Jurzak: Street bands, brass bands, jazz bands, food vendor songs, the calliope on the Steamboat Natchez, the bells (on the hour) from St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson square, mule hoofs, bucket drummers, stride piano, the Meters, lil Wayne and Jelly Roll Morton...its all sort of in there.
I was drawn to New Orleans originally by it's music and it's musicians, so being able to participate in the rich traditions of the city, learn from elder musicians and even play alongside some of my heroes has been a lifelong dream of mine.
If that wasn't great enough, just the amount of playing that we've all been able to do on a regular basis over the last 15 years has been fundamental in finding a unique sound.
As performers, when do you know you’ve formed a connection with your audience? When do you know your audience has formed a connection with you?
Marrquin: As performers you can feel (from the stage) when the audience is with you. A physical response is the clearest way to see we have formed a connection with a crowd. They respond with movement and dancing, and it becomes a conversation...that is the best part of playing music. The audience feels welcome to be themselves.
On the other hand, it has been such a gift to have the audience feel connected enough to our music to send messages to us via social media, photos and videos taken from the audience. accompanied by stories of how much fun they had, how they enjoyed the show or were effected by the music. As music makers it is all you can hope for to make a collection of songs and have it resonate with people!
