Free-spirited Blue Moon Marquee’s wide travels take duo to New Orleans
Appearing at the Kay Meek Arts Centre, Vancouver Island pair fuels its blues and folk with curiosity and joie de vivre
Blue Moon Marquee.
Blue Moon Marquee plays at the Kay Meek Centre on November 2 at 7:30 pm
BLUE MOON MARQUEE is bringing a raw and timeless sound to Kay Meek Arts Centre on November 2. Formed by musicians Jasmine Colette and Al “A.W.” Cardinal, the duo adds an eccentric twist to blues and folk that is fuelled by curiosity and joie de vivre.
Colette and Cardinal have been touring together for over a decade as Blue Moon Marquee, a musical journey that’s taken the Vancouver Island pair on adventures across the world, playing a wide array of venues, from jazz clubs to lindy-hop dance halls to prisons.
“Recently, I was reminiscing about a huge olive orchard in Italy where we played, that we're sure was owned by a Mafia family,” Colette says with a laugh in a phone interview with Stir. “It was a little bit terrifying—the characters, the crowd, the whole scene. It was kind of like playing for the Corleone gang, but it was pretty amazing.”
The pair have been friends since childhood, but only began playing music together after a serendipitous reunion.
“Al and I both grew up in Central Alberta, and we both used to play in punk and metal bands in our teens, so we knew each other then,” Colette says. “Eventually, we both moved away, travelled and lived all over the world, played with different people, and had our own projects. We didn't speak with each other for a long time.
“In 2012, we reconnected through an old mutual friend here in Vancouver to collaborate on a solo project Al had been working on,” she continues. “The minute I walked into the recording studio we had an instant connection. We shared a love of early, rare, obscure blues and jazz.”
Colette’s honey-sweet harmonies are a perfect companion to Cardinal’s rich and husky voice, and the duo are both multitalented instrumentalists. Colette not only plays upright bass, she also simultaneously plays drums with a custom foot-drum kit, complementing Cardinal’s blues-style guitar. (At the Kay Meek show, they’ll be joined by Darcy Phillips on keyboards and Jerry Cook on sax, with local guitar icon Paul Pigat opening.)
Blue Moon Marquee’s free-spirited and endlessly creative music won them the 2024 Juno Award for Blues Album of the Year.
Their latest album, New Orleans Sessions, released in September, was recorded to tape on rare vintage gear. “We recorded this album over two afternoons on a trip down to New Orleans,” Colette says. “We’ve been very inspired by the city and the players there, and obviously the musical history of the area, so we really wanted to pay homage to that.
“We really wanted to honour the energy of New Orleans. The music there is so real and raw, especially with people playing on the streets,” she continues. “We're seeing this album as anti-AI, because we recorded it completely live in just one or two takes. We wanted to capture a very intimate, raw, human experience that we feel music is rapidly detaching from, with music that is so polished and overproduced.”
It is this unrefined and intimate sound that draws audiences to Blue Moon Marquee again and again, and Colette believes the band’s performances serve as a potent reminder that music is a cornerstone of community and human connection.
“I really encourage people to bring the youth to these shows, because I feel there’s a detachment happening, and a lot of young folks and kids have this idea that music comes out of the computer,” Colette says. “I think for them to see human beings playing these songs and performing is a really powerful experience.
“We have everybody come to our shows, from toddlers to elders,” she adds. “It seems like the music touches all demographics. People connect with that sort of raw, true sound that we’re trying to put out there.” 
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