Music

On Friday, September 9, Connecticut’s Eight to the Bar will be playing a free concert at the Cheshire Fall Festival from 7-9pm.Their material, like their outlandish wardrobes and onstage choreo, is a colorful mix of forties jazz and swing, fifties jump blues, a little bit of Motown, and their own swing-influenced tunes. With their female vocals, saxophone (their sax player, Collin Tilton, is Van Morrison’s original sax and flute player and he played on Morrison’s quadruple-platinum-selling Moondance album), guitar, bass, keyboards and drums, this unique sextet pack a musical and visual wallop not seen in New England since the groups inception in 1975. Since that time they have released 12 CDs and have excited audiences from Europe to the Caribbean. The band has been named “Best All Around Band” by the CT Now Readers’ Poll 2018 and “Runner Up” for 2019 and recently had the honor of touring the Republic of Georgia (near Russia) at the invitation of the U.S. Embassy there. Currently the group is releasing its 13th CD. .