Jack Hutton & Friends

JACK HUTTON AND FRIENDS One of the most popular groups in the history of the Gravenhurst Opera House is returning on Friday, July 12, for what may be another sell-out for Jack Hutton and Friends. For the second year in a row, the evening will feature Ross Wooldridge, the best jazz clarinet player in Toronto and possibly all Canada. The Toronto musician leads a group which sounds like the jazz sextet that made Benny Goodman a world celebrity for decades. Ross Wooldridge is often referred to as Canada’s Benny Goodman. Also returning with Jack Hutton and Friends will be Will Wilson from Niagara-on-the-Lake who is equally at home on both guitar and banjo. He is one of the few banjo players in the world who has played with a symphony orchestra. Ironically, the group’s last two concerts were both billed as the last time that Jack Hutton and Friends would be heard in public. At the end of the first farewell concert in 2019 the audience rose at the end and chanted “Stay” until leader Jack Hutton promised one more concert. Covid delayed another concert until last year when the promised concert in August was almost totally sold out. Afterwards within a few weeks the calls started with fans asking whether there would be one more concert. “I realized that the wonderful people who come to hear us are not just an audience. They have become our family. That’s why I picked up the phone.”

This year’s program promises to be an exciting one. It will include songs by Duke Ellington who played six times at Dunn’s Pavilion and two sing-alongs.