A venerable trio of vocalists dedicated to lifelong reinvention is planning a multimedia concert that will mark 20 years of making music.
Lynne Dickson, Wendy Hibberd and Patrice Pollack formed the ensemble Definitely Diva in 2004. The group quickly established a reputation for its ambitious embrace of diverse genres, including jazz, pop, Latin, swing, blues and gospel.
Dickson is a longtime music educator who founded the Music Makers Studio in 1994. She met Hibberd at a jazz workshop and the two realized immediately they wanted to work together. They later encountered Pollack and invited her to join them for three songs at a concert organized by Dickson’s studio.
They adapted three tracks from an album by Toronto-based pop ensemble Kidd Sister.
“The audience truly went wild,” recalled Dickson. “And so we’ve just stayed together and became best friends. I mean, it was so easy.”
The group creates its own arrangements, with Pollack handling most of the arranging duties. Dickson specializes in penning lyrical parodies. Witty twists on melodious staples have become a fixture of the group’s repertoire, and the upcoming show will feature a newly crafted interpretation of the Etta James classic Seven Day Fool: Seven Day Diva.
Once their drafts are complete, Pollack and Dickson two sit together and work out the harmonies.
The anniversary show will reprise the first three songs they sang together: All Messed Up, Put That Ring, and Blue Elvis.
“They’re all kind of those schmaltzy old jazz tunes,” said Dickson, “but they’re awesome. For me, some of the songs we’re singing this time are hard because it’s hard to sing things I don’t mean, so I had to change some of the words to suit my personality and persona.”
The trio supported a variety of charitable causes over its two decades, and variously dedicated concerts to food banks, the Arrowhead Clubhouse (part of the Sunshine Coast Community Services Society), the Sunshine Coast Hospice Society, as well as literacy initiatives. Dickson, Hibberd and Pollack sing for free at the Sechelt Hospital and make regular appearances at long-term care homes.
The anniversary show will take place at the Chatelech Secondary School auditorium on Friday, Feb. 16, under the title Definitely Diva: A 20-Year Affair.
A multimedia slideshow will run concurrently with the group’s performance, with visuals set to include images of the three singers in shows at different venues from Powell River to Vancouver.
The group’s regular Sunshine Coast accompanists (anchored by Dickson’s husband and longtime Definitely Diva supporter Reg Dickson) will transfer instrumental responsibilities to the trio’s “city band,” composed of pianist Miles Black, drummer Kristian Braathen and bassist Boyd Norman.
Black and Braathen form two-thirds of the touring Kristian Braathen Trio, which performed at the Heritage Playhouse last October.
“It’s going to be fun,” said Dickson. “Expect tight vocal harmonies, eclectic repertoire and sassy humour.”
Tickets for the 20th anniversary concert of Definitely Diva are available at Strait Music in Sechelt, the One Flower, One Leaf gallery in Gibsons or directly from the Divas.
