Swing, bossa nova and blues. Has a nice ring a ding ding to it.
Ali Henry and Eric Tompkins will take to the stage at Ohhh... Chocolat Cafe April 5 at 7:30 p.m. during the first event in a concert series held in the heart of downtown at 565 George Street.
Henry is a jazz performer who started out singing gospel and added the sultry style to her repertoire at least a decade ago.
"Eric and I recently teamed up," Henry said, who moved to town in September when her husband, Phillippe Henry, got a job as assistant professor in the biology department at the university.
Henry went to an open mic night at Books & Company soon after moving here and that's where she met Tompkins.
"I saw Eric play and he saw me and it was kinda like 'hey!' 'hey!' - few words were exchanged but we just knew we had to work together," said Henry.
Henry and Tompkins put a new taken on the classics.
"We'll basically take the old jazz and blues standards - and even the bossa nova standards - and then we spin them in a modern way because I have a bit of an R&B sound that I put over top of these older songs, so it really makes it so different than how it used to be. We do stuff out of Brazil, we do Etta James, which is blues, and we tend to do a lot of improvisation on stage and just let the music take us where it wants to go."
For more information about Henry visit alihenry.net.
Ohh Chocolat Caf Friday night concert was created to encourage people to come downtown for some local entertainment, said owner and chocolatier Caroline Longhurst.
The first in the series is Friday, April 5. Tickets are on sale at the Caf, 565 George St. Tickets are $20, which includes $10 towards a food purchase during the concert.
