B3 Kings, Kay Meek Centre, Dec. 10 and 11 at 8 p.m. For more information visit kaymeekcentre.com.
The band isn't prepared.
The crowd is about to sweep inside to hear Christmas carols filtered through Bill Coon's guitar improvisations, Cory Weeds' saxophone solos, Denzal Sinclaire's joyful crooning and all the innovation Chris Gestrin's 10 fingers can summon out of his B3 organ.
Only they're not prepared.
"We never get together and rehearse," admits Weeds.
That lack of preparation is particularly apparent at sound check.
"It always sounds very bad," the saxophonist says.
And while Sinclaire sorts out his drum kit, Weeds thinks of all the people who paid good money to hear the quartet.
"We're really not prepared," he says. "And then something happens when we hit the stage."
That something is the chemistry between four musicians who each listen with the attentiveness of a great conversationalist.
Sinclaire bops his head in approval to every blistering note Weeds plays on "We Three Kings" and Coon is clearly absorbed in each organ riff Gestrin offers up on "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas."
The group formed a little more than 12 years ago at a benefit concert for Weeds' now defunct Vancouver jazz club The Cellar.
Sinclaire, who was beginning to garner comparisons to Nat King Cole at the time, agreed to perform at the gig.
"At the time he was playing with a quintet - that's the band that I wanted and that's the band I assumed he was going to use," Weeds recalls.
While going over the stage setup, Sinclaire mentioned he'd be playing drums and Gestrin would be on organ.
"When I heard that I was very disappointed.. .. I didn't even know Denzal played drums."
Weeds elected not to argue with the singer, who was, after all, playing for free.
Weeds joined the duo on stage for a 45-minute set that he says was more fun than almost anything he'd ever done.
Sinclaire, an admirer of John Coltrane drummer Elvin Jones, put as much passion and precision into his drumming as he did into his singing.
The trio reunited for a Christmas concert at The Cellar, partially at the behest of Gestrin, who'd "always been bugging me about doing holidaythemed shows," Weeds says.
After adding Coon on guitar the quartet was complete and a Vancouver Christmas tradition was born.
"Every year we close out The Cellar - or, we used to close out The Cellar," he corrects.
The West Broadway mainstay hosted jazz acts for more than a dozen years before falling silent in February.
"There's a sense of fear, a sense of desperation that I feel and a sense of 'Where the hell are we going to play our music?'" Weeds says.
A few Vancouver clubs have hosted some of The Cellar's former acts but for Weeds the absence of live jazz in the city seems acute.
"Things ebb and flow and they go up and down," he notes. "To me it seems a little scarier than other times."
The club's closure left a hole in the city, not just for Weeds but for any musician who favours unusual time signatures and moments of musical spontaneity.
However, if the club's closure is testament to skyrocketing commercial rents, the B3 Kings concert at the Kay Meek is a mark of the group's resilience.
"We're excited that the tradition is continuing. A lot of Cellar traditions were in jeopardy when I closed the club."
For some jazz players, playing Christmas music feels a bit like putting a chef on a fast food assembly line, however Weeds is quick to clarify what the group does.
"I don't really look at it as playing Christmas music," he explains. "It really is a jazz gig. Sure, we play 'Jingle Bells' but when you've got Chris Gestrin, Bill Coon, and Denzal Sinclaire as your rhythm section, and we're doing a funky groove. .. I can play that forever. It doesn't matter if it's 'Jingle Bells' or 'Peter Cottontail' or 'Giant Steps.'" The group's audience may be as eager to get "Last Christmas" by Wham! out of their heads as they are to shed the snow from their boots.
"We have people that hate Christmas carols that just can't stand hearing Christmas carols starting Nov. 20 and the last thing they want to hear is Christmas carols," Weeds says. "But they like Christmas and they want to be in the spirit."
