Acoustic alchemy by Zingology

VILLAGE OF LIVERPOOL – One of Upstate New York’s best acoustic bands has released a couple compact discs overflowing with joyful jive and jitterbug dance tunes.
Zingology, an Ithaca acoustic combo led by guitarist Brain Keeler, will play a free concert at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 13, at Liverpool Public Library.
A painter and gallery owner, Keeler is one of the most accomplished visual artists in New York State.
He’s also a gifted guitarist and an accomplished jitterbugger who has blended those two musical passions into a buoyant dance band.
Last year, his swingin’ septet, Zingology, issued its second compact disc, this one a 12-track set called “On the Boulevard.”
Inspired by the 1930s and ’40s music of Roma guitarist Django Reinhardt, Zingology features Keeler on guitar, Ted Caldwell on upright bass, Brian Earle on clarinet, Greg Ezra on drums, Art Godin and Wayne Gottleib on guitar and Joanna Green on violin.
The Django Reinhardt tunes they cover are the instrumentals “Douce Ambiance,” “Minor Blues” and “Hungaria.”
While those non-vocal tunes let soloists such as the venerable clarinetist Brian Earle a chance to stand out, the band’s two singers breathe new life into other more familiar songs.
Wayne Gottlieb croons “Bei Mir Bist du Schon,” “Black Orpheus” and “I’ll See You in My Dreams.”
Meanwhile, fiddler Joanna Green vocalizes “Exactly Like You,” “The Man I Love,” “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” “What is This Thing Called Love?” and “Pennies From Heaven.”
Pennies may be made from copper, but Zingology turns it all into gold.
Sunday’s concert is part of the library’ fall concert series, Swing This.
The series will continue with the Westcott Jug Suckers on Nov. 10, at the Soda Ash Six on Dec. 8.
Presented in collaboration with the Liverpool Is The Place Concert Committee, the series was made possible by the CNY Arts Regional Arts and Cultural Engagement regrant program thanks to a New York State Senate Initiative and administered by the New York State Council on the Arts.
For more information visit lpl.org or call 315-457-0310.