Now playing live gigs together for several years, The Fabulous Tuxedo Junkies features the father and son duo of Trevor Cousineau (vocals) and Charles Cousineau (saxophone), performing jazz vocal standards from the ’50s and ’60s, and joined by well-known sidemen from the Edmonton jazz scene.
History
In December, 2003 an unknown jazz trio auditioned at Jeffrey’s Café and Winebar in Edmonton, Canada — a favourite locale in an upscale neighbourhood that regularly features live jazz acts. This seminal first public performance featured veteran jazz musicians Charles Cousineau on saxophone and trumpet and the late Jim Tigner on keyboard — plus a rookie vocalist, Charles’ son Trevor. The Tuxedo Junkies were an instant hit, leading to further appearances at Jeffrey’s and other small Edmonton venues.
The father-son collaboration the is the Tuxedo Junkies began performing regularly on Saturday nights in Julian’s Piano Bar at the Chateau Louis Hotel in Edmonton, and the group — and in particular Trevor — began to attract a steady following. As they grew in popularity, they also began to work with some of Edmonton’s best guest jazz pianists and session players, including Charlie Austin, Wayne Feschuk, Andrew Glover, the late great Stu Millman, Greg Dust, Cliff Menshaw, and Paul Biggalaar.
Trevor has been inspired by many of the great jazz standards and jazz singers of the 1950’s and 1960’s, particularly such iconic artists as Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Bobby Darin, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, and others.
As a vocalist, Trevor is best described as a “crooner”. Although he has a style that is distinctively his own, Trevor’s smooth and confident delivery has been compared to Sinatra’s — but with an underlying fragility and honesty reminiscent of Chet Baker. The result is a fresh and appealing sound that is beginning to gain recognition among Edmonton’s jazz community and beyond.
The origins of the name…
According to Trevor, “We didn’t know what to call ourselves for, like, over a year. We would introduce ourselves as ‘The band that hasn’t thought of a name for itself yet’… and that was often good for a polite chuckle from the audience. However, one night we had a contest with to see who could pick us a good name for the band… and someone came up with “Tuxedo Junkies”. We bought him a drink.
In the handful of years since then, at least two other jazz groups with the moniker “Tuxedo Junkies” have also appeared on the Internet… one is a San Francisco swing band fronted by Zelda Gale (she’s HOT!… check out her FaceBook page); and the other is an Austrian jazz fusion group (?!! … like THEY ever wore tuxedos!). Anyway, we are proud to say that we were the FIRST Tuxedo Junkies… and we have the .com domain to prove it!
Na Na Na Na NAAAAAAA NA!
Plus, of course, we have the “fabulous” factor on our side.