Arletta Sound, Gig Harbor’s original jazz orchestra, will open the Pantages stage variety show on Saturday as part of Tacoma’s First Night festival.

The festival, designed to offer a smorgasbord of music entertainment in an alcohol-free, family-friendly event, draws 10,000 to 20,000 fans to Tacoma’s downtown theater district on New Year’s Eve.

Theaters, stages, rehearsal halls, cafes, museums and the School of the Arts all host entertainers from around the Northwest. Music ranges from rock to bluegrass, reggae, gypsy jazz, gospel and eclectic experimental.

Dancers, jugglers, performance artists and magicians will add to the excitement. From the parade at 6:30 p.m. until the last act at midnight, First Night will be an extravaganza of entertainment choices, with many different acts playing at the same time in different venues within walking distance.

A festival button will allow festival-goers to pick and chose and to sample many different offerings. Almost all of the bands are professional, but there will be a smattering of talented community groups and local high school students to add to the mix.

“It’s going to be fun,” said saxophonist Tova Beck, 13, one of the youngest members of Arletta Sound.

Beck said she understands the fundamentals of a good performance but has never set foot on a stage like the Pantages.

Arletta Sound has grown in recent years from a family band to the largest jazz ensemble in the area. In the past year, the group has performed at Skansie Brothers Park in downtown Gig Harbor, plus the Fox Island Fair, Maritime Gig Festival, the Harbor History Museum and Tacoma’s Museum of Glass.

The band currently has 20 musicians who meet to practice every week, plus another 20 members who come once in a while.

“There’s something rewarding about playing a new song together and hearing it come to life,” said Dirk Beck, a Gig Harbor High School senior who is a composer for Arletta Sound.

One new member is GHHS jazz singer Anna Mikkelborg. She and her sister, Erin, sing together in many arrangements.

As well as vocalists, the band has six saxophonists, two clarinetists, two flautists, two trumpet players and a trombonist. Its guitar section spans multiple cultures, including a Hawaiian ukulele, an Italian mandolin, a classical Spanish and an electric bass guitar.

The percussion section has a Latin American and African feel, with congas, drum set, the African djembe and the Peruvian cajón.

The string section, perfect for medieval and gypsy jazz varieties of music, includes cellos and piano.

Band members, including Wolf Beck, who composed for the Seattle Symphony’s Young Composer Workshop last spring, write all Arletta Sound’s music.

This weekend, Holly Turley will present her first composition. Turley, who is now a grandmother, was once studying to be a performing violinist. Now, she enjoys playing and writing for Arletta Sound.

“I’ve been carrying this song in my heart since I was in high school,” she said.

Turley describes her piece as medieval and said it gives melody to a song sung by elves in the book Lord of the Rings.

“The elves are ancient,” she said. “They never die. And yet they lose one they love. In my piece, they sing a song of remembrance.”

Mix medieval music with funky jazz, smooth jazz, vocal ballads and upbeat, fast-paced Latin, and you get Arletta Sound, as eclectic and full of surprises as Tacoma’s First Night.



Dirk Beck and Wolf Beck contributed to this story.