Vocalist is jazzed about Utah

Vocalist Kelly Eisenhour has been one of Keith Lockhart's favorite guest soloists over the years. She's joined him previously with the Utah Symphony and was also featured on the Boston Pops for its 2000 New Year's Eve concert, as well as its spring tour the following year.

Next weekend, she joins Lockhart and the Utah Symphony once again, this time in a tribute to the big band era. "Keith invited me, and I'm very excited to be doing this concert with him," Eisenhour said. The program will feature the music of Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey.

For the show, Eisenhour will sing several songs, including "Tangerine," "Ain't Misbehavin' " and "This Joint Is Jumpin'." "I love this music. These are classics." Eisenhour also hinted that there will be a couple of surprises for the audience. "For 'This Joint Is Jumpin'," there will be some other things going on while I sing it. And I'm going to do another song that everyone in Salt Lake will enjoy, but I don't want to say anything more about it — I don't want to give it away."

Making their debut, as it were, at the concert will be the Utah Symphony's principal clarinet Tad Calcara and his band New Deal Swing, which includes several members from the orchestra. "I'm going to be singing with Tad on some of the songs," Eisenhour said. "Before, I just sang with the symphony, so this will be great."

Eisenhour has performed locally at various venues over the years. She's opened for Ramsey Lewis at the International Park City Jazz Festival and has been a featured vocalist at the Jazz at the Sheraton series. Before coming to Utah, Eisenhour performed in Las Vegas for many years. But she realized at one point that she had had enough of the Vegas scene and moved to Utah in 1997.

When the opportunity came up to be a featured backup singer for Gladys Knight, the temptation was too great to resist, and Eisenhour returned to Las Vegas. "When I went back to Vegas, I thought to myself, 'What am I doing here?' " Eisenhour said. "I love Utah and I wanted to be back. I did the Vegas thing for a long time." After 18 months, Eisenhour decided to leave the show and return to Utah. "It was my choice to leave Gladys," she said. "Some people said to me, 'But that's Gladys Knight.'

"But I was ready to come back. Vegas is a conglomeration of a lot of things, and I love living in Utah."