About the Band
“I really enjoyed performing with the band tonight. Took 55 years off of my age. Really great faculty, parents and of course those remarkable boys and girls who are the future of humanities in our country. I have the deepest respect for all of you.”
John Bolivar playing with the band.
Heatwave Show Band is part of the music program of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Coachella Valley, California. Under the direction of Jim Little, the original band was formed in the fall of 2007, and at that time was dubbed the Boys & Girls Club Jazz Band.
The original group started as a part of a program by the NAMM Foundation to further enhance music at the Boys & Girls Clubs. In the early years, we were based in the La Quinta Club, but now have a home of our own, in the Pete & Edna Carlson Music Club in Indio.
The original band also helped create other programs to round out what is now Heatwave Production Studios. With Live Sound and Recording classes, Digital Music classes, virtual music instruction, Podcast, Radio and more!
In addition to an annual budget from the Boys & Girls Clubs, the program has some great sponsors including Connie & Bob Lurie, Panda Cares, Warburton Music Products, Tycoon Percussion, Pete Carlson's Golf & Tennis, Gretsch Guitars, and Leeford Music.
At the beginning of 2022, we were fortunate to be awarded a grant from Panda Cares, the charitable foundation of Panda Express. We have been thrilled to become a part of their annual Golf Tournament that helps to raise money for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and other charities that support kids. After COVID, these funds were instrumental in allowing us to build our program back up to the level it was before COVID, and expand beyond where dreamed it could be. Programs like ours are detrimental to helping kids to recover from the effects of COVID shutdowns. We are fortunate to be in a position financially to offer these programs to more kids, due to this grant.
For additional touring and educational budget, the band survives solely on stipends from performances, donations from organizations and patron donations at performances.
The Heatwave Show Band studies, rehearses and performs a wide variety of popular music, with a repertoire that includes music from 40's big band era to today's popular music - from Earth Wind & Fire to Bruno Mars - put together in a Vegas / Nightclub style format, with up to 3 hours in a single performance.
Our band travels around the country and performs regularly at festivals, clubs, and private events. Past performance highlights include a 2013 East Coast trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando and recording sessions at Ocean Way Studios in Nashville. In 2014, the band toured San Francisco, Monterey and Santa Cruz and recorded in the legendary Skywalker Sound studios.
The band was honored to be voted as the second best local band in the 2014 Desert Magazine's "Best in the Valley".
At one time, we had a sister band in the Pacific Northwest. Covid and budget issues hit and we have since had to shut that program down, but before that happened, the Pacific Northwest and Southern California bands joined forces in March of 2018 for a concert at the world famous Whisky A Go Go in Hollywood!
For a complete list of past performance highlights, please click here.