About Us
The Swing Soul Band consists of a group of extremely talented and experienced professionals. They love playing together and creating unforgettable experiences for their clients!
Read below to learn more about the 5 founding members and their diverse and impressive backgrounds! This band can be reduced to a Trio and enlarged to a 10 piece Dance Band!
Tom Arntzen
Tom Arntzen is a singer, keyboardist, singer, composer, arranger, producer, educator and actor. He played his first professional engagement at age 13, and is a superb pianist and singer, able to cover jazz, classical, blues, pop, rock, Broadway, Latin, sing-a-long, or country. As a singer-songwriter, Tom recently released Everyday Love, his third album of original music.
Tom has sung with the VSO Pops at the Orpheum Theatre, was bandleader for the Grey Cup Gala, performing for the Prime Minister. He was vocal coach to Will Ferrell and Zooey Deschanel in the movie “Elf”.
Tom plays and sings regularly as a soloist, bandleader or accompanist at the Unity Church, Centre for Spiritual Living, River Rock Show Theatre, Pan Pacific Hotel, Hotel Vancouver, Hyatt Regency, Four Seasons, Westin Bayshore, Delta Pacific Resort, Chateau Whistler, and many more, both for private parties and weddings, in theatres, ballrooms, pubs and lounges.
In live theatre, Tom musically directed the smash Rocky Horror Show at the Arts Club Theatre. He has played keyboards and sang on engagements for such corporate clients as Telus, Air Transat, Air Canada, Amway, Bausch & Lomb, Phizer, Bayer, Bank of Nova Scotia, Western Tire, Rogers Video, IBM, Macdonald Detwiler, and many, many more.
Tom is a music specialist at St. Augustine’s School in Vancouver. He is currently enrolled at SFU and VCC in pursuit of a Bachelor of Applied Music.
Amanda Wood
Amanda Wood is a highly celebrated vocalist and international touring artist. With a voice described by David Foster as “sultry and unique” she is a soulful performer with a gift for emotional story telling.
Listening to Amanda Wood sing brings to mind the subtle whispers of Norah Jones, the powerhouse vocals of Adele and the entertainment value of Michael Buble. Her music is a beautiful balance of power and emotion, standards and originals, all coming together in an Adult Contemporary Pop/Jazz style. With her latest album, My Love, Amanda is poised to earn her place in your record collection beside other Canadian Jazz royalty, fitting perfectly between Diana Krall and Michael Buble.
2014 is off to a bang with performances all over Asia, and a 3 month residency in Hong Kong from January to March. 2013 was a year of excitement especially since Amanda just recently realized a dream by winning a major competition with the Vancouver Canucks and singing in front of 19,000 fans at Rogers Arena. The performance was such a success that she has been asked to come back and be a regular and has enjoyed a very warm reception from the media and fans!
November 2013 saw the highly anticipated release of her new album, My Love and a sold out CD release concert at the prestigious Orpheum Annex Theatre. Amanda also recorded her first ever Christmas Album featuring an original song and also her favorite song “Hallelujah.” The CD release concert for Celebrate The Love At Christmastime was held at the main stage of the Kay Meek Centre in West Vancouver in December 2014. The album features beautiful arrangements of a beautiful mix of traditional and contemporary Christmas songs.
2012 found Amanda touring and performing all over China with resident gigs in both Beijing and Hong Kong. She recorded an album called, Made in China which was recorded in Hong Kong and earlier in the year she released her Amanda Wood Acoustic Album which was recorded live off the floor at the Cellar Jazz Club in Vancouver, B.C.
Some of the highlights of Amanda’s career have been performing in Beijing, China for the Summer Olympics; at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas; a private show for the King of Malaysia in Shanghai, China; with David Foster in Vancouver, Canada; with Jeff Goldblum’s Jazz Quintet in LA; and with the Dal Richards Orchestra.
Adam Rohrlick
Adam Rohrlick, a multi-instrumentalist who also plays saxophone and keyboards, has been performing professionally for over 25 years and is also active as an arranger, producer, songwriter and music teacher.
Adam has worked with the Dal Richards Orchestra, Mike Henry, Catherine St. Germain, Diane Lines, Babe Gurr, Cory Weeds, Kelly Brock, Dr. Strangelove, the City Soul Choir, Gary Comeau & the Voodoo All-Stars and Gabriel Mark Hasselbach. Adam has also performed with Michael Buble’, Colin James, Kenny Wayne, Mike Reno of Loverboy, and Jim Byrnes.
Adam also leads his own group called Hip Pocket which has performed on CBC Radio's Hot Air Jazz show, at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival, the Burnaby Blues Festival, the Whistler Jazz & Blues Festival, the CBC annual Food Bank Drive, the Terry Fox Run, BMO Vancouver Marathon as well as numerous private and corporate events.
Graham Clark
Graham is an in demand sideman in Vancouver on both electric and double bass. He has been playing professionally since the age of 13, starting in his hometown of Cranbrook BC. Graham is well known for his versatility, covering everything from classical, Broadway, jazz, rock, funk and soul music.
Graham graduated from McGill University with a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Performance (with distinction). While there he studied jazz with Alec Walkington and classical with Brian Robinson (associate principal of the Montreal Symphony). He played with both McGill Big Band II and the McGill Symphony orchestra while attending school, along with numerous small jazz combos.
Since moving to Vancouver, Graham has performed with Amanda Wood, Emily Chambers, Brad Turner, Hugh Fraser, Soul Assembly, Electric Ballroom and Ben Henriques. He has also played in the pit of many local Broadway shows including Rent, Hair and Grey Gardens. He is also a regular member of the Kamloops Symphony and was the principal bass player of the Symphony of the Kootenays.
Joel Fountain
Joel Fountain has toured the world with jazz trumpet legend Maynard Ferguson, and also played in the Grammy nominated jazz big band the "One O'clock Lab band," performing concerts with The Brecker Brothers, Terry Gibbs, Byron Stripling, and with Diane Schuur & Slide Hampton in Maynard’s "Big Bop Nouveau band." Joel earned his bachelors degree in music from the University of North Texas (magna cum laude in jazz arranging), and whilst studying in Texas he had the opportunity to perform concerts with Rufus Reid, John Abercrombie, Kenny Wheeler, Byron Stripling, Mike Stern, Jim Snidero, plus many other great Texas based musicians. Joel studied drum set with Ed Soph for 4 years, and also with Canadian drum teacher Don Reid for 3 years. He has played on many full length CD's, including releases on Nagelheyer records (the Lynn Seaton trio), Summit records (the Steve Anderson trio), "Lab 2001" with the One O'clock Lab band, and also his own modern jazz album "Saturn Return" on SiTMoM records. Joel Currently resides in Vancouver, BC where he performs & records regularly and enjoys performing steadily with the Swing Soul Band.