Mint Julep Jazz Band

Queen City Lindy Exchange 2013

This Saturday, March 9, the Mint Julep Jazz Band hits the road to road to Charlotte, North Carolina for the Queen City Lindy Exchange. We are excited to appear as their Saturday night band for the second year in a row! As North Carolina’s only Lindy Exchange, we are looking forward to some stellar regional dancer attendance, including a large caravan of dancers coming from the Triangle.

Also, QCLX’s theme for this year is Dr. Who – Whovian Lindy Hoppers can participate in a costume contest on Friday night and in a Doctor/Companion Jack and Jill competition on Saturday night. 🙂

Chantilly Hall
2101 Shenandoah Ave.
Charlotte, NC

Band plays from 8:00 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.

Admission: Registration information for the weekend at http://www.qclx.org, $25 at the door on Saturday night

P.S. I’m also DJ’ing this weekend – woot!

Sesame Street Features Mint Julep Jazz Band Song!

Tune in to Sesame Street on April 18, 2013 to hear an original Mint Julep Jazz Band song in one of the non-muppet segments! We are excited to have an air date and to finally be able to make this announcement, which we’ve been keeping quiet about since September, when Lucian composed and we recorded the song.

How did this happen? It’s all about networking (or being in the right place at the right time?) – we performed at a local wedding in August and one of the guests thought we’d be perfect for a project he was doing for Sesame Street. After a few phone calls and emails we had about a week and a half to put everything together, from Lucian composing the tune, getting everyone in the same place to record it, culling enough equipment together to have a quality recording, to lots of little logistical hurdles that occur when you are contracting out your services. Needless to say, everyone in the band was really excited to be involved in something that was going to appear on Sesame Street, and, with that motivation, we pulled it off in a very short amount of time.

If you can’t tune in to the show, there may be a way to watch it online after the air date – stay tuned!

Mint Julep Jazz Band at the Triangle Swing Dance Society Dance, March 2, 2013

On Saturday, March 2, 2013, the Mint Julep Jazz Band will be back at the Murphey School for a swing dance, hosted by the Triangle Swing Dance Society. TSDS is also hosting a day of swing dance workshops that Saturday called Localpalooza, which features many of the local swing dance instructors teaching a range of classes for all levels. If you are interested in learning how to dance, this would be a great beginner crash course! If you already know how to dance, there’s a little something for everyone – information on the workshops can be found on the Triangle Swing Dance Society website.

MJJB at the TSDS dance on December 1, 2012

As for the dance, we’ll see you at the Murphey School!

Murphey School
3717 Murphy School Road
Durham, NC 27705

Free beginner lesson at 7:00 p.m.

Band plays from 8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.

Admission: Members/students $8.00, non-members $12.00

Three Fridays with the Mint Julep Quintet!

The main dining room at G2B

This month the Mint Julep Quintet is performing in Durham three Fridays in a row! If you haven’t made it out to see our small group yet, you’ll have plenty of chances:

January 18 at G2B Gastro Pub

We’re returning for our monthly engagement at this fine establishment that straddles the line between modern gourmet and comfort food and drink. Make a reservation to dine in the jazz lounge to ensure that you get a seat! You can make reservations through their website (they use OpenTable) or by calling the restaurant at (919) 251-9451.

8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
G2B Gastro Pub
3211 Shannon Road #106
Durham, NC

January 25 at Beyu Caffe – CANCELLED for inclement weather, rescheduled for March 23

Beyu’s lovely interior, inside the Art Deco era Snow Building

We are making our debut at Beyu Caffe, the restaurant voted the best place to hear jazz in the Triangle in the Independent Weekly reader’s poll. Come join us at this wonderful downtown establishment for dinner, dancing, drinks, dessert, or all of the above! You may also want to make a reservation here, depending on your seating preference – call the restaurant at (919) 683-1058.

9:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m.
Beyu Caffe
335 W. Main St.
Durham, NC

February 1 at G2B Gastro Pub

Laura in the jazz lounge at G2B

We’re making our February appearance at G2B Gastro Pub earlier in the month – your last chance to catch the Quintet until we return on March 22!

8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
G2B Gastro Pub
3211 Shannon Road #106
Durham, NC

We hope you will join us for one of these performances! Come find out why Durham is both a foodie town and a jazz town, thanks to creative chefs and restaurant owners who take pride in their food, their city, and their entertainment. 🙂

RDU Rent Party: Back to the Future Edition featuring the Mint Julep Jazz Band, January 10, 2013

I am really looking forward to the Mint Julep Jazz Band‘s special performance for RDU Rent Party on January 10, 2013 – we’re not exactly going back to the future, but we will give you a full preview of all the songs we are recording for our album in the second set! Polish up your dance shoes and come swing out to the tunes that will make up “Durham on Saturday Night.”

Triangle Dance Studio, back studio
2603 S. Miami Blvd.
Durham, NC
Band plays 9:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m.
Admission: Pay what you can with a $10.00 suggested donation

Mint Julep Jazz Band Kickstarter Fully Funded!

As of November 28, the Mint Julep Jazz Band reached (and even surpassed) the $6,000 funding goal on our Kickstarter campaign to raise money to produce our first CD! We are overwhelmed and so grateful for the generosity of all of our backers, particularly, the Triangle Swing Dance Society, who was not only our largest monetary backer, but also pledged the amount that sent us over our $6,000 goal. Thanks to your help and the magic of crowd funding, the Mint Julep Jazz Band is going to record a CD in January!

The other brilliant part of this is that we reached our funding goal in 28 days, which is just under half the amount of time we allotted to meet our goal. This means that the Kickstarter does not officially end until December 30, so if you’d still like to pre-order a CD or support the Kickstarter for other rewards, you have until December 30 to do so. If you’d like to view our Kickstarter, visit http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/laurawindley/mint-julep-jazz-bands-first-cd-durham-on-saturday.

Thanks again! We really couldn’t have done it without you!

Mint Julep Jazz Band at the Triangle Swing Dance Society, December 1, 2012

From our June performance for the Triangle Swing Dance Society, courtesy of Tiffany Lindquist.

It’s the Mint Julep Jazz Band‘s last show of the year and we are delighted to be performing for the Triangle Swing Dance Society for their election/potluck dance. To usher in the season, we’ll be performing a couple of Christmas tunes in our set. Come dance off all the turkey you ate last week!

Triangle Swing Dance Society dance
Murphey School
3717 Murphy School Road, Durham, NC

Admission: Members/students $8.00, general admission $12.00

Free beginner lesson at 7:00 p.m.

Band plays from 8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.

The Kickstarter Continues!

The Mint Julep Jazz Band has 41 days left to reach our funding goal of $6,000 and we already have pledges totaling around $4,000! We are over half-way with more than half of our time left to go! This has been a great start and we thank everyone who has backed our Kickstarter thus far!

If you’d like to help us reach our funding goal, pre-order a copy of our CD or back our Kickstarter in exchange for some fabulous rewards at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/laurawindley/mint-julep-jazz-bands-first-cd-durham-on-saturday. If we don’t reach our goal, we don’t get any of the money pledged, so please consider supporting your local swing band!

Mint Julep Quintet Returns to G2B Gastro Pub, November 17

Your view from the front door – come on in!

After a successful first show at G2B Gastro Pub, they have invited us back to perform again on Saturday, November 17! Come join us for one of the most delicious meals in Durham, prepared by Chef Carrie Schleiffer and served by her stellar waitstaff. We love the fried mac and cheese, goat cheese croquettes, sweet potato wedges, and believe that they truly have the best burger on the planet.

We’ll have a couple of new tunes this go around, come to listen or come to dance!

G2B Gastro Pub
3211 Shannon Road #106
Durham, NC 27707

8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

No cover!

Call (919) 251-9451 for reservations or make your reservations on the web at OpenTable.

The Mint Julep Jazz Band Kickstarter is Live!

We are excited to finally press the launch button on the Mint Julep Jazz Band Kickstarter campaign and see if we can raise $6,000 through crowd funding and pre-sales to make our first CD a reality. We’ve got some great rewards in exchange for your backing and support, so here’s the link for our Kickstarter campaign:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/laurawindley/mint-julep-jazz-bands-first-cd-durham-on-saturday?ref=live

We’d like to thank everyone over the past year who has been so supportive of this band and encouraged us to move forward with this project. We are definitely excited about getting into the recording studio and having a CD that we can share with you.

Laura Windley

Hot jazz and swing vocalist