Vaudevillain Revue: We’re All Mad

The Vaudevillain Revue, Raleigh’s premiere vaudeville-inspired cabaret and burlesque troupe, makes its debut at the Southland Ballroom this Friday, November 25, 2011 – prepare yourself for an evening of live music, dancing girls, vaudeville comedy, burlesque beauties, circus arts performances, a little magic, and live music by A Tin Djinn!

I have been invited to join this troupe of Vaudevillain performers and will be debuting my solo jazz routine that I created for the Hawkeye Swing Festival’s choreography competition.

Southland Ballroom
614 N. West Street
Raleigh, NC

Doors open at 9:00 p.m., show starts at 10:00 p.m.

$10 tickets available at the door.

For more information on the show and the troupe, visit http://www.vaudevillainrevue.com.

For the Facebook event invite, see http://www.facebook.com/events/294159463929072/.

Swing For Scrap: A Scrap Exchange Fundraiser Dance, November 19, 2011

Can't find a good photo of the floor, but here is the lovely ceiling!

On Saturday, November 19, 2011, I will be DJ’ing at the Swing and Scrap Fundraising Dance, a DJ swing dance to benefit the Scrap Exchange. From their website: “The Scrap Exchange is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote creativity, environmental awareness, and community through reuse. We collect materials from hundreds of individuals, businesses, industries, and municipal sources and distribute those materials through our retail store in Durham, North Carolina as well as through workshops, parties, and outreach events across the Southeast.”

This dance will be held at Duke Gardens in the Doris Duke Center, which has the most beautiful inlaid wood floor in the Triangle – I’ve been dying to dance on it!

The details:

7:00 p.m. Beginner East Coast Swing lesson with Jason Sager

8:00 – 11:30 p.m. Swing dance to music provided by DJs Chris Owens and Laura Windley

Tickets are $12, or $10 for Scrap Exchange Friends Club members and also members of the Triangle Swing Dance Society, Carolina Dance Club, or the Piedmont Swing Dance Society. Tickets are available at The Scrap Exchange, 923 Franklin St., Bays 1 and 2, Durham (behind Golden Belt) or online (with a small processing surcharge) at http://swingforscrap.eventbrite.com/.

The Scrap Exchange will provide snacks and drinks, and have dance bags and other goodies for sale. Raleigh Rolfing will offer short bodywork sessions in exchange for donations.

For more information, call (919)688-6960 or email scrapdance@yahoo.com.

Eastern Balboa Championships 2011

This weekend, November 3-6, is the Eastern Balboa Championships, the epic Balboa workshop and competition weekend that takes place in Raleigh, NC every year. I’m pleased to be a part of the DJ roster again this year, along with head DJ Kyle Smith, DJ Kristy Milliken, and DJ Abigail Browning. I am also excited to be a featured vocalist with Russ Wilson’s Nouveau-Passe Orchestra on Saturday night.

On Saturday, I have made arrangements with the Raleigh Vintage Collective to have a trunk show at EBC from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. that will feature clothing and accessories for men and women from the 1920’s, 1930’s, 1940’s, and 1950’s. This is an exciting prospect because everything offered will be era-appropriate for swing dancing! Lindy Shopper will be reporting, of course.

Introducing the Mint Julep Jazz Band

After a week of brainstorming and polling our friends on Facebook, Lucian Cobb and I have a name for the new band we are forming: Mint Julep Jazz Band!

We are excited about having a name because this means we can start marketing the band and setting up all those things bands need, like a website, business cards, a Facebook page, and other identity-related things. It’s hard to book a band without a name, right?

Speaking of booking, we are also excited to announce that the Mint Julep Jazz Band already has two gigs lined up for next year, a wedding and a Lindy exchange – we’ll be playing the Queen City Lindy Exchange in Charlotte, NC on March 10, 2012!

Closed Doors, Open Windows, and Starting a New Band

In light of recent events and a lot of questions from friends and fans, I feel the need to clarify a few things. A couple of weeks ago I received an email from Atomic Rhythm All-Stars bandleader, George Knott, terminating my involvement with the band as the vocalist and as the marketing person for the band. My involvement was terminated over a dispute regarding intellectual property rights. As of two weeks ago, I will no longer be performing with the Atomic Rhythm All-Stars and have been removed from all future performance dates.

I’d like to thank those of you who have been supportive of me during this time. It’s tough to pour your heart and soul into a project for three years, use your contacts to obtain gigs for the band, invest time and effort into developing an online presence and fan base, share in the joys and woes of being part of a band, and see something you got into on the ground floor grow and flourish, only to have your efforts and talents be deemed unnecessary.

To borrow from lyrics, the song is ended, but the melody lingers on…after hearing the news, my friends expressed that I should start my own band. I discussed this with my husband, trombone player and arranger Lucian Cobb, who is leaving the Atomic Rhythm All-Stars as well, and we both decided that we love this music too much to stop playing it. As our options for joining other bands as regular members are non-existent in Raleigh/Durham, we will be forming our own group to play 1920’s, 30’s, and 40’s jazz, featuring Lucian’s arrangements from Atomic and many more new arrangements. We will also need a band name, equipment, ideas for songs, a book, a website, and gigs, among other things I’m sure we haven’t considered. It’s hard to start all over again, but, hopefully, we will continue our dreams of playing vintage jazz music and share the joy of this music through a different conduit.

We already have a gig on the books for next year and are accepting gigs for dates in March 2012 and beyond. Thank you to everyone who has faith in my abilities as a vocalist, organizer, and business-woman. I look forward to performing for you again!

Looking Good But Feeling Bad: The Choreography Begins

On October 27, 2011, I will begin teaching a four part workshop series for Hot Club of Durham of a routine I choreographed to Fats Waller’s “Looking Good But Feeling Bad.” I created this routine as a submission for the 2012 Hawkeye Swing Festival’s choreography contest and hope to submit a video of the class doing the routine in time for the December 15 deadline to enter the contest. Please join me, this routine is going to be super fun!

Dates for the workshop series:

October 27
November 10
November 17
December 1

All classes will run from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Trotter Building, 410 W. Geer St., Durham, NC. The cost is $40 for all classes and $32 for students; otherwise, $12 per drop-in or $8 for students. The price includes admission to the Thursday night Hot Club dance.

RSVP to the Facebook invite at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=182285021853650

Jammin’ on the James 2011

The Blue Crescent Syncopators are playing the Saturday night dance at Jammin' on the James

This weekend I will be traveling to Richmond, Virginia to DJ and sing at this year’s Jammin’ on the James, Richmond’s annual swing dance workshop weekend, featuring instructors Carla Heiney, Nick Williams, Casey Schneider, and Mike Faltesek.

I’ll be sharing DJ duties with Bill Speidel and hopefully grab some time to go vintage shopping with this infamous sartorialist. I’ve been invited to share the stage for the first time with Washington, D.C.’s Blue Crescent Syncopators, so I will be singing a few tunes with this band on Saturday night. It’s also my birthday this weekend, so there’s a lot to look forward to at Jammin’ on the James!

RDU Rent Party: Glenn Crytzer Takes the Cake Edition, October 13, 2011

Glenn Crytzer and his Syncopators played for the Gatsby Edition Rent Party last year and burned it down, so RDU Rent Party is honored to be hosting Glenn on his birthday and would like to cordially invite you to attend and help us celebrate in style.

We will be providing a cookie cake and beverages, you provide the energy. Feel free to bring other refreshments and let’s make sure and give Glenn an unforgettable birthday!

In preparation for the Eastern Balboa Championships, Chris & Holly Owens will be teaching Balboa for the Intermediate and Beginner lessons. Bring your slick shoes and canning wax.

This Rent Party will be held at the Trotter Building in lieu of/collaboration with the normal Thursday night Hot Club of Durham festivities.

The Trotter Building
410 W. Geer St.
Durham, NC

Admission is pay-what-you-can with a suggested $10 donation.

7:00 p.m. – Intermediate Balboa lesson
8:00 p.m. – Beginner Balboa lesson
9:00 p.m. – Birthday boy takes the stage and plays until midnight

Peter Lamb and the Wolves at Carrboro Arts Center

Peter Lamb and the Wolves will play a concert at the Carrboro Arts Center this Sunday, October 2, 2011. I will be joining the Wolves onstage for a few songs and so will Lucian Cobb, the Atomic Rhythm All-Stars‘ trombone player extraordinaire.

From the Arts Center website:

“The dance floor will be open for Peter Lamb and The Wolves’ Arts Center debut! Named best Jazz group in the Triangle, this young quintet lives up to their fairy-tale namesakes. The Wolves peddle languid sophistication that is always a little bit dangerous–their repertoire reaches back to New Orleans’ earliest syncopaters but also forward to hipster bards like Bob Dylan and Tom Waits. http://www.peterlambandthewolves.com. Recommended for fans of: James Hunter, Sam Cooke.”

Single Admission: $11
Members Single Admission: $9
Day-of-show non-members: $13

Get your tickets in advance through the Carrboro Arts Center’s website: http://artscenterlive.org/event/performance/527

Pink Renaissance: A Jazz Affair

This Friday, September 23, 2011, I will be performing with the Al Strong Quartet +1 as a dancer at Pink Renaissance: A Jazz Affair. This concert is a fundraiser sponsored by the Kappa Alpha Alpha Sorority and the money raised will go to scholarships. The concert will feature some early jazz tunes, to fit the Harlem Renaissance theme, and will feature the dancing of local swing dancers, including myself, performing Lindy Hop, Balboa, Charleston, and Blues dancing to the music performed by the band.

The event runs from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. and will also feature heavy hors d’oeuvres and an amazing cake created by Gregory Bingham of The Art of Cake.

UNC- Chapel Hill, Sonja Haynes Stone Center Theater
150 South Road
Chapel Hill, NC

For more information visit the Kappa Alpha Alpha web site.