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 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.

The Mint Julep Quintet Premiers October 5 at G2B Gastropub

The swanky lounge area at G2B

While an 8 piece band is great for dances and special events, it is generally too large for restaurants and bars in the Raleigh/Durham area. We’d still like to bring you the hot jazz and swing, so we’ve pared ourselves down to a quintet! The Mint Julep Quintet will have its first performance at G2B Gastropub in Durham, NC on October 5, 2012.

I’ll have one of these, please! And a side of Clarinet Marmalade.

G2B Gastropub
3211 Shannon Rd, Suite 106
Durham, NC
8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
Admission: Free

We’re excited to be performing at G2B – we hope you’ll join us for a delicious dinner or come hang out and grab a beer!

Check out the gorgeous food and beverages on their Facebook page.

John and Ruth Want You at Their Wedding Celebration – September 7-8, 2012

No, seriously, they really do. John Ennis and Ruth Brown are getting married on September 8, 2012 and are opening up their wedding reception to be an open-to-the-public swing dance. For John and Ruth, there is no better way to spend their wedding weekend than surrounded by live swing music and dancing. To that end, they have planned a weekend doing just that and are inviting everyone who wishes to dance to amazing music to attend not one, but two dance events – the more the merrier!

Here’s the information from the Facebook invite:

John is a big fan of Fred Astaire and we’ll be performing at least one of his songs for the reception/dance

“Friday, September 7th, 2012
Live Band: Gypsy Roots
9:00pm – midnight
Beginner Lindy Hop lesson at 7:30

Saturday, September 8th, 2012
Live Band: The Mint Julep Jazz Band
2:00pm-5:00pm
Beginner Lindy Hop lesson at 1:00

Location:
Lewis Ginter Recreation Association
3421 Hawthorne Ave.
Richmond, VA

Admission:
General: $10 for one dance, $15 for both
Students: $7 for one dance, $10 for both

Spiffy attire encouraged for the Saturday dance (we’ll be in wedding attire)! Please wear comfortable shoes with smooth soles (please, no black rubber soles).

New to dancing? Have no fear! Ruth and John will be teaching the beginner lesson before the Friday night dance, while Erica Vess and Ryan Lemar will be teaching the beginner lesson before the Saturday afternoon dance. No dance partner required.

Erica Vess will also provide her excellent and nationally recognized DJ skills during the band breaks!

And of course, there will be cake…”

I am excited to be a part of the wedding festivities with the Mint Julep Jazz Band and am looking forward to dancing, cake, and performing at the historic ballroom at the Lewis Ginter Recreation Center!

Mint Julep Jazz Band at Festival for the Eno, July 4, 2012

The Mint Julep Jazz Band will be celebrating Independence Day at Festival for the Eno! We’ll be performing one set at the River Stage from 2:15 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. The festival is setting up a dance floor in front of the River Stage and Jason Sager is teaching a beginner swing dance lesson at 1:45 p.m., so bring your dance shoes if you are so inclined. It will be a lovely day of picnicing and hot jazz!

West Point on the Eno City Park
5101 North Roxboro Road
Durham, NC

River Stage, 2:15 p.m. to 3:15 p.m.

For tickets and information on the festival, directions, and parking, please visit the Festival for the Eno website.

Laura Windley

Hot jazz and swing vocalist