dance

Mint Julep Jazz Band Plays Shakori Hills – April 20, 2014

The Mint Julep Jazz Band will be joining the stellar lineup of musicians for the spring 2014 Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival of Music & Dance, along with the Indigo Girls, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, the Del McCoury Band, and dozens of other great local, regional, and national acts. We’ll be performing Sunday, April 20 from 7:15 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. in the Dance Tent – they’ll have a wood floor in the tent so everyone can cut a rug and avoid the mud. 😉

For more information about the festival, the artists, the location, camping, tickets, schedule, and any questions you may have, visit Shakori Hills’ comprehensive website at http://shakorihillsgrassroots.org.

This is our first music festival, so we are really excited – see you there!

Eastern Balboa Championships – 10th Anniversary!

This weekend is the 10th and (possibly) final Eastern Balboa Championships – it has been an amazing experience over the past 7 years to be able to attend this event and watch it grow into an international event, right in my backyard. I’ll be pulling DJ duties, as well as appearing with my band, the Mint Julep Jazz Band, on Saturday night! Looking forward to the costume contest, the Raleigh Vintage trunk show, and seeing all my Balboa friends. 🙂

October 24, 2013 – RDU Rent Party: Philly Invasion Edition featuring Perseverance Jazz Band

On October 24th, the City of Brotherly Love is sending some love our way. No, we are not erecting a statue of Rocky (or Jason posing as Rocky) at TDS, but we will be getting some swing love in the form of the Perseverance Jazz Band.

This New Orleans inspired band has been keeping Philly dance floors hopping for some time now and is making a pilgrimage south which naturally has to include a stop at RDU Rent Party. They will also be christening the first Rent Party dance in the new Lindy Lab studio at TDS, meaning this is the first band that gets to start at 8 and not have to work their way around Salsa classes to setup. So they’ll be fresh and ready to come out swingin’ for a knockout of a dance.

In addition, Ms. Breanna Perry, also of Philadelphia, will be accompanying the band, spinning tunes for the night and teaching a solo Charleston workshop from 7-8. So we’ll be forgoing the normal beginner lesson to give everyone a shot at picking up some of Breanna’s hot moves and we imagine there will be a multitude of Charleston jams accompanying the band at this dance.

Suggested price for the dance is $10 and a suggested additional $5 for the workshop which will be collected in a separate hat. As always, all money collected goes directly to the entertainers.

Triangle Dance Studio – Lindy Lab Studio (look for the orange door frame)
2603 S. Miami Blvd.
Durham, NC

Beginner solo Charleston lesson from 7-8 p.m.

Dance from 8-11 p.m.

Mint Julep Jazz Band Dates – Raleigh, Richmond, DC!

It’s a dream to be able to perform with my band at Glen Echo’s Spanish Ballroom

After a pretty low-key summer, the Mint Julep Jazz Band is kicking things into high gear – starting Labor Day weekend, we have gigs four weekends in a row:

August 30, 2013 – Music on the Porch – This is our last outdoor gig of the season and a rare chance to perform in Raleigh. Join us with your pic-a-nic baskets and come hang out on the grass!
3301 Pollock Place
Raleigh, NC
Time: 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Admission: $7.00 for adults, kids get in free

August 31, 2013 – Mint Julep Quintet at G2B Gastro Pub
3211 Shannon Road #106
Durham, NC
8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
Admission: Free
We recommend making a reservation if you would like to eat or have a seat – please specify that you would like to be seated in the jazz lounge.

September 7, 2013 – Spanish Ballroom at Glen Echo Park – I can’t really tell you how excited I am that the Mint Julep Jazz Band is playing this wonderful, beautiful, historic ballroom! Special thanks to the Jam Cellar for bringing us up to perform.
7300 MacArthur Blvd
Glen Echo, MD
9:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m.
Admission: $16.00

September 13, 2013 – Mint Julep Quintet at G2B Gastro Pub
3211 Shannon Road #106
Durham, NC
8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
Admission: Free
We recommend making a reservation if you would like to eat or have a seat – please specify that you would like to be seated in the jazz lounge.

We’ll be at another historic ballroom on September 14 at the Lewis Ginter Recreation Association

September 14, 2013 – John Ennis and Ruth Brown’s Anniversary Swing Dance
Lewis Ginter Recreation Association
3421 Hawthorne Avenue
Richmond, VA
Time: 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Admission: $10.00

September 21, 2013 – This is not a Mint Julep Jazz Band gig, but Lucian and I will be returning to Glen Echo’s Spanish Ballroom to perform with the Craig Gildner Big Band!
7300 MacArthur Blvd
Glen Echo, MD
9:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m.
Admission: $18.00

All Balboa Weekend 2013

It’s that time of year – the time every year where I drive 8 1/2 hours to my Mecca-of-sorts, All Balboa Weekend in Cleveland, Ohio. There will definitely be a vintage shopping excursion (with a report), with some old favorites and perhaps a new shop for Lindy Shopper. And cupcakes.

I’m looking forward to working with the many of you who volunteered to participate in All Balboa Weekend’s 1940’s fashion show, as well as seeing all the wonderful clothing that you are bringing and that Val and the vendors are providing for the show!

I am also looking forward to performing with my band, the Mint Julep Jazz Band, at the Friday night dance and to singing with the Boilermaker Jazz Band on Saturday. This is really a dream come true, to be able to have my band perform at my favorite dance weekend of the year, and I’m just…over the moon right now. EXCITED!

Last, but certainly not least, I am one of the main DJs for the weekend, along with head DJ Kyle Smith and fellow blogger Christian Bossert of Swing DJ Resources.

Yes, I will be doing ALL THE THINGS. Including dancing. 😀

I hope to see some of you there, please come up and introduce yourself if we are not already acquainted.

Onward to Cleveland!

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!

Rocky Mountain Balboa Blowout 2013

This weekend I’ll head to Denver, Colorado to DJ some sweet Balboa tunes at the Rocky Mountain Balboa Blowout! I’ve missed this event for the past two years and it’s so wonderful to be able to go again – looking forward to Denver’s wonderful venues, food, dancing, and general shenanigans with my fellow DJs. 🙂

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 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