Mint Julep Jazz Band

Duck Jazz Festival – October 11, 2015

We love traveling around our home state of North Carolina to perform at cool and unique venues, so we are delighted to be included in the roster for this year’s Duck Jazz Festival on the outer banks of North Carolina! The Duck Jazz Festival, now in its 9th year, presents a free day-long festival of regional, national, and international jazz artists with two stages on the Duck Town Green.

This year’s festival artists include Maceo Parker, the Bria Skonberg Quintet, the Mint Julep Jazz Band, The Monitors, Joe Mapp and the Coordinates, and the First Flight High School Honors Jazz Band.

The music starts at 11:00 a.m. – join us on October 11, 2015 in Duck! For more information, visit the Duck Jazz Festival website.

Battle Axe on Hey Mister Jesse Podcast, Episode #116

Battle Axe is featured in the August, 2015 episode of the Hey Mister Jesse Podcast on Yehoodi.com – check it out! If you aren’t hip to the Hey Mister Jesse podcast, you might like it if you like swinging jazz and blues, music to dance to, emerging and established swing/jazz/blues artists, and the classic swing era artists we still love so dearly.

All Balboa Weekend 2015

Super proud of the Mint Julep Jazz Band’s performance at the 15th annual All Balboa Weekend in Cleveland, Ohio on June 13, 2015 – it was our third year performing at the event and the dancers always show us so much love and appreciation! I took a video from the stage, including shots of the band and the crowd of Balboa dancers during the tune “Old King Dooji.” Enjoy!

Mint Julep Jazz Band Kickstarter – Ends March 11!

As we head into our last few days of Kickstarting our second album, Battle Axe, we are so fortunate to be funded at our $12,000 goal and are working toward our stretch goal of vinyl copies of the album if we reach $16,000! If you haven’t pre-ordered the album yet or if you want a tee shirt or any of the other goodies that are only available through Kickstarter, you have until March 11 to become a backer. 🙂

Hot Rhythm Holiday in Austin, Texas – January 17, 2015

The Mint Julep Jazz Band will be performing at Austin, Texas’ unique and awesome event, Hot Rhythm Holiday, a weekend of dances, workshops, and live music focusing on the dances Balboa and Collegiate Shag. This is the band’s first fly-out gig and we’re excited, but hope everything goes well at the airport. Cross your fingers for no delays! Once we get there on January 17, we hope we’ll have the afternoon to explore a Austin a bit before we perform at The Fed that night. We’ll be sharing the stage with Austin’s own Thrift Set Orchestra for four sets of live music at the Saturday night dance!

Our State Magazine – Music in the Library

The Mint Julep Jazz Band was excited to be invited to provide music for Our State Magazine‘s Music in the Library video series, which shares and highlights songs from North Carolina musical artists filmed at Our State Magazine’s headquarters in Greensboro, North Carolina. We filled up their cozy library space with eight musicians, swing, and hot jazz on a hot June afternoon and the results came out great, using just three microphones and three cameras.

The band recorded “Swingtime in Honolulu,” “Rock it for Me,” and “Miami Boulevard” – visit the Our State YouTube channel for all the videos from this series!

The Process – July 18, 2014

The Mint Julep Jazz Band will kick off the weekend festivities at The Process, a Lindy Hop workshop weekend in Richmond, Virginia on Friday, July 18, 2014 at 9:00 p.m. The Process is a new event, in its first year, and seeks to answer the question, “What is the process guiding Lindy Hoppers to rapid improvement?” in its workshops throughout the weekend. With a great lineup of instructors (Casey Schneider & Mike Faltesek; Jaya Dorf & Michael Gamble; Chelsea & David Lee; Mike Herring; Abigail Browning & Adam Speen; and Sparrow Pants) and live music by The Low Down Sires, 504 Supreme, and Gypsy Roots, it looks like it will be a rumpus in Richmond! For more information visit The Process website.

Frankie 100 NC

The Mint Julep Jazz Band is proud to be performing at Frankie 100 NC, North Carolina’s Frankie Manning Centennial Celebration, a once ever event celebrating the life and legacy of Lindy Hop pioneer, educator, and global ambassador Frankie Manning, who passed away shortly before his 95th birthday. This year Frankie would have been 100 years old and the global Lindy Hop community is set to celebrate, with a huge event in New York, Frankie’s hometown, and smaller celebrations worldwide.

The Mint Julep Jazz Band will be performing at the main dance on Saturday, May 24, 2014 at the Carrboro Century Center from 8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Come join us for some Lindy Hop and be a part of this celebration for NC, which is drawing dancers from surrounding states and beyond!

Mint Julep Jazz Band’s 2nd Anniversary and Live Stream February 1, 2014

The Mint Julep Jazz Band‘s first gig was on February 23, 2012 at an RDU Rent Party swing dance, which we decided to live stream primarily because one of our friends was in the hospital and requested it. It was a great idea and, not only was our friend able to tune in, 79 other people did, as well!

We are excited that the band has seen success over the past two years and to commemorate our second anniversary we will live stream our February 1, 2014 show at the Triangle Swing Dance Society swing dance in Durham, NC!

To tune in, visit our UStream channel on February 1 any time from 8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/mint-julep-jazz-band

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. 🙂

Laura Windley

Hot jazz and swing vocalist