Mint Julep Jazz Band

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

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

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

International Lindy Hop Championships – August 22-25, 2013

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As always, I am very excited to be attending the International Lindy Hop Championships in Washington, DC – this year I will reprise my role as guest commentator on Yehoodi’s live stream broadcast of the Open Balboa competition (in HD!) and look forward to seeing all the wonderfully creative competition outfits and pairings the competitors put together. I will also be on hand to report about all the wonderful vendors at ILHC and I am hopeful for a few new faces this year in the vendor area.

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I am also excited to announce that the Yehoodi broadcast will use “Miami Boulevard,” a tune off the Mint Julep Jazz Band‘s new album “Durham on Saturday Night,” as their theme song for the broadcast!

See you there or see you online!

All Balboa Weekend 2013

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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!

Mint Julep Jazz Band CD Release Party May 8!

MJJB DOSN CD Cover

The members of the Mint Julep Jazz Band are beyond excited about having our album, “Durham on Saturday Night,” ready for you to listen to and enjoy!

We hope that you will join us at G2B Gastro Pub on Wednesday, May 8, 2013 for our CD release party from 8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. – we’ll be playing a mix of tracks from the CD and classic swing music, and the band will take the stage at 9:30 p.m. for an hour-long set. If you’d like to eat dinner, they are recommending that you make a reservation; if you’d just like to snack, drink, or hang out, come as you are!

We’ll have plenty of CDs on hand for sale and we’ll also have our Kickstarter rewards available if you designated local pickup.

If you can’t make it to the CD release party, never fear! We should have the album available on iTunes and CD Baby for digital download by May 8 and will have distribution of physical copies of the CD through CD Baby sometime in the near future. You will also be able to pick up the CD at any of our upcoming shows.

For our Kickstarter supporters who are out of town and opted for mailing your rewards, we will begin shipping the CD as soon as we have it in hand, but it may take a few weeks to get all the rewards where they need to go.

Thanks again to all of our supporters, Kickstarter backers, Jamie Wolcott for her amazing cover art, Jason Richmond for both the recording and the mastering, and our maestro Lucian Cobb for the mix. We hope you love it!

Sesame Street Features Mint Julep Jazz Band Song!

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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

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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

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

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!

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.