We were pleasantly surprised to find our vinyl records were delivered this week, as we weren’t expecting them until May. You can pick up a copy on our Bandcamp page or message us in advance if you’d like to purchase an LP at one of our shows. Thanks again to our Kickstarter backers who made this dream a reality!
Last month Lindy Focus released just about every song from the 2019 event as individual videos! If you’ve been wanting to hear something, but didn’t feel like scrolling through a 3+ hour live stream, head over to the Lindy Focus YouTube channel and browse the multitude of new content. I’m most proud of “I’m a Slick Chick,” featured on Lionel Hampton night and originally performed by Dinah Washington with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra. Dinah absolutely kills on this recording from a live performance, it’s so inspiring and I was excited to be able to perform it live. The transcript was sponsored by the incredible LaTasha Barnes, to whom I am so grateful for this!
Also new on the Lindy Focus YouTube channel are the live streams from this past year’s Lindy Focus – a little smaller lineup, a little smaller in dancer attendance, fully masked and vaccinated, but nevertheless a celebration of early jazz and swing!
Picking up where we left off, we cautiously move back into position, changed forever, but hopeful that our community can once again be together in a meaningful way. While Lindy Focus may more likely resemble a regional Lindy exchange this year, I have a feeling that the impact will still be strong, particularly for those of us who are still working from home and whose scenes are not running regular dances yet.
Per usual, I am most excited about the music – the musicians and bandleaders this year are all from North Carolina! Our state has a history of producing incredible jazz musicians (Coltrane, Simone, Monk, to name a few) and, for the modern swing dance community, you are already familiar with several bands based in NC – Michael Gamble and the Rhythm Serenaders, Keenan McKenzie and the Riffers, and the Mint Julep Jazz Band. We’ll have some new-to-you faces that we’re excited for you to hear (including bandleader Sean Mason!) and I’m sure there will be some new-to-you tunes that we’ve added to our books during the pandemic.
Above all, be safe – Lindy Focus will be requiring masks/vaccinations and we’ll have to do air hugs, but it will be so good to see any number of you and share in the collective and creative energy that has been missing for so long.
If Lindy Focus is not in your risk budget, we all understand and we’ll see you again in the future – if it is in your risk budget this year, registration is open, the hotel is taking bookings, and I’ll see you soon!
Photo credit to the wonderful Atsuki Takizawa!
This past weekend the Mint Julep Jazz Band premiered three new music videos as part of the California Balboa Classic’s virtual event, CalBal Live! The event reached out to 5 bands/bandleaders to create brand new recordings for the event, compiled remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, including Michael Gamble and the Rhythm Serenaders, Gordon Au’s Grand Street Stompers, the Jen Hodge All-Stars, Keenan McKenzie and the Riffers, and the Mint Julep Jazz Band, We hope you enjoy these new-to-us tunes, here’s the scoop on each song, the sponsors, and the musicians for each recording:
COWBELL SERENADE
If you say CalBal three times fast it might come out sounding like cowbell at the end – hence this tune is a pun on the event’s nickname. We’d been looking for pitched cowbells for years, online an at music stores, and it took a pandemic Zoom cocktail hangout for the topic of almglocken to come out. Thanks to Jonathan Stout for the suggestion, we think they worked out great! Here’s our rendition of Johnny Blowers’ Cowbell Serenade, sponsored by Gary Chyi.
Lucian Cobb – trombone, Matt Fattal – trumpet, Keenan McKenzie – tenor saxophone, Aaron Hill – alto saxophone, Chip Newton – guitar, Jason Foureman – bass, Kobie Watkins – drums, Laura Windley – glockenspiel
I’M GONNA SIT RIGHT DOWN AND WRITE MYSELF A LETTER
This is an original arrangement of I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter, written by Lucian Cobb, with vocals inspired by the Boswell Sisters. Thanks so much to Kevin Wang, Lian Tarhay, Ursula Hicks, Kevin Nguyen, Matt Mitchell, and Jennifer Reed, all swing dancers in Austin and Dallas, Texas, who joined forces to sponsor this song for CalBal Live.
Laura Windley – vocals, Lucian Cobb – trombone, Paul Rogers – trumpet, Keenan McKenzie – tenor saxophone, Aaron Hill – alto saxophone, Ben Lassiter – guitar, Peter Kimosh – bass, Aaron Tucker – drums
RAGGIN’ THE SCALE
When we started talking to the CalBal Live organizers it became clear that they were excited about everything the bandleaders proposed and were up for funding big band charts. While the Mint Julep Jazz Band isn’t a big band, Lucian really wanted to do a big band song because it would be fun to put together. He had already transcribed Raggin’ the Scale (from an Ella Fitzgerald and her Famous Orchestra live recording from the Savoy Ballroom) for Michael Gamble and the Rhythm Serenaders Orchestra and Michael gave his blessing for us to record Lucian’s transcription, so here we are! Thanks so much to Pasadena Balboa and Jam for sponsoring Raggin’ the Scale, this song is an absolute blast.
Trumpet – Renee McGee, Jay Meachum, and Jim Ketch; Trombone – Lucian Cobb and Evan Ringel; Alto Saxophone – Brian Miller and Aaron Hill; Tenor Saxophone – Keenan McKenzie and Annalise Stalls; Drums – Dan Faust; Bass – William Ledbetter; Guitar – Ben Lassiter; Piano – Clark Stern; Glockenspiel – Laura Windley
Just in time for Halloween, Keenan McKenzie‘s The House on Hawkins Drive – a ghostly tale of dancing and music in a haunted house – is now a music video! Keenan is a true Renaissance man, serving as songwriter, arranger, performer, audio engineer, video editor, and overall creative mastermind of this entire thing. I am, of course, delighted to be a part of the project and equally delighted to appear singing in the moon for the duration of the video.
The video features our friends, Lindy Hoppers Sydney Bernstein-Miller, Jordon Chan Lauren Gibson, Mel Khaw, Audrey MacInnes and Gavin MacInnes, as well as musical collaborators Riley Baker (drums), Lucian Cobb (trombone), Aaron Hill (alto saxophone), Lynn Grissett (trumpet), William MoBetta Ledbetter (bass), Keenan McKenzie (saxophone/clarinet), Chip Newton (guitar), and Mark Wells (piano).
Enjoy and have a safe and wonderful Halloween!
In an alternate timeline I would be boarding a plane this Friday morning to fly to Los Angeles to spend Labor Day weekend days poolside at the LAX Marriott and evenings DJ’ing and singing with my band and Michael Gamble and the Rhythm Serenaders at Camp Hollywood. In our current timeline, Hilary Alexander has put together an incredible weekend of competitions, classes, discussions, and music for a Virtual Camp Hollywood that will be streamed on YouTube for free and classes/events will be donation-based! Find the entire event streaming on the Camp Hollywood YouTube channel, starting at 8 p.m. PDT/11 p.m. EDT this Friday, September 4, 2020 through Monday, September 7, 2020.
I’ll be kicking off the music for the weekend with a DJ set on Friday from 8-10 p.m. PDT/11 p.m.-1 a.m. EDT, you can find me as part of the Bandleader Summit with Jonathan Stout and Michael Gamble on Sunday, September 6, 2020 from 4-5:30 p.m. PDT/7-8:30 p.m. EDT, and at some point over the weekend the Mint Julep Jazz Band will have a little surprise for everyone – tune in!
Photograph courtesy of Piqant Photography.
A couple of months ago I sat down with UK-based swing DJ, MC, and instructor Sarah Spoon, who had conceived of a brand new, not yet launched podcast called Desert Island Jams, which would feature swing community personalities picking the 10 songs they would take with them to a desert island and talking about those tunes. Given that dancers are music loving creatures and who doesn’t love a top 10 list, I thought this was brilliant and delighted in my hour or so chatting with Sarah about my list. Subsequently, Sarah has released episode 1 featuring Ryan Swift of The Track podcast and swing DJ fame and episode 2 featuring swing and house dance powerhouse instructor LaTasha Barnes, both stellar episodes – thus, I’m so very excited that I am episode 3, which came out today! Come hang out with me and Sarah while we talk about tunes I love and share a lot of fun and laughter.
I also got a shoutout on the August 2020 episode of the long-running Hey Mister Jesse podcast, hosted by Jesse Miner and Manu Smith, featuring music that is of interest to swing dancers. There have been a number of COVID-19 pandemic album releases and this episode features 8 of them, including Gordon Au’s Tribute to Louis Armstrong and his All-Stars/Live at Lindy Focus, and you can hear me and Jim Ziegler sing and banter on “My Bucket’s Got a Hole In It” – enjoy!
One of the silver linings to the pandemic is that there are lots of opportunities to listen to music, both online and from my collection – let’s combine the two, shall we?
On Thursday, July 30, 2020 I’ll be taking another spin for the Global Online Social, an ongoing pandemic music series that runs every Thursday featuring swing DJs from around the globe. Tune in from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. EDT for my set, tune in all day starting at 1 p.m. EDT for even more music.
Zoom:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/v5Yrc-6oqT8qbs286DrASAX7RenhmXME7w
Watch on twitch:
https://www.twitch.tv/pauldances
For more information visit the Facebook invite and/or Paul Riding’s (our esteemed host) website.
On Sunday, August 9, 2020, I’ll be the featured DJ for Swing it Blue!, a series of Zoom parties featuring swing/blues DJs spinning tunes while participants (maybe you?) handwrite letters to swing-state voters who are likely to vote Democrat asking them to vote in the upcoming election. This method has been proven to be one of the most effective means increasing voter participation and many of the letter recipients will be from historically underrepresented groups. I’ll be DJ’ing for the letter writing party on August 9 from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. EDT. For more information, visit the Facebook invite (for my date) or the Facebook group and its About page/FAQs (more general information and all the dates/invites)
While all of my in-person events are slowly being canceled amidst the pandemic, I am excited to report that there are two upcoming virtual events you can watch, enjoy, and interact with!
On May 9, 2020, I’ll be making a cameo in a virtual Rent Party, which you can find on Facebook under the event An Old-School Fundraiser for Swing Artists. The idea is that we will create a virtual Rent Party, with dancing, live music, shenanigans, and we hope that you’ll contribute to the “rent” with donations that will go to the Pacific Swing Dance Foundation’s relief fund. Our cast includes Jonathan Stout, Gordon Au, Keenan McKenzie, Nick Williams, Lauren Smith, and Peter Flahiff. Thanks to our hosts, dancer and author Jodi Daynard, who conceived this event and will emcee, and the Pacific Swing Dance Foundation. Tune in from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.!
On May 23, 2020, I will be a part of Rhythm Relief: The Swingtacular Show, a large scale virtual swing dance and swing music live show, featuring a cast of some of my favorite musicians from the US and dancers from around the world. My fellow virtual band-mates for this show are Keenan McKenzie, Josh Collazo, Jonathan Stout, Paul Cosentino, Gordon Au, and Marquis Howell. The show will run from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. EDT. Rhythm Relief is spearheaded by Nick Williams and hosted by the Pacific Swing Dance Foundation. For information about the relief fund, how to donate, and how to apply, visit the Pacific Swing Dance Foundation’s website.
It’s amazing how time has seemed to stand still, yet fly by. I have remained busy, as my day job is deemed essential, but I have also been busier than I thought I would be with various music and other projects. Here’s a recap of the past month’s projects:
Gordon Au’s Tribute to Louis Armstrong and his All-Stars – Live at Lindy Focus was released on April 15 – this was such a special night of music and we are all very pleased with how this album came out, particularly since none of us had anticipated releasing the recordings from that night and we had only really run through half the tunes in rehearsal that day before performing Gordon’s wonderful arrangements. This album is full of joy, so if you need some of that in your life right now, this would be a great investment in happiness. Visit Bandcamp to download this digital release.
Keenan McKenzie put together a virtual collaboration of video/recording of his lovely song The Dwindling Light by the Sea, with yours truly reprising vocals, Lucian Cobb on trombone, Jonathan Stout on guitar, James Posedel on piano, William Ledbetter on bass, and Dan Faust on drums. Here’s another recording, this time with visual, to add some joy to your day. If you’d like to see more collaborations organized by Keenan, please consider donating to his virtual tip jar at VENMO: @keenanmckenziemusic OR
PAYPAL: paypal.me/keenanmckenziemusic
On another musical note, Bandcamp is doing musicians affected by the pandemic another solid and reprising their waiver of the revenue share for all sales on Bandcamp – this is in effect May 1, June 5, and July 3 (the first Friday of each month) from midnight to midnight PDT on each day. If you’ve been planning to buy music, you can do the most good for musicians by purchasing on these particular dates.
On April 9, 2020, I DJ’ed (along with several of my fellow swing band leaders- Jonathan Stout, Michael Gamble, Brooks Prumo, Jonathan Ng, and house DJ Rickard Johansson) for the Global Online Social, a DJ’ed virtual dance party on Zoom and Twitch organized by Paul Riding that features new DJs every Thursday, playing swing music for a good portion of the day. Maybe you dance, maybe you just need some swing music to keep you motivated as you work, but it’s a lot of fun – consider tuning in!
Finally, I’ve released three more episodes of Lindy Shopper’s Closet, the YouTube series spinoff of my Lindy Shopper blog, covering the topics of moth prevention, my favorite swing dance shoes, and dance undergarments, all posted below – please subscribe to my YouTube channel (I’ll eventually get back to posting music, too) and enjoy!
Laura Windley 