The beautiful Al Whittle Theatre in Wolfville NS becomes a Parisian cabaret for an evening as we bring our sizzling brand of gypsy swing to town. This wonderful soft-seat venue features 160 comfortable seats, each with a prime view of the stage. There’s even a place (on every seat!) to put your favourite hot or cold beverage, which can be purchased from the Just Us Café, conveniently located in front of the theatre lobby. Tickets can be purchased at the door for $20 ($15 for students and seniors), but you’ll want to get yours in advance at the Box of Delights bookstore (450 Main Street, Wolfville, phone 902-542-9511) or Moe’s Place Music Sales (129 Gerrish Street, Windsor, phone 902-798-5565).
Here’s a great shot from the fabulous evening we spent in concert at the beautiful Chester Playhouse in Chester Nova Scotia. It’s so great to get the chance once in a while to play in a wonderful venue like this, and the audience actually gets a chance to LISTEN for a change! Which means the incredible awesomeness of our playing and singing becomes just that much more incredibly awesome (if we do say so ourselves).
Seriously, it was a wonderful evening before an attentive and appreciative audience. The band played better than ever, and our swing diva Cynthia gave them a star turn. The highlight of the evening was her rendition of “When You’re Good to Mama” from Chicago. Queen Latifah, you’ve met your match!
Here’s a new photo of Swingology at JazzEast‘s Prohibition Swing Dance last Friday night. The flappers and sheiks were all turned out in period costume dancing up a storm. Every thrift shop, vintage clothing store, and Grandma’s attic must have been cleaned out! The Charleston got a new lease on life that night, and I think I saw a few hip flasks in evidence. And you should have seen the cigarette girl! She was passing out candy cigarettes, of course.
By the way, “Sheik” was the male equivalent of a flapper, in homage to those great Sheik movies starring matinee idol Rudolph Valentino, he of the piercing eyes and flaring nostrils:
This weekend promises to be a swell time for fans of swing. FIRST, JazzEast presents “Prohibition Swing Night,”), an evening of swing dance at the Olympic Community Centre in Halifax on Friday March 30. It will start at 8:00 PM with an hour of dance lessons by the Dalhousie Swing Dance Society, so you can brush up on your dance moves AND learn the CHARLESTON! Then Swingology takes the stage for a hot set of classic gypsy swing (and we’ve got our Charleston tune all tune picked out!), featuring our own swing diva Cynthia Myers, followed by the big band sound of the Jubilee Swing Orchestra.
Thanks to our dapper man on the clarinet John Malmström (aka “Smilin Jack”) for the live action scene above. We’re sure it will look just like this Friday night!
Then, on Saturday evening at 8:00, we take the stage once again at the Chester Playhouse for a concert. You know, one of those things where people actually get to listen to the music! We’ll be featuring our swing diva Cynthia once again, and our hot guitar section of Kevin Cox, Vincent Leys, and Ben Robertson will get a chance to show off their Django Reinhardt-inspired soloing. And of course our favorite man on the licorice stick, Jack Malmström, will be tearing it up, along with the gorgeous violin work of Andrew Kent and the solid bass of Andy Connolly. This is a beautiful theatre, and the acoustics are great, so you’ll get to hear every note loud and clear. Not to be missed!
Our sultry swing diva Cynthia Myers gives the torch treatment to a Peggy Lee classic at The Company House in Halifax on February 1 2012. Featuring The Swingology Dancers!
We brought our classic brand of gypsy swing to The Company House in Halifax for the first time for yet another Parisian Swing Dance. The dancers turned out in large numbers, and we were delighted to see some of the young folks from the Dalhousie Swing Dance Society cuttin’ it up on the floor. Their lessons are paying off! The “CoHo” was selected as Venue of the Year TWICE by the ECMA since its founding in 2009, and now we see why. It is a fantastic music room, with supportive management, a great space, friendly staff, and our newest hero Georgia Richards on the sound board. We’ll be back!
We are delighted to introduce the newest member of the Swingology family, Kevin Cox. Kevin comes to us from Montreal, where he studied and played with some of the finest gypsy jazz guitarists in North America, including the illustrious player and teacher Denis Chang. Kevin has already added his hard driving rhythm and dynamic solos to our appearances at The Fo’c'stle and The Company House, and we are looking forward to hearing a lot more from him. We’ve now got a rhythm section that’ll knock yer socks off!
Here’s a short clip from our recent appearance at Roadside Willie’s Smokehouse and Bar. Owner John Henry was trying out his new camera and captured this exquisite moment as our swing diva Cynthia Myers sang this poignant classic, starting with a smooth violin interlude by Andrew Kent. It’s only the last half of the song, making us wish for more!
Yowzah! Yowzah! Roadside Willie’s Smokehouse and Bar in Truro NS was the place to be on Saturday Feb. 4, as Swingology took the stage for an old-fashioned swing dance. OK, so this isn’t an actual photo from Saturday, but you get the idea. We had a blast, and the crowd did, too. Stay tuned – we’ll be back!
We’d be remiss if we didn’t wish a happy birthday (at least in spirit) to the man without whom gypsy jazz would not have existed. Django Reinhardt was born on January 23, 1910, in Liberchies, Pont-à-Celles, Belgium, into a family of Manouche gypsies. Already a seasoned professional on the six-string banjo by the age of 13, he made a living playing in the musette dance halls of Paris until, when he was 18 years of age, a fire in his caravan left him with two crippled fingers on his left hand. He switched to guitar and painstakingly taught himself to play around this “handicap.” Soon he discovered jazz and met a young violinist named Stephane Grappelli, and the rest is history. Jazz would never be the same.
