The end of March, the 30th and 31st to be exact, was a truly wonderful weekend. On Friday I was able to play a huge “Prohibition Swing Dance” event for Jazzeast, Halifax’s jazz society. They are a wonderful and vibrant organization comprised of a small paid staff and a corps of dedicated, enthusiastic volunteers. We were the opening act to an evening of swinging music and swell dancers. Sending out my licks from the stage of Halifax’s cavernous and historic Olympic Centre was a huge thrill.

A photo slideshow of Swingology at Jazzeast’s prohibition Swing Dance

The next night we were honored a few miles to the south by the chance to play to a full house of gypsy jazz fans at the Chester Playhouse. Our sound tech, the acoustics of the theatre, our audience, and my incredible band mates made for possibly the best evening of music I’ve gotten to be a part of.

A photo slideshow of Swingology at the Chester Playhouse

I hope the folks running the venues and organizations, our old and new friends who came out to listen and dance to our tunes, and my Swingology band mates know how much I treasure the chance to be part of this. Thank you.

The photos of the two events were taken by my wife Susan Malmstrom, who deserves no small bit of thanks as well.

Thought you might enjoy seeing this, we have a number of big gigs this weekend, but it was quite a surprise to wake up and see the morning paper.  Click the screen-shot for the full story:

The Chronicle Herald is the paper-of-record in Nova Scotia’s provincial capital, Halifax. Here’s a peek at the venue we’re playing (as it appeared in 1948!).

She headlined at the kinda club I want to go to!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJHRI0ZqKEE

Here’s my favorite clip,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_AI_qQLynE

Here’s an ultra-mini “documentary”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENPgCKU4z5c

Thank you Ms. Hutton!

It’s been a great year, in many ways my happiest. Want to hear what we’ve been up to? Stop by the little Trellis Café sometime to find out! The music — and the friendships — are still in full swing.

Already, the various bands that I play with have more bookings than we’ve ever had at this early date — and some of them are really swell!

Performing with Jazzette at the Trellis Café 1/13

Starting on this Friday — the 13th! — my pals in Jazzette and I are I’m kicking off the year at one of our favourite hanuts, the great little Trellis Café. Then next month Swingology will take center stage with multiple gigs at cool venues that are new to all of us (more about that later, of course — or scour my “Gigs” page for details).

And in addition to all that, I’ve written a to-do list for myself that should keep me pretty busy. I’m mentioning it here, publicly, to keep myself honest! One of my items is to create some new sample recordings I hope you’ll enjoy. I’m aiming to lay down 6 or so very simple little tracks just to give folks an idea of how I sound these days. Here are the first two — What do you think?

Lullaby Sample

Solitude Sample

Another goal for my year is to meet and mingle with more Atlantic Canadain Jazz musicians. If you’re a Maritime syncopator, watch out, I’ll probably be lurking in your audience soon. And then there’s practice goals… that never changes… happily!

And finally, I just learned about a gig which I must confess, I’m especially excited about. Swingology has been contacted by Jazzeast, Nova Scotias’ wonderful non-profit jazz society, to entertain at a 1920s -30s “Speakeasy” themed fundraiser on March 30th. Youza! A made to order gig for us! Here’s how I imagine it’ll look. Hope to see you all this year!

Those of you who’ve been following along know that I’ve been living in two wonderful, but separate, vintage-swing-worlds this summer. Swingology’s Kirsten McDonald, a wonderful singer with whom I’ve had the joy of working alongside for the last year, has moved to pursue an exciting internship, and will be much missed. What to do? Well, what happens when you get some of your very best friends together in the same room? We’re all about to find out.

I’m so excited that Cynthia Myers (with whom I’ve been working since February as part of Jazzette), is going to be singing with me and my pals in Swingology: the best darn little classic Gypsy Swing outfit around. Feast your eyes on this fun poster announcing the event. Come on out to the Trellis Café on November 19th to hear the unveiling of this swingy “Dream Team!” The Trellis staff will be pushing back the tables and rolling up the carpet to make this a dance party (‘course you can just order up a great meal and listen, if you’re a mind to). There’s a $10 cover for this special event.