We had a great turnout at St. Barnabas’ Church on May 18 for our gig playing the Saturday Night Swing Dance hosted by Swing Toronto. Very nice to see friends come out and try the beginner’s Lindy Hop lessons and enjoy social dancing.
Our band played three sets of music, which gives lots of room for classics (Bei Mir Bist du Schöen, Louis Jordan tunes) and for fun experiments – we actually did the 1940’s version of the Woody Woodpecker song 😂🪵🐦, … which is actually a pretty classic song form and fun to improvise over! The band featured Nathaniel Edgar on keys, Gram Whitty on bass, Keith Barstow on drums, with myself on lead vocals.
I’m telling you guys, we are very lucky in Toronto to have a thriving scene celebrating classic Swing. I recently enjoyed a packed room at Dovercourt House to the 7-piece Vic Lawrence Band playing big band tunes on the occasion of Lindy Hop pioneer Frankie Manning’s 100th birthday. How often do you get to hear these amazing tunes LIVE and swing dance the night away!