Listen and dance to live music!
2018 Line-Up
Tamar Korn & A Kornucopia with guest, Gordon Webster (Saturday)
Tamar Korn has been a New York-based vocalist for the last decade, playing a repertoire steeped in traditional New Orleans and early jazz, western swing, and American roots music. Her formative years were with one of the pioneers of New York hot jazz revival, The Cangelosi Cards, and she now leads her own band, A Kornucopia. Her love is of singing songs both lyrically as well as playing her voice "instrumentally". Tamar has toured throughout North America, as well as to Scandinavia, France, Lithuania, China, and the Caribbean and has appeared at venues all over New York.
Pianist Gordon Webster is one of the most sought after musicians in the lindy hop world. His tremendous musicianship and passion, supported by his first-hand knowledge of social dancing, have inspired lindy hoppers at hundreds of dance events worldwide.
Baby Soda Jazz Band with guests Tamar Korn and Gordon Webster (Sunday)
Baby Soda was formed in 2007 in Brooklyn New York, by musicians who met playing traditional jazz in Washington Square Park and the NYC subway system. Their repertoire has expanded to include more of the music of Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Hoagy Carmichael, Harry Warren & the composers who created the great American songs of Tin Pan Alley. They are not recreationists, playing note for note transcriptions, but play this expanded repertoire in the New Orleans style of small ensemble improvisation.
Cassidy & The Orleans Kids (Saturday and Sunday)
Cassidy Holden is a musician specializing in double bass, guitar, and banjo. Originally from Maine, Cassidy has been to New York, New Orleans and back and has played for lindy hop dancers in the US and Europe. Cassidy is active as a sideman with Gordon Webster, Luke Winslow King, Dan Levinson, and the Loose Marbles. He loves to play for dancers, especially with his current New Orleans style jazz band, Cassidy and the Orleans Kids!
White Heat Traditional Jazz Trio (Saturday)
The White Heat Traditional Jazz Trio is the New Orleans style Dixieland and Traditional Jazz arm of the White Heat Swing Orchestra. It is a truly all-star group that consists of the premier practitioners of that idiom on a national level who happen to live in the Boston area!
The White Heat Swing Orchestra is nationally acclaimed as one of hottest swing bands in the country today. It performed for nearly two million fans at Boston nightclub, the Roxy, over four years, and was the first swing big band to receive Boston Magazine's “Best Dance Band” award. It backed up Tony Bennett and Cab Calloway at the Roxy, and recorded for Warner Brothers and Walt Disney Pictures for the blockbuster movie, Dick Tracy. CBS News Tonight described leader, Craig Ball, as a “kind of Benny Goodman for the decade”.
Amy Kucharik & The Four String Serenaders
You may not have heard of the Four-String Serenaders before, but you'll recognize them immediately as Amy Kucharik, Josiah Reibstein (bass), and Jon Polit (clarinet); the three have played together and separately in various bands in the area. With their forces combined, they share their love of authentic 20s and 30s jazz and blues, a steady swing, and an exuberant sound that often transforms listeners into dancers!
Award-winning songwriter and performer Amy Kucharik [/kuh-CHAR-ick/] energizes swing dance, folk festival and listening room audiences alike. She tours and performs as a one-woman band with ukulele, foot percussion, mouth trumpet and harmonica, or with her Boston-based bands. Combining poignant, witty lyricism and an infectious, danceable swing, Amy’s music has drawn comparisons to Maria Muldaur, Lake Street Dive, and Anais Mitchell. Amy was a formal showcase artist at SWRFA in 2015, WFMT Folk DJ Rich Warren’s pick for the DJ showcase at NERFA in 2016, and was selected as a Falcon Ridge Folk Festival Emerging Artist for 2018. Her second full-length album of original music, "Until the Words Are Gone," was released worldwide on June 1, 2018.
DJ Alli-Cat
Allison Wilhelm, or DJ Alli-Cat, has been a swing lover since 2012, when a video game piqued her interest in music from the early to mid 20th Century. It was her interest in the genre that led her to take up swing dancing. Since her interest in old school music is what led her here, it should be no surprise that her sets feature classic swing artists like Cab Calloway, Chick Webb, Artie Shaw, and Ella Fitzgerald, but she also digs the sounds of today's artists, like Michael Gamble and the Mint Julep Jazz Band. In her DJing, Allison is committed to authenticity, danceability, and diversity.
DJ Paul Loschak
Paul Loschak (known as "DJ Loveschak" at some of the weekly Boston dances) has been dancing lindy and blues since 2009. He made his DJ debut at the MIT Lindy Hop Society in 2011, and he has been working hard to hone his craft ever since. Paul calls on the talents of the best artists from the swing era and authentic swing jazz bands that are currently active today (with current favorites Chick Webb, Andy Kirk, Mezz Mezzrow, and The Boilermaker Jazz Band). Whether it's your first night swinging out or you're a seasoned lindy hopping pro, with Paul in the DJ booth you can expect to find exuberance, playfulness, and expression in your dancing.
