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DCLX 2011: Encore! Encore! Encore!

I also took a number of videos this weekend. I’m posting three of them here with a little back ground. These videos are of the last band of the weekend, The Boilermaker Jazz Band. Despite the heavy hitter line up that preceeded them, including bands led by Glenn Crytzer, Jonathan Stout, Gordon Webster, Craig Gildner, and Stacy Brooks; the Boilermakers were still able to rally the near exhausted DCLX-ites to such a frenzy that they held them hostage onstage for THREE encores. You would think batting clean up behind one of the most exciting musical nights in modern Lindy Hop history would be tough, but BMJB hit one out of the park.

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tags: jazz, music, BMJB, Swing Dance, swing music, hot jazz, boilermaker jazz band
categories: Event Commentary
Sunday 04.24.11
Posted by Jerry Almonte
 

DCLX 2010 Awesome Juice. Get Some on You.

The thing I love about DCLX (DC Lindy Exchange) is that it’s the kind of event that attracts dancers that appreciate quality live music.  So much so that musicians that leave it all on the stage get treated like rock gods. Writing about live music is very hard thing because in the end you have hear it to feel it.  I can talk about the Boilermakers burning up their version of “Avalon” or Jonathan Stout & His Campus Five featuring Hilary Alexander (say that three times real fast) cranking the crowd up to a near riot with “Dark Eyes” or the Blue Vipers of Brooklyn breaking everyone’s heart with “Bringing it on Home to Me,” but that’s why events like DCLX exist; to give people a way to connect to something that they can’t otherwise experience.

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tags: BMJB, lindy hop
categories: Event Commentary, Music Commentary
Wednesday 04.14.10
Posted by Jerry Almonte
Comments: 2
 

Carla Heiney & The Boilermakers on So You Think You Can Dance

Last night Ellenore Scott & Ryan Di Lello performed a Lindy Hop piece choreographed by Carla Heiney on So You Think you Can Dance. The dancers did a great job with the performance given the tight time constraints, but any woman that can teach me how to dance should have no problem with much more gifted performers.

I remember the years taking lessons from Carla while she was still studying biology at the U of Maryland.  When she told me about her dream of becoming a full time dancer I thought to myself “A full time Lindy Hopper?  Really?”  I was worried about her earning a living, never mind any kind of notoriety.

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tags: BMJB, ILHC, lindy hop, boilermaker jazz band, sytycd, so you think you can dance
categories: Dance Commentary
Wednesday 11.25.09
Posted by Jerry Almonte
Comments: 1
 

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