July, 1999 Reviews
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Review of Dance Events During July, 1999

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DANCE REVIEWS






Thursday July 1, 1999

We have no Reviews for this date

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Friday July 2, 1999

The Tom Cunningham Orchestra played to a packed house at America, proving that there is still a market for Big Band sounds. The passing of America as a dance venue has saddened many (not that they will miss the crowded floor or the inefficient air conditioning.) The critical loss is a regular Friday night venue featuring pure big band swing

America had grown to be the symbol of Swing in DC because of the retro-friendly atmosphere, and the superb efforts of the Cunningham band. The regular gig enabled TCO to invest in new arrangements and to work much more closely together. The tightness of their ensemble playing as a backdrop for sizzling solos is a product of the "scene" at America. With the band at dance floor level the constant feedback of energy between the band and the dancers makes for an exciting experience

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Saturday July 3, 1999

Glen Echo was incredibly HOT. Mitch Woods and the Rocket 88s managed to raise the temperature even higher with their superb boogie-woogie swing style. They are BETTER than their CD. The 88s are very high on our list.

Tom and Debra taught an unusual beginner lesson -- they used George Thorogood as the music, and one of his cuts that had a strange Country and Western flavor to it. Most unusual, but it worked.

After the first dance, it was time to decamp for the air conditioned comfort of Nick's and the smaller Cunningham Band. There was a good crowd and a very enthusiastic Jam. Robin once again shone on "Hey-Ba-Ba-Re-Bop". A great evening which continued later on in the back room. Nothing like air conditioning to make the dancing better

Here is the first installment of Elizabeth and Jim's fantastic trip to Montreal:

From: Elizabeth Engel

The short, short version: the dance scene is much improved and the vintage shopping scene has utterly deteriorated.

As some of you may recall, Jim and I spent last year's summer vacation at the Montreal International Jazz Fest. We were a bit unsure about the dance scene up there (as there had been no reports), but we took our dance shoes anyway (hey, it's a jazz festival - there's bound to be some dancing). Through an entirely coincidental set of circumstances (or maybe not, for all you cosmic-perspective fans), we met the founders of the budding Montreal Swing Society, danced with them, hung with them, and generally had a ball.

Spring 1999 rolls around, and we start discussing the summer vacation plans. We were planning to go to the New Orleans Jazz Fest, until we found out that you pay admission daily to a fairgrounds outside of town where they don't even let you bring in your own water. NO THANK YOU! (Why is it that Americans can't seem to throw a decent jazz fest? Why is the "DC Jazz Fest" all the way out at the Merriweather Post Pavilion? But I digress...)

We started debating Montreal versus Toronto (which also has an excellent jazz fest the week before Montreal - convenient for the musicians, hm?) and had just about decided to go to Toronto, when one of our jazz fest 1998 buddies, Stephan Herman, aka Big Swing Daddy ("Montreal's biggest swing DJ - literally!") phoned us up with the news that Montreal was going to have a swing stage this year. He wanted us to come up and dance, which convinced us to book Air Canada tickets to Montreal. After much flurry of email back and forth, our dancing days were settled and, at the request of the local swing kittens and after a quick cram session with Chris Santarlas, I scheduled two vintage 'do classes.

We arrived Saturday afternoon, July 3, and were transported to our very cool, very funky Chinatown hotel by our college friends Kathy and Ronald who now live in Montreal. After checking in and checking out the festival site (paying particular attention to the Labatt's Bleue Dry Swing Zone stage), we got dressed for the evening and headed over to the Swing Ring Hospitality Suite, where we hooked up with Steph, got our "aren't we special?" backstage passes, and headed over to the swing stage. The evening's band was Ray Gelato, and among our fellow dancers were two couples from Ottawa, Jessica & Fred and Geoff & Nathalie, a couple from Toronto, Jody & Doug, and Janice and Paolo! Ray Gelato is a Louis-Prima style jump blues band, and they are INCREDIBLE! I think Ray might just be Louis reincarnated. It was warm and humid, and we all danced up a STORM (literally - it rained later that evening). We've got some pictures that were taken by Kathy, and once Jim scans them, we'll send 'em on over for the site.

Before we left for Montreal, everyone had stressed the importance of having lots of cool aerials ready for wowing the crowd. So we signed up for the Fidgety Feet Alley Oop class and diligently practiced what we learned each week in the middle of evening runs on the Mall (you can't imagine the strange looks we got from the softball teams as we'd run down the Mall, loop the end, and start back only to stop under the trees on the north side of the Mall, flip each other around several times, and then continue on with our run). We were all primed and ready to go with some (for us) relatively impressive stuff.

Early on in the Ray Gelato set, Jim decided to do a leap frog, a move we do all the time (so much that 90% of the readers of this review are probably tired of seeing it). Well, the speakers hung low and the stage was shaped funny (and had a 6 foot drop off the edge) and one thing led to another, and it didn't go exactly right. Jim pulled it out, but pulled a muscle in his back in the process. That was it for us for aerials that week. Fortunately, he could still dance; he just couldn't toss me around.

Amazingly enough, though, even with a lack of aerials in the rest of our performances during the week, we were crowd favorites - I guess the fast footwork, cool (stolen) break moves, and goofy facial expressions more than made up for our lack of flippin' and flyin'. Moral of the story: even when people don't necessarily know what they're looking at, they can still appreciate dancing that doesn't involve one or both partners being upside down on a regular basis, which should be an encouragement to all those out there who are as aerials-challenged as we are (and you know who you are ;-).

After Ray Gelato, Steph ferried us up to Swing Ring (4848 St. Laurent). I swear, aside from the fact that it's a much smaller place and the crowd is uniformly young, I could've been at Glen Echo. Great floor, fun tunes, HOT AS HELL (no A/C, very poor ventilation). We felt right at home, although we were wondering where the cool northern air we'd been anticipating disappeared to. Sadly, Janice and Paolo were too beat to come up, so Jim did not get to dance with Janice and I did not get to dance with Paolo, to our great dismany. However, we fought off our disappointment and danced some more anyway (thanks to Steph, Fred, and Jacques for the lovely dances), got to chat with some of the other festival dancers and some folks who'd just returned from Beantown, and left about 1:30 am, tired, sweaty, and with sore feet, but having had a great evening.

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Sunday July 4, 1999

It was the Fourth of July and time to watch the Lindy Sequence on the Mall. Steve and Sue were kind enough to invite me for dinner with some friends of theirs from Save Our Seminary. After a stimulating discussion of the philosophy of Historic Preservation (...should the very last mirror glass building be saved?), we tuned in the TV for the show. Alas, we had to sit through Kenny G and Barry Bostwick for what seemed to be an interminable time. Finally, Nell carter came on, backed by our local faves Steve and Carla, Erik and Erika, Luke and Laura and - -- of all things, my hero Calvin Ruffin and Angela Billingsley. Alas, the Lindy Hoppers were hampered by the leaden beat of the drummer for the Symphony. The guys looked great even with this handicap and my major critique is that their performance was MUCH too short. After the show, we retired to the back yard to set off some truly hazardous fireworks that had been smuggled in from Ohio. Steve set of a tiny little bottle rocket that whizzed almost a hundred feet in the air and made a blast that caused neighbors to turn on their lights. A crowd gathered and we had a more-or-less old fashioned (non-Naderian) Fourth with kids running around with sparklers and more window rattling rockets.

Elizabeth continues with her account of the Trip to Montreal

From: Elizabeth Engel

Sunday afternoon, I did my first hair class, carefully passing on the instructions and information Chris has conveyed to us DC gals. Janey went for the casual curly Andrews-sisters look, Cleo wanted to go Veronica Lake, and Tina wanted BIG rolls (fortunately, she has LOTS of hair!). Everyone seemed pleased, I didn't panic at trying to handle heads other than my own, and we all had fun killing lots of brain cells with the clouds of hairspray.

Sunday evening, we danced again, this time to Lavay Smith. We were joined on our side of the stage by Jessica & Fred again, and Jody made another appearance, this time accompanied by a different Stephan (not BSD). Unfortunately, I don't remember the names of the couples on the other side. We seemed to end up with a bunch of Lavay's fast tunes given the way the rotation worked out, so it was a good thing we'd beefed up our stock of Balboa moves with a semi-private with Iver before leaving. We also did quite a bit of fast Lindy, as we wanted to disprove the general Montreal consensus of opinion that one can't Lindy to fast music (I wish we could show them Steve and Carla!).

After the dance, we headed to one of Montreal's famous jazz clubs, L'Air du Temps in Vieux Port (St. Paul Oeust, about 2 blocks west of St. Laurent), as we'd been at the festival for two days and I had yet to sit down and listen to any jazz. The band was great, but the club reminded me of one of the few things I don't like about Montreal - EVERYBODY smokes and smokes a LOT. Fortunately for us, we had arrived fairly late, or I think we would have been asphyxiated.

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Monday July 5, 1999

Mitch Woods reprised his triumph at Glen Echo at the Chevy Chase Ballroom. The music was spectacular, but the air conditioning was broken. The lower ceilings held in the heat and it was sort of like dancing in the shower. The extreme heat did not, however, seem to dampen anyone's enthusiasm. The Jam was very cool and everyone felt that they got their money's worth and then some. A great event!

Elizabeth continues with her account of the Trip to Montreal

From: Elizabeth Engel

Monday it was hot and sunny and we got to spend the day listening to bands, catching a local favorite of ours from the previous year (Streetnix) and several of the excellent Dixieland bands who are always featured prominently at Montreal.

Monday afternoon was the second of the hair classes. In this class, I had a former pro hairdresser who wanted big swoopy waves, a dancer who wanted Myrna Loy style pincurls, Joya (aka Betty Frisco of http://www.swinginmontreal.com), and the lovely Caroline, also she of MUCH hair, who also elected to go with BIG rolls. I was definitely feeling more confident by this point, and things went smoothly, other than the fact that we were short a hair net. Fortunately, my hairnet-less dancer was not dancing until Thursday, so she had time to procure one before the critical evening (and I can report that she successfully re-created her 'do!).

Monday evening we had been scheduled to dance, but Stephan managed to score free tickets to an indoors Ray Gelato concert for us, so we bagged dancing outside a second warm, humid night to Lavay in favor of Ray and A/C. It was a good choice, as we were in the supper club-ish Spectrum with a large dance floor. Ray and the Giants put on another awesome show, coming out for two encore mini-sets, and we managed not to club the TV cameras, TV camera operators, or festival photographers at all (although we did have several close calls).

Thank heavens Montreal is the city that never sleeps, because we didn't get out of there until after 11 pm, and we still hadn't had dinner! We dined to the music of a major rainstorm that broke the heat and humidity and ushered in the weather we'd been hoping for. We had planned to stop by the Jello Bar (151 Ontario E., regular Monday evening swing night) for Ray & the Giants late gig, but we were just too beat and full after dinner to manage it.

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Tuesday July 6, 1999

Vienna Grille had a very lively scene. Sara Fajkowski brough her whole family along. Sara has a younger sister that has a whole lot of potential to be a big star. It was good to be back to the Grille and see all the old hands, plus a lot of new faces as well. We had a jam and shim sham, in it felt like coming home. Doug has even bought some new CDs

Elizabeth continues with her account of the Trip to Montreal

From: Elizabeth Engel

Tuesday was overcast and rainy, which seemed like a perfect time to canvass the vintage stores. Much to my dismay, the fabulous Drags in Vieux Port is CLOSED! I was SO bummed, but we resolved to try our luck at the second hand stores on Mont-Royal and the nearby blocks of St. Laurent and St. Denis. I am sad to report that it was pretty much a total bust. One or two shops had some old ties, with the best selection at Friperie Monsieur Jean (4424 St. Denis), including some beautiful hand painted items framed on the walls and most definitely not for sale. But other than that, it was universally 1970's crap. What a disappointment, particularly given our experiences vintage shopping last year.

The day was saved, however, by a visit to Gerard Mayeu's tailoring shop (on the north side of Mont-Royal between St. Laurent and St. Denis, although I can't remember the number). Stephan had told us about a tailor who would make custom zoot suits at reasonable rates. What is a reasonable rate for a custom zoot suit? Would a French Canadian gentlemen's tailor make a nice zoot suit? Would a traditional gentlemen's tailor have crayon zoot fabric colors? We weren't sure, but Jim wanted to check it out anyway. We were very pleasantly surprised on all counts. M. Mayeu had beautiful summer weight wool in lots of crayon colors (Jim chose bright purple), the man knows from zoot wear, and the entire custom suit came to the stunningly low price of $333 US, which included the material. He promised that the jacket form would be ready for fitting on Saturday, and ready it was. Jim's suit will show up mid-August, so keep your eyes open for a tall man in a purple zoot in about 6 weeks.

Delighted at our good fortune, we returned to our hotel to freshen up before going to hear the New Morty show and watch the dancing at the Bleue Dry stage. Morty put on their usual campy show, and we watched the Montreal dancers and danced ourselves to some of the slower tunes in the grass to the side of the stage. After the show was over, we headed over to the blues stage to catch the last act, and entertained the crowd by dancing over there. We actually had macadam, which would normally be easier to dance on than grass, if it hadn't been for the downhill slope. We just had to be careful to do swing outs ACROSS the slope rather DOWN it.

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Wednesday July 7, 1999

The Oklahoma Twisters played to a small house at Glen Echo. This is really too bad because this is a first class organization that plays the very finest in Western Swing, Bob Wills style. There were six hard core Lindy Hoppers there and we managed to have a great time on the largely empty floor. You should seriously think about coming to the next Oklahoma Twisters gig.

Elizabeth continues with her account of the Trip to Montreal

From: Elizabeth Engel

Wednesday, we spent the day with our college friends at the incredible Botanical Gardens near the old Olympic Park. WOW! It's a don't-miss Montreal attraction. We were there the whole day. Jim was particularly impressed by the bonsai, the Japanese garden, and the Chinese garden. Kathy and I were particularly impressed by the medicinal plants and experimental gardens. Lily (Kathy's 4 year old daughter) was particularly impressed by the huge Koi pond and the perennial flower gardens. That evening, we skipped the second Morty show (it had gotten cold, windy, and rainy) in favor of an indoor evening at Biddle's (rue Alymer, one block north of Maisonneuve), yet another famous Montreal jazz club owned by jazz legend Charly Biddle, who plays there nightly with assorted musical guests.

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Thursday July 8, 1999

Steve and Carla have a very nice class at Nick's on Thursday, with about 30 people learning Hollywood and Collegiate Shag. Steve plays just the right music. This is a very nice way to spend a Thursday --- plenty of dance partners and a nice floor. As usual, the staff at Nick's are just about as friendly as can be.

Elizabeth continues with her account of the Trip to Montreal

From: Elizabeth Engel

Thursday found us listening to jazz pretty much all day, including the highly gifted violinist Mirelle Prolux, yet more Dixieland, and some classic quartet jazz. Thursday evening was the only evening the Johnny Favourite Swing Orchestra was playing, so we made sure to get over for the entire concert. They're a Canadian band (from...oh dear....one of the maritime provinces) and a big local favorite. They seemed to have to the most fun with the crowd of any of the swing bands, including taking pictures of the crowd from the stage and borrowing one guy's cell phone to call Johnny's mom in the middle of the concert. Their music was fun and highly danceable. After the concert, we went back to the Swing Ring Hospitality Suite to party and hang out with the band, the dancers, and the general Montreal swing crowd. It was noisy, crowded, and tons of fun.

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Friday July 9, 1999

The Cunningham Band shone once more at America, and I believe that attendance set some sort of record. (There was talk of 350 paid admissions) It was Hot and Crowded, but everyone seemed to have a whole lot of fun. Balboa must be spreading, because I had no trouble in finding ladies eager to practice. A very good evening!

Elizabeth continues with her account of the Trip to Montreal

From: Elizabeth Engel

Friday we wandered around Vieux Port and down by the river and listened to more music. We spent the evening with our friends Kathy and Ronald and had dinner at Fonduemental on St. Denis, the very fun and yummy fondue place we ate with them last year. We had dessert at the famous Rockaberry's, home of toweringly high pies. We had hoped to stop by the Bar St. Laurent (3874 St. Laurent) for their Friday rockabilly night, but by the time we finished dessert, it was time for Kathy and Ronald to head home to Lily and for us to head over to the Spectrum to catch Mitch Woods' 12:30 am show. The joint was JUMPIN'. I'm sorry I missed those guys at Glen Echo and CCB, but since the Spectrum has A/C (and even if it hadn't, the weather was nice & cool) I'm not that sorry. We really enjoyed their show and found them nearly as energetic and crazy as Ray Gelato.

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Saturday July 10, 1999

From: Elizabeth Engel

Saturday, we headed up to M. Meyeu's for Jim to be fitted for his jacket, caught lunch on the very fahsionable Port Arthur pesdestrian mall (complete with its constant barrage of excruciatingly thin and trendy women, all with cigarettes dangling from their hands), listened to more music, and purchased a boatload of CDs (we picked up the CDs of most of the bands we'd heard, plus a few more non-swing jazz CDs for good measure).

Saturday evening was our final evening of dancing - and our final evening - in Montreal. We danced to the Dino Martinis. They reminded me quite a bit on the New Morty show, even doing a swing-ish version "One Hand in My Pocket," although their campiness is not quite so over-the-top as Morty's. We seemed to draw a bunch of the Latin numbers, which was interesting to say the least, and traded off dancing with budding Lindy Hoppers Solomon (who had just returned from Beantown) and Mira, and a couple of Montreal Jivers (sort of a cross between boogie woogie and hand dance, but with serious ballroom-y frame). It was great fun, and we pulled off a DC-tradmark partner switch during the encore number when all the couples were dancing. The Dino Martini's probably played with and off the dancers the best of any of the bands we'd seen during the week.

Afterwards, we headed up to the Swing Ring again, where we stayed until closing. I got to dance with a number of guys (it wasn't so hot and I wasn't so tired), and Jim's back was actually feeling well enough for us to pull out a waterfall and an A frame during the evening's Lindy Circle (their term for the jam), much to the delight of the crowd.

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Sunday July 11, 1999

From: Elizabeth Engel

Sunday morning, Kathy picked us up at our hotel and we spent the late morning/early afternoon at their place, having brunch and playing with Lily, before heading back to Dorval for our flight home.

All in all, it was a great week. The swing scene is still pretty young there, and it's more driven by the scene and the music (with a focus on the neo-swing sound) than the dancing. But there's a small core group of dedicated dancers up there, and I have good hopes that swing will continue and grow in Montreal. Stephan is passing along band info to me for conveyance to Mr. Koerner, so we might see some of the great bands we heard up in Montreal in DC before too long. In the meantime, I'm passing along DC band info, so J Street and TCO (and others), if you get a call from Montreal, it's my fault!

The folks up there were great to us, both the Montreal dancers and the spectators. We had great fun accepting compliments, being followed by groupies, and being the stars however briefly, and fortunately, before we could develop swelled heads and within 24 hours of our arrival back in DC we were in our aerials class, which brought us back down to earth rapidly and with a resounding thud. There's nothing like screwing up an aerial again...and again...and again...to bring your head right out of the clouds.

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Monday July 12, 1999

We have no Reviews for this date

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Tuesday July 13, 1999

Vienna Grille was Hopping again. Doug seems to be playing an extremelly varied swing program that is quite good. Caroline Westhaefer made a rare appearance and it is always a pleasure to dance with her -- lots of style. Hutch and I had a long discussion about the evolution of Lindy over the past year and the rapidity with which Hollywood style has attained preeminence. The evolution of swing in the 1990s seems to be mirroring that of the 1940s --- although at a much faster rate. I, for one, certainly hope that Lindy Charleston isn't forgotten.

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Wednesday July 14, 1999

Iver and Deb's Balboa class got off to a roaring start with about 40 people in attendance. This is a good natured crowd, almost all seasoned Lindy Hoppers. Tonight, Iver covered Balboa Basic, Crossovers and side-to-side movements. He ended the class with some very cute "Broken Record" steps.

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Thursday July 15, 1999

Daryl Davis played to a packed house at Timpano's. Tonight, he featured Seth Kible (of Air Mail Special) on sax. There was a very mixed crowd including some dancers that I have not seen for a while and the regular Lindy Hoppers. Sean and Barbara gave a very nice mini lesson in styling that bridged the gap between West Coasters and Lindy Hoppers. John McCall and Heather were there along with Mercedes Clemmons, Nancy Baird, Tony Rezzo, Vanessa, Mary, and, well a whole bunch of people. We did Shim Sham to Daryl's rendition of "Baby Elephant Wakl"

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Friday July 16, 1999

Friday night was the warmup for T & D's Misummer night's Swing. The Bill Elliott Swing Orchestra was on hand to get rid of the kinks and jet lag in preparation for the Big Battle on Saturday. This is a thoroughly professional organization. I, for one was absolutely stunned by the precison with which they execute numbers. On songs requiring vocal backup, members of the band rise and join the chorus to add a mellow blend, something like the Modernaires. The clarinetist was off the charts.

The BE band played their new tune "Gotta Learn Shim Sham" --- I have mixed feelings: (1) The song is kind of hokey BUT (2) The song can make Shim Sham accessible to a much larger audience, something like Steven Mitchell did for the Jitterbug Stroll. So, on balance, Let's do Shim Sham!

From: Elizabeth Engel

Friday night we played dance hooky and went to a Mystics game (hey, my office planned this and got tickets months ago, so it's not really my fault). Gay and Dave had called up on Thursday to ask if they might crash at our pad and avoid driving back and forth to Annapolis all weekend. So after we got home from the game, we prepared for their arrival. Sadly, I punked out and went to bed at about 1 am, so I didn't get to see the footage of Friday's jam until the next morning. However, Jim stayed up watching "Swingers" and waiting for them, and consequently got the first look at the Friday dance footage.

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Saturday July 17, 1999

The gang from Greenville SC was in for workshops and dancing. They were absolutely amazed to see wall-to-wall Lindy Hoppers. One great comment was : "Even the people who suck do Lindy"

Here are several views of the big Battle of the Bands, held at America on Saturday night:

From: Sue Fedor

Of all of the battles thus far, this one was the best. Of all of the bands pitted against TCO, this one was clearly the most outstanding. If we had to compare both bands, from a sound standpoint, Bill Elliot's Big Band was clearly won the night. Of all of the bands visiting so far, they played the most varied repetoire, the widest range of tempos--all the proper length for dancing. No complaints in the danceability department, where, up until now, TCO has ruled the roost.

Nevertheless, comparing TCO with BE outright is like comparing apples to oranges. BE is a band of full-time, union scale musicians from LA--a place where there is a large cadre of full-time, professional musicians. BE has managed to cull together a group of musicians that is particulary obsessed with the sound from the Swing Era. If there's one complaint to be made (and this is more of a style point than a technical one) it is that they sound too much like the studio recordings of the songs they play. A few times, many of us had to look up to see that a band was actually playing and that it wasn't a CD--the musicians and the vocals were that tight. Also, they clearly have a forte: smooth, sweet swing music--popular tunes.

TCO, on the other hand, is a band of mostly part-time musicians. The lineup can and does change from time to time, making Tom C's job of bringing everyone together so much more difficult. Compared to BE, they are not as tight and not as consistent. While they are faithful to the musical "charts" (the printed music), they are not slaves to it--so the sound is more live (and mistakes are made more often too). TCO sounds as good it does because of Tom's dedication, the dedication of his long-time members, and their schedule of regular gigs. TCO has a forte as well: Ellington & Basie and so far, no one has been able to match them on their own musical turf. Also, Robin's range as a soloist is probably far wider than anyone in BE's lineup (although the group BE had was outstanding indeed).

Two major disappointments with BE: a lackluster "Sing, Sing, Sing" (they were far away from the action and either couldn't or weren't interested in playing off the dancing...I couldn't tell) and a strange rendition of some sort of Shim Sham tune with silly lyrics (Stomping at the Savoy? I couldn't tell.) Part of the joy of doing the Shim Sham is that we have only subtle musical cues and well memorized choreograpy--so to the casual observer, it seems as though dancers have a secret handshake, if you will. When you junk it up with lyrics, it just seems rather....goofy.

TCO was probably not at its performance best. The drummer seemed off from time to time, but even on an off night, they're still better than a lot of big bands at twice the price. It was nice to hear Julian singing something new (it was new to me, since it's been a while since I've heard an early set of TCO...) Despite the few disappointments, the lineup of both bands, I think, was quite a bargain at $25 a head and the best battle so far!

America, on the other hand, I will not miss. The layout is just not condusive for large groups of dancers. Dancing became more of a contact sport out there with clueless dancers deciding to have conversations or learn new moves in the middle of the floor. There were folks attempting aerials and wildly kicking out of control. After a while, many of us retired to the rear of the restaurant, where, unfortunately, you could not hear BE very well. It was cooler and less populated on the parking lot end. The air conditioning on the Mall end gave up half way through the second set. After the jam, BE had to ask that the dancers back off a few feet just to keep the heat from getting too excessive.

From: Elizabeth Engel

Saturday morning, we got breakfast, watched the Friday jam and our brand-new March Hollywood Weekend video, and got Gay and Dave off for the Saturday Eric & Sylvia workshops. Jim wanted to drop in for the Bal workshop just in case they were teaching something he doesn't already know. So, thinking the Bal workshop started at 1 pm, we ran some errands, then he picked up his dance stuff and headed for the Metro. About 2 minutes after he left, I looked at the answering machine and saw that it was blinking. I pushed the button and heard Dave saying, "If you get this in time, it's 11 am and the Balboa workshop is going on right now...." at which point I dashed madly out of the house and down the street in the blazing sun to try to catch Jim. No luck, and he ended up arriving at Friendship Heights just in time to turn around and come back home. Moral of the story: READ the workshop information CAREFULLY before heading for the Metro. Or maybe it's: CHECK the answering machine FIRST thing when you get home. Or maybe it's: DON'T try to run ANYWHERE when it's 100 degrees and you're wearing Birkenstocks. Anyway, at least they taught stuff we already know, so Jim didn't spend the whole afternoon moping.

Saturday evening, a whole bunch of us had decided to go have an elegant pre-BOTBB2 dinner at the lovely Capitol Hill restaurant 2 Quail. It was delish and very fun - 2 Quail is in a vintage-decorated renovated townhouse, and they gave us our own room and our own waitress and played swing music for us the whole time we were there. We were having such a great time that it was hard to leave, but we all straggled into America around 9:30 pm to find the BOTBB2 well underway.

Saturday night I remembered all the reasons I stopped dancing at America in March of 1998 - it's hot, it's crowded, the floor is rock hard, and the surface varies from somewhat tacky to glass-smooth randomly and often within the space of a few feet. Nevertheless, it was a grand evening. Both the bands were terrific, and the Battle was declared a tie.

Here's my opinion of the differences between them (take it for what it's worth): BEO is more polished, TCO is more danceable. It's kind of like the difference between Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman. When I listen to GMO and BEO, I think, "Wow, what a beautiful sound!" When I listen to BGO and TCO, I think, "MUST DANCE!" (Is that enough acronyms for everyone?) So I think the tie decision was a good call.

The place was so jammed it was difficult to find places to dance, but we did our best by dancing back by the door, in the far rear corner back behind the bar, and at the opposite end of the floor from whichever band was currently playing. It was good to dance with lots of folks I hadn't seen in a while, to see the fabulous stylings of Eric & Sylvia, and to see so many new (to me) faces so into the dancing and music.

The jam had a few hitches - some moves (including our own) didn't quite go off as planned, the bands had a hard time with the switch since they couldn't see each other (stranding that one poor couple out there in the middle of it), and the crowd and dancers occasionally had a tough time finding the eight in the midst of all the drum solos. But it was pretty intense, and the folks who were really on (Natalie and her partner whose name I can't spell, Bill Puschman and partner, Eric & Sylvia of course, Chris & Angela, just to name a few) more than made up for those of us who couldn't quite pull it together. (Note to self: NEVER try to choreograph a jam routine ahead of time - Jim gets too freaked out about trying to remember it, and consequently has trouble remembering how to dance, meanwhile I try to back lead what we'd planned to "help" him, often with DISASTROUS results! YIKES! Will we ever learn? Say it with me, kids: "Just get out there and dance!") I do think that the "stole the show" jam title has to be shared by Arnold and Kathy and Frank and Robin, with Cameron and his little tiny partner (how old *was* she - 10?) coming in a close second.

I would have to say that, aside from my dances with Bob Kleinpeter and Ron Heron, neither of whom I'd seen in quite a while and both of whom I'd missed dancing with a lot, the best part of the evening was the last 30 minutes or so during which the bands traded off songs rather than sets, and then the grand finale, a terrific two-band "Duke's Place" jam to which I got to dance nearly the entire song with the wonderful Mr. Charlie Wyler.

A huge group of us foolishly went to Amphora at 2 am, which put Jim and me and Gay and Dave arriving back at our place well after 4 am. After about 5 hours' sleep, we were up the next morning not so bright and much too early to get ready for the Sunday workshops. Gay and Dave left in time to catch the end of Hollywood 1, and we goofed off a little while longer and headed up to catch Hollywood 2 and 3. As the workshops were running on Koerner-time, when we got there a little before 1 pm expecting the Hollywood 2 workshop to be starting, Hollywood 1 had just broken up and everyone was running over to Booeymonger for a quick bite. We got to chat with Eric & Sylvia just a bit over potato salad and fresh fruit, then headed back to CCB for Hollywood 2 and 3.

In Hollywood 2, the taught a tandem savoy kicks-->jump charleston-->traveling charleston-->spin out-->chester kicks-->she turns/he turns-->double spin for the gal pattern. I doubt we'd do it in exactly that order, since it's more of a choreography than pure lead and follow (see above for our failures to execute successfully anything choreographed), but I was very glad to get to go over each of the above individual moves again in more detail, as we've learned all of them at one point or another, but the only one we regularly do is the she turns/he turns into the gal spin move. I was particularly glad to go over chester kicks again, as we each only sort of half remembered them, but it's a very cute move we both really like a lot. One of the biggest treats of Hollywood 2 was coming upon Mara and Joyce as leaders in the rotation and finding both of them doing very well with the patterns we'd learned. Go gals!

Hollywood 3 started with a couple of groovy spin moves for the ladies, including a very cool shoulder lead, then moved on to some slide moves for the gents (about which Jim was extremely excited, as, aside from Balboa, his current dance obsession is learning to pull slides), then a nice variation on the falling off the log pattern that left us both trying to figure out how to lead it without a verbal, then we spent a while on part of the Dean Collins shim sham patterns (I could take or leave it myself, but I know it's quite popular with the Young Titans of Lindy these days), and finally we finished up with a cute, relatively easy and low risk (no flipping over the guy's head) trick they called the screwdriver. I have no doubt Tricia and Thomas will be debuting it in a jam near you soon, as I observed them diligently practicing it after class. If we can just get to the point that I can do the initial drop back without knocking Jim over, we just might be able to pull it off someday, too.

Gay and Dave graciously invited us back to their place to enjoy their pool for the rest of the heinously hot afternoon, but we were just TOO POOPED, and opted to go home and veg on the sofa with pesto, wine, and "The Waterboy," which, incidentally, I highly recommend if you are an afficianado of stupid movies.

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Sunday July 18, 1999

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Monday July 19, 1999

Chevy Chase Ballroom was crowded and HOT. Lots of fun things were happening and over the course of the evening, just about everybody popped their head in for a few moments. Bernstein's selection of CDs was quite astute. This scene is definiely worth the $5.

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Tuesday July 20, 1999

It was a slow night at Vienna Grille. At 9:00, there were about seven people in the joint. After half an hour the floodgates opened and a fairly nice crowd arrived, including the ever-lovely Christi Etcher. Doug played the Bill Elliott version of "Gotta Learn Shim Sham" and we had a larger number of people than usual out there. Iver, Larry, and I had a fairly exotic discussion of Savoy vs Slotted whip. Hutch beat Iver in the evening GO game, 15-11.

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Wednesday July 21, 1999

Iver and Deb completed their second Balboa class. It looks like about 40 more people will be able to fit onto the already crowded dance floor using the highly and efficient Balboa steps. Thanks once again to Maxie Dorf for being such a valuable resource in helping spread Balboa in the DC area.

After Bal class, Marc and Ellen presented Johnny and the Headhunters in the superheated Spanish Ballroom at Glen Echo. In general, John Tickitin and crew provide a mixed variety of tempos for the crowd. It looked like the crowd managed to rise above the heat and humidity with some rather spirited dancing.

From: Dave Flynn

We will go ahead and try LuLu's again this Wednesday. I'll probably enter the contest again in a week or two, but probably shouldn't enter this next one, since we won the Lindy contest last week (on 7/21).

For those who didn't come last Wednesday - Elizabeth couldn't make it, so I grabbed Ashley who wasn't a Lindy person, but had done some country dancing. Ashley was a one night in DC business person from texas that I met 20 minutes before show time. We ran around back and practiced a few tricks 10 minutes before the contest. 12 couples entered in total. It was Ashley's birthday, so after winning, we gave her the prize money, (but I probably would have done that even if it wasn't her birthday).

Rebecca seems to want to try this too, so maybe we'll try something new (like practice before the night of the contest.... - or doing two big lifts!!!), since some of the LuLu's couple's are obviously very very prepared for this thing. Couple 11 was really good.....as were several others.

Prepared or not, I've learned over time that it's impossible to win these things without a few tricks. In audience applause contests, people see good Lindy footwork all night long, you simply can't win by showing them more of what they've seen all night anyway.

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Thursday July 22, 1999

Steve and Carla led another all star Hollywood evening at Nick's. It looked like there were 40 or more dancers in the place. This is a very nice, relaxed scene. Dave and Marie Quidas (and an unnamed partner yet to be named) were on hand for a rare appearance. The three of them still can Swing!

From: Elizabeth Engel

Whitlow's is loud, crowded, hot, and has a very small dance area with a cement floor. Nonetheless, we had a GREAT time last night. The Jumpers are one of the few bands I know who can hold their own in that kind of situation without even breaking a sweat. Small group of dancers there: Ellen, Larry, Cameron, Sarah, Meridith, Alex, Eric C, Carole, and Thomas and Tricia and Tom and Carolyn showed up just before we had to split to make the last Metro train. We danced and chatted and generally had a great time. And the Jumpers and Marianna graciously allowed me to sit in with them on a couple tunes, which I really enjoyed. Whitlow's will never be CCB or Glen Echo, but it was a really fun night anyway.

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Friday July 23, 1999

If you missed it, you missed something REALLY BIG. The second battle of the bands pitted Indigo Swing against the Tom Cunningham Orchestra. More later, but first the BIG NEWS!

AMERICA IS NOT CLOSING!

Apparently, the lawyers who handled the real estate transaction srewed up royally and the liquor license could not be transferred! There will be at least five months of delays --- and in the meantime, TCO will be back every Friday. THUS, the city's only regular weekly Big Band gig is saved. Personally, the rock-hard wood floor, the inefficient air conditioning and bizarre dance space are annoyances, but the true joy of having a big band for Lindy makes up for any shortcomings.

It looks like TCO won the battle hands down. Brent Sessions absolutely boiled over tonight on solo after solo, and the band delivered a full swing program that kept the Hollywood and Savoy crowd out on the floor and swinging. You could hear the big band everywhere, while Indigo Swing's sound was a bit anemic in the nether reaches.

Not that the Boys from San Francisco didn't get their licks in --- William Beatty's boogie woogie piano solos really ripped the place up. Big Jim Overton laid out a drum solo that got a little impromptu Shag and Balboa jam going at over 300 bpm! All the songs from the first two CDs were well received, but the third CD is very problematic with strange rhythms. Stayin' Up Late With Sunny was the only song from "Red Light" that generated a lot of excitement --- in which Baron Shul proves himself a great flautist. Johnny Boyd's delivery was still smooth as silk, but the material in "Red Light" is just deficient

At the other end of the Ballroom, Robin set the house on fire with my fave, Hey-Bop-A-Re-Bop. The band also delivered the Hawaiian War Chant with particular gusto. And, of course, Julian lent his smooth as silk voice to the Lounge end of the band's book. All in all, it was a knockout.

From: Katrina Shieh

Hello, my friend!!!! I went to the Indigo Swing show at America Restaurant on Friday night! Talk about an awesome show...I know I am slightly biased b/c I am roommates with one of the members of the band, but I am still a huge fan. I am here on vacation, and took in the show too!

Thank you and I hope to be dancin' the night away again soon. That was the most fun I've had since I came out from the Bay Area!!!!
-Katrina

From: Elizabeth Engel

Much as I love TCO, and much as I tend to enjoy Indigo Swing (despite theiroccasionally lousy attitude and their recent fondness for extremely fast orextremely slow tunes), and despite the reports of the last night night at America, I just couldn't deal with it. The floor hurts my poor little legs and feet too, too much, and, even with Jim being as careful as he can be, Iget beat up by the crowd for the first 2-3 hours.

So upon discovering that the Jumpers would be in Centreville, we arranged a lift and headed out beyond the Beltway to catch one of our favorite bands in a great location with an excellent sprung floor, ample A/C, and plenty of space to work on our Hollywood styling.

It was a small crowd, but the venue is great, the band is great, and I gotto hang with Marianna and the lovely Judy (Charlie's honey) for a while.The Jumpers let me sing another tune with them in the first set, which wasgood fun, and we just had a really pleasant evening of dancing and sharing what Eric & Sylvia had taught us with the folks who were there and interested.

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Saturday July 24, 1999

Glen Echo was just too hot. Too darned hot.

The evening began with a birthday celebration for Deborah Brooks, featuring all sorts of cold dishes and fruit. The air, however, was ominously thick and humid --- and the various food dishes seemed to be a magnet for yellowjackets. Deborah had a very nice celebration in spite of the insects and humidity.

At 8:00, Tom and Debra began a lesson inside the Ballroom. At 8:30, the Oklahoma Twisters began a short program on the "Cuddle-Up" stage, with a small amount of dance space. Finally, at 9:00 the Tom Cunningham Orchestra opened the evening for three sets of music.

The extreme heat just seemed to wilt everything, although the solos in the Jam were very, very good. Sorry to say, there was no Shim Sham. It was just too hot.

From: Elizabeth Engel

You know, I must really love Deb Brooks. This weekend was her birthday,and a group of us had planned a picnic to celebrate before TCO played. Saturday was, as you know, mercilessly hot and humid, but we went to the Spanish Ballroom anyway to help Deb celebrate. It actually could have beenworse - it was overcast and there was a breeze, and nobody got stung by the massed yellow jackets (must've been the apple pie that drew them over).

We had a good crowd and good eats for the picnic, then we got to dance to the Oklahoma Twisters for a while, then we went into the sauna to dance to TCO. I don't know if you were aware of this, but for the past two months, TCO has been hiring an "overflow" band for the Cuddle Up Pavilion for before the show, the breaks, the overflow crowd, and anyone who'd rather dance outside to catch whatever little amount of breeze shows up. Do these folks take care of the dancers or what?

The band kindly played somewhat slower tunes, which kept us all from dying, and the crowd was a bit smaller than usual, so the ballroom itself didn't get quite so overheated. Still it was a warm & toasty night. I definitely danced too much, at one point noticing my skin looked like I'd just come in out of the rain, only I hadn't. YUCK! But we still had a great time.

Afterwards, Cameron conveyed us to Tastee Diner for late night eggs and milkshakes and to catch up on all the dance community news and gossip. When we arrived home, we were sweaty and exhausted, but still glad we'd gone.

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Sunday July 25, 1999

We have no Reviews for this date

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Monday Month 26, 1999

The air conditioning is working again in Chevy Chase Ballroom! There was a very nice crowd out this evening. Of note, Jim Kranyak's friend --- the lovely Svetlana --- made an appearance to the delight of all. Sam LaGrone was there, counting down the days until he starts at VMI (which is also Tom Cunningham's alma mater.) Bernstein kept the great tunes coming one after another. The Hollywood trend has put Bob Kleinpeter into the spotlight, because his mixture of Savoy and West Coast fits right in. The crowd stayed pretty thick until 11:00

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Tuesday July 27, 1999

We have no Reviews for this date

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Wednesday July 28, 1999

John McCalla holds dances at the Xhale night club on Wednesday evenings, and things seem to be pretty lively. This appears to be one of the last remaining hotbeds of Savoy style Lindy. There is a good group of people who are very busy practicing and sharing moves. The club has a large floor, but unfortunately it is concrete; no slides. On the other hand, my feet have felt worse from the wood "floor" at America. Tonight, John's partner Heather selected the music and it was a great mix of tempos including both original big band music and neo swing. There were even a couple slow numbers! They have a jam and Shim Sham at 10:00 pm.

It was very good to see the Reverend Arnold Taylor and his lovely wife Lil out dancing. There were a scattered mix of old and new hands from DC plus a whole lot of Psychoboy's trainees. John has done a wonderful job of building a Swing Scene in Frederick. Check the Psychoboy Website to read an article in Frederick Magazine on the Swing scene there, along with John and Heather's cover picture.

The ONLY problem with the gig is that John does not have the directions on his website. OK --- from DC take I270 north to Frederick. Get on US 15 and proceed to the Patrick Street exit. Go East on Patrick street until you hit Jefferson Street ("John's Bail Bonds" is a prominent landmark. Make a right onto Jefferson and go about half a mile. The Xhale Nightclub will be on your left. The gig costs only $3 and includes a beginner survival swing lesson at 8:30, dancing from 9-11

We have a letter from Glynis:

From: Glynis Irwin

Hey Guys!
I made the Big Move with very little trouble. Yay me! So far everything's going well. I'm still officially homeless, but I hope to rectify that situation very soon.

The weather's great - cloudy in the mornings, fiercely bright midday and wonderfully cool in the evenings. Highs are in the 80s. Quite a change from DC in July.

I am looking forward to seeing Indigo Swing on Santa Monica Pier on August 26th in the evening. The Pier is quite close to my office. Laurie and I will show the Los Angelenos what it means to lindy hop, yessirree Bob...

I'm working for a web site here that has a free database searching for domain names and federally registered trademarks. Way cool, huh?

Enough of that (grin*) I hope everyone is doing well in DC. Oh yeah - the pics of me and my bike are quite, uh, well . . . interesting. And no, I haven't been discovered yet. *giggle snort*
---Glynis Irwin

From: Sue Fedor

My dad came into town from Cleveland. It was the first time he saw the house, which he loved and Sasha, the wonder cat, which he...tolerated. He's not a cat man. Exhausted, he went to bed. Energized, we high-tailed it to Lu Lu's.

Steve's a native Washingtonian, but don't ask him directions anywhere. We got LOST and didn't show up until 10 pm. Just in time for the dance contest, which was won by Seth and another GUY, despite Cameron and Meridith's best efforts to ham... including jumping on the backs of Seth and his partner when the contest was finished. The edge that Seth had over Cameron was that Seth's shirt was coming off, exposing one shoulder and part of his chest. Girls were sighing all over the place. I'm not sure that Cameron could get the same responce if that happened to him... but Mike Henry came up with a great idea for Cameron's next contest. Wait til he hears it!

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Thursday July 29, 1999

This was Adams-Morgan night, hot and sweltering.

The evening began at Felix, the trendy bar on 18th Street that styles itself as Lounge Central, complete with endless loops of Connery/Bond movies. The early evening was spent with John Coombs and Jeff Lodgson of the Red Hot Swingin' Johnsons, a band with a definite "Cajun/Swing" flavor. Management was very nice about clearing tables to make a dance space, although the floor is "Pergo over concrete". The Johnsons played a great set, with a rousing version of Caldonia that would do credit to either Louis Jordan or Morty. Felix is a great place to go, but bring a dance partner --- don't expect a crowd.

A few blocks up the street is Tom Brazil on Columbia Road. Downstairs is a fairly nice Brazilian restaurant, but upstairs is a friendly little room that has a lot of charm, just like Poli-Tiki. Here for $5 cover, Tommy Barrick and Chaise Lounge hold forth with a surprisingly substantial dance floor. Chaise Lounge appeared at the Shark last March, and they are spectacular. This venue is a good pick, but once again, bring a partner.

From: Sue Fedor

The best thing about visiting another town is watching local access cable television. After we dragged Dad out for a day of antiquing in Fredrick, we settled down to do some channel surfing. We stumbled upon the University of Maryland's cable access channel, which was in the midst of showing a number of "soundies" from the '30's. Dad had never seen them before. We explained to him that they were produced for predominantly black audiences. We caught one in the middle...something silly about some guy selling "miracle elixir" to some unsophisticated country folk. The shiller's sweetheart was trying to make it big on Broadway. She was none other than a very young Lena Horne! The dancing, which is why we watch these things in the first place, was ok, featuring show girls doing various jazz moves and some couples doing some Lindy. When the next soundie got cut off half way through, we popped in HELLZAPOPPIN! Dad was 9 years old when he went to see it. He actually saw Olsen and Johnson in the theater (as did Steve's dad) and found them too silly, even for a nine year old. He enjoyed seeing the movie again, remarking how much energy Martha Rae had. He was blown away at the Congaroo lindy hop scene and asked us to rewind and play it again.

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Friday July 30, 1999

A very worthwhile trip to Frederick.

John McCalla previewed what, next September, will be a regular Friday gig at the Town Hall of Walkersville, Maryland. This small hamlet is located about 11 miles northeast of Frederick, and the Town Hall has a spectacular dance floor. Better yet, the air conditioning capacity seems to greatly exceed the deman; in other words, the chiller really KICKS BUTT. Keep that in mind.

John and Heather selected a very nice lineup of music covering most periods and genres in Swing. All were eminently danceable --- especially on this 3,000 sq ft floor with --- get this --- a water fountain right out on the wood! Air conditioning, water, sprung floor, $5 --- how about that!

The crowd was mainly drawn from John's regular classes, although Dave Cook and Dan Steeples made their way up from DC. This was a very nice group of people. It sort of reminded me of Lindy down here in 1994 -- lots of friendly folks working hard to get a scene started --- and just glad to have a clear floor and music.

Better yet! Even though Walkersville is pretty much a wide spot in the road, there is actually a Superb restaurant! Check out Marsala, just two blocks north of the Town Hall. Don't bother with any of the entrees --- go directly to the Spiced Shrimp, do not pass go, etc. The shrimp are steamed and then sauteed in olive oil and lots of garlic. Eat the shrimp, then ask for a basket of hot foccacia to mop up the sauce. Stick to the shrimp. This is worth the trip!

From: Sue Fedor

Went to some fabulous estate sales with Dad. We stayed home and watched the Indians beat the Chigago White Sox and then watched Championship Ballroom Dancing on PBS. Dad watches it all the time, so we had fun trying to predict the winner and figure out just what the difference was between Jive and the Quickstep. Steve and I have got to learn some Samba.

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Saturday July 31, 1999

(Partial Report, stay tuned...)

The Christian Community Group Homes (CCGH) charity staged a very nice swing dance at the in the Atrium of the Catholic University Law School. The Tom Cunningham Orchestra did their usual superb job of keeping the music flowing, and even managed to introduce yet another new arrangement in the Third Set.

CCGH invited a number of their senior residents to the dance. Several were over 80 and had clear memories of swing dancing here in DC, particularly at the Lincoln Colonnade. One couple knew Duke Ellington quite well. Another gentleman recounted details of Goodman, Shaw, Basie, and Miller events

At the end of the second set, Fidgety Feet (Tricia, Jeff, Carolyn, Thomas, Lisa B. and Frank K.) performed a routine to Louis Prima's Jump Jive and Wail. The crowd gave them quite a warm round of applause, and several of the residents made remarkes like "I remember that" and "That's the way it's supposed to be done." Mrs Fox, president of CCGH wanted me to express special thanks for the time and effort of Fidgety Feet.

The Third Set began with a Shim Sham, led by Tricia Reneau. Thanks to Tom Cunningham for changing the playlist (without missing a beat...) to include Stompin' at the Savoy. During the third set, Robin introduced an new arrangement of Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby. You will like this arrangement very much when the Cunningham Band resumes at America.

Thanks to CCGH for inviting Jitterbuzz.com to their event.

From: Cindy Stewart

I was delighted to see you at the CCGH swing dance. You made the evening a success for the homes and I appreciate so much your time and efforts. Sally and I were talking today about how good the dance lesson was. Sally has taken lots of lessons and said that you were particularly effective in conveying a lot of information in a clear and welcoming manner. You were an outstanding emcee who captured the spirit of the evening and gathering in an enthusiastic and sensitive way.

Elizabeth Fox said that there was a reporter there from the Washington Post who indicated that an article would appear in the District Weekly on August 19th.

From: Mike Michniewski

I was one of the few who made it to Glen Echo to hear the J Street Jumpers. The head count was just short of 300, and there was plenty of room to dance. It was a single dance night, I guess they figured people would stay away because of the heat. The dancers were cooking! But not only because they were dancing well. It's not called Glen Eskimo anymore, this is the season that it's Glen Sweat Some Mo'. It was a three shirt night for me; I changed shirts at each break. The sound system may have been off, because the J Street Jumpers somehow didn't sound as good as they did when they played at the Kennedy Center. But they did play a great mix of dancable songs, and even some slow ones.

According to Ranger Stan, there are no current plans to add air conditioning or heat to the Spanish Ballroom. Supposedly unless the building is cooled all the time (which is too expensive to do) whenever the AC is turned on and off water vapor moves through the walls. This causes the wood and plaster to weaken. Thinking about this now, my question is: why not use a vapor barrier? A vapor barrier is a simple plastic sheet. With 20 million dollars they should be able to afford AC and a vapor barrier to boot. Maybe we need another campaign to add AC to Glen Echo?

From: Sue Fedor

We took Dad to Nicks to see the Bill Elliot Trio (Quartet). Clearly, all the smart people were at Nicks. Folks like Mike Henry, Cameron, Sean Sanders and his lovely partner, Barbara, Big Lisa, Rob Heron, Rob Petrie, and a suprise appearence by Peter Gehring...to name just a few. Lots of folks, including the band, came over to say hi to Dad. He felt right at home, sitting at the bar and enjoying the music (which was fine, as usual) and dancing. The $10 cover threw him for a loop, but we reminded him that this is Washington...and on a 100 degree day, $10 is a small price to pay for reliable air conditioning.

Jimmy, BET's drummer, is very familiar with Cleveland, having played there many times with Marion McPartland and with Frankie Condon. Jimmy remembers the old Theatrical Nightclub (where he insulted Fatha Earl Hines!) and the Hollenden Hotel--both sites since demolished. Dad had fun reminiscing with him. Jimmy will be up in Cleveland with the Ink Spots sometime in September and Dad just might pop on by.

At the waitress's request (it was her last day) we had a jam. Bill Elliot and the boys laid down a series of fine tunes at a nice pace. The jam featured a variety of folks at a variety of dancing levels. I'd say it lasted almost 10 minutes. Dad was very impressed with Bill Elliot's sound and the dancing in DC. He thinks you're all a pretty, swell bunch.

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