Month: December 2009

Live Music for Weddings: Destination Moon!

The Guests Danced Before They Sat Down For Dinner!

I recently had a terrific time collaborating on a first dance with a dance instructor and a lovely couple whose wedding took place in late December in Arizona. There wasn’t a lot of time for dance lessons, but when the dancers are fast learners it makes things easier. We texted, e-mailed, sent carrier pidgeons back and forth and I timed the timed the sequence with the dance instructor over the phone, merging two distinct tempos.

Some weddings have a life of their own; this one was on fire! The bride and groom joined guests on the dance floor were on the dance floor seconds after they were announced — to the stirring strains of the Air Force Theme Song — dancing to “Cheek To Cheek” long before it was time for their official first dance.

Now THAT’s a wedding!

And it never slowed down from there.

Filled with heart and soul, lots of personality and and love, the lovely winter wedding was a thriller that united two very special families on an amazing night in a ballroom envisioned and designed by the father of the bride.

“We could actually DANCE to your music,” was a comment I heard all night.

And this: “We could actually carry on a conversation!”

“I felt like I was at a fairy-tale wedding,” one of the guests told me in the hotel lobby the next morning.

I’d have to agree. And the band had as much fun as the guests!

We’re classically trained jazz musicians with a swing sensibility and rock and roll souls. Known for playing the right music at the right time, we don’t use a lot of music onstage because we’re moving fast. Sometimes we’re moving REALLY fast!

We can take a bunch of songs that have nothing to do with each other, mix up the styles and genres, eras and decades and play a continuous medley of music for hours. Like our “forefathers”, the musicians who played in the Lester Lanin and Meyer Davis society wedding bands, we don’t have to slow down to turn pages in a book. We go with “the flow” and keep parties exciting, pacing with great tempos when people are dancing. Keeping the energy level interesting while staying under the level of conversation is a neat trick. We’re not loud, but we are a lot of fun. We improvise … because we can. And we never play anything the same way once.

Unless it’s your first dance.

For THAT, you’ll know exactly what to expect. Like a great song and dance team, you become part of us and we become part of you.

The song the couple chose to dance to was Michael Buble’s “Everything.” A FABULOUS tune. They learned rhumba steps to go with it. They also wanted to have a tempo change midway, so we planned that they would switch to a waltz as a surprise. We LOVE surprises; they are the stuff wedding memories are made of.

For the waltz, they decided on “Melody Of Love.” A beautiful, perfectwaltz, it was one of about a dozen I’d suggested, and my favorite of the batch. Written in 1903, with words added in 1954, it had been my parents “song” when they were married in the 1930’s.

Our three-way long-distance “rehearsal” had worked very well, and the result was flawless!

Of course, some people are just natural-born dancers.

We had a LOT of help in the form of musical creativity and planning expertise from the mother of the bride, who knows even more songs than I do!

Additional support and encouragement came from the father of the bride, who envisioned an intimate room rather than a sterile hotel ballroom and made it happen! The mother of the groom was a big help, too, rounding out the collaborative effor of putting together the “signature” dance songs.

For the bride’s dance with her father, we played “Young At Heart.” He is.

The groom and his mother danced to a rocked-out version of “Without A Song,” with the tempo choice specified by the musically-talented groom as he led his mom onto the floor.

It was GREAT!

For me, some of the most poignant and meaningful moments of the evening came when the bride’s parents danced to “Time After Time” — “time after time, I tell myself that I’m…so LUCKY to be loving you” — and the groom’s parents danced to “You’re The Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me.

For the last dance, we played “Destination Moon,” sending the couple off on the groom’s “rocket ship” for a “supersonic honeymoon” …wherever it was they were going.

Live Wedding Music: The Great American Songbook

We never play anything the same way once!

That’s a joke, ok?

But being something of an “original,” the standards we play are not at all in the “cover band” category.

To us, happiness is no longer having to apologize for not being a “Top 40” band. Evidently, a lot of people don’t want to hear that music anymore from a live band.

So we are thrilled when our clients say things like:

“I don’t want to be like other brides.”

“Please don’t play the same songs everyone plays at weddings.”

“DO NOT play that awful 1980’s crap.”

“If we hear ‘Celebrate’ one more time at a wedding, we’re going to SCREAM.”

“We don’t care as much about dancing as we do having an elegant party with great food and good conversation.”

“We just want our guests to have a good time.”

“We want our wedding music to reflect our personalities.”

“Help! We have no idea what we want…but we know we want it to be good.”

“We think music can carry the day.”

“Please make everything you play really your own.”

“We hired your swing band because it’s NOT a cover band.”

Clearly, something is changing out there.

People who have the taste level and desire to utilize live music for their wedding, special event or corporate function are looking for something really special.

There seems to be a trend back to….well, REALLy live music.

The music we call “the good stuff.”

And they want it played the way it’s supposed to be played…the way we’ve always played it…with passion, spirit and skillfully improvised originality. Fresh takes on the standards.

The standards!

Yay!

Rat Pack Fun, Vintage Live Music

We’re saving the planet, one Cole Porter tune at a time…..

Everybody loves glamorous modern vintage retro Old Hollywood music.

For weddings, parties and events there is nothing more engaging, romantic, fun and exciting that the music of the mid-Twentieth Century. Liike the furniture, clothing and movies that came out of those years, mid-century moderne music is a hot item!

No music has ever captured the heart, soul and imagination of the world like the standards, ballroom, novelties, Rat Pack, Jet Set, Old Hollywood and vintage swing music of the Roaring Twenties 1920’s, 1930’s, 1940’s, 1950’s, 1960’s and 1970’s.

Mid-century is the “sweet spot” of all of tht music. Some of it was first recorded in the ’20’s and ’30’s, then re-visited in the 1950’s and 1960’s. It’s fabulous music, and perfect music for weddings and events because it speaks to EVERYONE!

It’s turning up everywhere: in re-mixes you hear at the mall — and on the records of Rod Stewart, Sting, Michael Buble and others.

The records are great. But imagine the thrill of hearing — and dancing to — this kind of music performed live!

Live music for a wedding or event is pretty exciting when it captures the timeless, universal appeal of the Great American Songbook, ballroom dance music in songs sung with feeling, especially for you.

At the high end, Los Angeles wedding entertainment of the vintage variety means live, organic and in-the-moment…it’s the hallmark of this music, the depth of it — that is being performed especially for YOU, the way it used to be when Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong and Stan Kenton were household names.

A large part of the appeal of vintage music is that it has the capability of connecting with your soul in a very personal way.

Records are nice. But they don’t really convey the personal elements that live music does,

“Canned” performances from bands and singers who are imitating someone aren’t very exciting, either. You might as well be listening to karaoke.

Anyone who has ever heard Tony Bennett in concert knows what I mean.

At a recent holiday party in the living room of a fabulous pool house in California, we cleared a space next to the fireplace and everyone gathered around us as we performed the music of Cole Porter, Rogers and Hart, Irving Berlin — and Brenda Russell, Barry Manilow…pure 20th Century. It really was like a scene from a movie. Nobody wanted to leave, especially us.

We don’t sing along with tracks or imitate Frank Sinatra — or anyone else. We just play the music the way we’ve always played it, with passion and feeling.

There’s nothing cookie-cutter about what we do. That just doesn’t work well with modern vintage hip live swinging timeless retro Old Hollywood music. We never play anything the same way once, anyway.

In celebration of having played the Great American Songbook it since it was popular the FIRST time around — at least quite a bit of it — we make it look easy. And for us, it is. We’re not turning pages in a book. Our performances are directed toward giving you…yourself. Does that make sense? It’s the way things used to be done, the way music — REAL music — should be played. We’ve been performing this music all our lives.

For glamorous parties and events, there is simply nothing finer.

“Singer/bandleader Judy Chamberlain has mastered the art of mesmerizing both the audience and her own band.” All Music Guide