 Judy Chamberlain's Jazz JournalJudy Chamberlain’s Blog
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Friday, January 6, 2012 Recently engaged? Getting married in Dallas/Ft. Worth?
Congratulations!
Like the idea of having a million dollar wedding, even if your budget doesn’t quite match that figure?
You can!
Are you a music lover – and do you think that hiring a DJ or “cover band” is your only option?
You may want to call us.
We’ve been making a million dollar difference for sophisticated brides and grooms for more than two decades.
And we’re right here in Dallas now…as well as in Los Angeles…these are our two local areas.
We’re also available throughout the USA…
We’re accustomed to working with celebrities; many of our clients are entertainers themselves.
Find out how we can help you look like a star on the most importnat day/night of your life.
And remember, when it comes to weddings there are no dress rehersals!
We’re Judy Chamberlain Entertainment…and there’s nobody else quite like us.
Reach us at 817 251-4809 or 714 319-9242.
Tagged: dallas brides, Dallas weddings, how to have a million dollar wedding, million dollar weddings, platinum weddings |
Friday, December 9, 2011 Judy Chamberlain Entertainment, a unique live Dallas, Texas wedding music band boutique, provides extraordinary bands, musicians and music for the most elegant weddings in Texas. From jazz trios and quartets to swing ensembles and an entire swinging big band orchestra, we’ll rock your world with the finest in live music, played totally LIVE and in the moment.
With a 4,000 song repertoire of jazz, swing and big band music played by world-renowned musicians, this is one unusual event entertainment company!
Many of our clients are entertainers themselves; some are well-known celebrities and household names. They trust us to respect their confidentiality, offer event production guidance and fit into small spaces when necessary. We even take requests directly from the dance floor!
We don’t have to be a huge band to play big band music, swing and those wonderful Rat Pack standards. It’s amazing what a small combo of incredibly talented musicians can do to literally “make” a wedding or event. It doesn’t take more than a few of us to play thousands of songs from the 1920’s, 1930’s, 1940’s, 1950’s, 1960’s, 1970’s and beyond.
Not only do we play them – completely live – but we play them very, very well.
There is nobody quite… Read the full story »
Tagged: best dallas wedding band, couture weddings, Dallas jazz singer, Dallas weddings, destinaton weddings, live wedding music, old hollywood weddings, Texas swing bands, wedding ceremony music, weddings in Dallas |
Sunday, October 9, 2011 It’s been a strange and wondrous journey from New York, Connecticut, Louisiana and California to North Texas for this mid-century minimalist jazz crooner of a New York City girl.
Musicians who work with me have to be masters at playing the wacky stuff I love to perform — as in “who knows what she’ll do next?”
And listen, I love country music. Always have.
It’s all swing to me.
In Hollywood, as the “gatekeeper” for some pretty dazzling venues where I both booked the talent and performed with my own band for several decades, I was accustomed to criticism of the green-tinged variety from aspiring junior birdman self-appointed “jazz singers.” As in: “she’s a jazz singer and she sings songs like “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry?”
Well, yes. Yes I do.
I’ve never wanted to be like anyone else, and my nerdy tunesmith’s repertoire has helped me make it through the night (thank you, Kris Kristofferson) in all sorts of wacky musical situations. And, just for the record, nobody is a jazz singer unless someone else calls them one.
So here I am in Dallas, and I’ve found the small handful of musicians who aren’t locked into reading from a fake book. Like… Read the full story »
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Sunday, August 14, 2011 We’re in Big “D,” My Oh Yes!…I said “Big D, little A…double L…A…S!”
We’re Judy Chamberlain Entertainment, parent company of America’s most versatile jazz wedding bands, and we are simply thrilled to be here in Dallas and Ft. Worth — the Metroplex is so stylish and happening!
We’re having lots of fun with the sophisticated Texas brides and grooms who are finding us. They’re telling us that they love the old standards and appreciate our repertoire — which is literally thousands of songs. We have a big bag of musical tricks, and aren’t afraid to use it.
We’re as likely to turn a hip hop song into a wedding ceremony processinal, or funk up a Cole Porter tune (but we’d never change the basic chord structure of anything THAT genius wrote; it’s all far too wonderful!)
We’re happy to use our clients’ song lists, and we can play music for weeks on end without ever repeating a tune. In addition to Cole Porter, we love all the music of the 1930’s, 1940’s, 1950’s and 1960’s: Rogers & Hart, anything George Gershwin ever wrote, Nat King Cole, The Platters – you name it. Oh, and lots of Bob Wills, Willie Nelson, Elvis and Johmnny… Read the full story »
Tagged: best dallas wedding band, dallas swing bands, Dallas wedding bands, Dallas weddings, destinaton weddings, live wedding music, weddings in Dallas |
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 Press Clips, Reviews:
New York…Los Angeles…Dallas…what a trip!
“Dallas jazz singer Judy Chamberlain is hot! I went to hear her sing recently, and now have some idea what to expect when Judy takes the stage…anything!” From her legendary repertoire of 4,000 American songs Judy covers all kinds of jazz and a good number of the best-written pop and rock songs. And because of her masterful phrasing you’ll hear new things in every song she sings. This is an interpretive artist who can hold her own with the great singers of the past. Her ability to improvise and deliver a strong reading of every song she sings accounts for the fact that great guitarists like Al Viola, gave Sinatra more than 25 years of his life – and gave a large part of the last 10 to Judy. And explains the appearance of her long-time bass player Ben May on a new CD she recorded before moving here from Los Angeles. She’s kept her own band together for many years, liberally laced with some of the best players in the jazz world. After hearing her, whenever and wherever, you’ll find that the lyrics of the songs she sings will be looping through your… Read the full story »
Tagged: Dallas jazz singer, Frank Sinatra, guitarist Al Viola, hot jazz singer, texas jazz singer, wedding jazz singer, wedding singer |
Friday, July 15, 2011 Al Viola, Jazz Guitarist: He hitched his wagon to a star named Frank Sinatra
Can we be Frank?
When my good friend and colleague Al Viola passed away in 2007 at age 87, the jazz world lost one of its greatest musicians. At 87, his nimble fingers were as fast as ever. He was as agile as a teenager – only far more musically learned – and his “chops” were so strong that you could hardly see his hands move. After many, many gigs together I worked with him for the last time several weeks before he died, and he never missed a note. He played as beautifully as when he’d been at the top of his career, a first-call Los Angeles studio musician in a small league that barely exists anymore – at a time when jazz guitar was pure and real musicians played real music. At the center of the Frank Sinatra “sound” for nearly thirty years, his guitar work was on almost every one of Sinatra’s albums from 1956 until 1980.
Al played rhythm guitar in the Sinatra band because it was what Sinatra wanted. He also played rhythm in my band, but was also pretty much an entire… Read the full story »
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Thursday, July 14, 2011 Los Angles brides and grooms tend to be sophisticated. Our clients are often celebrities, musicians and entertainers themselves.
They especially enjoy the modern vintage live music our bands play. We call it “the good stuff.”
Sometimes they say things like, “nearly everyone who will be at our wedding is a professional musician,” so your band had better be good.”
My Los Angeles wedding bands and I love this kind of challenge!
From our perch on the bandstand, the Hollywood crowd is fun, with a flair for drama that we enjoy to playing to.
But you don’t have to be a movie star to have a fabulous wedding, one that’s filled with twists and turns and more fun than anyone should legally be allowed to have on a dance floor.
And, for those of you who want to know what REALLY makes a wedding….why, it’s you, the bride and groom.
If you’re having a wonderful time, your guests will, too.
Judy Chamberlain is based in Dallas, TX and Los Angeles, CA and provides extraordinary live music for high-end weddings and events throughout the USA. She can be reached at 714 319-9242.
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Thursday, March 10, 2011 A client pointed out something very interesting the other day. She said: “People want to make fools of themselves at a wedding, and they need you to help them do it!”
Well. yes…of course…absolutely, that’s it!
The sillier people get, the more we play music that enables…well, more silliness.
That’s why you hire a live band, in the first place, isn’t it?
Recorded music lasts the length of each individual song, then moves on to another song. But if folks are down on the floor writhing like little worms to “Shout,” we don’t have to end the song.
That’s because we’re a live band! A live band that just happens to be skilled at providing music for weddings and events…situations in which people are literally prepared to have the time of their lives!
And it’s our sacred duty to make sure that happens.
With our 4,000 song “bottomless” repertoire, we’re not limited by arrangements that we’re reading from books. That would slow us down, and we’d be bored. People might fall asleep.
We would really HATE it if that happened at one of our weddings.
Many of the people who hire us are musicians and entertainers themselves.
They know what it means to have a band that never… Read the full story »
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Tuesday, February 15, 2011 Anyone can put on a show. Seriously.
And anyone can show up and play some music for a wedding or event.
Some bands are better than others.
Most bands are about themselves…and about putting on an ego-driven “show.”
We’re about you…and putting on YOUR show.
Giving people the gift of themselves through the magic of live music at a wedding or event is an art form.
If you’re considering hiring a live band to perform for your wedding or event, don’t settle for less.
Jazz great Judy Chamberlain and her Los Angeles, CA and Dallas/Ft. Worth Texas wedding bands “do” weddings the old-fashioned way. The song is YOU! Chamberlain can be reached at 817 251-4809
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Saturday, January 22, 2011 A Reception Fit For Royalty!
When the band is having as much fun as the guests, you know you’re at a great wedding!
Live music for Old Hollywood weddings and events means vintage: 1920’s, 1930’s, 1940’s and 1950’s music — with a dash of the 1960’s thrown in, as well.
It’s the most glamorous music in the world!
It’s also a lot of fun!
A mid-century modern location in Claremont, CA was the setting for Megan and Nate’s deliciously festive Old Hollywood wedding recently. The bride and groom looked splendid (she in an amazing one-shouldered frothy gown of purest white and he in a black fedora; adorable). The guests were all beautifully dressed too… and they were a total hoot!
I think Megan and Nate’s friends would have danced to the sound of two rocks rubbing together, because they started dancing up a storm long before the salads were served and crowded the dance floor all night. They were really great dancers, and had a flair for the dramatic. My musicians and I enjoyed watching them!
The band and I began with music from the 1920’s and 1930’s and swung into the 1940’s, 1950’s and 1960’s at various times. There were numerous requests from… Read the full story »
Tagged: live wedding music, los angeles jazz bands, los angeles wedding bands, old hollywood weddings, wedding bands |
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