Friday, December 9, 2011

Dallas Wedding Bands, Live Jazz, Swing & Big Band Music

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 like us in Dallas – or possibly anywhere.

We’re Judy Chamberlain Entertainment, and we take the business of providing musical fun for your event very seriously.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Dallas Jazz Wedding Bands

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 processional, 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 Johnny Cash.

Yee-haw!

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Los Angeles Jazz Bands – Old Hollywood Wedding Music

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 the dance floor, and of course we knew all of the songs everyone asked for. Five (wow!) generations of party animals from all over the country had an absolute blast all night. At some point during the evening, we played some of the oldest generation’s favorites, like “Thanks For The Memory.”

We played funk, too. And rap (that would be me) for the cake cutting — at which point the bride and groom put down the cake knife and jumped back onto the dance floor.

Somewhere around that time, we lost control of the evening completely. Nobody cared.

The bride and groom are now “native” Californians, but many of their guests traveled from places like Wisconsin — and Dallas, Texas.

We ended the evening with our DJ playing an hour of after-party stuff that I couldn’t even tell you what it was, except that it sent us scrambling to find our earplugs!

Highlights of the night’s music included the bride’s favorite song for the First Dance, “Someone To Watch Over Me,” her amazing choice of Irving Berlin’s “Count Your Blessings” (from the movie “White Christmas) and a beautiful rendition of “Bridge Over Troubled Water” that was sung by a friend of the groom’s.

I adored working with this couple!

Here’s an excerpt from the lovely note they I received from them:

Dear Judy,
Nathan and I knew we wanted you the moment we stumbled onto your website. You and your band are the epitome of class. I don’t remember my exact words when I contacted you, but I know I wanted Frank, Ella, the Golden Age of Broadway and all that jazz! You fit the bill. Thank you so much for giving us a reception fit for royalty! God bless you and all your future endeavors. We couldn’t be more pleased with our choice.
Megan and Nathan

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

A Wedding Miracle

The miracle happened this way:

The wedding reception, a magnificent affair of abundant proportion and beauty — which followed a very personalized, romantic ceremony and lively cocktail hour, both with lots of live music — was just getting under way. In an unusual move for pre-dinner entertainment, my band was playing dance music. Wild dance music, I might add.

It was way too early to be doing such a thing — before the entrees had even been served — but many of the guests had traveled internationally, some had already been at the location for three days being feted, primped and pampered nonstop. They probably hadn’t slept much in nearly a week. The ceremony had been intense and the speeches…..well, let’s just say that they were ready to PARTY.

“Now look what you’ve done,” said the wedding coordinator, pointing to the dance floor. Every single person in the room was crowded onto that dance floor. My wailing horn and rhythm sections were tearing it up on pulsating renditions of “Shout” and “Stand By Me” and nobody was showing any sign of wanting to go back to their tables to consume the entrees, which were starting to arrive.

“You’ll have to tell them to stop,” she said.

“How about one more song, and then I’ll ask them to sit down again,” I suggested.

You know a wedding is a success when you have plead with the guests to get off the dance floor!

She agreed, we did another song….and I announced that dinner was served.

Not more than a minute after the guests were back in their seats, a gentleman who had been dancing up a storm in front of the bandstand slid out of his chair and onto the floor. Unconscious, no pulse — and he had stopped breathing. He had suffered a massive coronary.

As the two doctors who were part of the festivities rushed toward the stricken guest, the room seemed to float before us in slow motion.

I stopped the music and told the musicians to get off the bandstand and go outside. Stunned, the guests also left the ballroom and went into the courtyard.

For fifteen solid minutes, the two doctors did CPR and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in a tight tandem formation. Still no breathing, and no pulse — but the doctors kept it up with amazing timing and tenacity. Calls had been made to 911, and the paramedics arrived, barely seconds after one of my musicians thought to move a large cake table that would have blocked their way as they came barrelling through the entryway and into the ballroom.

Someone — the resort, perhaps — had a defibrillator. I think the paramedics may have had paddles. The stricken guest was lifted onto a gurney and wheeled out to an ambulance that would take him to a nearby hospital.

As the guests made their way back into the ballroom, I put the band back on the bandstand with instructions to stay in a pleasant, innocuous tone.

For several weeks prior to the wedding, the bride’s mother and I had stuggled with where we’d “place” a special song she adored. That song was David Foster’s “The Prayer.” And this was where it belonged.

On my microphone, I asked everyone if they were ok. They said they were.

And then I sang “The Prayer,” very quietly and to full band accompaniment.

As the guests sat, stood and huddled together, I felt the energy of the room actually become a prayer.

Slowly, we guided the ambiance back to being a party.

Not a single guest left. We had gotten word that things were looking up at the hospital, and people danced…and danced…and danced all night. From the twenty-somethings to the groom’s grandmother, even the folks who were TRYING to leave would get outside and then come back in because it was such a great wedding and they were having so much fun. At midnight the after party following the reception was still going strong, and so was the gentleman who had been saved from what would certainly have been the outcome under different circumstances.

I talked with him a few days ago, and he is doing wonderfully well. He said he would have liked to have gotten to dance more.

Sometimes people ask me what makes an event memorable. This was certainly one of those events that nobody who was there will ever forget.

I’ve received many e-mails and letters about the evening.

That heart attack was going to happen somewhere.

The miracle was that it happened in the middle of a wedding, where help was available — and that there were two highly-trained doctors in that room.

And that the nearby hospital just happened to be a renowned cardiac facility.

The miracle of love, prayer…and music…and a magical wedding that joined two beautiful people and their families and friends in a night of more love than anyone could ever have imagined.

Truly a wedding miracle, and a weekend we’ll never forget. We are very thankful that we were there, and that our music was part of the blessing.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Modern Vintage Live Music in California, Texas, USA

Dallas, Texas wedding bands, jazz bands, swing bands….in a town near you…

Modern vintage jazz, traditional and western swing, retro-glam live music for couture weddings and events in California, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and the USA

All the cool tunes of the Twentieth Century!

“Organic, eclectic…spontaneous! Jazz singer Judy Chamberlain solidly affirms the music’s far-reaching, continuing vitality.” Don Heckman, Los Angeles Times

“Judy Chamberlain is a singer who’s always a pleasure to hear. In part, because her astonishing repertoire makes every performance a fascinating journey through a century of song. But even more so because she brings such care, authenticity and musicality to everything she touches.” The International Review of Music