Jazz Articles about Swingadelic

Swingadelic: Bluesville

by Jack Bowers
June 29, 2020

If you're partial to music that is sunny and freewheeling and almost commands a smile, you should have no trouble warming to Bluesville, the eighth recording by New Jersey-based Swingadelic, now twenty-two years old and counting. As its name implies, the orchestra (more often than not a mini-big band a dozen or so strong) re-creates an era wherein young fun-lovers (and some older ones as well) listened, danced and grooved to bands whose essential purpose was to make sure everyone ...

Swingadelic: Mercerville

by Dan Bilawsky
August 31, 2017

Swingadelic loves a good tribute. This little big band's first date for Zoho was all about Duke--Pearson, not Ellington--and its second set on that imprint focused on the music of New Orleans icon Allen Toussaint. Now the group has set its sights on another singular figure, taking a trip to Johnny Mercer country with positive results. Toussaint was occasionally a tough nut to crack for Swingadelic, as the soul quotient in his world was difficult to consistently ...

Swingadelic: Toussaintville

by Dan Bilawsky
April 25, 2013

It's tempting to say that the great Allen Toussaint is a musical phoenix who rose out of the ashes of a Katrina-ravaged New Orleans, but that's not really true. Toussaint wasn't reborn when his city was in ruins; people just started to wake up and take notice of him again in the wake of that tragedy. Participation in benefit concerts, a well-publicized collaboration with Elvis Costello--The River In Reverse (Verve Forecast, 2006)--and a Joe Henry-produced jazz album--The Bright Mississippi (Nonesuch, ...

Swingadelic: The Other Duke: Tribute To Duke Pearson

by Dan Bilawsky
June 26, 2011

Most four-letter words come with a negative connotation attached, but that's not always the case. When big band fans hear the word “Duke" uttered aloud, positive thoughts tend to take over and Duke Ellington immediately comes to mind. His legendary compositions and historic recordings elevated him to the very top of the jazz world, and one need only utter that four-letter word to cheer up many a big band lover. Ellington is, without a doubt, the most well-known “Duke" in ...

Swingadelic: The Other Duke

by Greg Simmons
May 24, 2011

Swingadelic has a standing Monday night gig at the New Jersey club Maxwells, which surely makes this band the greatest thing to come out of Hoboken since they built the Lincoln Tunnel. These eleven musicians--a smallish big band--blow an enormous amount of sound out of The Other Duke, a collection of Duke Pearson songs with new arrangements. Pearson was a great pianist who both led small and large ensembles and was an A&R representative for Blue Note in the 1960s. ...

Swingadelic at Maxwell's

by Tom Dwyer
August 23, 2006

Swingadelic Maxwell's Hoboken, NJ June 24, 2006

It's a Monday evening around 8:30 pm when a group of musicians wanders into Maxwell's, the venerable music club in Hoboken, NJ and start tuning up. Swingadelic, an eleven-piece “little big band has been gigging the front room at Maxwell's every other Monday for the past three years--playing some of the most infectious jazz/blues out there in a free-for-all setting that's part improvisational workshop and part ...

Swingadelic: Big Band Blues

by Jack Bowers
October 31, 2005

As its name implies, Swingadelic, a “little big band from Hoboken, New Jersey, focuses primarily on music from the Swing Era, especially the blues. The band has no vocalist as such; instead, various members of the ensemble double in that capacity, with some faring better than others. There are vocals on eight of the album's twelve tracks, three each by guitarist Fausto Bozza and trombonist Neal Pawley, one by pianist John Bauers, and another by alto saxophonist Buddy Terry.

As ...