Home » Jazz Musicians » W&E Swing
W&E Swing
W&E Swing: Moonshine
by Wade Luquet
Through a chance meeting at a weekly jam session at Round Guys Brewery in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, a group of musicians became friends and began to gel as a group. The jam organizer Mike Mahomet, has a small recording studio blocks away and invited the talented group to record some tunes. The group known as W&E Swing is lead by singer/guitarist Wendy Bourne and guitarist Ernie Pugliese who were joined by many of the Wednesday night regulars on this delightful CD. ...
Continue ReadingJimmy Mundy: Swing Era Barnstormer
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Like Fletcher Henderson, Don Redman, Edgar Sampson and Sy Oliver, Jimmy Mundy was one of the architects of the swing era in the early 1930s. Born in Cincinnatti, Ohio, in 1907, Mundy played the tenor saxophone in regional bands, where he developed an ear for arranging. He first worked as an arranger for Earl Hines in the early 1930s and joined Benny Goodman in late 1935 after selling the bandleader a chart. Goodman needed a strong, authentic swing arranger of ...
read more
A New Bio On Gene Krupa, Who Made Drumming Swing
Source:
Ann Pryor
The first definitive biography of the pioneering drummer and bandleader who brought percussion from back to center stage, influencing generations of musicians from jazz to rock—and beyond The Master of Drums: Gene Krupa and the Music He Gave the World (on sale April 29, 2025) is the first comprehensive biography of groundbreaking, controversial drummer and bandleader Gene Krupa, indisputably the most famous drummer in history. With his handsome face and shock of black hair, cool threads, unusual setup, and ferocious ...
read more
Backgrounder: Al Sears - Swing's the Thing (1960)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Al Sears was one of those versatile tenor saxophonists who could slide between jazz and R&B in the 1950s. Born in 1910, he landed his first major professional job as the replacement for Johnny Hodges in Chick Webb's group in 1928. In the 1940s, he played with Andy Kirk (1941-42), Lionel Hampton (1943-44) and Duke Ellington (1944), replacing Ben Webster. To teens in the 1950s, he was known as Big Al Sears, recording R&B on a series of independent labels ...
read more
Chick Webb: The Rightful King of Swing
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
The King of Swing in the 1930s wasn't Benny Goodman or Count Basie. It was Chick Webb. The drummer fielded, managed and drove one of the best dance bands in the country and held court at New York's Savoy Ballroom, at 596 Lenox Avenue, between 140th and 141st Streets in Harlem. Webb's band was built to keep people dancing, and the swing he produced to do so was imitated while he was at the peak of his fame and for ...
read more
Quatuor Hot Club De Suisse! - Pierre Omer's Swing Revue Announce Spanish Tour Dates And More
Source:
Matthew Hutchison
Pierre Omer’s Swing Revue, the Genevese troupe of exotica, lounge-trash specialists, heads to Spain in October with their blend of gypsy jazz and garage swing in tow as they continue a European tour to promote their latest album, Tropical Breakdown on Voodoo Rhythm Records. This week-long string of shows marks The Swing Revue’s first time touring the country, where the quintet will debut in the Cantabria region and conclude in the capital city of Madrid. Confirmed dates 10/10—Secret Place (Montpellier, ...
read more
Quatuor Hot Club De Suisse! - Pierre Omer's Swing Revue Returns With Tropical Breakdown
Source:
Matthew Hutchison
Pierre Omer's music catalog is steeped in bygone eras and rooted in brass, anachronism, and harmonious strings. Gypsy jazz laced with Eastern European folk is prevalent in music he's written for the vaudevillian doom-blues funeral orchestra, The Dead Brothers, which he co-founded at the turn of the century. His dark blues trio, Los Gatillos, takes influence from Southern Gothic lore, while early 20th-century roots music melds with Appalachian folk to back Omer's low baritone croon with The Night Cruisers. A ...
read more
Madd For Tadd Marks Its Second Celebration Of Tadd Dameron With 'Central Avenue Swing & Our Delight,' Set For August 25 Release By Tighten Up Records
Source:
Terri Hinte Publicity
Kent Engelhardt doubles down—literally—on his pursuit of big-band arrangements of the works of Tadd Dameron with Madd for Tadd’s August 25 release of Central Avenue Swing & Our Delight (Tighten Up). The two-disc set (a follow-up to their 2018 debut The Magic Continues) finds MFT, Ohio-based alto saxophonist Engelhardt’s 15-piece Dameron big band—co-led and conducted by trumpeter Stephen Enos—performing 21 new orchestrations of the totemic composer’s tunes as well as a new original composition by Engelhardt. As the title suggests, ...
read more
Today's Leading Swing Band, The Hot Toddies Jazz Band, Releases Debut Full-length Album
Source:
AMT Public Relations
Featuring an All-Star Lineup: Hannah Gill, Queen Esther, Gabe Terraccciano, Alphonso Horne, Justin Poindexter, Gordon Webster, Patrick Soluri, and more. Album Available July 28, 2023 Fresh off its Lincoln Center debut at “Summer for the City,” the Hot Toddies Jazz Band announced today the upcoming release of its debut full-length eponymous album. Hailed as New York City's leading hot jazz and swing band, the Hot Toddies recorded 11 fan-favorite, fun-loving tracks imbibing the high-and-not-so-dry spirits of the Prohibition Era. The ...
read more
Documentary: Born to Swing
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
In 1973, the BBC aired a 50-minute documentary from director John Jeremy on the alumni of the Count Basie Band of 1943. And then the documentary went out of print. Fortunately for us, the person behind Remembrance of Things at YouTube found an old VHS tape at the public library and uploaded it as a vital historical document. The documentary includes interviews with Buck Clayton, Buddy Tate, Jo Jones, Dicky Wells and Earle Warren. You'll also hear from Gene Krupa, ...
read more
Sharing The Joy - And Exuberant Swing - Of Jazz Guitar
Source:
Ken Franckling's Jazz Notes
Mark Whitfield puts his heart and soul into his guitar playing. And as an observer, listener, you can't miss it. He bends and reshapes notes, adds a soulful blues feeling, and rearranges familiar tunes to make them his own—-at least for the moment. And then there is the ever-present body English. He spins, he raises and lowers his beautiful red D'Angelico hollow-bodied guitar to accentuate the sounds he draws from it. His facial expressions run the gamut from intense grimaces ...
read more
Music
Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson
