The Fabulous Esquires Big Band will be featured entertainment at a marvelous evening of dinner and dancing and fundraising on Saturday October 15, 2011.
From 5-10pm the Esquires will swing the tunes while guests (encourage to dress the party in vintage attire) raises funds and encouragement for the Soovajian Family, Missionaries to the Ukraine.
Pre-sale tickets are available at $25 for 2 people, $15 for solo ticket and $10 for child.) Door price tickets are higher, so reserve your ticket today by calling 323-552-8054.
This Saturday, August 27, The Fabulous Esquires Big Bandplays Pasadena Ballroom Dance! We are still in full-on summer mode, so say “aloha!” in your best Hawaiin attire – hair flowers, tiki shirts, linen pants – and get ready to dance!!
The $15 admission gets you a swing dance lesson from 7:30-8pm, refreshments, door prizes, and of course live music from The Fabulous Esquires Big Band!!
As if the Stevens sisters don’t already through a fantastically fun Saturday Night Dance Party, this Saturday (July 16) they are adding a Jack & Jill Contest!! With cash prizes and everything!!! AND there will be a pro and an amateur division, so no matter what your swing dance skill level, you can participate. No excuses – with The Fabulous Esquires Big Band providing the tunes, a swing dance lesson for friends who may want to come out and watch the band and the dancing and the contest but haven’t been on the dance floor themselves, plus the regular array of treats and snacks provided by PBDA, you can’t help but have a fabulous time!!
Vocalists Kathleen JequintoandDan Freyer will be croonin’ for you. Plenty of dancing to be had and enjoyed. Forget the west side “Carmageddon” and stay on the east side of town and come out swingin’!
We have the perfect remedy for the madness that will be the west side of town during the “Carmageddon” weekend with the 405 road closure – COME TO PASADENA!!
The Fabulous Esquire Big Band will be swinging the Banning Museum as we celebrate Phineas Banning’s Birthday. Featuring vocalists Kathleen Jequinto and Nate Brandstater, this outdoor concert is a perfect way to enjoy a summer evening under the stars – with dancing too!
- VIP Seating, Picnic Dinner, Wine, Dessert, Dance lesson by Rusty Frank and Dancing for an incredible $75
- Or bring your own picnic dinner and blanket and enjoy lawn seating, dessert, dance lesson by Rusty Frank and dancing
for only $25
The fun is August 18 and starts at 6:00 p.m. The Banning Museum, 401 East M Street, Wilmington 90744 www.TheBanningMuseum.org
Featuring vocalists Jessica Duban and Kevin Kennard, The Esquires will be at The Rose Bowl, right inside the main gates, where Erin and Tami from Pasadena Ballroom Dance will have a nice dance floor ready to teach a Swing dance lesson (from 6:00-6:30pm) followed by the music of the Fabulous Esquires from 6:30-9:45pm.
Admission is $10 and includes the Circus, food booths, game booths…and Swing dancing! Easy free parking at the Rose Bowl for this event. But you can also purchase tix right there at the event or got to www.kyl.org/circus for more information.
April is Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM)!! To honor the occasion, let’s welcome Payal Kumar to share her thoughts on jazz. Payal spent a decade working in jazz radio, including at Los Angeles station KLON/KKJZ, where she served in several capacities including DJ, Operations Director, and Broadcast/Program Director from 1999 through 2007. She is now the Director of Communications for The Wooden Floor, a 28-year-old children’s charity based in Orange County, which uses dance to impart generational change and break the cycle of poverty in 400 under served youth annually.
In a Sentimental Mood: 5 Things I learned from Jazz (in Hindsight)
By Payal Kumar
Feelin’ Good. If there is one major lesson from jazz, it is that one can persevere. From civil rights, to individuals shaking personal demons, this lesson is deeply steeped within the jazz tradition. Miles Davis famously overcame a heroin addiction through sheer might by locking himself in his parents’ home until he successfully detoxed. This lesson in determination was applied to our nation as a whole, with jazz acting as the soundtrack to the civil rights movement. Joe Zawinul, famous for, among other things, his work with Cannonball Adderley, once causally told me during an interview about how he had to lay down on the floor of the car when traveling with the Adderley band. He said the vehicle would have been shot at if they saw a Caucasian guy in a car with African Americans. As a naive twenty-something, I was at a loss for words that someone living and breathing before me had witnessed such social atrocities. That kind of racism seemed so far away, something I read in history class, not something someone I knew lived though. It’s easy to bury a painful past. Jazz as a cultural institution bears witness to the significant progress within a movement once thought radical and impossible. It also lays before us the challenge to believe in and fight for movements for equality that still persist in our world today. (Audio clip of Nina Simone)
2. Straight, No Chaser. Jazz requires its creators and appreciators to think outside the box. Let’s face it: there are some elements of jazz that just plain bewilder most folks. The hallmark of the genre is its willingness and ability to evolve. Being bold, and perhaps at times, frightening, without flinching, is an amazingly admirable quality, and something jazz is notable for embracing. (Audio clip of Thelonious Monk)
3. My Favorite Things. There is something to be said for holding on to your standards. The standards within the jazz repertoire are iconic for a reason. They are no mere flash in the pan pop song, but rather songs which identify with something common within all of us. Standards also allow for interesting reinvention, decidedly turning convention on its ear, stretching it and twisting it, so the past can be seen in a new light. (Audio clip of John Coltrane)
4. My Funny Valentine. After having worked in subsequent art forms following my work within jazz, I really missed the acceptance that jazz embodied. People who have the capacity to make, and likewise, the patience to appreciate the intricacies of jazz are special. Sometimes “shining star” kind of special, sometime “eating the paste” kind of special, but all were welcomed within the fabric of the music. Jazz folks, at least from my experience, lack the snobbery and arrogance you can sometimes find in the purveyors of other forms of art. Perhaps this comes from the decidedly gritty, non-affluent roots of the music. Whatever the origin, it is an attitude the taste makers of other art forms could stand to embrace. (Audio clip of Chet Baker)
5. It Don’t Mean a Thing. For as much seriousness as jazz can sometimes put forth, it is also fun. Just go to a jazz concert. There is a jovial spirit pervasive at most times. A trait present in the great jazz masters I had the unbelievably good luck of encountering is that they don’t take themselves too seriously. The music, they were serious about, but they could laugh at and make fun of themselves, which was refreshing. (Audio clip of Louis Armstrong)
So what can you do to celebrate jazz? Here are a few ideas!:
Take a dance class and get to know our American art form through your feet.
Attend a concert (summer concert series will be coming up soon!)
Beginners Swing Dance Lesson at 7:30pm is complementary with your $15 Admission to the dance. EVERYONE is invited and you don’t need a partner! Just come and enjoy the fun! Live Music begins at 8:00pm.
From 5-10pm the Esquires will swing the tunes while guests (encourage to dress the party in vintage attire) raises funds and encouragement for the Soovajian Family, Missionaries to the Ukraine.
