This April, the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra (SRJO) will present a pair of concerts titled “The Art of the Jitterbug,” celebrating the irresistible dance music of the 1930s. The concert is proving to be very popular. In addition to the two performances scheduled for early April, the SRJO will be taking the concert to Edmonds Center for the Arts in late April for a third performance.
Two award-winning pairs of dancers will perform on stage alongside SRJO to showcase the jitterbug plus other exciting dance styles of early jazz such as the Lindy Hop, East Coast Swing and the Balboa. The SRJO will play some of the most lively swing music drawn from the early years of big band jazz, when the musical style swept the nation’s popular music scene during years that combined the emergence of broad social liberation, the Harlem Renaissance, and recovery from the Great Depression.
Big band jazz grew up in the nightclubs and dance halls of New York and Chicago as high-energy dance music. The zenith of jazz dancing was the jitterbug, igniting the wild enthusiasm of dance-crazed youth in the 1930s. Seattle is recognized as having one of the most active and extensive cultures in the nation for swing dancing, with ballrooms and dance halls hosting swing events year-round throughout the city.
This concert features the most popular hits from the world’s greatest dance bands—Chick Webb, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmie Lunceford, Fletcher Henderson, and Benny Goodman. Selections include Basie’s Swingin’ the Blues, Goodman’s Swing Time in the Rockies and Henderson’s Big John’s Special.
SRJO’s presentation of The Art of the Jitterbug performs Saturday, April 5, 2014 at 7:30 PM at the Nordstrom Recital Hall, Sunday, April 6, 2014 at 2 PM at the Kirkland Performance Center and Sunday, April 27 at 4 PM at the Edmonds Center for the Arts.
Tickets and Info:
Tickets are available through the SRJO’s website srjo.org or by calling (206) 523-6159.
Single tickets range from $15 to $44. Most SRJO concerts sell out, so advance purchase is highly recommended. In a special effort to encourage attendance by young people at SRJO subscription series concerts, the SRJO offers tickets for all jazz fans ages 25 and under at $15 (for all seats in the house).