Swing Street Band news and talk

On Friday, March 26, the Swing Street Band will be the centerpiece of a sparking evening of entertainment in Pinehurst.  ”An Affair of the Arts” is a dinner, dance, and cabaret show that is an officially sanctioned, feature event of the new Palustris Arts Festival of Moore County, NC.

We are producing the event and wanted to create a sparkling, dress-up evening reminiscent of an old-fashioned cabaret night-on-the-town like you would have experienced in New York City back in the 30s or 40s.

To help create that atmosphere, we have developed a cabaret show that includes some well-known Sandhills figures featured in music and dance performances that might not normally be associated with their names.  The show will include Glenda Clendenin, Moore County Director of Elections, who will be singing two swing numbers with the band.  Alexander Brower, publisher of Sanford’s HomeTown News, and President of the Lee County Chapter of the NAACP will also sing two numbers with the band, and will then join Clendenin and your’s truly, singing drummer Tom Bernett, in a stirring patriotic finale to the first half of the evening.

In addition, Patrick Coughlin, President and CEO of the Moore County Chamber of Commerce, will exhibit his dancing abilities as he accompanies professional dancer and dance teacher Diana Turner-Forte, who is Artist-In-Residence at the Carolina Performing Arts Center.  Both Diana and Patrick participated in two separate performances at the recent Dancing With The Sandhills Stars event, which raised over $100,000 for local youth programs.

Other acts include a charming new senior citizen tap dance troupe, Alive and Clickin’ (taught by my wife Mary Lou), as well as a comedy dance routine performed by the tongue-in-cheek Knollwood Sisters.  And finally, members of the Swing Street Band will also perform specialty numbers, including a popular impersonation of the great Louis Armstrong by Ramon Kenan, one of our trumpet players from Raleigh who’s one-man show “Satchmo Live” has been well-received by audiences all over the eastern seaboard.  We’ll also feature saxophonist Tim Smith’s silky smooth voice on a special number.

Along with the cabaret show, An Affair of the Arts is offering a deluxe, three-course, sit-down dinner with a special Palustris menu created by my friend Chef Donnie Wicker, formerly the Executive Chef at Pine Needles Resort and now owner of 360 Catering Management and the Cafe 360 Restaurant.  Donnie is also the Culinary Arts Instructor at the Sandhills Community College.  A cash bar will benefit the Carolina Performing Arts Center in Southern Pines.

Tickets for the gala are priced at a remarkably low $25 per person, thanks to the generosity of our sponsors, which include: the Village of Pinehurst Department of Parks and Recreation; WIOZ 550-AM; Star 102.5-FM; Pinehurst Area Realty; Menendez and Ritter Retirement Group; Heavenly Pines Jewelry and Gifts; and BAS Audio and Light.

An Affair of the Arts takes place on Friday, March, 26 at the Pinehurst Fair Barn.  Doors open at 5:30 pm for cocktail hour, with dinner at 6:30 pm, and cabaret and dancing beginning at 7:15 pm.  Black tie is optional.  For more information, see www.AffairOfTheArts.net or call us at 910-692-8839.  We must have a concept that is striking a positive note with people, because we already have about 40% of our tickets spoken for just by word of mouth, so anyone who wants tickets should probably get them soon.

I hope we’ll see you there!!

Tom Bernett

Well, now that I have one bonafide reader here, I guess it’s time I get back to doing regular updates!

With that in mind, I need to announce that the 5-piece incarnation of the Pinehurst Swing Street contingent will be playing a couple sets of swing music TONIGHT, March 13, at the Sacred Heart Church St. Patrick’s Day dinner.  We will start playing about 7:30.

The event is open to the public, but I’m not sure how many tickets are left… not many, to be sure, but a call to John James at Heavenly Pines Jewelers would certainly provide an answer to that question.

Finally, for those who are interested in big band music in general, I (along with a couple other Swing Street members) will be playing with the Heart of Carolina Jazz Orchestra on Sunday evening, March 22 at the barn in Fearrington Village (located half-way between Chapel Hill and Pittsboro).  I’m not sure of the details of the concert yet, but keep an eye on the HOC website for more information.

Keep swinging!!

Tom Bernett

Return to Swing Street Band web page.

Well, if everything goes right, there will be more opportunities to hear and dance to Swing Street in the Pinehurst area. We are working on developing a locally based group of players who can provide the Swing Street sound without the need to deal with the heavy travel expenses of bringing all the regular guys down from Raleigh. This would make it possible for the band to provide an affordable alternative for local venues and events that simply don’t have the budget to pay for the Raleigh players to make the trip.  At the same time, it makes it possible for the Raleigh players to avoid feeling obligated to make a trip that will cost them a lot more money, and to bow out of unprofitable jobs in a gracious manner.

Swing Street provides a dynamite big band sound with just 9 musicians instead of the normal 17 or 18 pieces of a regular big band. Swing Street plays great swing and jazz music throughout North Carolina, as well as parts of South Carolina and Virginia.

The band has recently updated the library by adding several dozen new arrangements that range from new twists on old standards to big band versions of several more contemporary tunes. See our web site for a current song list in PDF format.

Finally, just a reminder that the Sandhills version of the Swing Street Five will be playing for the Sacred Heart Kinghts of Columbus St. Patrick’s Day Dinner on Friday, March 13 at the Sacred Heart Founders Hall.  The event is open to the public… tickets are available at Heavenly Pines Jewelry store in Pinehurst.

Cheers!!

Tom Bernett

Return to the Swing Street Band web site

It’s Tuesday, January 20. A new President will be sworn in today. Historic day, people are sensing great promise for the future. Hopefully, Mr. Obama can fulfill his potential without becoming detached or corrupted. If he can, he may end up being one of the best in history. If not, we will continue our slide.

It’s also a Tuesday of snow in the Sandhills. This is very rare.  It will be gone tomorrow. Building snowmen will be a fruitless effort.

Finally, an unabashed bit of self promotion:

The Swing Street Band is a dynamite 9-piece dance band / big band, that plays swing, jazz, and even some old time rock and roll, with the goal of helping audiences have a great time dancing and partying.

The band’s travel range reaches throughout most of North Carolina, including Raleigh, Durham, Cary, Greensboro, High Point, Winston-Salem, Charlotte, Fayetteville, Wilmington, and the Outer Banks; along with Myrtle Beach, Florence, and other parts of South Carolina and Virginia.

For more information about the band, please see www.SwingStreetBand.com.

Have a great day!

Tom Bernett

RETURN TO SWING STREET HOME PAGE

No, it’s not the fifth version of somebody’s mapping software. The Swing Street Five is the smaller, swingin’ jazz combo version of the Swing Street Band that is made up of all the Swing Streeters who are based in the Pinehurst/Southern Pines area.  This means that we can play smaller, local Pinehurst area events in a more affordable manner, without worrying about quite so much the travel expenses.

The Swing Street Band is a dynamite 9-piece swing band/big band/jazz band/ dance band, based in central North Carolina serving most of North Carolina, as well as parts of South Carolina and Virginia, including Raleigh, Charlotte, Greensboro, Fayetteville, Myrtle Beach, and more.

The Swing Street Five is a quintet (piano, bass, drums & vocals, trumpet, and trombone that is available for dates in the Sandhills and beyond.  Same fun-time atmosphere, same vocals, same basic song list (with some interesting additions).  But more affordable to Sandhills clients.

If you’d like a chance to enjoy an evening with the Swing Street Five, then plan on attending the annual St. Patrick’s Day fund-raising dinner, sponsored by the Knights of Columbus at the Sacred Heart Church in Pinehurst.  The date is Friday, March 13.  The dinner is from 6-7, the band will play from 7-9.  Ticket sales are open to the public; call John James at Heavenly Pines Jewelry in Pinehurst, 910-235-9086, for more information or to purchase tickets.

Cheers!

Tom Bernett

RETURN TO SWING STREET HOME PAGE

Once again, welcome to this new feature of the Swing Street Band’s web site.

As mentioned previously, we’ve instituted this blog primarily in an effort to improve search engine rankings, so the first paragraph will always mention that Swing Street is a dynamite 9-piece swing band / big band / dance band, based in central North Carolina, and also serving parts of South Carolina and Virginia, such as: Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Greensboro, High Point, Winston-Salem, Charlotte, Pinehurst, Fayetteville, Wilmington, the Outer Banks, Florence, Myrtle Beach, and more.

Now that that’s out of the way, we’d also like to inform the world that several members of the band also offer private music lessons to interested persons of all ages.  To start things off, I teach drums in Southern Pines at Moore Music.  For more information about drum lessons, please see the “Teaching” page on my personal website HERE.

Several other members of the band teach in various capacities in the Raleigh area.  For more information about who teaches what where, call the Swing Street office at 910-692-8839.

In other news, my wife, Mary Lou, is considering going out on a limb to purchase a local business that would put her into the fitness business, but would also give her the opportunity to begin teaching some dance classes.  She has a background in dance and is especially fond of tap dancing.  She’s pretty good at teaching it, also.  In fact, she has been teaching yours truly and, although I’ll never be much of a dancer, we have been able to develop a couple nice little song and dance shows that we’ve been taking to local clubs, senior centers, and nursing homes.  It certainly is good exercise, and we’ve been able to make a lot of folks smile over the past few months…. of course, I don’t know if they’re smiling because they enjoy the show or because they’re laughing at my feeble dancing attempts.  But either way, I think we’re bringing some entertainment to some places that is doing some good.

One final item for today…  One of my past-times is restoring old drums and rebuilding not-so-old drums.  Then, if I’m really lucky, I am able to sell them for enough to cover my expenses and perhaps even buy a few more old drums.  If you have an old drum, or some old drum parts, that you’d be willing to part with for a very low price, please contact me at the Swing Street office: 910-692-8839, or email ttbernett@nc.rr.com

Thanks to anyone who is so bored that they are actually reading all this

Cheers, and keep swinging!!

Tom Bernett

Well, the blog is up and running. I still need to do some research and work to make it look and feel like the Swing Street web site, but at least it’s functional.

For the time being, however, here’s a disclaimer…

Remember that the primary reason for this blog is to increase the Swing Street web site’s position in search engines, which will presumeably increase traffic to the site and consequently increase the bookings for the band (and hopefully increase the employment opportunities for all of us who make up Swing Street).

Because of this goal, I’ll ask you to tolerate the fact that every day or so, there will be some blatant self-promotion with words that might tempt the various search engines to move us up in their rankings. I’ll try not to be ridiculous about it, but I suspect you’ll notice it. The rest of the time, I’ll make an attempt to offer some useful information about music, the music business, drums, or maybe just something that might give you a chuckle.

For now, let me reiterate that Swing Street is a dynamite 9-piece dance band / big band, that plays swing, jazz, and even some old time rock and roll, with the goal of helping audiences have a great time dancing and partying.

The band’s travel range reaches throughout most of North Carolina, including Raleigh, Durham, Cary, Greensboro, High Point, Winston-Salem, Charlotte, Fayetteville, Wilmington, and the Outer Banks; along with Myrtle Beach, Florence, and other parts of South Carolina and Virginia.

For more information about the band, please see www.SwingStreetBand.com.

And finally, if there’s anyone out there actually reading this stuff, drop me a note to let me know about it, otherwise, I’ll just go on talking endlessly to myself in an effort to influence Google:-)

Cheers and keep swinging!!

Tom Bernett
Swing Street Band