NEWS

Attention Dancers!

The following appeared in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on Monday, May 19, 2008, in an article on memory research, by Cecilia Goodnow:

"Researchers who followed nearly 500 people for 21 years found that ballroom dancing was the most protective leisure activity and appeared to reduce dementia risk by 76 percent. (Solving crosswords was one of the least protective.) Ballroom dancing combines aerobic, social and spatial challenges. But it may attract people who are at low risk of dementia anyway."  This is good news!

Pete Leinonen celebrated 50 years as a jazz performer on Sunday July 14, 2007, at The New Orleans Creole Restaurant. He'll return with the Pete Leinonen  Band (our modern jazz project) on first Thursday, August 7, 2008 from 7 PM to 10PM for the gallery walk. Hope to see you all there. More details, and events can be found on the calendar page of this site.See our links page for more about The New Orleans, an all ages venue.

Salon du Swing's first appearance (for USA Dance) at Washington Dance Club was a great success. A big dance floor filled with great dancers kept us going from 8:15 PM to 11:00 PM. Serious ballroom dancers are notoriously chgallenging for live bands because they choreograph their style to recordings having quite specific tempos and rhythms. We're proud that many dancers, all we talked with, said we were the best they've ever had. Several said we were the best band they ever heard. Thanks for a great night.

Thanks to our favorite dinner club, The Ruins, for once again inviting Salon du Swing to celebrate New Year's Day with the members. Seattle owes Joe and Virginia a huge round of applause for creating this elegant and soulful venue. I understand we'll be back again next year.

Salon du Swing played for the Seattle Scores charity auction, also in April. Held at the Seattle Yacht Club this time, the auction was again hosted by our friend Christine Chen. It was the second year running for both us and Christine, who's great with a band. The theme  was "Hooray for Hollywood"   (a tricky number for you musicians out there. If anybody knows the correct chords, we'd love a cheat sheet). As always, the staff at SYC was a joy to work with.

Seattle Scores is a worthy cause and they put on the best auctions. Highlights included a rare and humerous speaking appearance by basketball legend Bill Russell, another by Pulitzer winning cartoonist David Horsey and many amazing auction items. I think they raise more money at this auction than any we do.

Radio Rhythm, The Music of John Holte has received airplay on KBCS-FM and KPLU-FM.  Feel free to call them and request it!  Our first three months of performances following release of the CD have been very well attended and CD sales have been brisk.

David Keys wrote a very nice story about the Radio Rhythm Orchestra in the March 2005 issue of Northwest Jazz Profile. The CD has received very nice reviews from Gary Bannister (Victory Review, June 2005) and Doug Bright (Heritage Music review, July, 2005).

Be sure to check out the recording, Radio Rhythm, The Music of John Holte, Original Cast CD OCCD-015-2. The late John Holte was an important force in the swing music revival, and we're proud to offer this collection, performed by his Seattle swing band, the Radio Rhythm Orchestra, for your listening and dancing pleasure.

Radio Rhythm, The Music of John Holte, is now available in Seattle from Bud's Jazz Records, Tower Records (Queen Anne), Silver Platters, and on this web site on the Purchase page. For more about "Radio Rhythm", see the Recordings page.

Radio Rhythm, The Music of John Holte is our first compact disc, but we have 14 earlier releases in other formats, and a few are still in stock. We'll be making them available soon, so watch this space for more information.