Andrej Hermlin & His Swing Dance Orchestra - Happy Birthday Mr. Swing!

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 43:21
Size: 99.2 MB
Styles: Swing, Big band
Year: 2015
Art: Front

[2:50] 1. Bugle Call Rag
[2:28] 2. Careless
[2:29] 3. Lonesome Road
[3:17] 4. Embraceable You
[2:50] 5. I Come From A Musical Family
[3:08] 6. Five O'clock Whistle
[2:36] 7. Happy Birthday Mr. Swing
[3:42] 8. Only You
[3:31] 9. One O'clock Jump
[4:38] 10. Blues In The Night
[3:02] 11. King Porter Stomp
[3:26] 12. Minnie The Moocher
[5:19] 13. Drummin' Man

Initially, the first jam sessions were conducted in Andrej’s parents’ garage. Back then the four young musicians playing with Andrej Hermlin could not imagine what would result from their experimental music-making. But one thing they knew for certain: they wanted to play swing, and they wanted it to sound authentic. In their first gig in the spring of 1987 in an establishment then called the “Club of Young Construction Workers”, the group played their entire repertoire – barely more than 15 titles. Several years later the SWING DANCE BAND – with new outfits, and now including a guitarist and female vocal soloist – could be heard playing at larger ball events. Bettina Labeau, at that time married to the bandleader, is still today the vocal soloist of the orchestra. At the end of 1995 the band renamed itself the SWING DANCE ORCHESTRA, now there was a small wind section and arrangements were added to attempt to emulate the sound of the American big bands. On a rather coincidental trip to New York, Andrej Hermlin was rather surprised to experience the new craze for swing in the U.S. In view of the thousands of young swing dancers at “Midsummer Night Swing“ on Lincoln Plaza the Berlin bandleader vowed: “I’ll bring my orchestra to New York no matter what the cost.”

In the summer of 1999 – after months of difficult preparations, everything was finally ready: the band traveled to America. The first gig of the SWING DANCE ORCHESTRA in America took place high above the roofs of Manhattan – in the restaurant of the World Trade Center “Windows of the World“ – a place that no longer exists. Many remarkable things have happened since then: David Rose was signed on as second vocal soloist, the band appeared more often on television, released more albums, was involved in film productions and gave guest performances in Hong Kong, Brussels, Zurich and London. But during all these years, Andrej Hermlin’s foremost goal was to found his own big band. He waited a long time to do it, but since the beginning of 2001 he has been the bandleader of an orchestra with 16 musicians. In the following summer he fulfilled a dream: he returned with his band to the “Big Apple“, played in the “Rainbow Room“, at the legendary “Hotel Pennsylvania“ – and at the “Midsummer Night Swing“ at Lincoln Plaza…

In 2004 the orchestra traveled to the Glenn Miller Festival in Clarinda, Iowa, Glenn Miller’s native city. The SWING DANCE ORCHESTRA has played gigs in the most prestigious concert halls in Germany and elsewhere. Under the Sony/BMG label the orchestra has released the albums : “Live in New York“ and “Benny Goodman´s Carnegie Hall Concert 1938“ – evidence of an amazing development which began so modestly many years ago. All of the old pals who played back then in the garage are still playing together today as musicians in the SWING DANCE ORCHESTRA. The story of this extraordinary band has not yet come to an end, so keep posted to find out what will happen next.

Happy Birthday Mr. Swing!

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