Durhamites, be sure to pick up a copy of the April, 2016 issue of Durham Magazine for a feature on the Mint Julep Jazz Band! Durham Magazine writer Sophia Lucente interviewed Laura Windley, Lucian Cobb, and Keenan McKenzie to put together this snapshot of the band’s history and life in Durham. You can read the article (as well as the entire issue) online here or read just the article in an online-friendly format here.
If you missed our interview with Frank Stasio and Mint Julep Quintet’s live performance on WUNC’s The State of Things on Friday, December 11, 2015, you can listen to the 17 minute segment on The State of Things’ website – scroll down to the middle of the page for the audio player and press play. http://wunc.org/post/mint-julep-jazz-band-recreates-early-jazz-battle-axe#stream/0
Also, as we noted on the show, please stay tuned for a very special announcement in April, 2016!
On Friday, December 11, 2015, tune into WUNC from noon to 1:00 p.m., we’ll be appearing on The State of Things, hosted by Frank Stasio! Frank will interview bandleaders Laura Windley and Lucian Cobb, and the Mint Julep Quintet will play a few tunes – we’ll be talking about our performances and travels from the past year and the release of our new album, Battle Axe!
Thanks so much to Michael Steinman of the Jazz Lives blog for this detailed and wonderful review of Battle Axe! We are delighted to be included on his blog, with his thoughtful research and review of the many jazz giants performing traditional jazz of yesteryear and of today.
If you love traditional jazz and swing, I would recommend following Michael’s blog – it is comprehensive, updated regularly, and features wonderful artists, both new and old. Michael’s dedication to the research, review, and enjoyment of this music and the artists definitely shows in his writing.
Battle Axe is featured in the August, 2015 episode of the Hey Mister Jesse Podcast on Yehoodi.com – check it out! If you aren’t hip to the Hey Mister Jesse podcast, you might like it if you like swinging jazz and blues, music to dance to, emerging and established swing/jazz/blues artists, and the classic swing era artists we still love so dearly.
As we approach the halfway mark on the Mint Julep Jazz Band album Kickstarter, we are excited that people continue to come forward to back us and to donate rewards to the Kickstarter campaign! Here are some stats, facts, and love from the past three weeks:
– As of 2/5/15 we are 65% funded with 278 backers and a total of $7,834 pledged!
– Laura’s mom donated 7 more kittens-talking-on-yellow-telephones aprons – if you’d like one, you can either pledge or upgrade your pledge, there are 2 left!
– Kim Clark of Time Machine Vintage, who makes a lot of the outfits vocalist Laura Windley wears on stage, donated a custom reproduction garment from any era, made to the backer’s specifications and measurements, inclusive of labor and materials. We are so grateful for this generous donation and it’s already been snapped up!
– Lucian Cobb and Laura Windley were featured on the internet radio talk show A Kind Voice on Music with host Tyler Wolf, talking about the Kickstarter, the new album, the creative process, and our wonderful fans! If you missed the broadcast, you can listen to the archive at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/akindvoice/2015/01/27/a-kind-voice-on-music-featuring-mint-julep-jazz-band.
If you are wondering how you can help, the easiest way to get the word out is to invite your friends to our Facebook event for the Kickstarter – Facebook automatically blocks posts that appear to be related to Kickstarter because they want you to pay for advertising, but the invite is a way to reach people directly (note: we are both paying Facebook for ads, while simultaneously circumventing them to reach even more people). Thanks so much for everyone’s help thus far, your backing us and all the “likes” on Facebook really do add up!
On January 26, 2015, Mint Julep Jazz Band members Lucian Cobb and Laura Windley will be interviewed on A Kind Voice on Music, a radio show hosted by Tyler Wolf on A Kind Voice Radio, an internet radio station that focuses on “having conversations with an eclectic group of people which include musicians, sports figures, authors, business people, film makers, philosophers and everyday heros. The common thread is they all use their kind voice to make our world a kinder, more connected place, one act at a time.”
Tune in from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. EST at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/akindvoice – we’ll be talking about the new album and band shenanigans, among other things. 🙂
The Mint Julep Jazz Band is the first runner up for best musical artist/band in the 2014 Best of Durham Awards, sponsored by Durham Magazine! We are so grateful to even be in the running for this, so thank you to everyone who voted – we were inched out of the first place spot (which we won in 2013) by Sylvan Esso, a nationally touring indie folk band who relocated to Durham in 2013. Check it out in Durham Magazine’s August 2014 issue or on their website!
Does this mean we are still Durham’s best jazz band? 😉
The Mint Julep Jazz Band is excited to be invited to provide music for Our State Magazine‘s Music in the Library video series, which shares and highlights songs from North Carolina musical artists filmed at Our State Magazine’s headquarters in Greensboro, North Carolina. We filled up their cozy library space with eight musicians, swing, and hot jazz on a hot June afternoon and the results came out great, using just three microphones and three cameras.
We are also featured in the magazine’s August issue – pick one up from your local North Carolina newsstand!
The band recorded “Swingtime in Honolulu,” “Rock it for Me,” and our original tune (composed by alto/clarinet/soprano sax mad man, Keenan McKenzie) “Miami Boulevard” – visit the Our State YouTube channel for all the videos from this series!
The video from our performance and interview on WUNC’s The State of Things from November 22 is posted! Check out the NC Museum of Natural Sciences‘ YouTube channel to see how we all fit in the tiny studio:
Mint Julep Jazz Band 