It’s been a wild ride with Kickstarter and getting things ready for the album – we are so excited to be in the recording studio this weekend and have so many people to thank for this. Specifically, our incredible backers who have funded this endeavor with their pre-orders and merchandise purchases vis-a-vis a Kickstarter campaign! We were able to raise a total of $14,025, which exceeded our goal and will help us not only with anticipated expenses, but also with those pesky unanticipated ones.

We love you madly! Thanks so much to our backers, in chronological order:

Adrian Fahrer
The Creative Fund by BackerKit
Jennifer Barnett
Clara M
Michael Steinman
Melissa Hinkel
Karin Abell
Lauren Gibson
Oren Forward
Ryan Swift
윤제현
Michael Quisao
Jongha Kang
Allison Wilhelm
Sharon Ermolowich
Andy Nishida
Sebree Turner
Kenneth F. Hanson
Dorobo
Laura Boyes
joe oneil
Christina Evans
Bobby Cook
Emily A Anderson
Wes Price
Paul Riding
Bryan Fagan
Jack Mitchell
Miranda Lank
Elizabeth Watkins
Nathaniel Lynch
Sarah Henderson
Kit Ness
K&T Eisenbeis
Mel Khaw
Aidan Dunne
Edward Shaddow
Rory Gill
Paul Gilbert
ryan lemar
Joseph Bopp
Sarah Price
Robert Bradford
Susan Carson
Karmi Fossen
Paul J. McLaurin
Steven Travis
Eris
Jenna Schenker
Tiffany K
Steven Morgan
Kathleen
Summerlin Page
Katie Del Vecchio
Amanda Gerken
Heather Adams
Moriah Wood
Celina
Jesse Gearhart
Deborah Farthing
Jean-Michel Oblette
Kristin Buxton
Rachel Hundley
Billie Feather
Tom Lassiter
John Derrick
Larry Falck
Michael Brown
Clare Diaz
Lian Tarhay
Stephanie Stratton
Michelle Lee
Jason Sager
Allison Meeks
Will Brown
Jesse Miner
Arcelia Long
Robert Szarka
JonathanLaFarge
Katie Moore
Amanda Fletcher
Gary Chyi
Christina
David Soltysik
Julia Eager
Karen Shaffer
Marc Latou
Matthew Brooks
Steve Pruskin
Mike Guzzo
David Goodwin
Brennan Ames-Phares
Rocio Leon
Jason Knight
Hilary Buuck
Sid Sondergard
Andréas Olsson
Jo Hannes
Andreas Kaltenegger
Tina Spencer
Timothy Korkuc
Deniz Adalar
John Rowe
Bret
Anna Anderson
Alina Kerov
Hussain Jaffery
Maya Bernstein
Summer Evans
Bob Proctor
Chris Ronderos
D B Mathews
Valerie Davis
Alex
revclemens
Matt Lam
Shiri Gutman
Zachary Malone
David Giovinazzo
Viji Sathy
Beth Ringwald Carnes
Margot Helm
Olivia
Sarah White
Renée Paulette McGee
Tina Jordan
Lynn Redmile
Micah
Stephanie Nicole
Raewyn McCombs
Ann
Nicole Sinwell
Jennifer Reed
Daniel Winkelman
Doug Noel
Laurie Desch
Sarah Blumenthal
Larisa Harrison
stany
Brian Sheridan
Taylor Stender
David Barry
Amiya Gupta
Roger Sinasohn
David
Tatsuo Endo
Mary Kyle Manson
Brian Green
Stephen
Kelly Tomlinson
Alex Nah
Tiffany Christensen
Benjamin Cass
Patrick Flowers
William
mary lou mazzara
Albert Alva
Sarah Jensen
Candi Terry
Sara K
Kade Major
cam connor
Lauren Smith
Caroline Que
Keli Hawthorne
Samuel Sykes
Brandi
Heidi
Michelle Long
Gary Holland
Peter Shilliday
Steve Wilcox
Douglas Bae
E Simmons
Julie Estelle Rudd
Jennifer Tolliver
Gena Bell Vargas
Warren Cheung
Don Von hagen
Lauren
Elise Margaret Roth
Lily Shaw
Rich Lyons
Leta Coop
해품달
John Mortenson
Bennie
Antonia Burns
Nicholas Centino
Mimi Liu
Jonathan Buck
Russell Sagraves
Tiffany Brantner
Robert Powell
Jim Wheatley
Gretchen Midgley
TG
Todd Gage
Jimmy Cobb
Rose Jones
Tamlin Pavelsky
Woody McKenzie
Constance Poore
Jason Lempka
Richard Poole
Thomas Bantle
Alan Roberson
Natalie Gabriel
SP Samedi
Madeleine Brook
Rob Moreland
Adam Hitchcock
Srishti Bhagat
Scott M. Manson
Richard Jeffrey Diaz
Lisa Macharoni
Gabrielle Kern
Hillary Hudson
Christopher Pierick
George Patterson
The Warmans
Jessica King
Dani McQueen
Brad Nathanson
Moya

Web

The Mint Julep Jazz Band’s newest album, Battle Axe, is now available online for digital download and for purchase of physical copies of the album! We know for certain that you can find Battle Axe on CD Baby, iTunes, and we suspect that Amazon.com, Spotify, and eMusic will have it as well, maybe even some other sources we don’t suspect! You can purchase physical CDs at CD Baby.com and have them shipped to you or, as always, you can purchase CDs at any of our shows.

Some of you have asked which service gives the band the most money per song/copy and that answer is definitely CD Baby, who is our primary distributor.

Thanks again to all of our Kickstarter backers for making this dream a reality!

Web

The official release date for digital copies of the Mint Julep Jazz Band’s new album, Battle Axe, is July 14! Digital copies will be available on CD Baby, iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, just about anywhere digital copies are sold. Physical CD copies should be available for purchase online shortly thereafter. Our Kickstarter digital backers will receive theirs slightly before this date and our Kickstarter physical backers should start to receive their copies around this date. Huzzah!

Also, check out our fantastic album cover art, thanks to graphic designer and electronic music artist extraordinaire Judson Cowan (aka Tettix)!

Seriously, these people and organizations are the best, and are the reason the Mint Julep Jazz Band will record a second album! Thank you all so very much! 😀

Contributors (people who donated their time, products, and services as rewards):

Kim Clark of Time Machine Vintage
Jazz Dance Education Council of Richmond, VA
Ben Lassiter
Valerie Salstrom
Jamie Sturdevant of Chatterblossom
Alexandrea Thomsen of Dtownperspective
Gayle Windley (our vocalist Laura Windley’s mom)

Backers (people who pre-ordered the album and opted for other delightful swag, in order of contribution; also, if we have somehow missed or misspelled your name, please email us at mintjulepjazzband@gmail.com and we will make it right!):


Brad Nathanson
Quito Washington
Jesse Miner
Michael Quisao
K&T Eisenbeis
Craig Parker
Kofi Arthiabah
Gabrielle Kern
James Benze
Chris Ronderos
Debi Blair
Jane Dawson
Christian Bossert
Andrew Knipe
Stephen Badham
Tim Grimsey
Christine Cochrum
Lindsay Gardner
John Buhrmann
Laura Ansley
Keith Moore
Ryan Lemar
Eris Discordia
Ian Whitman
revclemens
Rob Moreland
Amanda Croasdell
Sarah Ovenall
Greg
Glenn Crytzer
Martha S.
Beccy Aldrich
Chris Evans
Gisela
Yulai Liu
Brennan Bowman
Michael Van Andel
Brian Tietz
Paul Gilbert
Ross Blythe
Peter Bonventre
Bobby Cook
Erik Kutzler
Brittany Bugge
Joseph Bopp
Tyler de Caussin
Sarah Henderson
Reese
Kate Hedin
David Bradford
Luke Holladay
Anna B
Chayant Tanti
Brian Fennessy
Srishti Garvey
Aaron Seals
Wes Price
Andy Straube
Amy Sosinski
Jacob Z. Price
Marcus
Emily Topham
Gil Macali
Frank Verdi
Steven Travis
Phillip Bailey
Dror Speiser
Phillip Paggi
Robert Edwards
Albert Mak
Jeffrey Lane
Chase Bannister
Emilie Richard
Kelly Tomlinson
Olivia Bowman
Mary
Chelsea Lefaivre
Carl Blackwell
Chad Skeeters
Jenna Bayer
Cassandra Patitz
Paul J. McLaurin
Andrea Waybright
Austin Gowland
Karl
Tia Shelley
Beth Grover
Elaine Silver
Brian Sheridan
Alex Richard
Mallory Peterson
Jacob Rix
Jenna Pekofsky
Erik Myers
Christian Seyfert
Alexis Strickland
Aubrey Groves
Scott M. Manson
Rich Werden
Joanne Fujii
Amanda Fletcher
Stephen York
Jason Platt
Mary Lou Mazzara
Adrian Fahrer
Kathy Tilton
Bill Wolf
Ivan Huang
Sara Kremer
Jason Rights
Jack Mitchell
Phil Manijak
Joan Llabres
Geddiz
Ferdinand Stout
John Li
Andy Nishida
Jami Good
Helene Horowitz
Ryan Swift
Dani McQueen
Jill A
Gary Sharpe
Mark Calkins
Marcus Levine
Nirav Sanghani
Stephan Jankowski
Stany
Nate Landon
Conner Phillips
Ann Sychterz
Logan Rott
Laurel Mitchell
July
Sarah Gray
Antonia Burns
John Davies
Oren Forward
Nick Gorman
Ben White
Kristen Buxton
Joel Carlin
Revek
Gary Chyi
YoungWoo Joh
Jared Cary
Bill Speidel
Kevin M. Thoresen
Kris Light
Erica Vess
Frank Myers
Kenneth F. Hanson
Marc Latou
meranie
Melanie Levine
Holly Yang
Joelle Andrews
Paul Pj Ryan
Michael James
Skjargh
Jeremy Weinberger
Douglas B. Matthews
Eduardo Sanchez
Barry Pincus
Clara Goodwin
Sharon Ferris
Arnold Cabreza
Suzannah Hamer
Erin Riley
Colin Butler
kabotnik
Elizabeth Tietgen
Gina Helfrich
Tim Heard
superheidi
Scott Angelius
Ann Mony
Emma Durham
Chiara Coombs
Allison Meeks
Daniel Newsome
James Green
Megan
Debra Blair
Maya Bernstein
Elizabeth
John Ennis
Binaebi Akah
Tim McMackin
Tiffany
Cliff Dyer
Argsnargle Flartblart
Gena Bell Vargas
Dave Warner
Jennifer Barnett
Mahmood Sheikh
Melissa Hinkel
Andrew Boggs
Maryjoyce
Rik Panganiban
Valerie Salstrom
Larisa Harrison
Melanie Kramer
Bret
Antje
George Gee
Douglas Spaceage Schumann
Allen
Tai Heng
Rebecca Plante
virtuald
Tim Korkuc
Madeleine Brook
Patrick Draus
Amanda Stock

Joan Bullard
Fran Richmond
Jessica
Jeff Meyer and Sarah Lapan
Joe Pangburn
Rosa Matusik
Anthony Licata
Adam Raines
David
Maddie FitzGerald
Ana Oara
Elliot Simon
Lauren Chester
Lynn Redmile
Tom Lassiter
Iris Carter
Nick D’Amico
David Rehm
Jonathan Jones
Carrie Newman
Matt Dorrance
Keith Beckman
Susan Manke
Norma Owens
John Palmer
Samuel Sykes
Mary Ann Carothers
Lyneah Marks
Laura Boyes
Matthew Royal
Doug Noel
Cindy Cuomo
asphyx
Caitlyn Deeter
Jenni Li
Claudia Thornburgh
Albert Hardy
Benjamin Cass
Lauren Maringola
Deborah E.
Aidan Dunne
Clark Gibson
Sarah White
Sarah Garr
Heather Adams
Moya
Dang Mai
Ulla Wingenfelder
Cansu Cimen
Diane Carroad
Laurie Desch
Edwin C. Butterworth
Michael Gamble
Bobby Smith
Brad Mohr
Chelsea Reed
Johann Waldvogel
Matthew Lewis
John Rowe
Raleigh Vintage
Moriah Wood
Brenda Price
Heather Reynolds
Vicki Smith
Lily Mahon
Emily Schuhmann
Lizzy Hazeltine
Kevin Sizer
Carol Linden
kristy
Karl Sakas
Artist Andrea
Sean H
Andy Weaver
Linda Boschert
Susanna Rosen
margaret
Hannah Catzen
Meghan Lisi
Jamie Foehl
Sommer Gentry
Bradley J. Rogers
Kristen Churchill
Warren Cheung
Matthew Mella
Sarah St. Ores
Adam Speen
Simon Vogt
a.bryson
Amir Rosenblatt
Joy Jing
John Derrick
Beth Midavaine
Royall Spence
Andrew Byrnes
Marie-Eve Gelinas
Helen King
Elizabeth Farrington
Shelley
Robert White
Meagan
Jason Maynard
John DeFranco
Doc Harvey
John Antram
Abby Cohen
Richard Springs
Gary House
John DelVecchio
Matt Gritter
Tessa Smith
Brennan Ames-Phares
Andrea Gomez
Calcifer
Morgan L. Williams
Camille Wood
Misty Landrum
Cat Keen Hock
James Pack
Albert Alva
Mark Henderson
Erin Douglas
Bri Swingdancer
Matthew Keener
Travis Getz
Chris Imershein
Craig
Andreas Olsson
Lucie Q. Ewen
Clara M.
Michele Bailey
Richard Poole
Matt Mitchell
Susan Sacher
R Lynn Rea
Margaret Williams
Susan Gauthier
Owen Hortop
B. Darst
Tom S.
Amy Dalton
Randy Zingo
Michael Herbert
Alexandria Sampson
Emily K.
백종수
Triangle Swing Dance Society
Holly Owens
Michael Baswell
Mary Kyle Manson
Mike Guzzo
M. Legett
Ska Bob
astroblastro
Sebastien Lienard
Ethan Olson
Shea
Ben Rich
Michael Steinman
Ryan Ewing
Sean Johnson
Matt Lam
Stina Dallons Isaksen
Stephen
Gavin MacInnes
Joshua Mclean
Caroline Gleeson
Athena Moon
Mimi
Richard Korn
Voon Chew
Nelle Cherry
Boris
Rebecca Conley
Chris Parizek
Manu Smith
Ben Beccari
David Rohan de Silva
Christine Sirota
Jennifer Donner
Stepan Jordanek
Scott Cappelluti
Lindsay Kelly
Sarah
Matthew Brooks
Corrie Holliday
Ben White
Elizabeth Quay
Beth Bernobich
Lindsay Giese
Jason Sager
Dave Hall
Jeong JongHwa
Ksenia Sedova
Vicki Matthews
Nicholas Neagle
Tiffany Christensen
Erika Anstead
lind8514
Lori
Clay Miles
Robert Szarka
Alison
Nick D
Heinrich Hess
N. Joanne Foil
Anthony Russell
Kemper Talley
Rob Keder
Matthew Tucker
Etsuyo Choi
Sam Carroll
Dylan Kilpatrick
Caitlin Farthing

Vocalist Laura Windley is running a simultaneous "Kittehstarter" campaign on her wall to get the word out about the MJJB Kickstarter, while not using any trigger words for Facebook to block her post (and simultaneously posting adorable photos of her cats!)
Vocalist Laura Windley is running a simultaneous “Kittehstarter” campaign on her wall to get the word out about the MJJB Kickstarter, while not using trigger words for Facebook to block her post (and simultaneously posting adorable photos of her cats!)

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!

Laura's mom's aprons sold like hotcakes!
Laura’s mom’s aprons sold like hotcakes!

After launching a week ago, we are excited to report that the Mint Julep Jazz Band’s Kickstarter for our new album “Battle Axe” is already 38% funded! Here are some other update tidbits about our first week of this Kickstarter:

– As of 1/18/15, we have a total of 157 backers!

– We have backers from Canada, Australia, UK, Israel, Switzerland, and Brazil, as well as backers from all over the US.

– The aprons made by Gayle Windley (vocalist Laura’s mom) and the fascinator donated by ChatterBlossom were sold within the first 12 hours after the Kickstarter launched.

– We have added a reward in the first week, two passes to The Process, a weekend of Lindy Hop workshops and dances in Richmond, VA (July 17-19, 2015) focusing on the “process guiding Lindy Hoppers to rapid improvement,” featuring six sets of national and internationally known lindy hop instructors, and the Mint Julep Jazz Band is performing at the Friday night dance – thanks so much to the Jazz Dance Education Council for donating two passes!

– We are going to add a new reward this week, another lovely fascinator donated by ChatterBlossom – stay tuned!

Thanks to all of our backers thus far – we hope you’ll tell all your friends about pre-ordering our new album on Kickstarter!

kickstarter_logo_light_lrg

kickstarter

We have been working diligently to get everything in place to launch a Kickstarter for our second album on January 11, 2015 – we’ll be having our Kickstarter launch party at Common 414 in Raleigh, with the full 8 piece Mint Julep Jazz Band playing from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. Come join us to celebrate!

The title of the album, “Battle Axe,” is taken from a great Jimmie Lunceford tune in our book, and we anticipate that this will be a really fun album to put together, based on that title. Alexandrea Thomsen of Dtownperspective is putting together an awesome Kickstarter video for us and we have lots of new and interesting rewards in the works, as well as bringing back some old favorites (cupcakes, anyone?). Looking forward to January 11!

MJJB DOSN CD Cover

We are beyond excited about having our album, “Durham on Saturday Night,” ready for you to listen to and enjoy!

We hope that you will join us at G2B Gastro Pub on Wednesday, May 8, 2013 for our CD release party from 8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. – we’ll be playing a mix of tracks from the CD and classic swing music, and the band will take the stage at 9:30 p.m. for an hour-long set. If you’d like to eat dinner, they are recommending that you make a reservation; if you’d just like to snack, drink, or hang out, come as you are!

We’ll have plenty of CDs on hand for sale and we’ll also have our Kickstarter rewards available if you designated local pickup.

If you can’t make it to the CD release party, never fear! We should have the album available on iTunes and CD Baby for digital download by May 8 and will have distribution of physical copies of the CD through CD Baby sometime in the near future. You will also be able to pick up the CD at any of our upcoming shows.

For our Kickstarter supporters who are out of town and opted for mailing your rewards, we will begin shipping the CD as soon as we have it in hand, but it may take a few weeks to get all the rewards where they need to go.

Thanks again to all of our supporters, Kickstarter backers, Jamie Wolcott for her amazing cover art, Jason Richmond for both the recording and the mastering, and our maestro Lucian Cobb for the mix. We hope you love it!