The band recording an original tune for Sesame Street in 2012.
It’s been a little over a year since we released our first album, “Durham on Saturday Night,” and the response to our album is consistently “we want more music – when are you recording another album?” I’m excited to announce that we will launch a Kickstarter for our second album in the early part of 2015 – it takes a lot of work to plan an album and run a Kickstarter, but this should give us a reasonable timeline to complete our goals and record an album in the spring/summer of 2015.
We are featured in the August issue for our Music in the Library recordings!
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!
We are very excited to have some updated videos of the Mint Julep Jazz Band – thanks to Ashley Warren, our videographer, who got some great footage at our performance for the Triangle Swing Dance Society’s dance at the Murphey School in Durham on February 1! Six new videos posted below:
“Rockin’ in Rhythm” performed by the Mint Julep Jazz Band at the Triangle Swing Dance Society dance, February 1, 2014.
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“Betcha Nickel” performed by the Mint Julep Jazz Band at the Triangle Swing Dance Society dance, February 1, 2014.
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“Undecided” performed by the Mint Julep Jazz Band at the Triangle Swing Dance Society dance, February 1, 2014.
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“Sugarfoot Rag” performed by the Mint Julep Jazz Band at the Triangle Swing Dance Society dance, February 1, 2014.
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“Besame Mucho” performed by the Mint Julep Jazz Band at the Triangle Swing Dance Society dance, February 1, 2014.
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“Darktown Strutters Ball” (encore) performed by the Mint Julep Jazz Band at the Triangle Swing Dance Society dance, February 1, 2014.
If you missed the interview with Laura Windley and Lucian Cobb on WXDU from May 19, 2013, talking with Divaville Lounge host Sarah Ovenall about the band, the making of “Durham on Saturday Night,” and background on tracks from the album, you can listen to the hour-long broadcast (interview and tracks from the album) by clicking here. Enjoy!
Tune in to Sesame Street on April 18, 2013 to hear an original Mint Julep Jazz Band song in one of the non-muppet segments! We are excited to have an air date and to finally be able to make this announcement, which we’ve been keeping quiet about since September, when Lucian composed and we recorded the song.
How did this happen? It’s all about networking (or being in the right place at the right time?) – we performed at a local wedding in August and one of the guests thought we’d be perfect for a project he was doing for Sesame Street. After a few phone calls and emails we had about a week and a half to put everything together, from Lucian composing the tune, getting everyone in the same place to record it, culling enough equipment together to have a quality recording, to lots of little logistical hurdles that occur when you are contracting out your services. Needless to say, everyone in the band was really excited to be involved in something that was going to appear on Sesame Street, and, with that motivation, we pulled it off in a very short amount of time.
If you can’t tune in to the show, there may be a way to watch it online after the air date – stay tuned!
I’ve included a couple of photos from the recording session below.
The rhythm section (Aaron Tucker, Jason Foureman, Jared Wofford) with Lucian fiddling with the recording equipmentThe horn section – Keenan McKenzie, Aaron Hill, Jim Ketch, and Lucian Cobb
After spending the weekend in the studio recording our first album, we were sort of pinching ourselves and wondering how this was all possible – and then we remembered that this is all possible because of our amazing bunch of backers on Kickstarter! This is just a small token of our thanks, the list of all the people who crowd funded this endeavor:
Triangle Swing Dance Society
Denise Crampton
Christine Sirota
Diane Upshaw
Ryan Lemar
Andy Nishida
David Goodwin
Corey Manke
JP Benitez
Sharon Ferris
Chris Clement
Joanne Foil
Wilbur Seigler
Elizabeth Tietgen
Gary Chyi
Rob Moreland
Mike Guzzo
Tiffany Christensen
Amir Rosenblatt
Kirk & Tracy Eisenbeis
Sean Stevens
Laura Boyes
Etsuyo Choi
Jan Woraratanadharm
Dan Tullis
Paul Gilbert
Sebastien Lienard
Chris “32” Davis
Scott Reid
Hope Lambert
Erica Vess
David Bradford
Kate Hedin
Dani McQueen
Silvia Palazzolo
Binaebi Akah
Adrian Fahrer
Jennifer Barnett
Shana Worel
Amanda Fletcher
Christian Alva
Dawn Stockbridge
Valerie Salstrom
Jo Anna Capp
Lian Tarhay
James Benze
Cameron Panee
Laura Hill
Michael Quisao
Argsnargle Flartblart
Paul Oeser
Gena Bell Vargas
Greg
Megan Kilen
Robert Williams
Jed Wood
Beccy Aldrich
Joseph Bopp
Kristen Churchill
Carrie Newman
Sarah Ovenall
Joanna Fujii
Rachel Hundley
Bobby Cook
Beth Grover
Matthew McGuigan
Teresa Sparks
Ethan Uslan
Tiffany
Craig Parker
Andrea Gomez
Susanna Rosen
Debbie Blair
Alan Roberson
Shana Tucker
Eric Huang
Angela Hill
Maria Shevzov
James Green
Matthew Glassman
Clark Stern
Orla Swift
Christian Bossert
Keith Moore
Lewis Shiner
Wendy Craighill
Curtis Taylor
Stany
Michael Pelz-Sherman
Chris Evan
Ken Hanson
Eric Hirsh
Karine Irene
Glenn Crytzer
Brian Tietz
Shawn Carter
Misty Landrum
Eric Meyer
Sharon Nuanes
Kristin Buxton
Joanna Lucero
Krista Haskins
John Buhrmann
Adam Hill
Kim Alexander
Serena Calderisi
Neeshia Macanowicz
Georgia Brooks
Abigail Browning
Blaine Schultz
Kevin Slater
Holly Owens
Krista Jo Tortora
Sarah Henderson
Martha S.
Anastasia
David Rehm
Erin Hillis
Michael James
Chelsea Bromstad Lee
Karen Beckman
Shannon Sheldon
James Newman
Elizabeth Huang
Maya Bernstein
Amy Dalton
Carrie Finch
Erik Meyers
Chayant Tanti
AniKle
Rosa Matusik
Tony Morris
Bob Gould
Douglas Haas
Margo Scott
John Li
Tim McMackin
Derek
Amanda Croasdell
Bill Speidel
Ben Beccari
Laurie Desch
Lodge McCammon
Ulla Wingenfelder
Caroline
Patrick Draus
Mike Damron
Nikita Ferrell
Phillip Bailey
Emy Taylor
Breanna Perry
Laura Ansley
Amanda Stock
Mary
Dave Warner
Sairin854
Jack Mitchell
Anna Bryant
David Garner
John Rowe
Wes Price
Jamie Sturdevant
John Ennis
Chad Skeeters
Jesse Miner
Arieh Cime
Chad Adams
Jami Good
Alexander Azarov
Jennifer Wyatt
Molly McGowan
Megan Jungwiwattanaporn
Joel Watson
Schub
Daniel DeMaria
Richard Badu
verbistheword
Matt Lam
Mike Skalnik
David Ziff
Phillip Hartzog
Rebecca
Chris Shields
Keaton Ramm
Aidan Dunne
Michael Baswell
Peter Bonventre
Mimi Liu
A
Hilary Mercer
Keith Beckman
Alicia
Nirav Sanghani
Michael Schmidt
Claire Cobley
Yossef Mendelssohn
virtuald
Emily
liu264
Skjargh
Teresa Attwater
Brooke
Emily Friesen
Rich Werden
Alex Richard
Emma Durham
Gabrielle Kern
Michael Van Andel
Ferdinand Stout
Michael Glasgow
Stephen Coffman
Laura Pilcher
Jane Dawson
Tom Blair
Alexandra Boyer
Aleksandr
If we have somehow missed your name, please email us at mintjulepjazzband@gmail.com and we will make it right!
We look forward to delivering these recordings to you all sometime before this May – thank you again for making our first recording endeavor a reality! Crowd funding is truly amazing!
We’re ready to record! This Saturday we’ll begin recording our first CD at Sound Pure Studios, located near the old Durham Bulls ballpark in Durham, NC. The studio has recorded for the likes of Merge Records, Branford Marsalis, 9th Wonder, Clay Aiken, The Mountain Goats, Carolina Chocolate Drops, The Old Ceremony, and Nnenna Freelon, and we are happy to be in such capable hands.
Also, the studio looks amazing – from the website:
“All studio room acoustics carefully combine beautiful weathered and exposed masonry-brick from the building’s original early 1900’s shell with carefully placed rough-sawn lumber and a fabric faux ceiling. The recording rooms feature slat-wall absorption with diffusive properties, that redirect sound up to the elaborate ceiling bass trapping system creating an acoustically neutral, but very musically appealing sound. The recording facility includes a lounge and kitchen- most rooms are also wired with built-in microphone wall boxes. Even the all-masonry, untreated studio lobby featuring 750 square feet of an outrageously live “wet” sound, and the entryway with near 30ft ceilings, are both wired with microphone inputs.”
We are excited to announce that as of November 28, we have reached (and even surpassed) the $6,000 funding goal on our Kickstarter campaign to raise money to produce our first CD! We are overwhelmed and so grateful for the generosity of all of our backers, particularly, the Triangle Swing Dance Society, who was not only our largest monetary backer, but also pledged the amount that sent us over our $6,000 goal. Thanks to your help and the magic of crowd funding, the Mint Julep Jazz Band is going to record a CD in January!
The other brilliant part of this is that we reached our funding goal in 28 days, which is just under half the amount of time we allotted to meet our goal. This means that the Kickstarter does not officially end until December 30, so if you’d still like to pre-order a CD or support the Kickstarter for other rewards, you have until December 30 to do so. If you’d like to view our Kickstarter, visit http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/laurawindley/mint-julep-jazz-bands-first-cd-durham-on-saturday.
Thanks again! We really couldn’t have done it without you!
We have 41 days left to reach our funding goal of $6,000 and we already have pledges totaling around $4,000! We are over half-way with more than half of our time left to go! This has been a great start and we thank everyone who has backed our Kickstarter thus far!
Mint Julep Jazz Band 