February 2021
Greetings Friends!
Since this is our first newsletter of the year, I will take this opportunity to wish you a belated Happy New Year, and I hope that this message finds you and your family in good health and in good spirits so far in 2021.
We also wish you an early Happy Valentine’s Day! That said, I must admit this Sunday will be slightly bittersweet, because we would normally be playing for you--presenting our annual Love Songs program at Molloy College’s Madison Theatre (which was indeed scheduled for February 14!). We were extra excited to entertain a sold-out crowd once again, since this year’s show actually fell on Valentine’s Day, but, sadly, we are not yet back to normal in terms of public concerts and the Madison Theatre is not yet open, so I am very sorry that we’re not able to play for you now.
To help make up for that, and to show you our affection, we offer you this little Valentine from Swingtime—a gift of music! This was filmed at our annual Love Songs show at The Madison Theatre back in February 2015, and we are extremely proud of this performance of Artie Shaw’s version of George Gershwin’s ‘S Wonderful (arranged by the great Ray Conniff for a recording released in February 1945!). This video features our own Eric Kay on clarinet, expertly recreating Artie’s virtuosity, and we hope you enjoy it. [Click here.]
Keeping things in a ‘S Wonderful mood, we seem closer now to the light at the end of this long tunnel without live performances, and we are heartened by the Governor’s new ‘NY PopsUp’ Arts Initiative, which is a clear signal that concerts and larger gatherings will be allowed soon. We are cautiously optimistic that our summer 2021 concert season will be more similar to past years, so please stay tuned for more details and check our website regularly for updates.
In the meantime, I can assure you that our band will be ready to play for you as soon as we're able, but we need your help to be sure that this happens ASAP… Even with the availability of the vaccine and the statistics of the virus spread trending in the right direction, we are not yet out of the woods, so for everyone’s health and safety, we ask you to PLEASE maintain all the very simple and effective protocols: social distancing, regular hand washing/sanitizing, and wearing your masks in public.
