Jazz, Blues, & Swing in the Pacific Northwest

With the nicer weather and the longer days, Holotradband will be shifting its Tuesday performance time from 7:00 to 7:30pm to help accommodate folks’ summer schedules. We will, of course, stick with the 3 hour format.

Tuesdays have become quite a draw for the swing dance crowd. The band and the dancers alike have a great time, and the restaurant is more than happy to accommodate so much enthusiasm and positive energy. It’s a great vibe.  The New Orleans Creole Restaurant has been Seattle’s primary life-support system for live traditional jazz, blues, and swing for the last 25 years. It’s nice to see something coming back to Gaye Anderson for her above and beyond, unwavering support of the jazz community for such a long time.

If you’ve always had a secret desire to learn to swing dance, there’s probably no better place to be on a Tuesday night. Great live jazz, really good dancers to watch and learn from, and there are always some great dance instructors simply out social dancing. It’s probably a very good place to ask “Do you teach?”

So, for the past few months, the band plays hard for three hours and the dancers are still good to go.  As one of them told me recently, “It would be nice to come down gradually rather than just have the music stop.” In an effort to accommodate that, we are going to try something new. Starting May 5th, Peter Loggins is going to DJ some great dance tunes during our intermissions, and again after the band has finished ’til perhaps midnight or so.

This is good, clean, and inexpensive fun. No other club in Seattle brings you so much hot jazz and swing. The New Orleans serves it up three evenings a week. The New Orleans has supported the jazz, blues, and swing communities for years. It’s the one place in town where the jazz has never stopped. At the New Orleans, you can get a little something to eat and drink, dance to live music for three hours, and spend little more than the cost of a movie ticket and concessions.

So, come on down, have a great time, and take advantage of the fact that the New Orleans is trying something new. You will continue to get same great live music the New Orleans is known for, but you’ll also get extended hours of great DJ’ed music. Of course, the standard weeknight cover charge will remain at what it has been for years … FREE! It’s a deal you can’t beat.

Filed under: swing dancers by daveholo | Social tagging: dancers > DJ > Peter Loggins
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This coming weekend Holotradband will be appearing at the 1st annual Highline Vintage Jazz Festival held at Highline Performing Arts Center in Burien, WA.

Lance Haslund, a fine musician who has been a member of the Burien Arts Organization for a number of years, is serving as the festival director.

In addition to some forty years as a professional musician, Lance has promoted dozens of concerts covering a broad range of musical styles including piano soloists, jazz bands, bluegrass and country bands, vocal groups, and even a solo ukulele virtuoso.

There is a total of 8 different acts spread out over two 3-hour sessions.  Half the groups will play the matinee session;  the other half will play the evening show. You’ll want to see both shows since they’ll be completely different from each other.  The music will run virtually non-stop for each show, as the highly mobile and very entertaining Canote Brothers will handle the out-front entertainment during the transitions between the other acts.

The two shows will be separated by a sufficiently long break to get dinner, relax, and get ready for another fine session of vintage jazz.

Performers will include The Bulldog Brass Band, an all-star group of young musicians from Garfield High School, Pearl Django, Holotradband, The Jangles, Hot Club Sandwich, Paul Asaro, Casey MacGill’s Blue Four Trio, and Dina Blade

Filed under: Puget Sound Traditional Jazz Society, balboa swing festival, guest musicians by daveholo | Social tagging: highline vintage jazz festival
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The engineer in me is always interested in playing with new software and electronic toys.  I’m also a web addict. While poking about, I was always running across articles on SEO and generating website traffic. I play in two bands and casually, perhaps even randomly, have maintained sites for both bands for a few years. Here’s one, here’s the other. The webhost I chose then offered an introductory package which included three registered domain names. So, being a sucker for a bargain, all of a sudden, I had three websites to design, code, and maintain. Hello ….

All my sites have been through numerous iterations, but I’ve always written every line of code by hand. It seemed the easiest way to keep it simple, compact, and functional on all browsers. Of course, you miss out on a lot of the really cool things websites can do and be.  Fortunately, that was several years ago. Anyone who’s ever worked in a tech-heavy industry will tell you, that eighteen months is a generation. The developmental cycle is probably even shorter today, and things have come a long way since then. Along the way, I’ve I learned a little HTML, XML, CSS, and developed a nodding acquaintance with ASP, CGI, and PHP. My inner engineer feels somewhat appeased, but the musician, bandleader, and booking agent in me is ready to take over this whole exercise achieve a higher purpose.

Several years ago, the front page of one of my band sites was sort of a “what’s happening” feature page, i.e., a blog with comments disabled. I hadn’t wanted to spend a bunch for blogging software. I anticipated the same types of issues I’d experienced with early HTML packages.  Well, once again progress has won out, and there are now very nifty blogging tools to fit any budget.

So, here I am.  Ideally, I’ll generate a little traffic, pick up a few subscribers, and perhaps gain a little exposure for my bands. Hopefully that leads to more gigs, increased CD sales, and finding a larger audience.  Whether or not that’s doable, I’ll find out down the line a little. Regardless, that’s the plan. My tech side will stay fascinated with development tools and techniques. As a musician and band leader, I’ll keep trying to reach larger audiences.  The writer in me - the guy who’s been participating in Usenet and WWW forums for more than 20 years - will finally have a home base.  I think it will be a lot of fun.

I’ll keep my focus fairly broad. In addition to articles about my own bands, gigs, and recordings, I hope to put up articles you’ll find useful and interesting.  I’ll write about other bands, venues, and recordings from my perspective as a gigging jazz musician.  I may provide an occasional CD review,  either contempory or re-issue.  If it’s a recording I like, I’ll tell you about it.  Of course, my perspective on music is that of someone steeped in traditional jazz. That somewhat loosely describes the musical phenomenon so much a part of American culture between about 1917 and sometime prior to 1940. I love that music. I listen to that music. I play that music. Most of my friends listen to it, play it, or dance to it.  I hope you’ll appreciate and enjoy that.  Right now I’m thinking there’ll be articles, sound samples, youtube links, and perhaps still photos of both contemporary jazz musicians and the old masters as well.

I hope you’ll find enough of interest to keep coming back.  I want you to come here, enjoy what you find, and at least check out my gig calendar. It would be great if you felt inspired enough to order a recording or two, and support some of the venues and events that provide me an opportunity to practice my art.

For now,  before I close out this first post, I’d like to turn you on to an amazing website called Red Hot Jazz.  This site is one of the most enjoyable sites I’ve found on the web.  You can listen to literally thousands of vintage jazz recordings, and there’s  hundreds of articles about the musicians, composers, bands, publishers, and recordings from the early decades of jazz. It’s a terrific resource and one everyone can enjoy.

Just for the sake of getting some articles up here, I’m going to go back and locate some of the articles I was putting on my Holotradband website a couple of years ago. Though dated, you’ll get an idea of what my bands are about.

If you read this whole introductory article, thank you.  I hope you enjoyed it and come back again. Come on out and here some live jazz. If you’ve never sat 10 feet in front of a seven piece jazz band with a three-horn front line, the experience may surprise you.

Come on out and give us a listen. Hope to see you soon.

Dave Holo

Filed under: dave holo by daveholo | Social tagging: Introduction > websites > why I blog
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It’s been way too long since I last wrote anything here.  For a long time, I tried to make frequent posts, but I have to admit, I’ve just been slacking lately.
Well, as usual, all of us really enjoyed Jazz in the Olympics. It was nice to catch up with musician friends from all over the country, and to get a chance to hear some really great music. For trad jazz lovers, festivals just don’t get any better than this one. Nice venues, well-organized, and simply one of the best lineups of trad jazz you’ll find anywhere.

I’m delighted to announce that we have been invited back for 2008. To quote one of the guys, “I look forward to that weekend all year.” So do I, guys, so do I.

It was also nice to see some of our dancer friends there, too. Brett & Lucy, nice to see you two there. Hope you had as much fun as we did.

Since I went so long between posts,  I’ve got a little catching up to do. Now that the good weather is here and folks are out looking for something to do, we’ve been having very nice crowds on Tuesdays at the New Orleans. The hallmark of a good band is one which always tries to put on the best possible performance. That said, the adrenalin factor from playing for an especially good audience usually brings out a little extra from the band, often creating something special. A packed house is terrific; an aisle full of dancers is frosting on the cake.

We love that the swing dancers have discovered us. You folks put such a nice energy into the room, which feeds the band, which then puts more energy into the room which feeds the crowd … Well, you get the picture. It’s a very symbiotic situation which sets up a very enjoyable evening for everyone in the room. If you’ve not yet been a part of this scene; come on down and check it out. Anyway, it’s nice to see some of you on a frequent basis. Thanks, Travis, Sarah, Freddie, Robin … and the others whom I recognize but haven’t yet had a chance to meet and chat with.

Last Tuesday (May 21st) was kind of a special night at the New Orleans. Like … Ladies Night or something. No, it had nothing to do with cover charges or anything like that. There’s never a cover charge on Tuesday. This was more about some really neat people … of the female persuasion … adding a special touch to the ambiance of the evening.

Christine,(our regular Tuesday bar tender) and her family are moving from Seattle. We were honored that she picked Tuesday night to have her going away party. With all her friends, family, and co-workers there, the evening had a nice feel from the very start. Thank you, Christine, not only for sharing your evening with us, but for being there on Tuesdays for so long. Good luck in your new life. We’ll miss you.

With Christine celebrating, the New Orleans work schedule got juggled a little and our friend Samantha Haggerty ended up working Tuesday. That was a good thing for us and for the audience because when Sam works on Tuesdays, we always get a few Billie Holiday-esque numbers from her. This gal can really sing, and audiences love her. It’s always a treat to have Sam do a few tunes with us. Thanks, Sam.

As the topper to our Ladies’ Night, we had a pleasant, totally unexpected surprise. As we launched into the old Louis Armstrong tune “I Wish That I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate”, Robin and a friend whom I haven’t yet met, started into a dance routine. I recognized that we were watching a spontaneous, mini-performance from part of the dance troupe Sister Kate, a group of six or eight young women who perform dance routines to vintage jazz. A special thank you to these two who certainly captured the attention of a surprised, but delighted, room full of people.

All told, it was a great evening at the New Orleans. It’s very rewarding to see folks coming out in such nice numbers. It’s good for us, it’s good for the New Orleans, and it seems to be good for you folks. Thank you. See ya next Tuesday, OK?

Filed under: festivals, guest musicians, holotradband, swing dancers by daveholo | Social tagging: Christine > Robin > samantha > Sister Kate > swing dancers
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Well, Jazz in the Olympics is only a few weeks off. This festival, held annually in Port Angeles, WA is really one of the nicest jazz festivals in the country. Of course, I’m stating my opinion, but it seems to be shared by a good many jazz fans, dancers, and musicians that I talk with regularly.

Filed under: festivals, holotradband by daveholo | Social tagging: david loomis > festivals > port angeles > the young daves
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If you weren’t there last Tuesday, I’m truly sorry. You missed a great evening! The place was packed, the band was absolutely on fire, and we saw lots of old friends who were back in Seattle for break. Nice seeing them again.

Something I truly enjoy about playing in Holotradband is that all of these guys “bring it” to provide you with some great music. That said, the additional energy this band absorbs from a full house of fun-loving people is simply beyond belief. Oh, a big thank you to our incredible piano-playing pal Peter Kok for filling in on piano. What a musician!

If you enjoy watching good dancers, you really should have been there. Among others, were our friends Brett and Lucy discovered the band about a year ago. They come in somewhat regularly, and are good, very entertaining dancers, as well as nice folks. Tuesday they brought in a cohort, Kevin, who is a teriffic lead and usually manages to get a number of the ladies in the audience onto the dance floor. All indications are that everyone has a good time when the dancers do. I know the band does.

George Goldsberry and son Gary were on hand also. George plays reeds in the New Orleans Quintet, the Monday night house band at the New Orleans, and son Gary was the producer/engineer of the Quintet’s last few recordings.

The place was filled with students on break, jazz society members, new friends who are starting to show up often, and even a few band members’ family. David Loomis’ mom celebrated her birthday with us and my sister and her family were here from Oregon. My fifth grade nephew, has been taking in jazz at the New Orleans for almost eight years. To my second-grade niece, no visit to Seattle would be complete without an evening at the New Orleans. I’m pretty sure she likes Uncle Dave’s band, but she’s also a big fan of “those really good little pancakes they have”.

Anyway, thank you, everyone. Spring break at the New Orleans was a heck of a lot of fun this year. Give yourselves a nice round of applause. Oh … and don’t forget we are starting to think about the Port Angeles jazz festival which happens at the end of April. If you’d like a little info on the festival, just go to our Special Events page and click on the link to Jazz in the Olympics. Maybe we’ll see you there.

Filed under: New Orleans Creole Restaurant, guest musicians, holotradband, swing dancers by daveholo | Social tagging: dancers > gary goldsberry > george goldsberry > spring break
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‘Twas a very good evening at the N’awlins tonight. Lot of folks, right up until we pulled the plug at 10:00.

Over the weekend Alex had a little tussle with a broken water glass and a kitchen sink … he’ll be fine, but he’s temporarily on injured reserve … so we had our pal Casey MacGill of the Blue Four Trio fill in on piano. Of course, Casey always brings his uke and usually sings a few … a fun guy to have around.

Fifty percent of the Holotradband alumni association was also on hand. Jazzman extraordinaire, Hans Teuber, dropped in with his wife and daughter to have a little something to eat and listen to some music. Hans played clarinet … yup, clarinet … with the band for about six months or so during our first year. I always appreciate that Hans comes down occasionally on his night off to see us. It’s nice to get a chance to say hello. Good seeing you again, Hans.

We had a couple of tables of young folks that came in tonight. Five young cousins came down with their Dads. Three lovely young ladies … I’m guessing 8 to 11 years old … paraded up to the stage, dropped a little something in the tip basket and said thanks. Thank you, girls, we appreciate your acknowledgment. A couple young lads - middle school, junior high - also came up and said hello. One was a trumpet player, the other played piano. We like to see young musicians come in.

As a working musician with a regular gig at the New Orleans, I feel blessed. It’s a pretty rewarding experience to play in an environment which offers young people access to live music. That our music utilizes the instruments they play in school bands also makes it something they don’t see everyday. The New Orleans is a special place. Miss Gaye is a terrific boss. She runs a place that is special not only for the musicians who work there, but for families with kids who are enthusiastically welcomed. Kids get a chance to hear live music, they can chat with working musicians if they like, and there’s no cover charge. For the cost of a plate of beans & rice and a soda your kids will enjoy a musical experience they’d be hard-pressed to find anywhere else in town … at any price.

Again, for the third consecutive Tuesday, we had a birthday in the house. Evelyn was celebrating her 86th. We had the whole place singing “Happy Birthday” while Evelyn took bows and saluted the audience with her Long Island Ice Tea. Evelyn, nice lady that she is, made certain to come up and thank the band for the birthday serenade and to tell us how much she was enjoying the music and her evening out at the New Orleans. We literally had people from 8 to 86 in the restaurant tonight, all of them apparently having a very nice time.

For me, the most fun part of the evening was when about a dozen of our young, local, very good swing dancers dropped in for a couple of sets. They’re always a lot of fun; tonight was certainly no exception. I usually get a chance to say “Hi” to a few of these folks who show up regularly, and there were a number of couples I recognized from the Balboa fest we played last month. Having these great dancers in the place, doing their thing, puts a really nice vibe in the room. Eight or ten folks dancing in the aisles … really bringin’ it … puts a lot of energy in the room, which means we all have a good time - dancers, listeners, and musicians.

Thanks for coming down, everyone. We’ll see you all again real soon, OK?

Filed under: Uncategorized by daveholo | Social tagging: Hans Teuber
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The last couple of Tuesdays have been especially enjoyable sessions at the New Orleans Creole Restaurant. A couple of pretty good audiences - a lot of nice folks having a nice time - and a couple of special events.

March 6th, of course, marked the return of Matt and Mike to the NOCR after more than a month’s absence. It was also birthday night at the New Orleans. David Loomis turned … well let’s just say he added another birthday party to his growing collection. David’s family was there; always nice to see them. Happy Birthday, David.

David wasn’t the only birthday boy in the house, though. A nice young man by the name of Ben was celebrating his 11th birthday with us. Miss Gaye said he’d asked his parents to bring him to the New Orleans for his birthday. He wanted to hear a live jazz band. On our intermission, we went down to Ben’s table and serenaded him with a few rousing choruses of Happy Birthday. As always, the audience at the New Orleans joined in. Ben, we hope you had a nice birthday, and thank you for spending it with us. One of the things I’ve always appreciated about the New Orleans, and just one of it’s unique attributes, is that it’s a place where kids can actually come in and experience live music.

Last night, March 13th, we also had a pretty good house. There were a couple of tables full of folks we see on a not-as-frequent-as-we’d-like basis … Thanks, Dave and your brothers - and yep, you can bring your kids next time. They’re always welcome.

We had a few young couples in attendance that periodically come down to dance. It’s a lot of fun for us when they do. The band likes playing for dancers, and the audiences really enjoy watching them strut their stuff. It makes for a festive atmosphere on a Tuesday evening. You folks are ALWAYS a treat for us.

Again last night, there was birthday in the house. Jessica & friends celebrated her 21st with us listening to hot jazz. Given the number of musical choices out there, it’s pretty rewarding that folks of all ages can come down and enjoy themselves at the New Orleans on a Tuesday evening.

And last, but not least, Ham Carson stopped by and sat in for our second set. Other than playing a couple of tunes with Ham at the Celebration of Life that the New Orleans held to honor Floyd Standifer, I hadn’t played with Ham in years. Ham, a very busy local swing clarinetist, leads the Thursday night house band at the New Orleans. We called this set mostly from the Chicago-type portion of our repetoire and played a pretty nice set with a “jam session” feel to it. The audience seemed to enjoy it. Thanks, Ham.

Sorry I’ve got no photos for this post. It’s hard to get the shots with a horn in my hands, so maybe some of you budding photographers out there will take a few snaps on your next visit and email them to me. With your kind permission, I’ll certainly try to incorporate them on the site.

So … that’s it for now … stay tuned … please ….

Filed under: Uncategorized by daveholo
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After more than a month away, starring as The Crickets in the Fifth Avenue’s stage production of The Buddy Holly Story, Matt Weiner and Mike Daugherty will make their triumphant return to the stage of the New Orleans Creole Restaurant, Tuesday, March 6th. It’ll be nice to see them back again. I attended the play last Thursday. I’ll admit that at least a part of my original interest in seeing the production was the “cool factor” of having friends in the cast. Despite the cultural short-comings of my somewhat shaky original motivation, I found the show fun, entertaining, and well staged. I had a good time. The music was marvelous. The sound and acoustics in the Fifth Ave are teriffic, and I had a really good seat. The production details were impressive. I’d had a couple of conversations with Matt and Mike which probably gave me a better basis from which to appreciate the level of preparation and organization that goes into a production like this. Frankly … it was damn impressive. Nice job, Matt and Mike. Someday I’ll be saying “I knew them when …” So, while Matt and Mike were absent, I got to work with a couple of musicians whom I’d like to thank. Jamel Nance, originally from Louisiana, lived in Seattle in the 80’s and early 90’s. He’s been away for some time but is now back in Seattle. When I spoke with him prior to the first time he played with us, he modestly said “I don’t get much chance to play this kind of music, but I listen to it some.” Well, folks, the man’s a really nice drummer, and way too modest! What a nice turn of events that he was able to help us out for a few weeks. Very nice, very hot, very tasteful drummer, and a very easy guy to work with. Fun! Lou Ledbetter played five consecutive Tuesdays with us on string bass. Lou, who’d previously worked with Alex, was a very nice find for Holotradband. It’s nice to have musicians who can just step in and do the job with such a high-level of musicianship and professionalism. A guy once told me “A band is only as good as the guys you can call to fill-in.” That, folks, is definitely a true story. Anyway … Thanks again, Jamel and Lou. You guys were both right on top of it, made the rhythm section work, and the whole thing was not only fun, but very, very musical. Kudos to you both. I certainly hope you’ll both take my calls in the future, because I’ll definitely be calling. That said, welcome back Matt and Mike!

Filed under: Uncategorized by daveholo | Social tagging: Buddy Holly > Jamel Nance > Louie Ledbetter > Matt Weiner > Mike Daugherty
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We also played a “social dance” set for the Balboa fest Saturday. Most of Saturday was pretty serious for dancers. There were classes, competitions, discussion groups, and all sorts of things that let you know these dancers mean business when they hit the floor. Their interest and dedication shows when you watch them strut their stuff.

The social dance was only a one hour set for us on Saturday night, but we truly enjoyed it. It would have been fun to play a little longer. The dancers and band alike were having a great time, but Gary’s got this thing organized, optimized, and running like fine watch.

So, as I mentioned, we’d have loved to have given them a few more tunes; we very much enjoyed playing for all those dancers, and we’d do it again in a heartbeat.

Hey, Gary, you know that we encourage dancing in the aisles down at the New Orleans on Tuesdays nights? You know that, right? C’mon down

Filed under: balboa swing festival, holotradband, swing dancers by daveholo | Social tagging: balboa swing festival > dancers > gary miller
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