Stirling Austin Swing Band and Soul Band, swing bands, swing band for corporate & private events

Andy Williams

Howard Andrew Williams (born December 3, 1927 in Wall Lake, Iowa), known as Andy Williams, is an American pop singer and crooner. Andy Williams has recorded 18 Gold and 3 Platinum certified albums. He has performed with Ray Charles, Elton John,...

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Auto DJ Disco Service

When you book our band, there's no need to go to the expense of hiring a DJ as well. We have a laptop computer (similar to many DJ's) with a "Virtual DJ" software program that plays (crossfades) songs seamlessly from one to the next...

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Ballroom Dancing

Ballroom dance refers to a set of partner dances, which are enjoyed both socially and competitively around the world. Its performance and entertainment aspects are also widely enjoyed on stage, in film, and on television. Ballroom dance may...

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Berry Gordy

Berry Gordy Berry Gordy, Jr. (born November 28, 1929) is an American record producer, and the founder of the Motown record label, as well as its many subsidiaries. Contents Early years Gordy, Jr. (born in Detroit, Michigan) was the seventh of...

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Big Band origins & history

A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with playing jazz music and which became popular during the Swing Era from the early 1930s until the late 1940s. A big band typically consists of approximately 12 to 25...

Bing Crosby

Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby (May 2, 1903 � October 14, 1977) was an American popular singer, crooner and Academy Award-winning actor whose career lasted from 1926 until his death in 1977. One of the first multimedia stars,...

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Bobby Darin

Bobby Darin (born Walden Robert "Bobby" Cassotto, May 14, 1936 � December 20, 1973) was one of the most popular American big band performers and rock and roll teen idols of the late 1950s. Darin is widely respected for being a...

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Booking Wedding Entertainment

Booking Wedding Entertainment If you are like most people, chances are you'll remember the wedding entertainment more than anything at a party. Wedding entertainment leaves the most indelible memory after any affair. So it only stands to reason...

Booking Wedding Entertainment

Choosing the ideal band for events and weddings

Choosing the right band for weddings, whether its a swing band or a general party band, can make all the difference in the tone and mood of your wedding entertainment. From soft ballads during the dinner service, to rockin' live music for the...

Corporate Dancing & Singing Event

What's included Lessons, a dance competition, a singing session and a party with a variety of music, either at your company premises or another suitable venue. You tell us what you'd like to achieve and we'll create a tailored solution to meet your...

Corporate Entertainment

Corporate communication, corporate culture, corporate event, corporate governance - the word 'corporate' is often used to refer to something 'relating to a corporation'; but it also has another, an older meaning - 'united or combined into one body'....

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Dance Styles

ARGENTINE TANGO The Tango originated in Buenos Aires during the late 19th Century and began as one of many different forms of tango dances. Modern Argentine Tango styles are danced both in open (Tango Nuevo) and closed embraces (traditional)...

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Dean Martin

Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti, June 7, 1917 � December 25, 1995) was an American singer, film actor, and comedian. He was one of the most famous music artists in the 1950s and 1960s. His hit singles included the songs "Memories Are...

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Engelbert Humperdinck

Engelbert Humperdinck (b. Arnold George Dorsey, May 2, 1936, Madras, India) is a well-known British-American Crooner & pop singer who rose to international fame during the 1960s, after adopting the name of the famous German opera composer as...

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Frank Sinatra

Francis Albert Sinatra (December 12, 1915 - May 14, 1998) was an American jazz-oriented popular singer and Academy Award-winning actor. Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became a solo artist...

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Function Band Glossary

Function Band Glossary Here are a list of useful terms for the Function Band market. A cappella: Any singing performed without instrumental backing. Access: The route by which Load In enters. Crew may be heard to say "what's Access...

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Harry Connick Jr.

Joseph Harry Fowler Connick, Jr. (born September 11, 1967), is an American singer, pianist, and actor. Connick�s music encompasses jazz, some of it very much in the style of the crooners of the 1940s and early 1950s, funk and blues. ...

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Hire the Perfect Swing Band for Weddings

The atmosphere of the dance hall, with its soft lighting, partner dancing, and enticing music, provided a wonderful and elegant backdrop for romance. The 20s, 30s and 40s, were undoubtedly the golden decades of music with so many melodies and...

History of Swing Music

HISTORY OF SWING MUSIC Swing Music, also known as swing jazz or simply swing, is a form of jazz music that developed in the early 1930s and had solidified as a distinctive style by 1935 in the United States. Swing uses a strong anchoring rhythm...

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James Brown

James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006), originally James Joseph Brown, Jr., also known as "The Godfather of Soul", was an American entertainer. He is recognized as one of...

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Jazz Music

Jazz is a music genre that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present,...

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Jewish Simcha Music options

Jewish Simcha music options We are now able to offer a complete package, from pre-party and dinner accompaniment with our Tavim Tovim Ensemble, to the full Stirling Austin Swing Band playing an extensive repertoire of Swing, Rat Pack, Soul &...

Lindy Hop history

Lindy Hop is a jazzy, duo dance that jives, jitters and jumps. Born in the jazz age, it was first given its name circa 1927. While newspapers worldwide were reporting Lindbergh's pioneering aeroplane flight across the Atlantic, at Harlem's...

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Matt Munro

Matt Monro (1 December 1930, Shoreditch, London � 7 February 1985, Ealing) was an English ballad singer of the 1960s and one of the international post-World War II entertainers. Throughout his 30-year career, he filled cabarets, nightclubs, music...

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Mel Torme

Melvin Howard Torme (September 13, 1925 � June 5, 1999), nicknamed The Velvet Fog, is best known as one of the great male jazz singers. He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a drummer, an actor in radio, film, and television, and the author...

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Michael Buble

Michael Steven Buble is a critically acclaimed Grammy-nominated, multiple Juno Award-winning Canadian crooner, big band singer and also actor. While achieving modest chart success in the United States, his 2003 self-titled album has reached the...

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Motown Bands and Motown Music

Motown Bands and Motown Records Motown Records was a record label originally based in Detroit, Michigan, USA. Founded by Berry Gordy, Jr. on January 12, 1959 as Tamla Records, the company was incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on...

Nat King Cole

Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 � February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, was a popular American jazz singer, songwriter, and pianist. He first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist, then switched his emphasis to...

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Rock 'n' Roll

Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll or rock 'n' roll) is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s primarily from a combination of the blues, country music and gospel...

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Sammy Davis Jr.

Samuel George Davis, Jr., better known as Sammy Davis, Jr. (December 8, 1925 -May 16, 1990) was an American entertainer. He was a dancer, singer, multi-instrumentalist (playing vibraphone, trumpet, and drums), impressionist, comedian, and actor....

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Soul Bands and Soul Music

Soul Bands and Soul Music Soul Music Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues.According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the...

Stax Soul Records

Stax Records is an American record label founded in 1957, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee. The label was a major factor in the creation of the Southern soul and Memphis soul music styles, also releasing gospel, funk, jazz, and blues...

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Strictly Come Dancing

Strictly Come Dancing is a British television show, featuring celebrities with professional dance partners competing in Ballroom and Latin dances. The title of the show suggests a continuation of the long-running series Come Dancing, with an...

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Swing Bands origins and history

Swing music, also known as swing jazz, is a form of jazz music that developed during the 1920s when people got together and had solidified as a distinctive style by 1935 in the United States. Swing is distinguished primarily by a strong rhythm...

Team Building

Team Building Team building refers to a wide range of activities, usually in a business context, for improving team performance. Team building is pursued via a variety of practices, and can range from simple bonding exercises to complex...

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The Modern Jazz Quartet

The Modern Jazz Quartet was established in 1952 by Milt Jackson (vibraphone), John Lewis (piano, musical director), Percy Heath (bass), and Kenny Clarke (drums). Connie Kay replaced Clarke in 1955. Through the years the quartet had performed in...

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The Rat Pack Band

The Rat Pack is the nickname given to a group of popular entertainers most active between the mid-1950s and mid-1960s. Its most famous line-up featured Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop, who appeared...

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Tony Bennett

Tony Bennett (born Anthony Dominick Benedetto on August 3, 1926) is an American singer of popular music, standards and jazz who is widely considered to be one of the best singers in any century. After having achieved artistic and...

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Wedding Music interesting information

Wedding music applies to vocal and/or instrumental music performed at wedding rehearsals, rehearsal dinners, wedding ceremonies, and receptions (post-wedding party). In cultures of the Western Hemisphere, it initially provides background ambience...