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9/19/08: The movie is out, and we are now stars! "My Best Friend's Girl" opened today in theaters, with the Beantown Swing Orchestra gracing the big screen. We appear in several scenes playing different songs, including "Hava Nagila" during the hora scene and "Sing, Sing, Sing" during the scene leading up to the movie's climax. These two songs were actually recorded by us live at a real wedding reception, and Lionsgate used them in the movie as the overdub! In the end credits you can see these songs listed as "Performed by Beantown Swing Orchestra"! Also, you can hear me (Frank Hsieh) announcing the wedding couple's first dance, and I'm listed in the end credits as "Band Leader." Good times for the band! 8/22/08: We perform in front of our largest crowd yet. A gorgeous summer evening and an amazing crowd of 2000 people made for one of our best performances ever. Here's a video clip of our last song before the encore. 
6/2/08: We party it up at the 2008 Silver Plume Awards. Last night, we played before hundreds of concierges at the 2008 Silver Plume Awards at the Hotel Commonwealth, sponsored by Where Boston magazine. We made some great connections, including the head concierge at the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel, who is looking to book us for a monthly supper club at his hotel! 
4/18/08: We return to the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel. Pretty neat that the day we saw ourselves in the trailer for "My Best Friend's Girl," that same night we returned to the place where we filmed the movie to play the black tie "Consuls Ball" for the United Nations Association of Greater Boston. RD Sahl, anchorman for New England Cable News, was the emcee. 4/18/08: The trailer is out - and we're in it!!! 
Here's the climactical wedding scene with Jason Biggs, Dane Cook, and us - the Beantown Swing Orchestra, playing ourselves! We shot this scene about a half dozen times, and almost every time Jason Biggs knocked my stand over accidentally when the microphone cord snagged it. However, it looks like in this cut he knocked it over by tripping over it, which I don't remember at all! 12/17/07: Movie has a new title. 
"Bachelor No. 2" has been renamed "My Best Friend's Girl" and is scheduled to be released on September 19, 2008. Can't wait!9/11/07: It's a wrap!. Click here for the press release describing our participation in Bachelor No. 2. We will recreate some of our scenes at our next performance this Saturday in Watertown! 9/6/07: The final day of shooting. For the band's final day on the set, we shot the movie's climactical scene which involves Jason Biggs as well as Kate Hudson and Dane Cook. The band plays a rather important role in that scene and gets lots of screen time. Sorry, that's all I can tell you! 9/5/07: The second day of shooting. Today we shot another wedding reception scene which involved a hora. Kate Hudson was there for a few of the scenes, and looking good! The day was not as long and we sat around a lot in the holding area with the 350 extras. 9/4/07: The first day of shooting for the band. Today we shot two scenes of Bachelor No. 2 with the band and Dane Cook. They gave me (Frank) a speaking role in the movie! I introduce the newlywed couple's first dance. We worked 14 hours. 8/30/07: The band goes Hollywood! Today we just found out that the Beantown Swing Orchestra (i.e. a 10-piece version of it) has been selected to play a wedding band in the upcoming movie "Bachelor No. 2" with Kate Hudson, Dane Cook, and Jason Biggs! We go tomorrow to get fitted for our outfits and start filming on Tuesday at the Copley Fairmont Hotel! Not only that, but they want to use our band name in the movie! 8/25/07: Crane Estate concert - one for the ages (and all ages). 
Our performance last Thursday in front of 700 people at the Crane Estate in Ipswich will be one to remember.
The setting was amazing - on the patio of a huge mansion with a half-mile lawn that streches to the ocean.
The concertgoers and dancers were of all ages - including seniors, high-schoolers, pre-teens, toddlers, and parents with infants - and all came to party it up!
During the break and after the gig, the band was swarmed with kids wanting autographs!
This concert series has been going on for over half a century and has featured greats like Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald.
They must be doing something right! 
8/1/07: No news is good news. There has been so much good stuff going on for the band in the past few months, but no time to write about them! One of these days we'll get you all caught up! 7/5/07: Globe article about this Saturday's dance. Click here for an article in this week's Boston Globe about this Saturday's dance! If the link is obsolete, click here. For more details about the dance, click here. 4/29/07: First college dance a great success!  The Beantown Swing Orchestra's first ever college dance last Sunday was a total blast, thanks to student organizers Michael Cobb (Babson College) and Kevin Sihlanick (Olin College). The 50 or so energetic Babson, Olin, Wellesley, and MIT students who came to Knight Auditorium at Babson College danced the whole evening and looked great! We'll do our best to come back in the fall! 4/17/07: Band to play "hot" music at Babson College The band just booked a dance at Babson College for this Sunday night as a finale to the school's Spring Weekend lineup of dances, concerts, and other events. This one will feature mostly up-tempo "hot" music for the energetic college students. 4/8/07: Band featured jazz violin for the first time Last night at the Concord Scout House, Eden MacAdam-Somer dazzled the dancers with her virtuoso violin playing, as well as her singing. Eden is extremely well known for her contradance fiddling, which she performs often at the Scout House with guitarist Larry Unger. The fact that she jammed away in the swing genre shows her extreme versatility. Avi Fagan, another contradance musician, played the vibes with the band and also demonstrated his jazz improvisational prowess. Next month's Scout House dance will feature Eden as our special guest artist, along with Larry Unger on acoustic guitar. 4/2/07: Best performance ever Last Friday at Swing City (before a crowd of 278) was the band's best performance so far, exactly nine months since our debut performance (also at Swing City). We had an amazing lineup with dueling trombonists Scott Flynn and Nick Sweet, tenor giants Justin Keirans and Mike Wyatt, clarinet ace Mark Zaleski, and our smashing new drummer David Moore. We unveiled our theme song "Massachusetts," our new set opener "That Drummer's Band," and Harry James' "Ciribiribin" featuring our lead trumpeter John Replogle, with waltz and Baroque intro and all! The highlight of the night was an eight-minute spontaneous dance jam to "Jumpin' at the Woodside," after which the dancers crowded around the front of the stage to cheer on Scott Flynn and Nick Sweet as they dueled it out to the end on their trombones. Click here for the mp3. As one of our band members put it, "that was hot!" 3/8/07: Exciting happenings at the Concord Scout House Last Saturday, we had a great turnout at the Scout House of 150 dancers! One thing we did not expect was the huge amount of interest in the aerials workshop (32 participated, but only 4 had preregistered). We apologize for needing to shut off the break music so that the participants could hear the instruction. Next month, we'll hold the workshop across the street in the dance studio at 51 Walden. This space is limited, so please be sure to preregister to ensure your spot! One of the dancers in attendance was bassist Genevieve Rose. We had her come up and sit in on One O'Clock Jump - and she did a great bass solo! 2/10/07: Swing City a blast! Last night we had a large crowd of 260 at Swing City and we all had a great time. Thanks to all you Lindy Hoppers who came by and made things very exciting. Michael Richters and Rachelle Gaudet performed an amazingly acrobatic routine to Sing Sing Sing while the whole dance floor gathered around to watch and cheer. Also, we had a record number twelve participants in the "Big Apple contest" as the band played "Keep Punchin'." We sure wish we had gotten all of it on video! 2/4/07: Great 1st Saturday debut at Concord Scout House Thanks to all 120+ of you who came to the Scout House last night to dance to our music. Also, thanks for the two encores, and we would have played the second one if it wasn't for the Scout House's 11pm cutoff rule (due to the hall being in a residential neighborhood). It was a great night and the sponsoring organization has booked us for the next three months (Mar 3, April 7, May 5)! 2/3/07: Swing dance at the Concord Scout House tonight! Tonight, the band will be hosting a swing dance for all ages at this historic venue. The Scout House, located in beautiful historic downtown Concord Center, is an 18th century barn that was converted into a dance hall with a sprung floor in 1940 and has remained so ever since. The acoustics are so good that only the vocalists and upright bass are amplified, just like in the old days, since the hall was designed specifically for this type of band. Appropriately, the Beantown Swing Orchestra will be performing many of the same charts that the big bands of the Swing Era played when they came to town to perform here. Come dance, and it will be like stepping back in time! Please bring a change of shoes since it is wet outside. Parking is readily available on the street or in nearby public lots (but please do not park in the church lot just to the right). Hope to see you tonight! 2/1/07: We made the front page of the Concord paper! 
1/27/07: Teen Lindy Hop Extravaganza lots of fun! Last night was a lot of fun for a young crowd of teens and pre-teens and their parents, who got to see what Lindy Hop is all about. Lindy Hop champions Elizabeth Miller and Davis Thurber warmed the kids up with a one-hour lesson. Then, the Beantown Swing Orchestra "Hot Band" made its performance debut, and everyone had a great time dancing and watching some amazing performances by the Lindy Hop teams T Token Swing and sheBAM. One of the night's highlights was a spontaneous circle jam on the dance floor where several pairs of kids took turns going into the middle and showing off their newly-learned moves. That is what jazz and dancing is all about! In case you missed it, the event will be broadcast on Concord Community TV Channel 8 on February 2 at 8pm, February 3 and 10pm, and various other dates and times during the week (consult the CCTV listings for details). 12/16/06: Swing City was lots of fun again. David Thorne Scott of the vocal group Syncopation and his six-member Berklee Historical Vocal Jazz Ensemble joined our band for a few numbers again. In addition, they opened the first set with some Boswell Sisters harmonies with the rhythm section. A few times there were 27 performers on stage at once! We also got into the spirit of the season with some very danceable holiday tunes. Jen Hirsh did a great job subbing for Laura Brunner and brought down the house with her Here Comes Santa Claus Medley, right when Santa Claus appeared and started dancing. The band's performance of Basie's version of Winter Wonderland also came out great, especially considering no one in the band (including the director) had ever seen or heard the music to that chart before that moment. (Don't tell anyone we do these risky things!) It was also a great surprise to see several members of T Token Swing present, and they did a great job of performing the Big Apple while we unveiled our newly transcribed version of Keep Punchin'. 11/30/06: Lindy Hop program for teens set to kick off on January 26. Frank Hsieh (director of the band) and Lindy Hop specialist Elizabeth Miller) have teamed together to set up a Lindy Hop program for teens in Concord, Mass. There will be Lindy Hop classes as well as Lindy Hop dances with the Beantown Swing Orchestra. For more information, see the press release and also click on LINDY above. 10/28/06: Swing City a blast! Our performance at Swing City last night was extremely fun, and we had a good crowd of 256. David Thorne Scott of the vocal group Syncopation was our special guest as well as the 6-member Berklee Historical Vocal Jazz Ensemble under his direction. Also, Shawn Hershey, a swing dance instructor at It's All Swing came on stage and blew everyone away with his incredible trumpet playing on "King Porter Stomp" and "Jumpin' At The Woodside." Video clips from the show will be posted shortly. 10/17/06: Congratulations, T Token Swing! Congratulations to the Boston-based Lindy Hop dance team T Token Swing for finishing fourth last weekend in a very competitive Team competition at the American Lindy Hop Championships in Stamford, CT. Also, many of the members placed in the top three in several other competitions. A lot of the music that we play is exactly what they love to dance to. You may see them performing a few of their amazing routines at some of our upcoming shows... 9/29/06: Welcome new band members! Within the span of a few days, three top-notch musicians have joined the band. With Laura Brunner on vocals, Alec Spiegelman on lead alto sax and solo clarinet, and Björn Wennås on guitar, the band is sounding better than ever! 9/25/06: Leominster dance a success. Our performance at the Dance2Swing dance in Leominster last night was a success. It was also Dimitrios' last performance with our band. A dedicated and hard working guitar player, Dimitrios was the first member of the Beantown Swing Orchestra and was instrumental in helping to put the band together. He is returning to his native Greece and will be missed by all! 9/3/06: Video clips from Friday's Swing City performance are up! Please click on SHOWS above for some video highlights. 9/2/06: Another success at Swing City Our second performance at Swing City last night was another smashing success. Despite the long weekend and the Swing Out New Hampshire dance camp, which usually result in a lower attendance at Swing City, we drew a sizeable crowd of 240! One of the highlights of the night was John Replogle's screaming trumpet solo on For Dancers Only, which was a request from one of the swing dancers. Also, the band would like to thank bass trombonist Leslie Havens (who plays in the Artie Shaw Orchestra) and bassist Bridget Kearney for sitting in and providing some great support on the low end. Video clips from this performance will be posted shortly. 7/15/06: Video clips are up! For video clips from our first two performances, click on MEDIA above. 7/10/06: Peabody concert aired on live TV Our performance yesterday outdoors at the Leather City Common in Peabody was another success, and the mayor wants us back again next year! Again, the audience numbered in the hundreds, and the show was aired live on public access TV. 7/1/06: Debut performance a success! Our debut performance last night at Swing City, the Boston area's largest and most popular swing dance venue, was a huge success. Around 320 dancers attended and there was some real energy that night. We are now in their rotation and will be performing there every eight weeks! Thanks to Dan Mez for taking a chance on us. |