St. Louis

We spent the weekend of the 4th in St. Louis at a dance event.  It's about a 4 hour drive and we carpooled with some friends to split gas.  We also crashed on air mattresses at one of their friend's house.  We had actually met her a couple weeks ago when she came out to Louisville for a few days.  It was a lot of dancing of dancing and a lot of fun.  Unfortunately, I didn't take many pictures because I kept forgetting my camera.

Thursday night kicked off with Sarah Jan and the Blue Notes at the Thaxton speakeasy.  The Thaxton was remodeled a few years back as an art deco event hall.  The artist who did much of the painting and plaster work lives on site and manages the door, so we got a chance to talk with him about the restoration.  You could tell he has a lot of himself invested in the building.  The dance was in the bar in the basement that you enter in the alley.  A pass phrase gets you in for a few bucks off the cover.  The floor was pretty small and the place was packed. 

Om Friday we wandered around doing a little shopping during the day.  That night the dance had a gypsy band called Whack-a-Doo.  They were good, but gypsy jazz only inspires me to dance for so long.  I was kind of surprised at how light the turnout was, especially considering how inexpensive the event was. 

Saturday afternoon there was a dance outside.  It was a little hot, so there wasn't that much dancing, but the band, Coco Rico, made up of several member of Whack-a-Doo, were just the right sound for a lazy afternoon.  Their name is the french version of cock-a-doodle-doo.  The Saturday night dance was at the Casa Loma ballroom with Miss Jubilee and the Humdingers.  She started out as a swing dancer and decided to start a band as there weren't any swing dance bands in St. Louis at the time.  Their first two sets were mostly jump blues and rock and roll, which wasn't ideal.  After the ballroom started clearing out leaving just the swing dancers they shifted over and the remainder of the night was fantastic.  We hit up the late night dance afterward for a little while as well, and got to know a few of the locals as well as a couple from about 90 miles north of us Bloomington, Indiana.

Sunday afternoon there was a final dance in the City Museum.  We had been told that this was a must see if one goes to St. Louis and it did not disappoint.  I finally remembered my camera and got some pictures.  The museum is a giant playground.  Picture the most extreme jungle gym you could imagine, mixed in with Tom Sawyers island.  On Friday and Saturday nights it goes 18+ for the most part, so the adults can have fun without trampling kids.

On the third floor there is a ballroom.  There is a stage and dance floor just to the left of the ballroom. 

Miss Jubilee played with some of her band and a couple of others.  In the pic below, Miss Jubilee is the on with the ukulele.  The girl playing sax is Chloe Feoranza.  I first heard her shortly after she graduated from high school when she was playing with a group at the Cancer Dance-a-thon in Orange County.  She is an outstanding clarinetist.  Fast forward a few years, and she's living in St. Louis playing with a couple of local bands.  She recently got together with Pokey Lafarge as he has been expanding his sound into Jazz, so she will be touring around the world with him this fall.  They're coming through Louisville in early August.

 It was a lot of fun getting to dance with good dancers to good music, as it has been a while.  We're hoping to cross pollinate a couple of local scenes by traveling to each others monthly dances.