Swingtime Jazz Band Asks ‘Number Please?’
By Space Coast Daily // October 18, 2012
Free Public Concerts
BREVARD COUNTY • MELBOURNE, FLORIDA – Those who attend the Swingtime Jazz Band’s concert tonight will be treated to a program of special “numbers,” that is, the selections all will have numbers in their titles.
The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Melbourne Auditorium at 625 E. Hibiscus Avenue in Melbourne.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and there is no charge and tickets are not required.
Well-known favorites such as Pennsylvania 6-5000, 12th Street Rag, Route 66, 920 Special and Cocktails for Two, will be among the musical selections.
Vocalists Sally Hart, who performed with Lawrence Welk, and Len Fallen, also a favorite on the Space Coast, will be featured.
The Swingtime band is under the direction of Art Martin, tenor and baritone saxophonist, who has performed with Warren Covington, the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, Clark Terry, Dizzy Gillespie and The Platters, to name a few.
Swingtime, part of the Melbourne Municipal Band, is considered one of the finest jazz and big band groups in the Southeast, playing music from the 1920s to the 1970s. The 20-piece, for-hire band features saxophones, trombones, trumpets, a piano, guitar, bass and trap set, along with two vocalists and a conductor/announcer.
The Melbourne Municipal Band was established in 1965 and plays free concerts for the citizens of Brevard County nearly every month and also contributes to the community through parades, patriotic concerts and ceremonial performances.
Some 30 percent of the band’s 80-plus members are professional musicians. In a typical year, the band serves 69,000 concert attendees and its members give 27,000 hours of community service in the form of rehearsals and performance time.
Call 321-724-0555 or visit www.melbournemunicipalband.org for more information.
