On Sunday, August 11th, The Sound Dunes Swing Ensemble (SDSE) performed during a Summer Strawberry Swing Dance Social. The event was billed as “an old fashioned community summer social” and was hosted by The First Congregational Church of Harwich on the grounds of the church.

The weather cooperated magnificently and the crowd not only enjoyed a beautiful summer afternoon, but also some great music by the Sound Dunes with vocals by Linda DeLorey and Tom Jahnke.

Here are a few photos that were taken during the SDSE performance from the August 11th event….

On Saturday, August 10th, the Sound Dunes Swing Ensemble (SDSE) performed at the Cape Cod Ballroom Dancers’ sponsored “Pop-up, No Frills Dance” for Betsy’s Ballroom at the Yarmouth Senior Center.  The event was by all accords an outstanding success. The dancers thoroughly enjoyed the live Big Band music, the song selection, and the quality of the performance. Many of the dancers commented on the thrill of dancing to a live big band, since they normally dance to recorded music or small combos. The organizer of the event, Leora Amir, was very happy with the great turnout and enthusiasm of both the band and the dancers.

Although we did have a camera there to record video, unfortunately it was not positioned properly in order to capture any of the CCBD dancers.  But here is a snippet of one of the songs from the evening. “Cuban Pete” (1936).  It was originally performed by Louis Armstrong in 1937, then more popularly by Desi Arnaz (1946), and more recently by Jim Carey in the film “The Mask” (1994).

On Friday, May 17th, the Sound Dunes Swing Ensemble (SDSE) performed at the student Future Farmers of America (FFA) Fundraiser. The concert/dance was held at Cape Cod Regional Technical High School in Harwich.  Cape Cod Tech’s FFA award-winning Nursery Landscaping Team had previously competed with and bested all other schools in MA and is now sending that team on to compete in the upcoming 2019 National competition in Indianapolis.  Money raised through this event went toward helping to finance that effort.

Attendees were impressed by the students in attendance and praised them as being polite, helpful and dedicated to the education that were getting from their teachers and their school.  Others commented how much they enjoyed watching how much fun the teens were having trying to dance to the swing music that their parents (read “grandparents”) used to!  A number of the students even remarked how much they enjoyed listening to the earlier style music.

In deference to the average (younger) age of the audience, SDSE decided to perform “something new” in addition to their usual repertoire of music of the 30s, 40s, and 50s with some more recent pieces hat might be more recognizable to the crowd.  Among those newer pieces was Bohemian Rhapsody (originally performed by the rock group Queen), and the David Rose Instrumental “The Stripper” (1958) which can be heard in movies as recent as “Slap Shot” (1977) and “The Full Monty” (1997).   We have attached a video of the Sound Dunes version of the latter selection here for you to enjoy.

FFA students are continuing to try to raise money for their trip to the Indianapolis competition by doing yard cleanups, light landscaping, and other odd jobs.  If you would like to help them out and contribute to their well-earned effort, you might want to contact the school to find out their availability to do this type of work for you.

On Sunday, May 11th, The Sound Dunes Swing Ensemble (SDSE) performed during a fundraiser sponsored by The Alzheimer’s Family Support Center (AFSC) of Cape Cod. The band performed on the Harwich Bandstand in Brooks Park which served as the focal point for the event fundraiser and Walk.  The weather cooperated for the first time in years since this event has been held, but band members were still a bit chilly on the bandstand (check out the photos)!

The crowd for the fundraiser not only enjoyed great music by the Sound Dunes, but also a Salsa dance demonstration and instruction session and stimulating speeches by a number of guest speakers.  After the walk, the participants enjoyed an excellent free BBQ staffed by volunteer Ed McManus which included hot dog and hamburger refreshments.