Get ready to to sing, stomp, and improvise while learning about jazz music and its roots in freedom, feeling, and New Orleans! Join Swing Makes You Sing in jazz performances and workshops that use music-making to inspire joy and conversation.
Hailed “Energetic” (Wall Street Journal), “Elated” (Pop Matters) “NYC darlings” (TimeOut), chart-topping award-winning New York Collective is a group of determined jazz talents on a mission to uplift, energize… and spread the joy of what WPIX/11 News called “exuberant foot–stomping music that combines swing with pop singer/songwriter sensibilities.”. The band has released a chart topping Night at the Movies (debuted #1 on the US Billboard Traditional Jazz Charts / #2 on Jazz Album Charts) in 2019, has headlined sold out shows in many national and international venues and festivals (Blue Note, Blues Alley, Joe’s Pub, Tel Aviv Blues Festival, India Total Environment Foundation, Italy’s Villas and Jazz Festival, and many more) and was featured in many national and international media outlets (Wall Street Journal, Voice of America and many more). They are the recipient of Jazz Road touring grant (South Arts with support of Doris Duke Charitable Trust and Andrew Melon Foundation), Digital Residency Grant (Chamber Music America with support of Andrew Melon Foundation), and the Emerging Artist Fellowship from Culture Lab, LIC. A performance by Svetlana and the New York Swing Collective is a colorful carnival of sound, seamlessly moving from sophisticated retrospection to a joyfully rowdy party!
Swing Makes You Sing! by the New York Collective is an interactive program for young audiences to learn about the fundamentals of jazz – the blues, swing, improvisation, the rhythm section, and more – featuring musical concepts – as well as life stories, and songs from the repertoire of such great musicians as Sarah Vaughnan, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Dizzie Gillespie, and Bessie Smith! The program also features lindy hop and tap dancing as a way to experience jazz music through movement! The students will sing, dance, and snap along with the interactive presentation – make art, create songs, learn dance moves – while also learning about important ingredients of what makes jazz a unique and important American music genre! Students will also hear about how jazz speaks to everyday social skills such as listening, taking turns, leadership – as well as broader societal constructs such as democracy, culture, and community!