Tallahassee Swing Band celebrates 35th year with a dance party

The mirrored ball is softly spinning above the polished floor, and women are changing from flats into gold-lame’ heels. Other couples arrive in jeans and tennis shoes and stay that way, while two dance teachers warm-up by whizzing around the floor a-la Arthur Murray or Fred Astaire.

It’s another evening at American Legion Post 13 where one of the longest-lived bands in the area is gathering just a week before celebrating its 35th anniversary.

The Tallahassee Swing Band, whose “raison d’etre” is to “make people get up and dance” invites older dancers who remember hopping to Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, or Tommy Dorsey while in their teens as well as newcomers who might be in their teens now. On the dance floor age means nothing and the music melds partners with a spin and a half-step.

Four of the red-shirted Swing Band musicians take a few minutes to chat with the Tallahassee Democrat while Michael Webb teaches a free dance class before the music starts.

No rehearsals

Jody Coogle, a 74-year-old saxophonist is the ostensible leader of the group, though there is no conductor or rehearsal director. “Well, we don’t actually rehearse,” he laughs. “Everybody here is a good musician, and we can take the music home to practice if we’re doing a solo.”

Talking with the men, you get the impression you’re sitting with four buddies who know each other’s musical secrets. Coogle was a music major at FSU and earned a Master’s degree while there. Then he went into IT. Retired now, he is one of the originals with the Swing Band, having joined under the eye of its originator, Elliot Toole, who died five years ago.

Like Coogle, who began playing sax in the 4th grade, 69-year-old Carl Morse picked up his trombone in grade school. He played in a “big band” through high school, and proudly says, “we were the band who played for the senior proms.” Following a career as an electrical engineer with the Department of Transportation, Morse also joined Toole’s Swing Band in 1979 and never looked back.

Alan Nelson is a 69-year-old, originally from Kansas. He’s played trombone since fifth grade — on his way to earning a Physics degree and then shifting to what he’d always wanted to do, owning a music store and repairing instruments.

Like the other three, Nelson joined Toole’s Swing Band, a group that had emerged from earlier band entities: the Community Band that played in the 1920s, and later, its revival in the 1960s under Ginny Dinsmore’s guidance. Dinsmore continues her musical legacy with the Big Bend Orchestra as oboist extraordinaire.

Dancing lessons

The trio of “originals” glance around as the dance floor begins to fill up with women practicing in flowing skirts and men who feel comfortable dancing in tee-shirts, or collared shirts and suspenders. One man circles the floor alone, going over his pivots and turns, his smile suggesting he’s already imaging a partner in his arms.

The tables too begin to fill, here with chatting men and women from their 20s through 70s and a new crowd of home-schooled youths who arrive with their parents. The low metal buzz of horns lets us know musicians are stretching their lungs and lips as they get ready for the show.

“Hal Frienschner was great when we got going. He’d hunted up dozens of authentic arrangements, which is what we needed,” says Nelson. “But we’ve had some important folks playing with us along the way… Scotty Barnhart and Winston Scott among them. And we’ve played some cool places too,” Morse said.

“The Swing Band has played for every Tallahassee Honor Flight “welcome home” since its inception. Let’s see, where else… the Jazz and Blues Festival, for USA Dance at the Senior Center, at the Museum of Science and History…” And then the group bursts into laughter as someone recalls a gig to Orlando on a chartered bus that left them all “red-faced and wiped.” They didn’t explain exactly why. But it seemed like fun.

Beginners turned old hands

Michael Ewen, another sax player comes to sit down as the home schoolers take to the floor and carefully try to make their feet do what the dance teacher is demonstrating. Ewen, a retired photographer with the Tallahassee Democrat, did not learn the horn in 4th or 5th grade.

Rather, “at 40, after my love of basketball had pretty much destroyed my knees, I went to a pawn shop and bought a used saxophone. I was a total newbie, but the desire was there.”

Slowly, and with perseverance, Ewen began sitting in with the Community Band, joined a Jazz group at TCC, and started subbing with the Swing Band. Now, 25 years later, he is one of the five saxophone players, who with four trombones, four trumpets, a pianist, a bass player, a percussionist, and guitarist make up the tight 17-member group.

As Ewen heads toward the band stand, now illuminated in blue and purple lights, a petite woman with gray hair and tortoise-shell glasses sits down. She is Sharon Courey, who like Ewen, is someone who began as a total novice in her chosen art form, but now, 10 years later has become a confident ballroom expert. She is 82.

“I came here from Michigan and didn’t really know my way around a dance floor. But I took lessons here and at FSU, and now… well, I just love the Latin music the Swing Band plays,” Courey said.

Cha chas, rumbas, and tangos are among the dance rhythms the band will execute tonight. Waltzes, slow dances, get-down boogies, as well as up-tempo pieces by the likes of the Beach Boys are all part of some 900 pieces the Swing Band can perform. In three sets each Tuesday night, the dancers will jump and sway to almost 30 tunes, often sung by “sweet-throated” vocalist, Fred Lee.

By 8:30, there is a light glaze of perspiration on the brows of older, experienced dancers who circle the floor dozens of times with five or six different partners. It’s hard to see in the ‘nightclub lighting,” but they’re likely also rosy- cheeked from enjoyment.

Young people just learning or older folks who love the feel of moving to music that carries them both forward and back in time is what has always inspired the Tallahassee Swing Band. And judging by the looks on the faces of couples who sway together to a baritone’s croon of "Autumn Leaves," that inspiration is working both ways.

If you go

What: The Tallahassee Swing Band's 35th anniversary celebration

When: Tuesday nights; 6:30 to 7:30 Free Dance Lesson/ 7:30 Open Dance

Where: American Legion Post 13; 229 Lake Ella Dr.

Cost: $10 general admission; $7 students (free drink ticket with paid admission)

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Tallahassee Swing Band celebrates 35th with a dance party