We're very excited to announce that Kim Massie will be singing with the Solomon Douglas Swingtet at this year's Emerald City Blues Festival performing the music of artists like Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin.  To make the performance even more special, they will be recording a live CD at this year's ECBF!   It's going to be an electric atmosphere that you don't want to miss!

Kim Massie

“When Kim Massie sings her brand of Jazz and Blues, her voice gently grabs your soul and leads it someplace where inhibitions melt and smiles are currency. She hits notes tenaciously enough to karate chop through oak and emits chords tender enough to lull a newborn baby”  D. Bass, STL Post Dispatch

Kim Massie, a St. Louis musical icon serves up a platter of Blues, Jazz, R&B, Gospel and Funk with sweet, sassy and soulful sounds. She is proud to have shared the stage with blues greats Oliver Sain and Bennie Smith, Piano Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Johnny Johnson and rocked the STL riverfront with Cyndi Lauper.  A gifted vocalist, musical actress and corporate commercial artist, she has received numerous awards and acclaim including “Ain’t Nothing But the Blues” and “Damn Yankees”-(STL Black Rep).

The “ Best of Kim Massie” CD Live, Limited Edition compilation has just been released. Her other albums include 2 live performances at STL Jazz @ The Bistro-”Attitude” and STL Finale-”Kim Massie Sings Aretha” and an “07 release of Blues and Gospel-”Lady By Choice”  Kim performs nationally and in Europe to her many great fans in the corporate, public and private arenas. She is a true storyteller in song and stage personna. She makes her audiences laugh and cry while she hugs the rythym of their hearts.

The Solomon Douglas Swingtet

Solomon Douglas is a jazz pianist and bandleader, whose various bands have played at more than fifty exchanges, camps, workshops, and other dance events in North America, Asia, and Australia in the past eight years. His experience as a swing dancer and dance instructor gives him an understanding unique among musicians of the music that swing dancers and blues dancers like to dance to! The Solomon Douglas Swingtet is a ten-piece dance band whose repertoire is rooted in that of the Basie band and that of the Ellington band, with other big-band standards and classic jazz tunes thrown in as well. Although they often cater to a crowd that prefers up-tempo classic swing, their repertoire also includes a delicious mix of blues music, ranging from the early slow-drags of Duke Ellington ("The Mooche"), through the swing-era big band blues music of Erskine Hawkins ("After Hours"), to the modern big band blues of the 1950s (Basie's "I Needs To Be Bee'd With", Ellington's "Jeep's Blues"), up through the more progressive music of Oliver Nelson ("Stolen Moments") and Quincy Jones ("Funk Junction").

In addition to countless Lindy Hop events, past Blues dance events that featured the Solomon Douglas Swingtet playing a full night's worth of big-band blues music include the Emerald City Blues Festival (Seattle, Oct. 2005 and Nov. 2008); the Blues 'n' Soul Experience (Orlando, June 2008), and the Big Apple Blues, Balboa, and Lindy Exchange (New York, April, 2009).

We're proud to annouce our DJ lineup for this year's ECBF!

"Downtown" Julie Brown

Julie got her start DJing in Pittsburgh in 2006, and has DJed around the country at East Meets West, Emerald City Blues Festival, Down Home Blues, Mile High Blues, and Show Me Blues. She also DJs regularly in Boston, where she lives, dances, works, and occasionally sleeps. Check out her two favorite Boston-area venues: Blues Cafe and Blues Union. Julie's musical tastes span from the soulful to the sultry, the dirty to the demure, but always with a healthy dose of attitude. What she loves most is to see you out there dancing!

Tina "Sweet T" Davis

Tina has been a featured DJ at workshops, exchanges and dance events all across the nation (and Canada!) since staring this “DJ thang” in Florida in 2003.

No matter if it’s Blues, Soul, Lindy or whatever, Tina likes to spins a mix of styles for her sets but it's all gotta have a little "ass" to it to make the cut. She’s most definitely in her happy place when folks are dancin’ and laughin’, movin’ and groovin’ to her sets.

Tina’s home base is currently Dallas, Texas where you can occasionally find her spinning at Dallas’ weekly blues dance, called Blues’n the Night, hosted by Jerry and Kathy Warwick.  She’s also been known on occasion to teach Blues and Lindy Hop with some weird guy named Don West and reportedly has a sick devotion to the University of Florida Gators.

Mike Marcotte

Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Mike Marcotte discovered dancing in 1999 near the height of the swing craze. He first took lessons from the same person he teaches with today, Donna Barker. Together they helped cultivate a thriving blues dancing scene in Washington with the hard work of Capital Blues members, notably Rachel Stirling and Corey Wright. In addition to the two national events bamBLOOZled and Red Hot Blues 'n BBQ, Capital Blues hosts a weekly dance every Thursday at Glen Echo's Back Room.

Mike's father instilled an appreciation for jazz at an early age. A student of classical cello and jazz piano in high school, it was only natural that he got more involved with the music as a DJ after starting as a dancer. He learned the most under the wing of Rayned Wiles at K2, and before long was working events across the country including Lindy Focus, Philly Lindy Love, St. Louis Blues Lindy Exchange, Frankie 95, every DCLX, a host of others, and head DJ for ILHC.

Whether it's Blues or Swing, Mike likes a dance floor that's having fun, feeling challenged yet inspired. He tends to draw from a variety of genres as he puts together a set. While creating a groove is important, mixing it up -- something learned well from Rayned — always keeps things interesting. This is a DJ who loves to dance, so don't hesitate to ask him in the middle of a set!

Jonathan Pechon

Born in New Orleans, living in Texas, and spending a whole lot of time listening to the sounds of Chicago, Memphis, and anywhere else that plays the blues, Jonathan brings music from all over to his sets.  You'll catch everything from big band to bare guitar or piano, the sounds of Hopkins right there with Hodges, even Muddy and Sidney side by side.  As well as spinning at events such as BluesSHOUT 2010 and Red Hot Blues 'n Barbecue this year, Jonathan is a host of Confessing the Blues, a podcast for blues dancers about blues music.  Come listen and enjoy, and be prepared to dance.

Steven "Dr Feelgood" Watkins

Steven, a.k.a. Dr. Feelgood, lives in San Francisco/Oakland, though he originally hails from New York City. He began DJing Blues for dancers in 2004 and is constantly striving to spread his love for the BLUES. The Good Doctor tries to bring some smooth, sultry, gritty, "Hot Skirt Music" to the dance floor in order to transform venues into JOINTS.