Music
Sam Carroll is the musical director for the Little Big Weekend, and one of Australia's highest profile lindy hop DJs. Andrew Dickeson is the band leader for the weekend, and he's a musician who understands that jazz is about improvisation and innovation as well as preserving the past. They love jazz.
Sam and Andrew have been collaborating on music for dancers, and dances for musicians since JazzBANG in 2014. They're both big old jazz history nerds, but they're also big fans of music with good feels. They want aim for music that makes musicians happy, and dancers VERY happy.
This year Andrew and Sam take their game to a new level with three nights:
- Friday night Andrew Dickeson's Blue Rhythm Band warms us up with a night of solid swinging jazz, late Basie style.
- Saturday night we get fancy with Andrew's Jazz Family Band. Andrew puts together different bands for a solid night of music, inspired by Benny Goodman's small groups, Basie's swinging combos... all our balboa and lindy hop favourites.
- Sunday evening we wind down with the Blue Rhythm Band playing the right sort of music for drinking, dancing, and carousing.
Musicians have figured out how good this band is, and are driving and flying in from all over the country. Mark Elton will bring his bass up from Melbourne, Brad Child will take his sax and clarinet on the train from the mountains, Peter Locke will be chauffeured in to tackle our pianos, and other guests will be putting the northern NSW freeways to the test.
