J. Walter Hawkes

Good morning. I hope you had a wonderful Halloween weekend, and that you enjoyed your extra hour of existence that the deities of daylight savings distributed to you.

I’ll be leading a band, playing the music of Bennie Green this Thursday, Nov 5 at Bar LunÀtico in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn.  It’s worth the trip. It is a pretty rare thing for me to put on a show like this, and I love Bennie’s music very dearly. While not a household name outside of trombonists and jazz enthusiasts, he was not an obscure figure by any means in the 1950s. The music is joyful, swinging, soulful and accessible. It’s good time music at its finest. I’ll dive more deeply into Bennie’s history at the show. The food and drink at Lunatico are off the hook. I have an amazing band lined up:

Stacy Dillard – Tenor
Sharp Radway – Piano
Melissa Slocum – Bass
Alvester Garnett – Drums
Renato Thoms – Percussion
JWH – Trombone

The following Thursday, Nov 12th, I’ll be wearing my music director, arranger, trombonist, ukulele player, and singer hats for Elizabeth Bougerol‘s record release party at Joe’s Pub. I would get your tickets ASAP as this will likely sell out. Elizabeth’s band is made up of none other than The Dulcetones (Matt Ray, Todd Londagin, and yours truly) as well as Jen Hodge on bass, David Berger on drums and special guest Paul Brandenburg on the trumpet. I am proud of our work on this recording. You can find it on all the streaming services or get an LP or CD today.

You can find all the pertinent details of these shows and others on the calendar page.