Greetings, classmates!

Emboldened by the success of our first CD, my septet The Swing Legacy has a new CD out, entitled "Even the Chickens Are Dancing".

Our web site describes the CD in detail and offers many 60sec sound clips for sampling the music. Should any of you wish to purchase one, the extraction can be performed painlessly via the web site.

Our essential identity is that of a little big band playing with both polish and exuberance in a historically authentic swing style. This is definitely hot jazz, not cool.

A theme I have been harping on for years is that although jazz is and always has been evolving, its evolution has produced various mature styles (swing being one), each of which is worthy of preservation and exploration. I hope our CDs demonstrate that musical creativity and artistic viability can be achieved today in a noncontemporary jazz idiom. Analogously, musicians continue to perform Beethoven, and the public pays to hear them do so.

Peace -

Henry Francis