The Numbers Racket Swing Band

Biography

The Numbers Racket Swing Band is a fantastic jive and swing band playing good-time music from the 40s onwards. They are great at getting a crowd up and dancing and singing along with classics such as Reet Petite, Minnie The Moocher, Flip Flop and Fly and other swinging classics.

The Numbers Racket Swing Band have been playing across the UK for over eight years and have a great deal of experience at entertaining audiences in a wide variety of situations and venues. They have played at the famous 100 Club in London, Cardiff Coal Exchange, Café Jazz Cardiff, and at Brecon Jazz Festival, Birmingham International Jazz Festival, Hep Cats Holiday 2010 and Pontypool Jazz Festival 2010 at which they were the headline act and festival closers. They have worked for the BBC, The London Swing Dance Society, Ministry of Burlesque, Jameson Entertainments, Boogaloo Productions Jive Weekends, and have played at many hotels, student balls, weddings and private and corporate parties.

The Numbers Racket Swing Band can vary the pace and energy of their show depending on what’s required. It’s really down to each occasion and the needs of the audience.

The Numbers Racket Swing Band wear zoot suits, vintage ties and dress shoes as standard, but can dress casually if needed. They use only high quality equipment, provide a 500 watt PA (loud enough for most private functions or medium sized public ones), and use vintage style microphones to complete the image. Their PA can be used for playing background music or can be turned up to provide a disco. They also have a small scale lighting set up.

The Numbers Racket horn section has toured Europe as The West Coast Horns, sharing stages with and supporting the following artists: Mick Taylor (ex Rolling Stones), BB King, Pink, Puddle of Mudd, Bo Diddley, The Blues Brothers Band (with Steve Cropper etc), Joe Cocker, Pee Wee Ellis (ex James Brown band), Ray Gelato, Taj Mahal, Leo Sayer, Snowy White and more.

The guitarist and sax player can deliver subtle incidental music for quieter sections of an event, with a huge repertoire of tunes from the great American song book – Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, Rogers and Hart, and much more.