It’s Labor Day weekend and school starts for a lot of people next Tuesday (or relatively soon). So come on out, get ready for an exciting new season of dancing at Boston Swing Central.

Dirty Water Lindy & Blues Exchange is coming up, along with a Fall Schedule that is packed with stars, Gordon Webster, Baby Soda, Emily Asher’s Garden Party, Grand St. Stompers, Phil McGowan, White Heat Swing Orchestra, and Beantown Swing Orchestra. Our calendar is packed!

Tonight will be djed by RetroMike and Alex Abdoulaev

Lesson (included with admission): 8:00pm – 9:00pm
Dancing: 9:00pm – 12:00am
General Admission: $10
Students & Seniors: $8

The Crosby Whistle Stop
24 Roland Street
Charlestown, MA 02129

Bandleader, Craig Ball brings his White Heat Swing Sextet to the Crosby Whistle Stop.  This smaller combo is a subset of the White Heat Swing Orchestra which will feature a banjo player this time out and they’re guaranteed to get things cookin’!

Lesson (included with admission): 8:00pm – 9:00pm
Dancing: 9:00pm – 12:00am
General Admission: $15
Students & Seniors: $13

The Crosby Whistle Stop
24 Roland Street
Charlestown, MA 02129

Shawn Hershey is a well-known Lindy Hop teacher and bandleader in the Boston scene and tonight, he’d like to introduce everyone to Shawn Mohney Quartet. Shawn met Jeremy Mohney at Lindy on the Rocks, a workshop weekend in Colorado where he sat in for a set on trumpet. Our good fortune has Jeremy and his band touring out our way and reuniting with Shawn for evening of hot jazz.

Here’s an easy breezy Summer tune for you.

Lesson (included with admission): 8:00pm – 9:00pm
Dancing: 9:00pm – 12:00am
General Admission: $15
Students & Seniors: $13

The Crosby Whistle Stop
24 Roland Street
Charlestown, MA 02129

Jan Marie is a superlative dancer, and an amazing singer. She made her Boston Swing Central debut this past March and her band was outstanding. For years she has performed as a singer/sideman with Shawn Hershey and Josh Fialkoff, but now she’s got her own band, the Mean Reds to back her up. And as a bandleader, her choice of material is as good as her singing and dancing. She does it all…

And, as an experienced dancer, she knows what we want more than we know what we want! We’re very excited for her to play the Whistle Stop again!

Here she is rockin’ “Slap that Bass”…

Lesson (included with admission): 8:00pm – 9:00pm
Dancing: 9:00pm – 12:00am
General Admission: $15
Students & Seniors: $13

The Crosby Whistle Stop
24 Roland Street
Charlestown, MA 02129

Swingin’ on the Charles is back!

This is what Summer is all about! Dancing outside, at sunset, on the banks of the River Charles. We Love that Dirty Water! This is one of the year’s most magical nights of dance. It just doesn’t get any better than this. A summer classic and definitely a dance you’ll be thinking about next Winter when you’re driving down Storrow on a grey day.

Tickets will be available at Community Boating tonight!

See you soon! 7PM is the start time!

You don’t want to miss this dance (schedule your vacation for another weekend, we only do this once a year).

Lesson (included in the price of admission): 7:00pm – 8:00pm
Dancing: 8:00pm – 11:00pm
General Admission: $15 (check out our website for advance tickets)
Students and Seniors (with Valid ID): $13
(Rain date is Aug 17th)

Community Boating (on the banks of the River Charles near the Hatch Shell)
21 David Mugar Way (Charles MGH T-Stop)
Boston, MA 02114

Validated Parking at Mass Eye & Ear is $7, please bring ticket to desk at CBI for validation.

The Swing Legacy, a six piece little big band has been a fixture of the Boston swing scene since 1991 and BSC since the beginning, playing with style and informed of the great big bands from the swing era. Their repertoire concentrates on classic big band swing music including many Duke Ellington and Count Basie numbers ideal for Lindy Hop and swing dancing. Much of their great catalog of songs showcases their phenomenal singer, Debby Larkin. It promises to be a night full of killer-diller arrangements that will keep you dancing all night long!

Here they are playing “Roll ’em Pete” at the Whistle Stop…

Lesson (included w/ admission): 8:00pm – 9:00pm
Dancing: 9:00pm – 12:00am
General Admission: $15
Students and Seniors (with Valid ID): $13

The Crosby Whistle Stop
24 Roland Street
Charlestown, MA 02129

Tonight, we’re celebrating Summer. And because it’s a DJ night, we don’t have much to present here, but we did find this awesome old Mickey Mouse cartoon for you viewing pleasure…

Our DJs will look to Mickey’s Jazz Fool for some lighthearted inspiration and wherever else they decide to take us, it will surely be a swingin’ affair. Dj’s tonight will be Gina Helfrich and RetroMike

Lesson: 8pm to 9pm (included with admission)
Dancing: 9pm to 12 midnight
Admission: $10 (general), $8 (students and seniors with valid ID)

The Crosby Whistle Stop
24 Roland Street
Charlestown, MA 02129

Come join us for a Boston Swing Central Field Trip! We’re taking our dance up to Castle Hill on the Crane Estate for our first vintage swing festival. And this is going to be humdinger of a Sunday afternoon! So pack your picnic, put on those glad rags and get in that jalopy and head up to Ipswich for the Roaring Twenties Lawn Party featuring Baby Soda with Tamar Korn, vintage fair and vintage attire contest, Ipswich Ale, Mill River Winery, Ipswich Shellfish Fish Company, dance performances and lessons all on the spacious and beautiful grounds of the Crane Estate.

There will also be vintage cars, croquet and bocce ball.

We hope that you can attend, experience and bring your energy to this event. The Lawn Party is something super special that we’ve been planning and working on since last November. You really really don’t want to miss this! We are hoping that the Crane Estate will be happy with the event and they’ll let us make the Roaring Twenties Lawn Party and annual occurrence. Tickets available at the Crane Estate on the day of the event. Gate opens at 2:30pm at the Castle Hill.

Phil McGowan & the Easy Winners return to this Whistle Stop with their awesome hot jazz charts that are good for your soul! The Easy Winners always bring an exciting air to the Whistle Stop!  And this Friday will be no exception, digging deep into their catalog of hits from the past, they’ll light fire to tunes like the 1921 Eddie Cantor hit: “Margie” and Louis Armstrong’s “You Rascal You”.

Here are the Easy Winners back in March, lighting up our stage with their joyous & blissful version of “Everybody Loves My Baby”…

Lesson (included w/ admission): 8:00pm – 9:00pm
Dancing: 9:00pm – 12:00am
General Admission: $15
Students and Seniors (with Valid ID): $13

The Crosby Whistle Stop
24 Roland Street
Charlestown, MA 02129

No, the Lemonade Stand is not the name of Toni Lynn Washington’s backing band…even better!  It’s exactly what you think it is, a full-blown Lemonade Stand, with fresh-squeezed lemonade to parch our heatwave-strained brains. 

So c’mon out, enjoy the libations…we did this the last two years and the girls working at the Lemonade Stand squeezed over 80 lemons each night…they look to beat their record this year…

Toni Lynn Washington and her crack band will provide the soulful and deep swingin’ soundtrack to a perfect Summer’s evening of dancing…

Lesson (included in the price of admission): 8:00pm – 9:00pm
Dancing: 9:00pm – 12:00am
General Admission: $15
Students and Seniors (with Valid ID): $13

The Crosby Whistle Stop
24 Roland Street
Charlestown, MA 02129

Boston Swing Central is extending the 4th of July celebration this July 5th with our annual night of All-American Swing. 

That means that the Bjork,  Swedish and French songs DJ RetroMike occasionally plays will have to wait another day…for tonight we’re going to be true to the Red, White & Blue and only play American artists!  Americans like Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald and Sidney Bechet (who sounds French but is as American as apple pie).  So, come on out and celebrate all that is American with American music and an American dance: The Lindy Hop!

Wear red, white, blue or all three on any combination on this night!

Lesson: 8pm to 9pm (included w/ admission)
Dancing: 9pm to 12pm

Admission: $10 General Admission, $8 for Students and Seniors

The Crosby Whistle Stop
24 Roland Street
Charlestown, MA 02129

After too many years to count, Johnny Boyd from Indigo Swing makes his triumphant return to Boston. You should know that our staff at BSC goes to great lengths to secure you the best bands and talent orbiting our big blue marble and this is one of those special nights that you don’t want to miss!

Johnny Boyd and Indigo Swing were legendary back in the day. Indigo Swing was a very special band and left a legacy of great recorded music that is still played by many DJs at swing dances across the country. Johnny has assembled a new band that he swears “cuts glass”. Sharp as a diamond, and gleaming too…

Here they are rehearsing “Violent Love” in Johnny’s living room for the upcoming tour…always a staple of the Indigo Swing setlist.

…vibratin’, swingin’, like some sort of 241st chorus of Mexico City in the Nirvanas of your brain, he was tight.

Lesson (included w/ admission): 8:00pm – 9:00pm
Dancing: 9:00pm – 12:00am
General Admission: $17
Students and Seniors (with Valid ID): $15

The Crosby Whistle Stop
24 Roland Street
Charlestown, MA 02129

Emily Asher’s Garden Party returns to the Crosby Whistle Stop! Just another band out of Brooklyn that is red hot and trad! Just the way we like it. Uptempo and sassy…and fronted by Emily Asher who has played for us many times with Baby Soda and others. Emily also brings a band full of great musicians who have frequented our space on numerous occasions with other bands like the Gordon Webster Band. Get excited this lady knows how to swing and she will bring it!

Check out their version of Louis Armstong’s “Struttin’ with Some Barbeque” at the Whistle Stop from back in February.

Lesson (included in the price of admission): 8:00pm – 9:00pm
Dancing: 9:00pm – 12:00am
General Admission: $15
Students and Seniors (with Valid ID): $13

The Crosby Whistle Stop
24 Roland Street
Charlestown, MA 02129

We’re really excited to welcome back all 14 members of White Heat Swing Orchestra lead by Craig Ball on clarinet. This is one of the best big bands in the Boston area, and they’re exciting charts include the explosive hits of an era long gone. Check ’em out here, tearing it up with “Digi Digi Doo”…

We also recommend you check out their webpage here: here and listen to what we are sure will make you dance around the room in preparation for a fun night ahead!

Lesson (included in the price of admission): 8:00pm – 9:00pm
Dancing: 9pm-midnight
General Admission: $15
Students and Seniors (with Valid ID): $13

The Crosby Whistle Stop
24 Roland Street
Charlestown, MA 02129

This Memorial Day weekend marks what would have been the 99th Birthday of Frankie Manning. Frankie Manning was a founding father of the Lindy Hop and spent the last 20 years of his life inspiring and teaching the Lindy Hop to an entire new generation of swing dancers. This includes a great many dancers who are currently dancing. As we get farther and farther away from his life, it becomes all that more important that we keep his memory alive by spreading the joy of the dance.

Boston Swing Central has enlisted Tony & Aurelie Tye of Hop to the Beat and Beantown Dance Camp to teach us the Shim Sham.

The Shim Sham was Frankie’s favorite line dance to lead, it has become the defacto, “National Anthem” of Lindy Hoppers the world over. During his birthday celebrations in years past, there were many scenes which sent Frankie videos of themselves doing the Shim Sham in beautiful and iconic places all over the world, Frankie would also lead the dance when it was performed live during these celebrations. Anyhow, if you’ve seen it done at a local dance and wanted to learn how….now is your chance! Take the lesson and keep trying and you’ll eventually get it.

Later on in the evening, we’ll all perform it with Tony & Aurelie leading us with a “push and you push and you…” followed by a chorus of “crossover!”  Then special guest DJs Aurelie Tye will be spinning Frankie’s favorites followed by a superlative set from Tina Desorcy.

Frankie leads the Shim Sham:

Find out more about Frankie Manning.

Lesson (included with admission): 8:00pm – 9:00pm
Dancing: 9:00pm – 12:30am
General Admission: $10
Students and Seniors (with Valid ID): $8

The Crosby Whistle Stop
24 Roland Street
Charlestown, MA 02129

Boston Swing Central is excited to welcome back Glenn Crytzer and his Syncopators! Glenn is one of the top band leaders for swing in country and when he last played for us, it was quite amazing to experience. His expert eye and hard-nosed attention to details in keeping the music as authentic as possible. Here he is performing the Fats Waller classic, “Yacht Club Swing” on our stage last Fall…

Glenn Crytzer is a guitarist and band leader from Seattle who has been tearing it up at large National Lindy Hop events around the country. From Northwest Lindyfest to DCLX, Glenn Cryzter & His Syncopators have been featured at some very high profile events. You can learn more about them here: www.syncopators.net Glenn likes to keep things high energy and swingin’ hard and his band will feature his regular piano player Solomon Douglas, as well as some BSC regulars such as Gordon Au (who plays w/ the Grand St Stompers, Gordon Webster and many others) and Rich Levinson who played most recently at Dirty Water w/ Meschiya Lake & the Little Big Horns. This night will definitely be a highlight of our amazing Fall lineup and something you don’t want to miss!

Lesson (included in the price of admission): 8:00pm – 9:00pm
Dancing: 9:00pm – 12:00am
General Admission: $17
Students and Seniors (with Valid ID): $15

The Crosby Whistle Stop
24 Roland Street
Charlestown, MA 02129

Here they are performing Fats Waller’s “Let’s Pretend there’s a Moon” at the Whistle Stop earlier this year…

Tamar Korn and Gordon Au form the nucleus of this amazing Brooklyn outfit. We can’t say enough great things about how much we love listening to and dancing to this band! They are that good. Come out and experience their magic as they light up our room and get this joint jumpin’.

Lesson: 8pm to 9pm (included with admission)
Dancing: 9pm to 12 midnight
Admission: $15 (general), $13 (students and seniors with valid ID)

The Crosby Whistle Stop
24 Roland Street
Charlestown, MA 02129

Boston Swing Central is excited for the return of Jessy Carolina & the Hot Mess. Last time we had them scheduled, we got hit with a February Noreaster which was the first dance that we ever had to cancel. And so, we are so looking forward to them playing for us again this time!

Jessy Carolina is a very talented washboard player and singer. The Hot Mess accompanying her is straight-up awesome and someday we hope will become a favorite at Boston Swing Central. They blew us away when they were here last Summer and Fall and we couldn’t wait to have them back! Jessy Carolina & the Hot Mess is a great hot mess, check ’em out below swinging it at the Whistle Stop with My Blue Heaven…

Lesson (included in the price of admission): 8pm – 9pm
Dancing: 9pm – midnight
General Admission: $15
Students and Seniors (with Valid ID): $13

The Crosby Whistle Stop
24 Roland Street
Charlestown, MA 02129

Last Friday, our dance was delayed by the events in Watertown and the lockdown.  We were happy that we had the flexibility to open whenever and we were eventually able to open at 9:30pm.  It was great for us to see everyone at the dance, however, we did receive some sad news.

Sean Collier, the MIT police officer killed Thursday night, was a member of our dancing community.  He frequently stopped by the Wednesday dances at MIT and this month, he had started taking the beginning classes through New School Swing at our studio in Charlestown.
We shared this news at the dance on Friday, which we learned from Amanda Gruhl at NSS.  Around the room there were many gasps and teary eyes as the recognition hit that we lost one of our own.  While many of our community didn’t get the chance to know Sean, several in our community did.  We are heartbroken for his family, friends, and our community that we have lost such an outstanding individual.
Since there have been many silent observances for the victims this past week, we celebrated Sean’s life with a steal jam in his honor at the BSC.  We will do another fitting tribute to him again at this week’s dance, as some of you were not able to make it out last Friday and really wanted to participate in our planned fundraiser for OneFundBoston.org.

This week will have that proper fundraiser for OneFundBoston.org featuring the amazing Toni Lynn Washington.  We are donating all admissions from last Friday’s dance to the Jimmy Fund on behalf of Sean Collier, (as that is what his family has requested).

Please come out and join us as we raise money to support the victims of the Marathon Bombings.

Lesson (included in the price of admission): 8:00pm – 9:00pm Dancing: 9:00pm – 12:00am General Admission: suggested donation $15 Students and Seniors (with Valid ID): suggested donation $13

The Crosby Whistle Stop 24 Roland Street Charlestown, MA 02129

The Blue Vipers are back so get excited for some great Boho Street Jazz from Brooklyn!    Their unique brand of hot jazz which features some virtuosic washboard, pots and pans playing and their ready to tear it up this Friday night.  You might need to bring a towel and an extra shirt…because it’s going to be an evening on the up tempo side of things.  So for those of you who crave speed…this might be your night.  The rest of us will wait for their singer to croon a blue moon betwixt all the crazy jitterbuggin’ numbers…

The band often busks on the street in New York, and there are plenty of videos of them on YouTube swinging in Central Park, but here we find them at the Long Beach Public Library:

Lesson (included in the price of admission): 8:00pm – 9:00pm
Dancing: 9:00pm – 12:30am
General Admission: $17
Students and Seniors (with Valid ID): $15

The Crosby Whistle Stop!
24 Roland Street
Charlestown, MA 02129

Spring is in the air, baseball season is underway and we’re happy to welcome Shawn Hershey & the Fried Bananas back to the Whistle Stop stage.  Of course, Shawn is here nearly every week, teaching for New School Swing…but tonight, he gets to play his trumpet along with his cracker jack band.

Here’s Shawn recently with his Sextet fronted by Jan Marie on vocals doing “After You’ve Gone”…

Lesson (included in the price of admission): 8:00pm – 9:00pm
Dancing: 9:00pm – 12:00am
General Admission: $15
Students and Seniors (with Valid ID): $13

The Crosby Whistle Stop
24 Roland Street
Charlestown, MA 02129

Wow, it’s hard to believe that BSC is turning 5 already! It’s been a whirlwind, but it’s also been a great 5 years, we’ve really built something awesome and we’re glad you’ve been a part of it, whether yoiu’re really new or an “old timer” in our scene. BSC is such a great community of people! Looking ahead, we’re excited to see what the next 5 years have in store.

Five years ago, we launched this amazing journey at the YWCA in Central Square, Cambridge with the Beantown Swing Orchestra. And we’re hosting them again for a night of great music! They’ve got some special performances planned for us that we’re excited to hear.

We’re also making this a Vintage Dress Up night, so break out those awesome threads and let’s party like it’s 2008! Or more like 1939!

Here is a great highlight reel of Beantown Swing Orchestra over the last several years kicking off with our own Brian & Kellian’s first dance at their wedding!

Lesson (included in the price of admission): 8:00pm – 9:00pm
Dancing: 9:00pm – 12:00am
General Admission: $15
Students and Seniors (with Valid ID): $13

The Crosby Whistle Stop!
24 Roland Street
Charlestown, MA 02129

Tonight, DJs RetroMike and Abby Cohen will hop, hop, come and do the Kangaroo Hop, er the Lindy Hop with some of the best swing music that they can find…it’s Easter weekend (we should probably be doing the Bunny Hop, but the Kangaroo hop looks like so much fun), either way, Spring is in the air…we’ve got some great songs to play…and in the meantime you can watch this and this last paragraph will make more sense….

Lesson: 8pm to 9pm (included with admission)
Dancing: 9pm to 12 midnight
Admission: $10 (general), $8 (students and seniors with valid ID)

The Crosby Whistle Stop
24 Roland Street
Charlestown, MA 02129

Phil McGowan & the Easy Winners return to this Whistle Stop with their awesome hot jazz charts that are good for your soul! The Easy Winners always bring an exciting air to the Whistle Stop!  And this Friday will be no exception, digging deep into their catalog of hits from the past, they’ll light fire to tunes like the 1921 Eddie Cantor hit: “Margie” and Louis Armstrong’s “You Rascal You”.  In fact, this Louis Armstrong standard was featured in Max Fleischer’s Betty Boop back in 1932.  Watch it here:

Here they are back in March, lighting up our stage with their joyous & blissful version of “Everybody Loves My Baby”…

Lesson (included w/ admission): 8:00pm – 9:00pm
Dancing: 9:00pm – 12:00am
General Admission: $15
Students and Seniors (with Valid ID): $13

The Crosby Whistle Stop
24 Roland Street
Charlestown, MA 02129

Jan Marie has been a fixture on the Boston dance scene for quite some time, she’s a superlative dancer, but she’s also an amazing singer. She has performed with Shawn Hershey’s band on several occasions, but this time, she’s got her own band that she’s leading…the Mean Reds.

She’s planning on bringing some great swinging Gospel tunes, some of which you may have heard played at Boston Swing Central as well as some old standards and some new wildcard tunes. As an experienced dancer, I think she knows what we want more than we know what we want! We’re very excited for her new band’s debut at the Whistle Stop.

Here she kicks “St. James Infirmary” up a notch to a fever pitch…

Lesson (included with admission): 8:00pm – 9:00pm
Dancing: 9:00pm – 12:00am
General Admission: $15
Students & Seniors: $13

The Crosby Whistle Stop
24 Roland Street
Charlestown, MA 02129