Wedding in St. Augustine
The Ted Knight Orchestra played for a big band wedding at the Casa Monica Hotel in St. Augustine, Florida.
The bride and groom work in the defense industry in Brevard County, south of St. Augustine. They found the historic hotel and city to be the perfect place for a most romantic wedding.
Carolyn
and Michael found Knight Music on the Internet while searching for a
band that could play standards and jazz instead of the usual wedding
fare. They picked a nice selection of songs from Ted's
song list. At first they
booked Ted's World's Smallest Big Band, but as the date grew closer they
upgraded to the orchestra. Click photos to enlarge.
Ellington's
It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing and Basie's
Sweet Georgia Brown featured jazz solos by the horns, and vocal
choruses by Evelyn Russell.
Evelyn was featured on Embraceable You, It Had to Be You, Route 66, and Billie Holiday's Blue Moon. Her version of The Look of Love was nothing less than thrilling. For variety, she did Just the Way You Are, Son of a Preacher Man from Dusty Springfield, and the Motown classic, My Guy.
Ted
sang The Way You Look Tonight and
Choo Choo Ch'Boogie.
His version of Zoot Suit Riot packed the dance floor.
The
band included stellar musicians. Saxophonist Simon Hutchings is a member
of the prestigious
Helios Saxophone Quartet as well as a fine jazz player. He lives in
Palm Coast, near Daytona Beach. Simon has traveled all over Florida to
play with Ted, but this time he got to play one closer to home.
Drummer/vocalist Kevin Campfield came up from
South Florida with Ted and Evelyn. His vocal numbers included Night Train and Sinatra's
Fly Me to the Moon.
Ted called on his old friend Bill Prince, a nationally known jazz artist and educator living in Jacksonville, to recommend local musicians.
Trombonist
Dave Steinmeyer headed the U.S. Air Force "Airmen of Note," a top
military service jazz band, in Washington, DC for many years. He was
featured on Night Train.
Willie
Hammett came from his home in South Georgia to play trumpet. A veteran
playing the resorts of St. Simon's Island and Jekyll Island, he sounded
especially sweet playing muted fills on ballads. Both Willie and Simon
also played for the jazz cocktail hour preceding the main reception.
Don
Zentz was a treat on alto and tenor sax. A well-known jazz artist,
like Bill Prince he's also a music educator. Don won awards for his work
with the jazz program at the University of North Florida, where Prince
also taught for many years. Now he heads the performing arts program at
the Bolles School in Jacksonville.
Bassist
Chelsea Chason is young, but plays like one of those cats who've been
around forever. She did a fine job at the cocktail hour on tunes like
Perdido and Benny Goodman's Seven Come Eleven, and her
playing with the full band was sensational. She's also in demand for
classical gigs, and in fact had just played for another wedding at the
Casa Monica the week before.
Rave review
The
bride and groom gave Ted's band a rave review.
"Fantastic performance...we highly recommend A Little Knight Music...big band and swing with all class...everyone loved A Little Knight Music from ages 4 to 84...we would ask them to play all over again."
Ted enjoyed seeing how much the wedding guests in their 20s and 30s enjoyed dancing to the ballads as well as the up-tempo swing numbers. He says it's wonderful to see how people respond to music played with real horns, and performed by fine singers like Evelyn and Kevin.
Photos courtesy of Vincent Pierce Photography.