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Reviews and News

The latest review of SWING is by Yahoo! Contributor Mary Beth Magee.

If you have Amazon Prime you can now 'borrow' the Kindle version of SWING for FREE!

Here's another book review, by Scott Eyman of the Palm Beach Post.  

The list of positive reviews for SWING continues:

I highly recommend this book. I usually listen to audio books, but this is one book in print that I couldn't put down. Don't even think about it. Just read it! This is a good one.  

"SWING" is a great read, and a more than impressive, heartfelt, first novel from this author. Bravo!  

A great read about perseverance and acceptance and a trip to the world of Swing.

Here is my recommendation...buy it for your IPad or eReader, download some Louis Prima songs, put your earphones in, turn up the volume and enjoy it.

Alan Gerstel's Blog
headshot of Alan Gerstel, author

         

Click here to buy the book on Amazon.

It is also available as an ebook.


 

Entries in Basin Street Blues (1)

Monday
Jun252012

The Dixie Cups

 

When I was in high school many eons ago, I had a passion for music.  I played piano, sax and clarinet and joined whatever school bands I could.  I was a member of the orchestra, the dance band and the marching band.

But I had the most fun as a member of the Dixieland band “The Dixie Cups.”

I played clarinet and we also had a trumpet player, a trombone player and a drummer (my best friend, Brian Bell.)  Our slogan was “Save your Dixie cups.  The South will rise again.”  (What did four boys from New Jersey know?)

We played “When the Saints Go Marchin In”… “Basin Street Blues”… and so many other songs connected with New Orleans.  And we had fun doing it!!!

I can recall how the audiences reacted to our music and how pumped up we got from the response.

It wasn’t until many years later, when I learned that Louis Prima was my birth father, that I understood why I was so stoked by the music.  I had been playing the same music that my birth father was raised on… and made a name for himself with… good old Dixieland.

What are the odds that an adopted teenager would be playing his birth father’s music without ever knowing it?  I’d say the odds were pretty long.