1. What does the name "Eight to the Bar" mean?
2. Who's the original member/s?
3. Do you perform at weddings?
4. Do you play material other than swing at weddings?
5. What is swing?
6. What is "West Coast" swing?
7. Do you travel and if so how far?
The term "Eight to the Bar", contrary to popular belief, has nothing to do
with 8 people
or a bar where you drink. Instead, it's a musical term which refers to a
style of boogie
woogie piano popular in the forties where the piano player would play 8
beats per musical
bar in his or her left hand. There was a hit song during that time (covered
by the Andrews
Sisters, among others) about such a piano player and it was called "Beat Me
Daddy, Eight
to the Bar." It's from this song that we got our name.
Cynthia Lyon started the band in 1975. The original lineup has long since
grown up and
moved on, but Cynthia, by her own admission, is a "lifer".
Yes, we do lots of weddings. If you look at our calendar, you'll notice the
word "private"
at least once a week. Most of the time when it says "private", it's a wedding.
Yes, at weddings we play a mix of Motown, classic r&b, standards, and some funk (unless the client prefers that we play exclusively swing material). We also have a full ballroom repertoire if requested. We have a wedding demo package that includes a demo CD and list of our repertoire for weddings as well as our performance schedule and pricing.
In layman's terms, swing is a style of music characterized by a specific
rhythm pattern. It's
not a tempo- a song can be slow or fast and still be swing, but it must
have a certain
rhythm pattern. The easiest way to describe this pattern is to say that the
bass player
typically plays quarter notes that are not syncopated and the drummer must
be able to play
a "ding ding a ding" pattern on the cymbals.
Actually, "West Coast Swing" is not swing at all since swing is a rhythm pattern and West Coast Swing is a dance style for music that falls into the tempo range of 90-125 beats per minute. This means that instead of being defined by its rhythm pattern (like cha cha, for example), West Coast swing is defined by its tempo.
A wide range of musical styles that fall into this tempo range are: classic Motown (think Mustang Sally, Chain of Fools), and blues (think Pride & Joy), among others.
Yes, we love to travel. We've performed in England, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, Austria, Switzerland, the Carribean, and coast to coast in the US.