Well, Day 9 was a fantastic way to finish our Swingtrip. No surprises for the ffirst thing of the morning- Breakfast! Breakfast! Breakfast!

Chance and Cat … lindyhoppers. We were so glad to have met these guys!

We decided to take a stroll into the French Quarter…. as we were walking we heard a band playing on Royal… these were the Smoking Time Jazz Club. Two Lindyhoppers were dancing. We passed by, stopped, turned around, put our bags on the ground and started dancing. Best thing ever! The guys in the band were super cool. We met Jimbino Vegan, Johnny Joyce and the dancer and singer Chance Bushman. What a discovery. I asked if I could sing Some Of These Days and the guys were totally up for it…

The Smoking Time Jazz Band with Chance Bushman singing and Johnny Joyce on Double Bass… at the Monteleone on Royal.

Here’s the video, Chance is dancing with Alice and then between singing choruses Chance passes Alice to me….



We chatted with Chance and Johnny , only to find out that Chance danced Lindy Hop in Rome in the early 2000s when maestro Eddy Ceccarelli was beginning. The two guys knew each other well. Chance spent six months in Rome . Having traveled abroad a lot Johnny Joyce and Jimbino Vegan know plenty of Italy swing musicians… including Alessandro Centolanza…. so it was great to find points of contact and to realize once again that we are all just part of one super big family in the Swing Jazz world.

Alice in front of Trashy Diva, sporting her new shoes…

We had so much fun on Royal and the guys were great. They invited us to the Hotel Monteleone (also on Royal) that night where they’ve got a regular Thursday night gig.

So we saluted them and continued our final day of sightseeing. Of course shopping was on the cards again. We went to Trashy Diva’s second store  http://www.trashydiva.com/   and met Mia Goldsmith, the international Lindy Hop teacher, who was so welcoming and friendly. A pair of shoes and a hat later (for Alice of course) and we moved on to have lunch at Deanie’s seafood restaurant.  Deanie’s is famous in New Orleans but I suspected yet again that you need to know the locals to get the best eating spots.

We went for a walk afterwards to Marigny, a neighborhood just east of the French Quarter to have a look. This is where The Spotted Cat and other local haunts (including Mimi’s where we had been the previous night) are currently enjoying fame after the demise musically and otherwise of Bourbon Street over the years.  Frenchman Street seems full of these newer venues. Unfortunately, we would have needed minimum another night in New Orleans to have “tasted” the music and atmosphere.

Back to shopping….. yes, Alice was non-stop at this point… a beautiful skirt and a dress from… hmm what was the name of that place?… We’ll find it for you!  I must have bought something on this trip…oh yes !… a box of the famous Café du Monde Beignet mix to take home to Italy. These beignets are soooo good!! Yummy!

A shower and change at the hotel and we were back on Royal at the Monteleone to hear the Smoking Time Jazz Club. We weren’t late but the guys were already playing to a packed lounge. In New Orleans a band starts playing at 8.30 pm and continues until after midnight… minimum three sets. That’s a SERIOUS amount of playing. Think of the guys blowing horns!

at Deanie’s seafood restaurant… Alice digging into a pound of crayfish!

We danced. Alice tore the place up, danced a number with Chance, the frontman and showman. I was invited to sing Margie and was delighted to do so.

We left after 1am and were starving. Following our “gut” instinct a waiter at Oceania (which was closing) suggested Déjà Vu  to us. Déjà Vu is fab! Good burgers, open 24 hours, all types of people at 2am…. Go there in the early hours of the morning! http://www.dejavunola.com/

We had a blast that day! Did SOOO much. And it was a fantastic way to finish up our trip in New Orleans and to finish our short Swingtrip in the USA…

The one thing we didn’t get to do was an interview with Peter Loggins, something which we all really had wanted to do. But Peter is all up for the interview happening in the near future and it gives up the perfect reason to go back to New Orleans and get to know the city, its people and its music better

Deja Vu…. open 24 hours… great at 2am!

Next day we flew home to Italy….

Leaving New Orleans..the end of our Swingtrip… popcorn and Dr. Pepper! 20 hours later we would be home in Italy.

Thanks for reading our blog and following us on this fantastic adventure and discovery. If we can be of any help with suggestions etc, just contact us on Facebook!

Our special thanks to Swing Circus for their collaboration and support in this blog project and to Lucie Q Lindynerd for her translation of the posts and her NdN…NerD Notes J

Jude Lindy and Alice Capoani