Biographies

Through the magic power of his huge smile, Lucky brings dancing joy to wherever he goes. He has been dancing for eleven years and teaching for eight. In this time he has taught and performed across the US, Japan, Taiwan and Europe. He started the first ever weekly blues venue in Denver four years ago: Lucky's Lindy and Blues. He then moved to Taiwan and started a swing scene there. Next, he returned to New York to teach Lindy Hop full time. Since moving to New York he has taught and performed at many prestigious venues including Lincoln Center, Irving Plaza, the University Club, and the Pierre hotel (featured in "Scent of a Woman"). Additionally, Lucky was a featured dancer in the musical "Forever Swing" National Tour and is a member of Frankie Manning's Wednesday Night Lindy Hoppers.

He has also worked with the Mad Hot Ballroom program in New York teaching dance to inner city kids. He recently wowed the west coast blues community on the "Get Lucky Exchange" tour, where he taught in Washington, Oregon and California and promptly followed that up with the Denver Blues Summit and Philly Blues Connection.

Lessa has been studying and performing various forms of dance for most of her life. She learned lindy through a happy accident of fate, when at the '98/'99 New Years Eve dance in Tacoma, WA, she was petitioned by a then-acquaintance to become his teaching partner.

The unavoidable pull of Blues sultry rhythms has captivated her, drawing her in, willing her to discover ever more dizzying heights of elation through movement. In her continuous discovery of blues, she has found that her best, most creative, and most satisfying series of movements come when she stops thinking about what she's doing, and just allows the dance, the music, the connection, to flow through her. In this conduit-like state, she finds serenity. It is the experience of these feelings that she strives to impart to as many people as she possibly can. And wherever life takes her, she knows her passion for dance will always keep her on her toes.

Solomon's bands have played at countless exchanges, camps, workshops, and other events in North America, Asia, and Australia since 2000. His experience as a swing dancer and dance instructor gives him an understanding unique among musicians of the music that swing dancers and blues dancers like to dance to!

His influences as a pianist include Erroll Garner, Oscar Peterson, Gene Harris, Count Basie, and Thelonious Monk. His small groups (such as the Solomon Douglas Trio) play a mixture of musical styles including blues, old-school swing, and groovy mainstream swinging jazz with tinges of bop and soul-jazz.

Originally founded in 1999 under the name Night Train, the Silky Ray Band continues to set the stage on fire with original music and their unique take on blues, jazz, R&B and funk. The band puts an original spin on works by such artists as Big Joe Turner, James Brown, Wynonie Harris, Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, and others making for an energetic, soulful and danceable mix. Based in Columbus, Ohio, this exciting group has been thrilling audiences and musicians alike at clubs and festivals throughout the Midwest. The band has opened for such luminaries as BB King, George Thorogood, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Son Seals, Anson Funderburgh and the Mighty Blue Kings. The band also placed third in the 2000 Columbus Blues Challenge and has performed at major events such as the Big Bear Rhythm & Food Fest, the Columbus Arts Fest, the Dublin Art + Music Fest, the Creekside Blues & Jazz Fest, the Solid Gold Rib Fest, and the BB King Blues Fest.

There are not many groups that can play a blues tune and then follow it up with a tight funky groove tune. What makes the Silky Ray Band a step above any other band is the caliber of the musicians in the group. Playing with energy and soul that spreads to the audience, captures them and keeps them hooked are: lead singer "Silky" Ray Macklin, guitarist/vocalist Jesse McNamara, saxophonist Fred Gablick, keyboardist Dean Marcellana, bassist Dan Hange, and drummer Rick Soriano.

John Lozano made his DJing debut in the Detroit/Warea 8 years ago. Since then he has set his CDs spinning at exchanges and events across the midwest, has become a djing regular in the Cleveland area, and has begun kickin up CD dust clouds along the West Coast. When he's not spending his days teaching his infamous "liquid" lindy and blues, he can be found in cramped quarters dusting off and converting the rediculous amounts of records he's collected from years of garage saleing. Wherever John spins, dancers can look forward to the 'bluesy side of jazz and the jazzy side of blues.'