Hot Toddies Jazz Band Celebrates Debut Full-Length Album with Free Concert at Somewhere Nowhere

Fresh off its Lincoln Center debut at “Summer for the City,” the Hot Toddies Jazz Band announced today the upcoming release of its debut full-length eponymous album. Hailed as New York City's leading hot jazz and swing band, the Hot Toddies recorded 11 fan-favorite, fun-loving tracks imbibing the high-and-not-so-dry spirits of the Prohibition Era. The album celebrates the sparkling array of swinging vocal and big band numbers inspired by the legendary singers and composers of the era, such as Duke Ellington, Billy Holiday, Count Basie, and more.

As a relatively new group founded in 2018, the Hot Toddies Jazz Band has quickly become one of the top bands on the swing scene in New York City. With the release of their debut EP during lockdown, their wacky music videos for "Dunkin Bagel" and “Five O'clock Coffee” both hit over 100k views on Facebook. They can be found performing at iconic venues such as The Plaza Hotel, The Whitney Museum, The Player's Club, The Standard, and more. They currently perform weekly at Manhattan's Somewhere Nowhere's “Gotham Jazz,” and headlined at Lincoln Center's Summer for the City (formerly Midsummer Night Swing) series on July 6th.

Led by Grammy-nominated violinist Gabe Terracciano (Turtle Island String Quartet, Terrance Blanchard, Avalon Jazz Band) and noted composer/producer/drummer Patrick Soluri (Prohibition Productions), the band features some of today's top musicians in the swing & jazz worlds including guitarist Justin Poindexter (Jazz at Lincoln Center), trumpeters Alphonso Horne (Jazz at Lincoln Center) and Jon Seiger (Benny Carter, Ella Fitzgerald), reedmen Danny Lipsitz (The Brass Tacks) and Dan Levinson (Mel Torme, Woody Allen, The Aviator, Boardwalk Empire), Emmy winning trombonists J. Walter Hawkes (PBS Peg + Cat) and Ron Wilkins (Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Dizzy Gillespie), bassists Brandi Disterheft (JUNO Award winner), Ian Hutchison (Sw!ng Out, Glenn Crytzer), and Wallace Stelzer (Avalon Jazz Band), plus noted vocalists Queen Esther (James “Blood” Ulmer) and Hannah Gill (Post Modern Jukebox), as well as special guest pianist Gordon Webster... one of the most sought swing musicians worldwide.

Hot Toddies Jazz Band debut album began recording shortly after the group's inception in 2019, but was interrupted by the pandemic and resumed in 2022. The album opens with the swing classic Digga Digga Doo which was first recorded in 1928 by Duke Ellington and his Orchestra. The oldest track, William C. Handy's 1914 hit Saint Louis Blues, follows the album's newest and only original work: Kilowatt Stomp (2022) by the group's violinist Gabe Terracciano. According to Soluri, listeners will “hear music undeniably geared towards swing dancing, but with subtle flavors ranging from bluegrass and Western swing, to Americana, classic rock, and even classical music.”

The album is available on all digital platforms from July 28. Copies of the CD will be available at the band's album release party on August 16th at Somewhere Nowhere, as well as on the band's website.