Biography
Jonathan Stout and his Campus Five, featuring Hilary Alexander is a septet dedicated to preserving the classic and often overlooked small group swing from the late 1930’s and early 1940’s. Founded by two dedicated swing dancers, the Campus Five was a way to expose many dancers and listeners alike to some of the more interesting and under appreciated tunes from the swing era, while still being the most danceable band playing swing today. The Campus Five picks tunes from the books of notable small groups as the Benny Goodman Sextet, Count Basie’s Kansas City Six/Seven, Artie Shaw and his Gramercy Five, as well as the small groups of Lester Young, Illinois Jacquet, Cootie Williams, Django Reinhardt, Duke Ellington, and Coleman Hawkins, and features vocal numbers from Ella Mae Morse, Anita O’Day, Peggy Lee and the young Ella Fitzgerald.
The Campus Five have released four albums, 2003's "Jammin' the Blues", 2004's "Crazy Rhythm", 2007's "Moppin' and Boppin'" and 2017's "Spreadin' Rhythm Around".
Swing dance teachers all over the world use their CD's in their dance lessons.
The Campus Five has traveled the world to play to eager swing dancers. We have played at the London Balboa Festival (UK), Hawaii Lindy Exchange (Honolulu), the San Francisco Balboa Festival, DCLX (Washington, DC), and two years running at the All Balboa Festival (Cleveland). The Campus Five has played at jazz festivals, such as the Sweet and Hot Jazz Festival and the OC Classic Jazz Festival, and many municipal festivals, such as the Culver City Music Festival, the Ventura Music Festival, the Ventura Lemon Festival, and the Lake Gregory Summer Concert Series. The Campus Five was featured on an episode of the Ellen Degeneres Show, which aired 2/14.05.
Influences: Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Artie Shaw, Gene Krupa, Charlie Christian, Django Reinhardt, Ella Mae Morse, Anita O'Day, Peggy Lee, Lester Young, Cootie Williams, Duke Ellington
Artist descriptions on Last.fm are editable by everyone. Feel free to contribute!
All user-contributed text on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply.
