There was a time before rock ’n’ roll, before Elvis wiggled his hips and The Beatles shook their hair while singing “Woo!” That was the age when the big band ruled the musical roost, when the likes of Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Glenn Miller were topping the charts and filling dance halls.
But for many, the golden age of the big band never ended. Like for Russ and Judy Lindquist, who moved to Santa Maria a few years ago from Las Vegas. The Lindquists are the leaders of the Riptide Big Band, a local 15-piece dance band.
They call the group a dance band and refrain from the “jazz” label, as it sends some people running, Russ explained. But the group is really all about performing danceable standards that the older generations love, he said.
“We do this for a lot of reasons, but one of the reasons, to be honest with you, is we love the participation of the crowd, the people in the audience,” he said. “We play music from the 1930s to the 1980s, and we get a lot of people in their 40s, 60s, 70s, and up, and they enjoy it.”
The Riptide Big Band is a performing band, that’s for sure. They enjoy a monthly dance concert at the Elwin Mussell Senior Center hosted by the Santa Maria Valley Senior Club, and they perform often for local organizations’ fundraisers.
The upcoming Big Band October Dance concert is scheduled for Oct. 9.
“We play a lot of new tunes. Every month we play a few new tunes they haven’t heard,” Russ said. “We have the band doing things while they are playing, like on some songs the saxophones will stand up or the soloists will stand up and go up front. We also have a lot of audience participation, we get to know ’em, and they become friends.
“We treat it like that, they get to know that, and they enjoy it,” he added, “and I tell you, their cars know the way to the Mussell Center parking lot themselves!”
Russ said that his wife always organizes shows around a theme or idea, and that the October concert will focus on the moon. October is a good time to focus on the moon, he mused, like a “harvest moon” or the imagery of a full moon near Halloween.
There are also quite a lot of songs penned that mention the moon, he explained.
“There’s moonlight, and it’s love and romance, and people sit under the moon and they start smooching and whatever,” he said.
“There’s a lot of charisma going on there—I’m getting too old for that myself—but I don’t know.”
The Riptide Big Band is good at making people feel young again, Russ said. He’s seen people in their 90s hit the dance floor with joy, as well as take stylish solos in the band.
That’s really what the band is all about, Russ said, getting people together for some fun. The group performs often, but isn’t getting rich. That was never the point anyway, he explained. It was more about sharing music audiences like and want to hear.
“It’s a lot of fun when you can sit there and play with a group like this in front of a lot of people and they are all really having a great time,” he said.
Arts Editor Joe Payne says it’s only a ‘Paper Moon.’ Contact him at [email protected].
