Vanessa Perea, Vocals
John Bauers, Vocals and Piano
Dave Post, Stand Up Bass
David Longworth, Drums

Preservation New Jersey is pleased to welcome Swingadelic to the 1867 Sanctuary to share the well known standards of the legendary Johnny Mercer and their new CD, Mercerville.

Swingadelic, featuring vocalists Vanessa Perea and John Bauers, will perform the Songs Of Johnny Mercer in this beautiful restored 1867 church. Johnny Mercer was an iconic figure as a lyricist and composer for the American Songbook, and a celebrity and entertainer throughout the 40’s and 50’s, with a popular radio show during the war years, gigs with a lot of the known big bands of the era, hit records of his own in 40’s, and winner of four Academy Awards as well as two Grammys for Song of the Year. His personal life was very colorful and included a notorious affair with Judy Garland that was on again-off again for over 30 years. Though overshadowed by his buddies Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra as a performer, Johnny nevertheless made huge contributions to their success with hits like “One For My Baby”, “I’m an Old Cowhand”, “Jeepers Creepers” and “Autumn Leaves”.

Swingadelic began in 1998 as the neo-swing movement was cresting. Upright bassist Dave Post gathered his jazz & blues playing friends together to play engagements at New York City’s Supper Club, Swing 46 and Windows On The World, the former restaurant atop of the World Trade Center. As the swing scene waned the band was able to turn to swing dance groups, concerts, festivals, schools and private engagements to keep active.

Swingadelic has performed at Lincoln Center’s Midsummer Night Swing, NJPAC, and at many festivals, including Bele Chere (Ashville NC), MusikFest (Allentown PA) the CD 109 Jazz & Blues Festival (Red Bank, NJ) and the sanofi-aventis JazzFest (Madison NJ).

The band plays about 100 dates per year and has traveled from Maine to Atlanta. Swingadelic has maintained a residency for six years at Swing 46 in NYC where it performs every other Monday as a ten piece “little big band.”

Swingadelic has seven CD’s and has been recording for the ZOHO Music label since 2011. Swingadelic CD’s have been in the JazzWeek Radio charts top thirty and garnered many critically acclaimed reviews in jazz publications such as Jazz Times and All About Jazz.

Their newest ZOHO release (April 2017), Mercerville, is a collection of songs written by the legendary Johnny Mercer who was not only an iconic figure as a lyricist and composer for the American Songbook, but he was a celebrity and entertainer throughout the 40’s and 50’s, with a popular radio show during the war years had gigs with a lot of the big bands of the era, hit records of his own and winner of four Academy Awards for Best Song as well as two Grammys for Song of the Year

Jazz at the 1867 Sanctuary and throughout the Trenton/Princeton area is featured on trenton.jazznearyou.com. Download their app for iOS, Android, and Kindle Fire!

Preservation New Jersey is pleased that the New Jersey Jazz Society (NJJS) is co-sponsoring jazz events at the 1867 Sanctuary. We encourage fans of our jazz concerts and jazz musicians to join NJJS at www.njjs.org so they receive their award-winning Jersey Jazz journal 11 times a year and other special benefits, including a $5 discount on tickets to Jazz Music Series concerts at the 1867 Sanctuary at Ewing!