Key West The Newspaper

Go to www.mixdeity.com for Full Calendar of Events and Tickets

The “Jazz Age Retrospectacular” is an event series that takes a fun and youthful look at Key West’s history and culture through the lens of America’s most iconic musical era, the Jazz Age (1920’s-1950’s). Our goal is to educate and inspire audiences of all ages through a variety of interactive music performances and events that showcase the era’s music and culture, as well as the Florida Keys history and regional influence. Our interactive events include:

Murder/Mystery Dinner
A series of murder-mystery dinners with live actors, music and stories based on actual Key West History. Each evening includes a free cocktail hour, a five course gourmet meal, live vintage music and an interactive dinner theater show with audience participation. Vintage jazz age attire suggested.

Swing & Social Dance Night
A series of era-based swing/social dance nights with live music, free dance lessons and performance showcases. A dance instructor will give a 30 minute group lesson, followed by a live band performance and open dance. Participants are encouraged to dress up in swing dance attire. Prizes are given for best dancers and best dressed. This event brings jazz music to people in a way that is exciting and fun.

Jazz Noir: A Theatrical Concert
The world premiere of an original “Jazz-Noir” theater show written & performed by a local talent is the apex event of our series. In a story written around factual events and places of 1930’s Key West, jazz music plays a key role in telling the story of our character and how he navigates probibition, rum-runners, the Great Depression, deals with iconic keys characters of the era, and the survives the devastation of the 1935 Keys hurricane. Told through narrative, acting, music and 3D-projection mapping technology, this show captures a part of Keys heritage, and illustrates it with combination of the most traditional and the most modern style of performance & technology.

Generational Concert
A collaborative concert that combines the talents of the few remaining living legends (some of whom live in the Keys); musicians that have performed directly with Billie Holiday, Louie Armstrong, Frank Sinatra or other timeless jazz icons from the original music era, with the most relevant modern jazz masters of our time. In this, we open a window to the past to share the rich musical language and history of jazz, directly from a generation that is nearly gone, to the generation that will keep this treasured art form alive and growing.