by Marce
Photos by C. S. Imming

Dancing and Dining to a Big Band is back at the Imperial Ballroom, 6 Nipmuc Drive, Mendon, Massachusetts.  For the second month in a row, over 100 dancers from several generations delighted in dancing to the authentic Big Band of Dan Gabel and the Abletones.  This is an 18-piece Big Band specializing in an the Big Band sound thanks to a high level of musicianship and a library of over 4,000 arrangements.

Many of the musicians are from the New England Conservatory of Music, and have never heard the original big bands, but thanks to the enthusiasm of their leader, Dan Gabel, they succeed in recreating the authentic sounds of the Big Bands from the 30’s to the 50’s like Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Les Brown, Benny Goodman,  Count Basie, and the Latin sounds of Tito Puente.

 

Swing has become the dance for many of the youth of today, who have been taking lessons and filling dance halls with their Swing and Lindy Hop.  They had a whole weekend March 20-23 at the Newton Marriott Hotel in Boston recently.   But Dan Gabel and the Abletones introduced dancers to much more – the Fox Trot, Waltz, Cha Cha, Tango, Mambo, Samba, Boogie Woogie.

 

 

 

Marvelous dancers Georgina and Dan Woodyshek knew ALL of them, and could have given us all lessons!!

 

 

 

 

 

The Band played some of the songs of the era, Whispering, Song of India (Tommy Dorsey version), Abletone Jive (Gabel’s arrangement where he introduces the members of the band);  East Side West Side, The Angels Sing, There’ll  Be a Change in the Weather, April in Paris, Alice Blue Gown, Take it Jackson (with the whole band singing), Dipsy Doodle

 

 

Vocalist Elise Roth has natu­ral, clear delivery and beautiful smile.  She could be Anita O’Day without the hat, singing Bei Mir Bis Du Schoen, Moon River, Sentimental Journey, I Don’t Know Why I Love You Like I Do, and more.

 

 

 

 

 

With the help of Steve Taddeo, his Slingerland drums and 1939 cymbal given to him by Jimmy Dorsey’s drummer, Buddy Schutz, they played a Gene Krupa feature of the song Massachusetts.

 

 

 

 

 

Nikolas Anadolis was on keyboard.  He’ll be graduating from NEC this spring and is hoping to join the faculty at the University of Lausanne on Lake Geneva, Switzerland.   We’ll miss him.  He and Dan Gabel have been performing all over New England.

 

 

 

 

The dancers thoroughly enjoyed the Abletones Big Band.

More C. S. Imming’s Photos…..

We came away with the happy feeling of an earlier, care-free time.  At the end of May the Imperial Ballroom will feature the Tom Nutile Big Band on the last Friday of the month.  The following week, Dan Gabel and the Abeltones will have everyone taking lessons and dancing at SAC Park in Shrewsbury.  Check the calendars.