Music for Dancing and Reminiscing
The Twilites are an eleven-piece dance band, based in Guelph, Ontario, and have been together since 1987. Over the past twelve years, they have developed a large, enthusiastic following of people of all ages who love to dance. In addition to playing fox-trots in the tradition of the great dance bands including Guy Lombardo, Sammy Kaye, Glenn Miller, and Artie Shaw, they also perform swing, Latin-American, polkas, waltzes, medleys, and specialty numbers.
They have been featured many times at The Royal Canadian Big Band Festival, in London, Ontario, and for eight years at the Royal Bank Seniors’ Jubilee at Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto. Other performances have included The Applause Ball at the Shaw Festival, The Viennese Ball for the KW Symphony, the opening of the Drayton Festival, and The Maturity Show (London, Hamilton, Kitchener, and Toronto). They have also played dinner dances at the Walper Terrace Hotel and at Bingemans Lodge in Kitchener, Big Band Cruises for Great Canadian Coaches including a show in Hamilton with The Mantini Sisters. The Twilites performed for monthly dances in Guelph at the Desert Inn.
They have recently added a string section to their line-up under the leadership of Ross Daly who also has written out all of the string arrangements.
Audio Samples:
Recorded live at an outdoor concert in Cambridge, Ontario.
Ain’t She Sweet
In The Mood
Kansas City Shuffle
In The Mood
Frenesi
Canadian Sunset
My Sister Shane Medley
Pennsylvania Polka
The Preacher
Tuxedo Junction
The Wood Choppers’ Ball
You Go To My Head
Bio:
The group was formed by the late Bob Jeans, the former manager of the University Club, University of Waterloo. Today, The Twilites consists almost entirely of retirees, all originally from various professions, including a few professional musicians too. How they were formed: Bob Jeans and several others, all being former full or part-time musicians, used to meet Friday mornings for coffee in Guelph and reminisce about the “good old days” of the Big Band Era, and the long-lived success of bands like Guy Lombardo and The Royal Canadians. So they decided to form a band in that same tradition to perform to dancers and Big Band fans in the Central Ontario area.
All the reed players double on clarinet, and sometimes even triple on flute. The band also carries a variety of percussion equipment to add authenticity to their Latin-American selections.
They have recently added a string section to their line-up under the leadership of Ross Daly who also has written out all of the string arrangements.
Everywhere they go, The Twilites are sure to make dancing and reminiscing an all-round pleasurable experience of lasing musical enjoyment!
