Sue Palmer & Her Motel Swing Orchestra Close Out Our 2014 Season With A Bang!

…definitely not a whimper! Last Sunday, Sue Palmer and Her Motel Swing Orchestra descended upon La Jolla Cove to delight, excite and MOVE our La Jolla Concerts By the Sea crowd. Thanks to the kind continued support of White Sands who sponsored the show, we were treated to a couple of rollicking hours of great music, dance and laughs. (These guys have a lot of fun on stage!)

Sue Palmer, San Diego’s legendary Queen of Boogie Woogie has been a busy lady. She’s been distributing her brand of raucous fun piano styling to such diverse locales as Yoshi’s in the bay area, the Americana Blues Festival in Georgia, our own San Diego Blues Festival and our Gator By the Bay (with her all-gal band Lady’s Shoes Blues Review) and even joined Switzerland’s “Ambassador of Boogie Woogie” Sylvan Zing in his native country for his international boogie woogie festival! ( Read more HERE on her site ) She’s also got a jazz radio program “San Diego sessions with Sue Palmer” on KSDS Jazz 88. (Sun. 5pm) Well, last weekend, she and her bunch brought it to our little hometown and lots of fun ensued.

Their repertoire ran the gamut from a very cool “Pink Panther” to “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” (of course) which introduced mother-daughter singing team Deejha Marie & Sarifah on vocals whose talent and enthusiasm charged up the already energized audience.

All members are top-notch local San Diego talent and together they blew the roof off our last summer concert. From the smallest child to the most senior of participants, our dance floor was filled with a multi-generational mix of folk who couldn’t keep their feet still due to the onslaught from the stage. Ya just had to dance!

Oh, and speaking of Sue’s doings, here’s one for you. Longtime fans as well as new converts, something really cool is coming up for Sue and her crew. This is a great way to spend New Year’s Eve this year. Sue and Motel Swing are going to be the centerpiece at the Casa Del Zorro in Borrego Springs for a great end of the year blowout. So book your rooms and get your tickets now for what promises to be a great way to welcome in 2015 in our beautiful Anza Borrego Desert.

On a personal note, I enjoyed an extended after concert chat with Sue’s man with the guitar, Mr. Steve Wilcox when he joined my daughter Amethyst (an avid music fan, rabid vinyl junkie and burgeoning musicologist) and myself for a leisurely nearby rooftop “rest & relax” session where we vigorously talked music and guitars under the glorious La Jolla sunshine.

Now on a somewhat sad note…what this concert represents is the fact that our 2014 Summer Concerts season has come to an end. (And what an end!) We are all extremely grateful for all the nice folks involved in La Jolla Concerts By the Sea who made this season such a success: our great sponsors, our tireless board and volunteers, all of the great bands who entertained us and, of course, YOU…our awesome audience without whom…well, after all, what would be the point without you?

Until next year, remember to “LIKE our Facebook page and sign up for our Twitter feed so you can be the first to hear about news, especially the new schedule for 2015.