Tonight was the final night of the Frankie 95 Birthday Festival, and what a lovely way to end an incredible five days of celebration! Here's Chazz Young, Frankie Manning's son, dancing on behalf of his dad with 95 follows. Continuing the tradition started at Frankie's 80th birthday of having Frankie dance with one follower for each year, Chazz Young agreed to dance in honor of Frankie.
More comments and videos after the jump…
The evening's musical entertainment was provided by the Houston Person Quartet and the Wycliffe Gorden Quartet, with the addition of trombonists Art Baron and Benny Powell and vocalists Lavay Smith and Kim Nalley. Even though it was the last night, the joint was still jumpin with hundreds and hundreds of lindy hoppers getting in their last dances of the Festival.
One of the most exciting part of the evening was the announcement of the winning bid on the Frankie quilt created by Ms. Jen Pringle as a benefit for the Frankie Fund. After a heated final bidding war, the winner was New York's own Ms. Lana Turner at a whopping $12,500 for the quilt. Congrats and thanks, Lana!
There were a number of great performances and videos shown tonight. Here's the Big Apple Lindy Hoppers doing a very spirited Big Apple routine. Go New York!
At exactly midnight, we sang Happy Birthday to Frankie — who was born on May 26, 1914.
And of course, it wouldn't be a right to have all of these amazing dancers in one place and not do one last jam circle.
Thanks to all of the organizers and volunteers for incredible work over these past 16 months and intense five days. I could not be more proud to be a part of this community.
Previous posts about Frankie 95:
- Everything Remains Raw: Moncel Durden on the links between lindy hop and hip hop dance
- Frankie 95 Festival Day 4: Tribute Show, Campus Five, Boilermakers (video)
- Frankie 95 Festival Day 3: 3 big bands, Hellzapoppin finals, Silver Shadows (video)
- Frankie 95 Festival Day 2: Frankie's Memorial, Second Line procession, Central Park, Cangelosi Cards! (vids)
- Pic of me in the NY Times leading Second Line processional for Frankie Manning
- Frankie 95 Festival Day 1: Jazz Vipers, Hellzapoppin, Junior Jitterbugs! (video)