After Midnight
Tue, Sep 08
|Ripon High School Multi-Use Building
The Clarinet Swing Kings
Time & Location
Sep 08, 2026, 7:30 PM
Ripon High School Multi-Use Building, 301 N Acacia Ave, Ripon, CA 95366, USA
About The Event
The Ripon Arts League season opens with an evening of Swing, the ”hot-ticket” music craze of the 1930s and 40s. Taking the stage is Colorado’s After Midnight band, performing the exciting music of jazz “Royalty:” Benny Goodman - the King of Swing; Artie Shaw – dubbed King of the Clarinet; Lionel Hampton - King of Vibes; Nat “King” Cole; and a swoon-worthy young singer known as Frank Sinatra.
After Midnight’s six musicians perform with clarinet, piano, strings, drum, vibraphone, and vocal virtuosity. Clarinetist/leader Roger Campbell enhances the program with stories of the artists and their sparks of genius. In 1938, Benny Goodman risks moving from the dance hall to Carnegie Hall – and sells out all 2760 seats with showstoppers like “Sing, Sing, Sing.” Artie Shaw’s spark changes history with his sweeping B-side recording of an obscure Cole Porter tune…”Begin the Beguine.” Both pieces take their rightful place in the exhilarating After…