By BRIAN DONOHUE
Red Bankers, it’s time to boogie for Basie.
A dancing, boogie-ing procession of performers and whoever else joins in will make its way through the streets of downtown Red Bank Thursday to celebrate the birthday of the late hometown hero and global jazz icon William “Count” Basie.
The procession will begin at 5 pm at the Count Basie Mural in the parking lot of Borough Hall, 90 Monmouth Street, and make its way along the sidewalk to Broadwalk, the seasonal pedestrian plaza on the northern end of Broad Street.
The procession will be led by dancers from the Company of Dance Arts, which presents the Nutcracker every year at the Count Basie Center for the Arts.
The dancers, all age 12-17, will be dancing to Count Basie’s “Red Bank Boogie” as well as a few other Basie tunes with choreography by Njelama Dacas Johnson.
Residents, business owners, downtown flaneurs and whoever else is encouraged to step outside for a few minutes and shake it a bit, join the procession in its entirety, or just check out the final performance by the dancers on Broadwalk.
The event was inspired by a redbankgreen video from last August 21 in which we captured eager (and coaxed not so eager) Red Bankers to show us their dance moves to the tune of Basie’s insanely dancable tune “Red Bank Boogie.”
The procession will be cancelled in the event of rain. Currently, the forecast calls for rain early in the day with cloudy skies later and a 20 percent chance of rain at 5 pm.
