The Les Elgart Orchestra
The Cicada Club617 South Olive Street, Los Angeles 90014
The Les Elgart Orchestra brings its big-band dance repertoire to the Cicada Club, with vocalist Tatum Langley featured in the performance. Expect the orchestra's signature “Elgart Sound,” built around the swing and polish of America’s dance-band era, in a night designed for the club’s ballroom floor. Langley is noted for recordings and tours with Postmodern Jukebox, adding a vocal spotlight to the orchestra set.
The Les Elgart Orchestra traces its identity to bandleader Les Elgart and is described as one of the few remaining famous big bands from the 1950s and 1960s. Elgart wrote “Bandstand Boogie,” the theme for American Bandstand, while the orchestra recorded more than 50 albums for Columbia Records. Its history includes engagements at the Hollywood Palladium, London’s Savoy Hotel, and New York’s Rainbow Room, as well as performances for U.S. presidents and governors. The band also made television appearances with Johnny Carson, Jackie Gleason, and Merv Griffin. The current orchestra’s home base and full personnel are not specified in the available information.
Stepping through the Lalique glass doors into the 1928 Oviatt Building reveals a two-story supper club designed around big-band dance nights. Beneath thirty-foot gold-leaf ceilings, diners sit at white-tablecloth tables arranged around a main wooden dance floor, while an upstairs mezzanine houses a dedicated cocktail bar with its own space to move. Patrons consistently treat the night as a formal occasion, dressing in vintage suits, ties, and evening gowns to match the 1920s setting. Evenings are ticketed in advance, pairing a full Italian dinner service or drinks at the bar with live swing orchestras and vocal ensembles, with doors opening early for dinner before the music begins.