Jive Aces Vince Hurley Tickles the Ivory So Well, He Keeps the Whole World Laughing

Jive Aces piano player and music director, Vince Hurley, tells what it’s like to be part of the zaniest group of jive and swing musicians this side of the English Channel.

His video is one of 200 “Meet a Scientologist” videos available on the Scientology website at www.scientology.org.

Jive Aces Vince Hurley may not have been born at the piano, but he might as well have been. He has been playing music as long as he can remember.

“In my favorite baby picture, there I am with my two little legs and my dad holding me up to the keyboard,” he says.

His formal training at the London College of Music, where he received his degree with honors, combined with his Oxford accent, earned him his nickname—“the Professor”—but if you expect him to be stodgy or sedate, think again, as Hurley, 38, is anything but.

With his unique style of standing while playing, he jumps and jives with the rest of the band and he’s even been known to continue pounding the keys while his mates suspend him over the keyboard with his feet in mid-air.

Hired by the Jive Aces initially to play during recording sessions, Hurley enjoyed the music and camaraderie so much, he offered to come on as music director, which was readily accepted.

He soon learned there was a good deal more to the Jive Aces than great music and hilarious antics, onstage and off. Every member of the band was a Scientologist.

“Ian (lead singer, trumpet player and Jive Aces band leader) mentioned Dianetics to me, how it could help you be more confident and successful. It was as though he was reading my mind,” says Hurley. “I had been trying to understand why someone could go from feeling very confident, very much himself and doing well, to suddenly feeling a bit down and depressed. That’s what it was like for me. The funny thing is that since I read Dianetics: the Modern Science of Mental Health and started using it, I’ve never gone down again. I'm just doing really well, a lot happier—I’m stable all the time. In fact, I’ve never been depressed since.”

As to what it is like to perform as part of the Jive Aces—the UK’s No. 1 jive and swing band—Hurley sums it up this way:

“We play fun, upbeat jive music that makes people happy. Nothing beats finishing a concert and seeing a hundred or even thousands of people with immense smiles on their faces.”

The popular “Meet a Scientologist” profiles on the Church of Scientology International Video Channel at Scientology.org now total 200 broadcast-quality documentary videos featuring Scientologists from diverse locations and walks of life. The personal stories are told by Scientologists who are educators, teenagers, skydivers, a golf instructor, a hip-hop dancer, IT manager, stunt pilot, mothers, fathers, dentists, photographers, actors, musicians, fashion designers, engineers, students, business owners and more.

A digital pioneer and leader in the online religious community, in April 2008 the Church of Scientology became the first major religion to launch its own official YouTube Video Channel, which has now been viewed by millions of visitors.