"I want to be like Sue Palmer when I grow up. Besides being the boogie woogie piano queen playing regularly with her iconic Motel Swing band (and sitting in with other local blues/jazz legends), tonight she brought her records down to Part Time Lover, where it wasn't a performance so much as a gathering of friends to come and reconnect in the new year with a sound track that never gets old. A reminder that rhythm has a lineage, that vinyl still hums with ghosts, and that community can gather around a turntable just as easily as a piano bench."   — Jeremy M. Brownlowe, January 19, 2026

Live at the Belly Up - Sue Palmer and Her Motel Swing Orchestra

Sweet Sweet Daddy - Sue Palmer and Her Motel Swing Orchestra at Lou Lou’s

Reaching for the Moon - Liz Ajuzie & Sue Palmer
video by Julia Fosman Codruta

Sue Palmer and Her Motel Swing Orchestra

Ode to Josephine

Looking For a Parking Place

I Put a Hex on You (Gator by the Bay 2024)

Gator by the Bay 2024, Sue Palmer & the Rhythm Riveters

Sing It - Golden Island Dim Sum Restaurant - December, 2023

We played for the San Diego Ballet
What an honor and experience!

San Diego Ballet with the Motel Swing Orchestra, directed by Javier Velasco, 2023

After the Lights Go Down Low @ Dim Sum Golden Island Restaurant, March 2023

Tracy Nelson-featuring the Sue Palmer Motel Swing Band

Sue Palmer Trio at the 2011 San Diego Music Awards

Sue Palmer with Hadda Brooks

Sue with Candye Kane and Steve Wilcox, circa 1995