DJ Chrisbe’s Song of the Week #116: Paramour

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DJ Chrisbe's Song of the Week #116: Paramour by Gordon Webster

On May, 11, 2012, Gordon Webster released his new album “Live in Rochester“. A few days later, I received it in the mail and I put it directly into the CD player. A CD review will follow on this blog! One song especially stands out to me: Paramour Coincidentally, Gordon lets you download just this song for free from his website. You can listen it here right now, though: [Audio clip: view full post to listen] I was wondering who has written this tune and checked the CD cover. What a surprise that was! It’s composed and written by Gordon [...]

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Swiss Balboa Weekend, 7-9 September 2012 in Zürich, Register now!

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Swiss Balboa Weekend 2012 in Zürich Switzerland

As you know, I do not promote many events on this blog. However, a few of the Swiss events with international recognition are especially important to me. Swiss Balboa Weekend I’m glad, that Natascha Podraza and Ulla Wingenfelder will be organizing another edition of the Swiss Balboa Weekend. The workshop and party weekend will happen from Friday 7th to Sunday 9th September 2012. Workshop Two days of Balboa classes for three levels “A – Beginners”, “B – Intermediate” and “C – Advanced” with four international and national renowned instructor couples: Laura Keat & Jeremy Otth (USA) Jo & Mel Calanglang (UK) Joana Ekeström & Andreas Olsson  (SWE) Ulla [...]

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DJ Chrisbe’s Song of the Week #115: Five O’Clock Blues

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DJ Chrisbe's Song of the Week #115: Five O'Clock Blues by Jimmy Yancey

This week’s song is neither a big band nor a small group recording, it’s performed by only one instrument, the piano. James Edwards “Jimmy” Yancey (Feb. 20, 1894 – Sept. 17, 1951) was an afro-american pianist, singer and dancer. He is considered the pioneer of Boogie Woogie piano. Boogie Woogie was a typical element of uptempo Blues and early Rock ‘n’ Roll. In the late 1930s, Boogie Woogie boomed but Yancey had started playing it already after 1915. Interestingly, Yancey didn’t begin recording before 1939. Chris Kelsey on allmusic writes about his style: “Yancey was not as technically flashy as some of [...]

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DJ Chrisbe’s Song of the Week #114: Smiles

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DJ Chrisbe's Song of the Week #93: "Moonglow" (Take 2) by Benny Goodman Quartet

Back in November 2010, I posted “Smiles” by Swiss alto saxophonist Flavio Ambrosetti as the Song of the Week #35. Five years earlier, Benny Goodman recorded “Smiles” with his quartet, featuring Lionel Hampton on vibraphone, Teddy Wilson on piano and Gene Krupa on drums. Smiles Let’s listen to two versions. First, the studio version (it’s a bit scratchy…) And now, a live version, obviously from the same year (although, I don’t have any evidence for that) Smiles is wonderful song, both for Lindy Hop and Balboa. Because of the clear rhythm, it’s especially useful for Balboa (beginner) classes. Probably, I have [...]

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Why The Balboa Experiment Helps You To Become A Better Dancer

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Balboa Experiment House

First of all, I don’t get paid or receive any benefits for writing this blog post. This article represents my personal opinion. A highly intensive Balboa workshop Quote from the website: The Experiment is a highly intensive Balboa workshop built around the model of small, select groups of participants spending a week together with top dancers of our generation in an extraordinary live+work+play environment. My first contact with The Experiment It was back in Summer 2008, I was attending the Studio Hop Summer Camp, when I heard the first time about The Experiment. Mastermind David Rehm, who was teaching there, [...]

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DJ Chrisbe’s Song of the Week #113: Ridin’ And Jivin’

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DJ Chrisbe's Song of the Week #113: Ridin' And Jivin' by Earl Hines

Earl Kenneth Hines (Dec. 28, 1905 – Apr. 23, 1983) was one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time. In the 1920s, when nearly every fluent jazz pianist played a steady stride with his or her left hand (keeping a steady rhythm by “striding” back and forth between bass notes and chords), Hines had the world’s trickiest left hand. He would play against time, sometimes just implying the rhythm and frequently playing out of tempo and suspending time but never losing the beat. His speedy right hand (which sometimes played octaves in a “trumpet style” so his notes would ring [...]

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DJ Chrisbe’s Song of the Week #112: Ochi Chornya

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DJ Chrisbe's Song of the Week #112: Ochi Chornya by Wingy Manone

The lyrics of Ochi chyornye (in English: black eyes) were written by the Ukrainian poet and writer Yevhen Hrebinka and were first published as a poem on January 17, 1843. Later, German Florian Hermann composed “Valse Hommage“, set Hrebinka’s words into this romance and published it on March 7, 1884. Feodor Chaliapin popularised the song abroad in a version amended by himself. Although this song had originally nothing to do with jazz, it became a jazz standard under the name “Dark Eyes” or in French “Les yeux noir“. Let’s have a look at a version by American trumpeter and singer Wingy Manone (Feb. 13, 1900 – July 9, 1982): [...]

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DJ Chrisbe’s Song of the Week #111: Town Hall Blues

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DJ Chrisbe's Song of the Week #111: Town Hall Blues by Bud Freeman

After the excursion to Jump Blues from last week, we go back to a more typical swinging tune while sticking to Blues. Town Hall Blues The hard pushing rhythm section of this great tune suits equally to Balboa and Lindy Hop dancers. Lawrence “Bud” Freeman (April 13, 1906 – March 15, 1991) was one of the finest tenor saxophone players in the 1930s. Beside Coleman Hawkins, who had a harder tone than Freeman, he was one of the most influential tenor saxophonists, inspiring musicians such as Lester Young. Freeman was a member of a group of young white Chicago Jazz [...]

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Musicality for Swing Dancers: AABA 32-bar form

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Musicality for Swing Dancers AABA 32-bar form | Shuffle Projects

“Learn about the AABA jazz form” is the seventh tip in my article “33 Actions & Tips To Become A Better Swing Dancer“. The interest in this tip is huge, reason enough to examine the AABA form in a separate article. After the introduction, we will take a look a the the theory, then we will listen to an example, where the AABA form is used and finally, you will learn a basic idea, how to implement AABA into the dance. Introduction The AABA form was style-defining for the popular music of the United States. It is the basic form of most [...]

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DJ Chrisbe’s Song of the Week #110: Keep On Churnin’ (Till The Butter Comes)

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DJ Chrisbe's Song of the Week #110: Keep On Churnin' (Till The Butter Comes) by Wynonie Harris

Jump Blues or simply Jump was very popular in the late 1940s and early 1950s. It’s an uptempo blues and usually played by smaller combos. With the swing revival in the 1980s and 1990s, also Jump Blues received a boost. Lindy Hoppers love Jump Blues and the related Rhythm and Blues (the early one) because it’s still swinging. African-American Wynonie Harris (Aug. 24, 1915 - June 14, 1969) was one of the exponents of that energetic genre. Also known as “Mr. Blues”, he was a dancer, drummer and “blues shouter“, a singer who could shout to be heard over the drums and instruments of the band (especially [...]

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