DJ Chrisbe’s Song of the Week #123: Russian Rag

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DJ Chrisbe's Song of the Week #123: Russian Rag by Tuba Skinny

Tuba Skinny from New Orleans are very productive, at least recording wise. Every year since 2009, they are releasing a new album. After “Tubaskinny” in 2009, “Six Feet Down” in 2010 and “Garbage Man” in 2011, Tuba Skinny just recently released their brand new album “Rag Band”. We don’t learn that much about the fourth album Our newest album “Rag Band” is done! After many many months of recording and re-recording, we are happy to say our new album “Rag Band” is finally complete. Thanks for your patience! The short statement on Tuba Skinny’s website. They recorded the album in October 2011 [...]

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DJ Chrisbe’s Song of the Week #121: New Orleans Twist

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DJ Chrisbe's Song of the Week #121: New Orleans Twist by Gene Gifford

Have you ever heard the name Gene Gifford before? If not then there is nothing to feel bad about it. Harold Eugene “Gene” Gifford (May 31, 1908 – November 12, 1970) was a white American banjo player, guitarist and arranger and was nearly unknown during the swing era. Gifford grew up in Memphis Tennessee where he played banjo in high school. He performed with territory bands before he toured Texas with his own band. Then, he worked with the band “Blue Steele”, where he switched to guitar, and others. In 1929, he arranged for Jean Goldkette and gained some attention. [...]

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DJ Chrisbe’s Song of the Week #119: Traffic Jam

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DJ Chrisbe's Song of the Week #119: Traffic Jam by Artie Shaw

The All Balboa Weekend in Cleveland, OH just ended. On Sunday night we had a special event going on: a DJ’ed Battle of the bands. Three DJs were spinning a set of just one artist. First Django Reinhardt, followed by Artie Shaw and finally Chick Webb. I was the Artie Shaw DJ and played one hour of his best tunes. Finally, the audience decided who won the battle. And you know what? Artie killed it! So, our Song of the Week is of course one by Artie Shaw. It was the last title of the set and it’s quite fast. [...]

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DJ Chrisbe’s Song of the Week #117: Shoot The Sherbert To Me Herbert

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DJ Chrisbe's Song of the Week #117: Shoot The Sherbert To Me Herbert by Tommy Dorsey

Last weekend, I was teaching with Ulla Wingenfelder at Froggy Whitsun in Dortmund, Germany. While preparing a musicality class, I rediscovered a song that we found in her music library. I have no idea, why I didn’t have this beautiful tune in MY library… Shoot The Sherbert To Me Herbert The title could also be found under the name “Shoot The Sherbet To Me Herbert”. I was asking myself, what the title could mean so I was doing some research on the internet. In an news archive, I found an article with the following text: [...] it appears to just be [...]

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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: 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 Webster and Naomi Uyama themselves. This song sounds so [...]

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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 #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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