The Best in Live Swing and Hot Jazz Music

Great live music, deeply steeped in the tradition of early jazz styles, is a rare and special thing. Which is why we're giving it to you for five straight nights. These bands represent the top tier of Lindy Hop music, and are sure to please. Plus, we're very happy to introduce to the world of Lindy Hop, Asheville's very own Firecracker Jazz Band. Read on to learn more about this year's very special lineup.

This Year's Bands:

  • The Boilermaker Jazz Band (SAT,SUN)
    [see bio]
  • Christabel & the Jons (MON)
    [see bio]
  • The Russ Wilson Swingtette (TUE)
    [see bio]
  • The Firecracker Jazz Band (WED: New Year's Eve)
    [see bio]

The Boilermaker Jazz Band 

The Boilermaker Jazz Band has performed at major festivals, concert halls, ballrooms, colleges, and clubs throughout the world- including Lincoln Center in New York City, The Edinburgh International Festival in Scotland, and the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC.

Everywhere they go, they deliver the good feelings that real jumpin' jazz can create. Paul and the Boilermakers have recorded six critically acclaimed CD's and have received rave reviews for their excellent live performances. The Boilermakers have been featured on radio shows across the country and overseas, including a National Public Radio Jazz Series that was broadcast on over 50 stations.


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Christabel and the Jons 

Christabel and the Jons is a southern swing band based in east Tennessee that blends familiar standards with modern vintage sounding originals. Their music is acoustic and colorful blend of standards and vintage swing styles. The group saunters and sways together with ease. Lead singer Christa DeCicco steals hearts with her come-hither delivery and charismatic stage performance. Her songwriting is heartfelt and nostalgic, and her distinctive, sultry voice brings it all home. Old suitcases and dressy vintage costumes from the 1920s-1950s give the performance a torch singer, speakeasy feel.


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The Russ Wilson Swingtette 

Russ Wilson, a veteran of Lindy Hop and Balboa events nationwide, is dedicated to the recreating the style and atmosphere of the vintage jazz world, providing a joyous reminder of what once was and can be again. His music is classy and sophisticated, but never deviates from it's central purpose; this music is for Dancing. That is the music of the 20's and 30's. Back then, going to see live music meant going to Dance. Russ Wilson's band will take you there.


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The Firecracker Jazz Band 

The Firecrackers play a traditional jazz repertoire of mostly Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong tunes. The music is reminiscent of ragtime, its close cousin, and has a ragged, bouncy stride. And although its heavily syncopated rhythms distinguish it from other forms of jazz, it's a hard style to define...

"In the style of jazz we play," a bandmember notes, "the banjo and the piano work hand-in-hand, and are the melodic rhythm, the momentum. The Sousaphone plays the bass line. And the horn player and drummer work closely together."

The Firecrackers' music melds aspects of that tradition with African rhythms and the boisterous piano music played in New Orleans' red-light district Storyville at the turn of the 20th century. All told, it's an uproarious cocktail of influences with but one thing on its collective mind: Played in Storyville's brothels and bars, "This kind of music," they say, "followed the night life ... the parties."


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Alright, fine -- one more from Firecracker: