2010 Music
The BEST Weekend of Balboa dancing EVER! Don't miss out!
Babik (Friday night)
Babik (pronounced Bah-Beek) is a progressive Gypsy Jazz band inspired by the legendary guitarist Django Reinhardt. One of those rare musical ensembles that can truly reach across generational and stylistic lines to create a fan base that is as diverse as their musical influences. At their concerts it is not uncommon to see a white-haired 75 year-old grandmother dancing next to a purple-haired 20-something.
Babik has the ability to bridge passionate jaw-dropping virtuosity, with a rare toe-tapping danceability that keeps its audiences enthusiastically engaged. The group's ability to connect is evident in the way crowds clamber to clap, dance, and cheer along with nearly every performance. Since forming in 2005, Babik has enjoyed both commercial and artistic success.
All four members (Stuart Fuchs-Lead Guitar, Geoffrey Fitzhugh Perry-Violin, Joshua Assad-Rhythm Guitar, Kevin O'Brien-Upright Bass) are full time professional musicians, and the success of their partnership, both on and off stage, shows in their lighthearted improvisational performances.
Babik stays busy performing over 150 shows a year at concert halls and festivals, in addition to facilitating educational programs and improvisation workshops at high schools and colleges.
Their hometown of Buffalo, N.Y. has awarded them "Best Jazz Band" by two different magazines for three years in a row. Perhaps Buffalo Spree Magazine best expressed the spirit of the band in a recent feature story: "It's hard not to fall in love with a band whose every tune seems to state 'We love life and we want to celebrate it.'"
The All Balboa Weekend is excited to have Babik perform for your dancing pleasure on Friday night!
Babik
The Boilermaker Jazz Band, Pittsburgh, PA (Saturday night)
The Boilermaker Jazz Band is an ecstatically fun band performing authentic hot jazz, ragtime, and swing. The group has a wide repertoire that can make an audience swing to a classic jazz standard, get sentimental over an old-time ballad, boogie to a hot jump tune, or get low-down with a gritty blues. From concert halls to dances, festivals to family parties, listeners and dancers agree - with their infectious beat and enthusiasm this band can make any crowd move!
Leading the Boilermaker Jazz Band on clarinet and vocals is Paul Cosentino, a full time bandleader/performer who founded the band in 1988 at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. He is constantly searching for new and original tunes to add to the band's classic jazz repertoire - you'll hear something different every time! Paul plays an antique Albert system clarinet giving him a wonderfully distinctive sound.
The Boilermaker Jazz Band has performed at major festivals, concert halls, colleges, and clubs throughout the world. 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 - including an award winning children's recording - 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.
The Boilermaker Jazz Band has become a staple to the All Balboa Weekend and are returning for a
5th year to once again bring the house down on the final night of ABW.
What a way to finish the weekend!!!
Boilermaker Jazz Band
Hot Club of Detroit (Sunday night)
More than seven decades after the innovations of the Quintette du Hot Club de France, featuring guitar virtuoso Django Reinhardt, combos called Hot Clubs carry on the gypsy jazz sound around the globe - in Tokyo, San Francisco, Seattle, Sweden, Norway, Austria, and many other locales. None, however, offers a fresher take on the tradition than does the Hot Club of Detroit, led by fast-fingered Reinhardt disciple Evan Perri.
Unlike the instrumentation of original Paris-based quintet, comprising Reinhardt, violinist Stephane Grappelli, two rhythm guitarists, and a bassist, the current Hot Club of Detroit is made of guitarist Perri, accordionist Julien Labro, soprano and tenor saxophonist Carl Cafagna, rhythm guitarist Paul Brady and bassist Shannon Wade. The fibrous accordion tones of Labro, a native of Marseilles, France, links the Detroit quintet to the French musette style from which gypsy jazz partially sprung, while Cafagna's robust saxophone work introduces bop and post-bop elements to gypsy jazz.
"We kinda use the gypsy jazz thing as a springboard for all these wonderful ideas we have in our heads that we've grown up with here in Detroit," Perri explains. "In the future, I'd even like to incorporate some Motown stuff into this type of music."
ABW is pleased to welcome the Hot Club of Detroit!!!
Hot Club of Detroit