Music

The first thing that hits you when you see Christabel & the Jons perform is lead singer/songwriter Christa DeCicco's velvety effortless voice. Sultry, southern, and laid back, her classic delivery and stage presence often draws comparisons to Billie Holiday, Madeleine Peyroux, and Norah Jones. While the similarities are there, she's also developed a sound that's all her own, with earthy melodies and swingin' rhythm guitar work. Currently touring the country from coast to coast, she is quickly solidifying her reputation as one of the country's finest up-and-coming folk/jazz singers.

Multi-instrumentalist Seth Hopper adds colorful ambiance to the songs with his virtuoso assortment of violin, mandolin, trumpet, and accordion. The snappy rhythm section is led by Jon Whitlock on drums with Nate Donegan on upright bass. The group mixes their original songs with thoughtfully arranged jazz standards, western swing, and classic country for a sound they call Tennessee swing.

For more information about Christabel and the Jons, including music samples, head to Christabelmusic.com.

The Millionaires are a Detroit-based band specializing in Swing, Jump Blues, Rhythm & Blues, and Latin Jazz. The immediate origin of the band can be traced to the mid-1990's and a rehearsal-only project which eventually became a performing group known as The Magnificent Seven. By the end of the decade, the band had recorded their "Keep A Dollar In Your Pocket" release and settled into their new persona as "The Millionaires."

In truth, however, the die was cast long before by the many generations of great Detroit area musicians, bands, and orchestras that had one thing in common: their love for playing dance music. The musical styles within that genre, while each having their own unique qualities, also have one thing in common: they have provided us with our legacy of popular music. Today, The Millionaires remain dedicated to that cause, dedicated to playing live music - music that swings and jumps, music that gets fingers snapping and toes tapping - DANCE MUSIC.

Jeff started dancing 6 years ago at the University of Illinois and was DJing there shortly afterwards. He has DJ'd throughout the Midwest from Bluetopia to LAFLX and has won DJ battles as big as last year's Show-Me Blues battle. He currently resides in the beautiful Paris where he is working on building BluesCentral, a new blues scene in Champaign and ISU Swing Dance Club, a new swing group in Terre Haute. So you caught him: Jeff doesn't live in France... his Paris is in Illinois :( Jeff loves to spice up his sets with his turntable and always pushes himself to design innovative sets that incorporate music you've never heard before.

Chris likes to play music that not just moves your feet, but opens your creativity. He uses his musically trained ear to hunt down songs that have great instrumentation, drive, and style; and he uses his heart to find powerful vocals, lyrics, and sounds. He can now be found now sharing his love of Blues in Boston, MA, and across the world as he travels for dance.

On his travels Aleks has shared his love of dance and music as far away as Shanghai and Dubai. In each spot he finds a few forgotten gems or new originals to bring back home and share. Every set will include songs you'll wish you'd heard before mixed in with familiar favorites.

Brennan Bowman started DJing to fulfill a need at his college swing club. With only a small repertoire of music at the time, he quickly began to gain popularity in the midwest. Now he is has been spinning tunes everywhere he can including events such as ISLX, PB&J, MUDE Swings, CodeBlue, and Bluetopia. Brennan's music ranges from old school Chicago Blues to deep south New Orleans Jazz. With three years of dancing under his belt, Brennan works to keep the floor full and the music groovin'.

Mike started swing dancing in Lansing around seven years ago, and he has been hooked ever since. Over the years he has developed a finely hewn sense of music snobbery and in the process gained a fairly extensive collection of vintage and vintage-style jazz and swing that he loves to share with everyone he can.

He has been DJing fairly regularly in and around Michigan for 5 years, and is still baffled occasionally when people don't dance to certain songs, but he tries his best so show them pity. Having alienated most of his friends that do not dance, he has embraced his dance geekiness and does whatever he can to dance and DJ whenever he can, provided he's not flat broke.

If you remember Janna from her teaching days in the Ann Arbor swing scene, you must be "old school" (relatively speaking, of course). If you don't remember her, come on up and introduce yourself and ask for a dance - she's always ready to make new swing friends! Janna's musical influences include Ella Fitzgerald (duh), Lou Rawls (mmmm), Nina Simone (mmm again) ... aw hell, you don't want to read an endless list of musicians, do you? She likes to watch you groove on the dance floor and plays music that makes you wanna. 'Nuff said.

Savannah Smith is a sister of the blues. She hip waggles her swag down Bourbon St. and wants ya'll to join. She has two years worn into her blue suede shoes and a few DJing experiences under her belt. After diving head first into Event DJing, she discovered she really likes to let the floor groove to the awesome sounds of obscure artists. A little bit of funk and a little bit of blues drive her sets. As president of Ball State Swing Society, her campaign is "shake a tail feather and never lend money to Minnie" and she cannot wait to share her blues with you!