Swing Deluxe is a Parisian septet that has been playing for swing dancers since 2012.
They began as a swing string quartet that played the gypsy jazz music of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli in the bars and cafés of Paris, adding Sinatra-esque vocals to this quintessentially Parisian style of music.
Then they met (and fell in love!) with the local swing dance scene. Drums, saxophone and trumpet joined the original set up of violin, guitars and double bass. And so Swing Deluxe added dance standards from Count Basie to Duke Ellington to their classic gypsy repertoire, creating a sound that is unique on the Parisian swing scene. Vocals became even more important, with the whole band singing on many of the songs.
Making Paris Swing
We proudly co-organise one of the most popular swing events in Paris, the monthly Bal swing du Chalet du Lac, in collaboration with the dance school Shake That Swing.
Once a month up to 600 dancers descend on le Chalet du Lac de Saint Mandé, one of Paris’ largest and best-loved swing venues, for a vintage party night of dancing, music and good vibes. With two live sets, dance demonstrations and a DJ, we keep the lindy hoppers dancing late into the night – but also cater for their blues, shag, and balboa-dancing friends!
Festivals in France and Internationally
We also play at many other swing events, both in France and across in Europe:
Lindylicious 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 (Paris)
Balberna 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 (Switzerland)
Cagliari Lindy Circus (Italy) 2017
Paris Balboa Lindy Hop Blues workshop 2013, 2014
Ouistreham Bal du 14 juillet 2017, 2018 (Normandy).
Check our agenda for our next shows!
No matter where we are playing, we adapt our set list to the type of swing dance and dancers.
Teacher’s Outro – Lindylicious Festival 2016
Repertoire
We have a repertoire of over 70 tunes from which to build our sets with 3 – 4 minute long songs covering a wide range of tempos (116 – 220 BPM), we can play for all kind of swing dancers, from Lindy Hop and Charleston to Balboa to Blues and Shag.
Swing Deluxe plays a mix of swing big band classics (Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Louis Jordan, Jimmie Lunceford…) and small band tunes (Benny Goodman Sextet, Nat King Cole Trio). We also love to sing songs from Slim and Slam and The Cats And The Fiddle as well as great singers like Ella Fitzgerald.
We rearrange these classics especially for our septet’s unique section: trumpet, tenor sax, violin and guitar. We’re also proud to be able to play our unique arrangements and our own compositions in the style of the classics.
Most of all WE LOVE YOU, DANCERS!