Jungle Swing Productions

The Hoppin’ Mad Jazz Orchestra was a bit of a brainstorm involving local musician Simon Stribling and local dancer Joel Schwarz. Simon has been active in the Vancouver jazz scene for a number of years and his band, The New Orleans Ale Stars, is very popular among dancers and jazz aficionados alike. Joel has been swing dancing in Vancouver for years and is known as something of a jazz music and dance historian in this city, as well as a fantastic instructor. Responding to an overall lack of big-band jazz in Vancouver, especially bands familiar with traditional big-band tunes, Joel and Simon put their heads together and came up with the idea for a versatile big jazz band that could do all the pre-swing, hot jazz numbers as well as the down-the-pipe big-band swing from the 1930′s and 1940′s.