Jim Busta Box 525 293 Fifth Avenue Northwest Spring Grove MN 55974 (507) 498-5896 jbmlb@springgrove.coop www.jimbustaband.com Work Samples Audio: Polka Celebration Baby Face Cute Red-Headed Boys Schottishce To hear the work samples, Windows Media Player is required. If you do not have it installed, you can download it for free here: Download Windows Media Player

Jim Busta Band Czech-German polka The Jim Busta Band is a Czech-German, five-piece polka band that features many vocal arrangements. Our music library includes many old-time music selections: waltzes, polkas, schottisches and foxtrots. In the 20-year history of the band, we have performed for many dances, festivals, and church services. The Jim Busta Band has performed at many ethnic celebrations and festivals with its unique style of music and fun. Some of our vocals are sung in Czech and German. In the summer of 2000, our band went on a European tour that included performances in the Czech Republic, Austria, and Germany. The Jim Busta Band has released five albums. We appreciate our audiences, and they respond with their appreciation of us. The current band membership has been together for more than ten years. Available: We are available for many engagements, with primary emphasis beingon weekend performances. We have no mileage restrictions with proper advance notice and scheduling. Space: We prefer to perform on a stage or platform at least 8 by 12 ft. We provide our own high quality sound system. Fee: Our fees are negotiable, with consideration given to the required time commitment and mileage.

Additional Information:
Jim remembers that he's always loved music, especially polka music. As a kid, there was an ample supply of polka music played at wedding dances held near the northeast Iowa farm on which he grew up. In addition, Jim experimented on the two-row Hohner button accordion that his father kept around the house. But what really caught Jim's ear was the concertina, the instrument that in the last few decades has come to symbolize everything that is traditional about southern Minnesota polka music.

In the early 1970's Jim heard the Swiss Girls polka band with Rodney Ristow on the concertina based out of Cochran, WI. He was so intrigued that about half a year later he worked up the courage to venture from Cedar Rapids where he was living, to Rodney's place in Wisconsin and buy the concertina from him. About that time, Jim also bought a Silberhorne method book and started working on trying to play the concertina. Experience on the button accordion helped the process. The combination of studying the method book, trial-and-error and asking questions of established players bore its first fruit about two years after buying the concertina. It was then that Jim started to play informally at local parties.

By 1978, Jim had set up residence in Edgewood, Iowa, and had a fulltime job as the principal of a school. He had met a drummer who wanted to jam, and the two of them started to play around Dubuque in taverns and restaurants. They had a request to play a dance from a local polka club. The group made its first recording in Jim's home in Edgewood, Iowa.

In 1985, Jim moved to Spring Grove, MN. In early 2002, the band has had a consistent lineup for over 10 years. The Jim Busta Band patterns its style on that of New Ulm, sometimes called Dutchman style. Like all of the polka music styles played for dancing in the Upper Midwest, the Dutchman style is traditional, possessing certain performance conventions that are shared by bands working within that style. In the Jim Busta band, the concertina and trumpets alternate taking the lead, and that is normal in the Dutchman style. However, bands seek to present their own special versions of the style while honoring the conventions of polka music. In that regard, the Polka community holds the Jim Busta Band in high regard for its vocals sung primarily in English, with a few sung in Czech and German, too. The group's five recordings are available in CD and audio cassette, and each contains vocal selections.

The Busta Band is a case in point, that players take different roads musicians take into the musical culture of contemporary polka music. Jim is a self-taught player who has benefited from study with the renowned Karl Hartwig. However, the musical backgrounds of other band members are much more formal than Jim's. For example, Mollie Busta, Jim's daughter plays the keyboard and trumpet and sings. However, instead of informal woodshedding, much of her training came from Luther College where she majored in musical performance. Mollie has sung opera, and played jazz, although most of her work comes from the polka band. Jim's son Chad is the drummer, the trumpeter is Steve Kenny and the tuba player is Jeff Biermann.

The Jim Busta Band is a great example of the German/Czech polka sound of southern Minnesota and Wisconsin. They've been influence by traditional New Ulm style players such as Elmer Schied, but also by the updated style of Karl Hartwig. They get good responses from audiences because it is easy to see that they have fun playing.