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May 5, 2008

extreme DJing nerdery

I've had a busy DJing fortnight... well, month, really. I've done 6 sets this month, including a blues set. The week before last I did a double on Thursday, then a set on Friday, and then last week I did a set Wednesday and one Thursday. I'm about done with this. Remind me to talk about my sore ears, ok?

Any how, here're the sets I played that are kind of interesting.

This next set is the double from Thursday 24th April. It was a last minute double set, and for once the gig (CBD) actually had some people. It was the night before a public holiday, so there was an almost full room. Not the biggest ever, but much bigger than other weeks. And a mixed crowd, so I could play a mixed set. But I'd had a pretty horrible day, and wasn't feeling terribly inspired or great. So I played the most ordinary set of overplayed favourites ever. But people really liked it. They were dancing like fools, over-energised, over-adrenalined. Which was nice. I started at 8.30 and finished at 11. Here's the set:

Moten Swing Count Basie 135 1958 25/04/08 12:07 PM 4:50 Chairman Of The Board [Bonus Tracks]
Jump Ditty! Joe Carroll and The Ray Bryant Quintet 134 25/04/08 9:49 PM 2:54 Joe Carroll Sings
I Diddle Dinah Washington 153 1/05/08 10:15 PM 3:05
Tain't Me Roy Milton and his Solid Senders 158 1992 1/05/08 10:17 PM 2:34 Vol. 2: Groovy Blues
Fine Brown Frame Nellie Lutcher 123 2006 25/04/08 12:18 PM 2:54 Fine Brown Frame
Big Fat Mama Lucky Millinder 135 25/04/08 12:21 PM 3:09 Apollo Jump
Be Careful (If You Can't Be Good) Buddy Johnson and His Orchestra 121 1951 1/05/08 10:12 PM 3:09 Walk 'Em
My Baby Just Cares For Me Nina Simone 120 25/04/08 10:49 PM 3:38 The Great Nina Simone
Massachusetts Maxine Sullivan 147 1956 25/04/08 12:32 PM 3:19 A Tribute To Andy Razaf
C-Jam Blues Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis 143 1999 25/04/08 10:23 PM 3:34 Live In Swing City: Swingin' With Duke
For Dancers Only Jimmie Lunceford and His Orchestra 148 1937 25/04/08 9:59 PM 2:41 Swingsation - Jimmie Lunceford
Pan Pan Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five 152 1941 1/05/08 10:20 PM 2:54 Louis Jordan And His Tympany Five (vol 2)
Drinkin' Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra with Sonny Parker 134 1949 25/04/08 9:56 PM 3:24 Hamp: The Legendary Decca Recordings
Solid as a Rock Count Basie and His Orchestra with The Deep River Boys 140 30/04/08 11:20 PM 3:04 Count Basie and His Orchestra 1950-1951
Joog, Joog Duke Ellington and His Orchestra 146 1949 30/04/08 11:17 PM 3:01 Duke Ellington and his Orchestra: 1949-1950
Pound Cake Count Basie and His Orchestra with Lester Young 186 1939 24/04/08 9:23 PM 2:46 Classic Columbia, Okeh And Vocalion Lester Young With Count Basie (1936-1940) (Disc 2)
Good Queen Bess Duke Ellington 160 1940 1/05/08 10:39 PM 3:00 The Duke Ellington Centennial Edition: Complete RCA Victor Recordings (disc 10)
Six Appeal (My Daddy Rocks Me) Benny Goodman Sextet with Charlie Christian 150 1940 1/05/08 10:36 PM 3:13 Charlie Christian: The Genius of The Electric Guitar (disc 2)
Bli-Blip Jonathan Stout And His Campus Five 140 2007 1/05/08 10:29 PM 2:44 Moppin' And Boppin'
Jersey Bounce Ella Fitzgerald 134 1961 24/04/08 9:36 PM 3:36 Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie!
Blue Monday Jimmy Witherspoon With Jay McShann And His Band 125 1957 1/05/08 10:05 PM 3:40 Goin' To Kansas City Blues
Hallelujah, I Love Her So Count Basie 145 1959 24/04/08 9:42 PM 2:36 Breakfast Dance And Barbecue
Tickle Toe Count Basie and His Orchestra 234 1960 24/04/08 9:45 PM 2:36 The Count Basie Story (Disc 2)
Hop Skip and Jump Mora's Modern Swingtet 191 2004 24/04/08 9:47 PM 2:44 20th Century Closet
The Back Room Romp Rex Stewart and His 52nd Street Stompers 152 1937 1/05/08 2:17 PM 2:49 The Duke's Men: Small Groups Vol. 1 (Disc 2)
A Viper's Moan Willie Bryant And His Orchestra 153 24/04/08 9:54 PM 3:26 Willie Bryant 1935-1936
Apollo Jump Lucky Millinder 143 30/04/08 11:08 PM 3:27 Apollo Jump
Jump Through The Window Roy Eldridge and his Orchestra 154 1943 24/04/08 10:00 PM 2:42 After You've Gone
The Heebie Jeebies Are Rockin' The Town (Alt Tk) Red Allen & Lionel Hampton, vocal, & His Orchestra 141 1939 24/04/08 10:02 PM 2:44 The Complete Lionel Hampton Victor Sessions 1937-1941 (disc 3)
Walk 'Em Buddy Johnson and His Orchestra 131 1946 25/04/08 10:04 PM 2:53 Walk 'Em
Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra 136 1945 24/04/08 10:09 PM 3:22 Lionel Hampton Story 3: Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop
Savoy Blues Kid Ory 134 24/04/08 10:12 PM 3:01 Golden Greats: Greatest Dixieland Jazz Disc 3
Joshua Fit De Battle Of Jericho Kid Ory And His Creole Jazz Band 160 1946 1/05/08 2:42 PM 3:13 Kid Ory and his Creole Jazz Band 1944-46
Shake That Thing Vince Giordano 230 2004 24/04/08 10:18 PM 2:59 The Aviator
Blues My Naughty Sweetie Sidney Bechet 140 1951 30/04/08 10:49 PM 5:44 The Blue Note Years
Tishomingo Blues Carrol Ralph 128 2005 1/05/08 2:27 PM 4:15 Swinging Jazz Portrait
Going To Chicago Barbara Morrison 126 2002 24/04/08 10:33 PM 5:35 Live At The 9:20 Special
Every Day I Have The Blues Clark Terry Quintet and Carrie Smith 122 2001 24/04/08 10:38 PM 5:12 The Clark Terry Quintet: Live On QE2
Mumbles Oscar Peterson 188 1964 24/04/08 10:40 PM 2:02 Ultimate Oscar Peterson As Selected By Ray Brown
Froggy Bottom Jimmy Witherspoon With Jay McShann And His Band 155 1957 25/04/08 10:13 PM 2:37 Goin' To Kansas City Blues
Sent For You Yesterday Count Basie and His Orchestra with Joe Williams 163 1960 25/04/08 10:16 PM 3:10 The Count Basie Story (Disc 2)
Blues In Hoss's Flat Count Basie 144 1958 1/05/08 10:08 PM 3:13 Chairman Of The Board [Bonus Tracks]
Lavender Coffin Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra with Sonny Parker and Joe James 134 1949 25/04/08 10:07 PM 2:47 Hamp: The Legendary Decca Recordings
On Revival Day Lavern Baker 144 25/04/08 10:10 PM 3:16 Lavern Sings Bessie Smith

As I said, it's very ordinary. Nothing new except a Carole Ralph track and a Jimmy Witherspoon, neither of which are actually new.

Any how, the next night I played the Funpit gig. The room was absolutely solid. You couldn't push your way into the room, let alone the dance floor. It was all beginners, too - people who'd only had a lesson or two. Plus a few other people with more experience. But no one who'd been dancing more than a year or two besides me, the teachers and one or two other people. In a room that was the crowdedest gig I've ever played in Melbourne. It was heaps of fun to play. But I was coming down with a cold, so when I got up to dance after my set I was too tired to dance more than a song. I spent the weekend being very ill, but I still had fun that night.
Here's the set (Friday 25th April, 9.30-10.45pm, Funpit):

Splanky Count Basie 125 1957 3:36 Complete Atomic Basie, the 25/04/08 9:47 PM
Jump Ditty! Joe Carroll and The Ray Bryant Quintet 134 2:54 Joe Carroll Sings 25/04/08 9:49 PM
Hungry Man Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five 135 1949 3:08 Louis Jordan And His Tympany Five (vol 6) 1/05/08 2:11 PM
Drinkin' Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra with Sonny Parker 134 1949 3:24 Hamp: The Legendary Decca Recordings 25/04/08 9:56 PM
For Dancers Only Jimmie Lunceford and His Orchestra 148 1937 2:41 Swingsation - Jimmie Lunceford 25/04/08 9:59 PM
Are You Hep To The Jive? Cab Calloway 160 1994 2:50 Are You Hep To The Jive? 25/04/08 10:01 PM
Walk 'Em Buddy Johnson and His Orchestra 131 1946 2:53 Walk 'Em 25/04/08 10:04 PM
Lavender Coffin Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra with Sonny Parker and Joe James 134 1949 2:47 Hamp: The Legendary Decca Recordings 25/04/08 10:07 PM
On Revival Day Lavern Baker 144 3:16 Lavern Sings Bessie Smith 25/04/08 10:10 PM
Froggy Bottom Jimmy Witherspoon With Jay McShann And His Band 155 1957 2:37 Goin' To Kansas City Blues 25/04/08 10:13 PM
Sent For You Yesterday Count Basie and His Orchestra with Joe Williams 163 1960 3:10 The Count Basie Story (Disc 2) 25/04/08 10:16 PM
Blues In Hoss's Flat Count Basie 144 1958 3:13 Chairman Of The Board [Bonus Tracks] 1/05/08 10:08 PM
C-Jam Blues Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis 143 1999 3:34 Live In Swing City: Swingin' With Duke 25/04/08 10:23 PM
Be Careful (If You Can't Be Good) Buddy Johnson and His Orchestra 121 1951 3:09 Walk 'Em 1/05/08 10:12 PM
Pan Pan Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five 152 1941 2:54 Louis Jordan And His Tympany Five (vol 2) 1/05/08 10:20 PM
Ain't Nothin' To It Fats Waller & His Rhythm 134 1941 3:10 Last Years (1940-1943) (Disc 2) 1/05/08 10:27 PM
Laughing In Rhythm Slim Gaillard and his Peruvians 142 1951 2:56 Laughing In Rhythm: The Best Of The Verve Years 25/04/08 10:35 PM
Bli-Blip Jonathan Stout And His Campus Five 140 2007 2:44 Moppin' And Boppin' 1/05/08 10:29 PM
A Viper's Moan Mora's Modern Rhythmists 143 2000 3:30 Call Of The Freaks 1/05/08 10:33 PM
Squatty Roo Jonathan Stout And His Campus Five 173 2003 3:43 Jammin' the Blues 25/04/08 10:45 PM
My Baby Just Cares For Me Nina Simone 120 3:38 The Great Nina Simone 25/04/08 10:49 PM

Again, nothing new or exciting. I'm really quite a boring DJ these days. Partly because most of the stuff I'm buying (helloooooooo Jelly Roll Morton!) is completely inappropriate for lindy hop. Not so bad for blues dancing, though.

Then this week just passed I did my first set at Madame Dynamite's. This is what I played:

Blue Monday Jimmy Witherspoon With Jay McShann And His Band 125 1957 3:40 Goin' To Kansas City Blues 1/05/08 10:05 PM
Hungry Man Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five 135 1949 3:08 Louis Jordan And His Tympany Five (vol 6) 1/05/08 2:11 PM
Give Me Some Skin Lionel Hampton and His Sextet 138 1941 3:16 The Complete Lionel Hampton Victor Sessions 1937-1941 (disc 5) 5/05/08 12:06 PM
The Back Room Romp Rex Stewart and His 52nd Street Stompers 152 1937 2:49 The Duke's Men: Small Groups Vol. 1 (Disc 2) 1/05/08 2:17 PM
Just Kiddin' Around Artie Shaw and His Orchestra 159 1941 3:21 Self Portrait (Disc 3) 1/05/08 2:20 PM
Bli-Blip Jonathan Stout And His Campus Five 140 2007 2:44 Moppin' And Boppin' 1/05/08 10:29 PM
Tishomingo Blues Carrol Ralph 128 2005 4:15 Swinging Jazz Portrait 1/05/08 2:27 PM
The Blues B Artie Shaw And His New Music 122 1937 2:59 Self Portrait (Disc 1) 1/05/08 2:30 PM
Deep Trouble Jimmie Noone 161 1930 2:49 The Jimmie Noone Collection 5/05/08 12:09 PM
The Basement Blues Nobel Sissle with Sidney Bechet 153 2000 3:16 Ken Burns Jazz Collection: Sidney Bechet 1/05/08 2:36 PM
Ballin' The Jack Bunk Johnson's V-Disc Veterans 156 1944 2:45 Bunk And The New Orleans Revival 1942-1945 1/05/08 2:39 PM
Blues My Naughty Sweetie Sidney Bechet 140 1951 5:44 The Blue Note Years 30/04/08 10:49 PM
Stuffy Jonathan Stout And His Campus Five 153 2003 3:46 Jammin' the Blues 30/04/08 10:53 PM
The Grabtown Grapple Artie Shaw and His Gramercy 5 178 1945 2:57 Self Portrait (Disc 3) 30/04/08 10:56 PM
Peckin' Johnny Hodges and His Orchestra 165 1937 3:10 The Duke's Men: Small Groups Vol. 1 (Disc 2) 30/04/08 10:59 PM
The Heebie Jeebies Are Rockin' The Town Red Allen & Lionel Hampton, vocal, & His Orchestra 139 1939 2:44 The Complete Lionel Hampton Victor Sessions 1937-1941 (disc 3) 30/04/08 11:01 PM
Pan Pan Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five 152 1941 2:54 Louis Jordan And His Tympany Five (vol 2) 1/05/08 10:20 PM
Apollo Jump Lucky Millinder 143 3:27 Apollo Jump 30/04/08 11:08 PM
Half Tight Boogie Jonathan Stout And His Campus Five 150 2003 3:13 Jammin' the Blues 30/04/08 11:11 PM
Bogo-Jo Lionel Hampton and His Sextet 158 1940 2:55 The Complete Lionel Hampton Victor Sessions 1937-1941 (disc 5) 30/04/08 11:14 PM
Joog, Joog Duke Ellington and His Orchestra 146 1949 3:01 Duke Ellington and his Orchestra: 1949-1950 30/04/08 11:17 PM
Solid as a Rock Count Basie and His Orchestra with The Deep River Boys 140 3:04 Count Basie and His Orchestra 1950-1951 30/04/08 11:20 PM
Till Tom Special Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra 158 1940 3:24 Tempo And Swing 30/04/08 11:23 PM
Summit Ridge Drive Artie Shaw and His Gramercy 5 128 1940 3:21 Self Portrait (Disc 2) 30/04/08 11:27 PM
Easy Does It Big 18 129 5:14 30/04/08 11:32 PM
B-Sharp Boston Duke Ellington and His Orchestra 126 1949 2:55 Duke Ellington and his Orchestra: 1949-1950 30/04/08 11:35 PM
It Takes Two to Tango Lester Young and Oscar Peterson 104 1997 6:09 Lester Young With the Oscar Peterson Trio 1/05/08 2:04 PM

It was the second set (Wednesday 30th April, 9.30-late), there weren't many people there at all and the floor was really slippery. I really struggled to find the right vibe that night. I'd expected a crowd who'd want old school, and mostly faster. I was looking forward to playing some of my newer, more obscure stuff. But that didn't happen so much. I'm not sure if it was because I sucked or because the dancers just weren't in the mood. I find it really difficult to work smaller crowds - I just need critical mass to really make them do what I want... or to get where I want to go. This crowd was also really into a bit of talking rather than dancing as well. So this set is more of the same, especially at the beginning, then there's some newer stuff. I did play that 'Give Me Some Skin' song from my new Hampton Mosaic set (which I adore), I screwed up and played 'Bogo-Jo' instead of ... some other song from that same set, and it didn't work so well. So I recovered with a safety song, 'Joog, Joog'. Overall, I wasn't too happy with that set, but it didn't suck. I mean, I liked the music a lot, and would have liked to dance to it, but it didn't really work the crowd properly. I also learnt that it's important to be able to see the people sitting down not dancing as well as the dancers when I'm DJing. At the Funpit I couldn't see anyone because it was so packed, but that's kind of easier to work. At MD's I couldn't see the people sitting down, so I couldn't judge their body language to see how they were feeling. Oh well.

I quite liked the bit from 'The Blues B' to 'Ballin' the Jack'. I'm especially fond of 'Deep Trouble'. But that stuff doesn't make for good lindy hop. It's too early. I'm really loving 1927-1930 right now (incidentally, that's the period the third season of House of Eliot is set, and I'm loving THAT - the skirt hems are so HIGH (knees! knees!)), but even though I know that's when lindy began, people in Melbourne can't dance to it. There's not enough swing, and it still feels a bit too oomp-a, oomp-a for proper lindy. D says that that type of music is good for 'one and five' dancing, and that people overseas dig it atm. I dig it, I'd like to dance to it, but it simply doesn't make for nice lindy hop. People at MD's seemed to like it, but they weren't really sure what to do with it.
In fact, I'm finding that people generally quite like the songs, but that they don't really know how to dance to it. Some of the songs I played at the blues night had a similar effect. People really liked them, but their dancing looked pretty awkward. And I could hear an awful lot of stompy, clattering feet during a few tracks.

Anyhow, here's that set list:

Do I Move You? (Second Version) (Bonus Track) Nina Simone 70 2006 2:20 Nina Simone Sings the Blues
Save Me Aretha Franklin 122 2:19 Greatest Hits - Disc 1
Get Back Temptation Ollabelle 80 2004 2:50 Ollabelle
I Left My Baby Kansas City Band 83 1995 7:24 Kansas City: A Robert Altman Film
St. James Infirmary The Cairo Club Orchestra 109 2004 3:33 Sunday
Reckless Blues Velma Middleton with Louis Armstrong and the All Stars 88 2:30 The Complete Decca Studio Recordings of Louis Armstrong and the All Stars (disc 06)
Back Water Blues Dinah Washington with Belford Hendricks' Orchestra 71 1957 4:58 Ultimate Dinah Washington
Cloudy Jimmy Witherspoon With Jay McShann And His Band 69 1957 3:16 Goin' To Kansas City Blues
Wee Baby Blues Count Basie with Mahalia Jackson 64 1968 3:14 Live In Antibes 1968
Amtrak Blues Alberta Hunter 95 1978 3:24 Amtrak Blues
Long John Blues Dinah Washington 97 1948 3:10 Dinah Washington:the Queen Sings - Disc 2 - Stairway to the Stars
My Daddy Rocks Me Jimmie Noone's Apex Club Orchestra 114 1929 3:09 The Jimmie Noone Collection
New Orleans Bump Wynton Marsalis 128 1999 4:36 Mr. Jelly Lord - Standard Time, Vol. 6
Black And Tan Fantasy Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis 88 1999 4:36 Live In Swing City: Swingin' With Duke
Joshua Fit The Battle Of Jericho Mahalia Jackson 130 1958 2:13 Live At Newport 1958
Goin' To Chicago Count Basie and His Orchestra with Jimmy Rushing 79 1952 3:22 Complete Clef/Verve Count Basie Fifties Studio Recordings (Disc 2)
I Want A Little Girl Big Joe Turner with Pete Johnson and Freddie Green 91 1956 4:19 The Boss Of The Blues

It's from the SP blues night, 13th April, 10.30-11.30. I especially love that song 'My Daddy Rocks Me'. I've heard a more recent version played lately round town - something hi-fi. But this version is the BEST. The older versions always sound so much dirtier. I wonder if it's because the contemporary singers, today, don't know what the words mean? Or if they can't make it work because they don't use those expressions themselves in their everyday talk (vernacular much?), so they can't give it the right weight....? Any how, Jimmie Noone is my man. My homey. My main squeeze. We are having a Thing. If you read the Red Hot Jazz entry about him you'll see where my musical taste is at at the moment - I am still really keen on Kid Ory (and following him through Jelly Roll's bands), nuts for Johnny Dodds and chasing some Earl Hines.

This blues set was quite varied, moving from an excellent (truly great) set by Leon. But Iiked the part from Long John Blues onwards especially. I played the Winton Marsalis version of 'New Orleans Bump' rather than the Jelly Roll one because I needed to get up out of the scratchy sound quality for the room to get a bit of energy. People really have trouble with those blues tracks with tango type rhythms, though. Me, I lubbs them, because I have experience with Argentinian tango. And because I really like blues music which makes you feel like moving around the floor rather than just standing there getting your frottage cheeze on. Also, the guy who wrote 'St Louis Blues' said in an interview I read somewhere that he wrote the song with a 'tango' intro because tango was so cool with dancers at that moment, and he wanted to get them on the floor before hitting them with the blues action.... now I think about it, I'm not sure it was 'St Louis Blues'. But whatever, it's an interesting point. And I really should look up the quote so I can get it right. But I like the late 20s for all the interesting stuff that was going on. We see early labour movement stuff. Women's movement stuff (where women were beginning to reap the benefits of the suffragette movement of the late 19th century). Sweet-as music stuff. It was just an interesting period.

Any how, I played the LCJO version of 'Black and Tan Fantasy' rather than a bit of sweet Ellington because of the scratch factor. This crowd isn't all that used to or comfortable with really old stuff - they prefer the hi-fi. And the sound gear and room just wasn't working with so much lo-fi, scratchy, messy sounding music. Which is a real shame.

Some day I'd like to do a set that played all the music from a particular period, regardless of tempo or style, just working it all together to make for an interesting night of dancing. I'd like to play the really slow stuff and the really fast stuff, working it all together so it kind of flowed, but not having to think 'oh, these speed freaks won't dance slow' and vice versa.

Sigh.

-- Note: all pics are from this interesting site, www.mainspringpress.com. --

"extreme DJing nerdery" was posted by dogpossum on May 5, 2008 2:04 PM in the category djing and lindy hop & other dances i have known and music | Comments (0)

March 30, 2008

djing by remote

Argh. This Yehoodi set is killing me. I've been working on this set off and on for ages and it's really not a very great thing. I've finally put together 4 hours of music that I think could work and I'm listening to it now, back to front. The last hour (currently the first hour) or so is pure cop out - I suddenly decided I needed to take the tempo extremely low and the tone equally so. This was cheering on a gloomy Sunday afternoon, but it sounds a bit odd to suddenly drop like that at the end of the session.
What I've been trying to do is work between different styles, much as I would while DJing, but perhaps on a longer 'curve' - so I can spend more time with each style. I'm also playing fast and loose with the tempos - I'm not tempering things for the physical limitations of a real, live crowd of dancers.
This is, of course, playing havoc with my internal DJing instincts. Playing 9 or 10 songs at 250bpm and higher in a row is wrong. Only balboa doods could hack that tempo. Similarly, it feels wrong to go from 200 to 160 to 60 within 4 songs. And then to move on up. Historically, it's fairly accurate - a band playing for a crowd in 1928 would move between subsonic and supersonic speeds ad libitum. But lindy hoppers today get all freaked out by that. Speed freaks in particular have trouble with songs at about 60bpm. Babies.
Anyhow, it's making me feel kind of anxious to break the rules like this.
But it's also quite nice - I'm playing songs I really, really like but hardly ever get to play. And I'm playing them in clumps that I know would never work for dancers. There's a particular lump of about 8 songs which are quite fast but also quite low energy - they're more along the 'chamber jazz' sort of line, which is really nice for listening, but would be ordinary for dancing.

... I had to resist the temptation to try to be as obscure as possible. Thanks for the tip, Trev - it's been very useful. It's not difficult to remind myself that I don't have anywhere near as large a collection as some of the supernerds out there, so there's no way I'm going to be able to pull off some esoteric collection of completely obscure and unknown gems. So I'm going for 'songs I freakin' love' and 'songs I love to play for dancers'.
That means there are quite a few favourites ('Jumpin' at the Woodside' is in there), I've played a couple of versions of a couple of songs (oh no! gasp! rule breaker!), but I figure it's a really nice way to contrast and compare. I don't play them one after another, of course, but it's a nice way to show how songs have stuck around for decades, in and out of the popular repertoire, given different treatments and flavours by different musicians. I have to say, all this stuff is chugging along in my head but is probably completely unnoticeable to most listeners - most people simply wouldn't notice or care. Which is ok by me. I certainly don't want to come off sounding as though I'm trying to take the listener to school. I just figure, while I'm breaking some rules, I might as well break others.

I'm also doing some shifts between songs that are purely for my own enjoyment. Yes, that is Freddy Green there in that Joe Turner song following that Count Basie song. And that's certainly not the only time I use a common artist to segue between songs/groups.

I've noticed that I over use a few different artists. But frankly, how can it be wrong to play a lot of Ellington? Or Basie? Those guys are the bread and butter of the swing dancing world, they recorded a jillion songs, they played for a jillion dancers and they really shaped the popular music world of the day. So I'm going to rock on with those mens.
Not so many ladies in the list, though. That's hardly suprising - how many lady rock stars are there in your average 'rock and roll' set list? Not a whole lot.

...more updates as I go. And I'll let you know when it's on the radio so you can listen - it's an internet radio station, so you'll be able to hear it (and me talking!) on your computers. If I have time I'll see if I can make some sort of read-a-long thing for this blog, so you can read my thinking along with the music. Or not, if you happen to have, well, a life. Ok, gotta ping ding chicken wing now - blllooooooz dancing!

"djing by remote" was posted by dogpossum on March 30, 2008 8:45 PM in the category djing and lindy hop & other dances i have known and music | Comments (0)

March 21, 2008

last night's set

There's a thread on the SwingDJs board called 'last night's playlist' which I'm not sure I'm brave enough to post in yet. So I'm going to post last night's set here. I've been listening to the set again this morning, so the 'last played' times are a bit off. It was a fun set - I'm enjoying listening to it now!
I played a fair few newer songs (new to me), which was really nice - I'm using all the new music I've bought lately. All this purchasing has been very inspiring and made me very happy. I'm loving the Lionel Hampton Mosaic set very much. It has quite a few nice, medium tempo songs which are great for newer dancers... or nannas like myself.

Last night was interesting as it's the second night of a new door cover charge for the venue. I think $5 (or is it $6?) is kind of crap for a venue where the drinks are really expensive and you're still not allowed to bring your own water ($1.50 for a glass of water!). I wouldn't mind a cover charge, but I need to drink a lot of water... it's also a fucking disgusting place. The toilets leak everywhere and stink, the taps don't work on the sink (of course - it's a scam to keep you buying water), it stinks, the floor is inconsistent, the DJing podium thing is a bit scary (a giant crevasse down behind it, etc), and it just generally has a nasty vibe. Plus the bar staff are surly bastards.
Anyhow, the door charge has cut the people through the door by 25% at least. This kind of sucks. But it means that those people who are going are there to dance rather than drink, which means it's easier to work the crowd - you get a greater proportion on the floor at any one time. The crowd should have been bigger, and the night should have been pumping because it was the Thursday before good Friday, but it wasn't - and that's a sure sign that the door charge is having detrimental effects.
But most of the people there were from the classes before, and the retention rate was higher than usual. It felt like a Funbags night - more 'beginner' dancers. Which is actually very nice, as they just want to DANCE and they're not as picky about musical style. They like a solid beat, and they really like the older music that I play, and they're totally unfazed by higher tempos - they just get out there and shake it, regardless.
But they don't have a lot of stamina, so you get everyone in the room dancing for 3 songs, then an empty floor (except for more experienced people), then 3 songs of packed floor, then an empty floor. They just don't have the stamina, the basic fitness and - more importantly - the body awareness and basic muscle memory/awareness to move efficiently and energy-savingly. Which means that they kind of get out there and thrash around, limbs all over the place, wasting energy. They're having fun, but they're killing themselves. So they need a rest. But they're still really keen to dance, so as soon as they've caught their breath, they're back out there, dancing like fools. Which is really very nice.

So I'm happy with the job I did last night, and I enjoyed it. It's about my fifth set this month (what with the 3 gigs over the MSF weekend just passed), so I'm steadily saving money for more CDs. Yay! I'm also getting my DJing in now before the second semester starts and I have to go back to being working stooge who has to keep normal hours. But I'm down to do a blues set next month, which I'm looking forward to (I only do one a year these days, not counting exchanges). Oh, and excitingly, I've been asked to do a set on Yehoodi radio soon. So I'm getting myself a bit worked up about that. I'm not sure whether I should play stuff I usually play for dancers (which could get kind of dull), stuff I'd like to play for dancers, stuff that's not necessarily for dancing but rocks, a lindy set, a blues set, a combination of the two... I'm also finding part of me is trying to find the most obscure stuff I can. It's a show off thing. And this obscure stuff is the older, more unusual stuff. And most of that is pre-lindy hop. Which probably isn't the best way to go. But I'm looking forward to it. All four hours of it (!!).

The Comeback 20/03/08 8:41 PM Barbara Morrison 134 2002 7:41 Live At The 9:20 Special
Froggy Bottom 20/03/08 8:43 PM Jimmy Witherspoon With Jay McShann And His Band 155 1957 2:37 Goin' To Kansas City Blues
Walk 'Em 20/03/08 8:46 PM Buddy Johnson and His Orchestra 131 1946 2:53 Walk 'Em
Give Me Some Skin 21/03/08 11:08 AM Lionel Hampton and His Sextet 138 1941 3:16 The Complete Lionel Hampton Victor Sessions 1937-1941 (disc 5)
Apollo Jump 21/03/08 11:12 AM Lucky Millinder 143 3:27 Apollo Jump
Summit Ridge Drive 21/03/08 11:15 AM Artie Shaw and His Gramercy 5 128 1940 3:21 Self Portrait (Disc 2)
Don't Be That Way 21/03/08 11:17 AM Lionel Hampton & His Orchestra 136 1938 2:36 The Complete Lionel Hampton Victor Sessions 1937-1941 (disc 2)
I'm Beginning To See The Light 20/03/08 9:02 PM Jonathan Stout And His Campus Five Featuring Hilary Alexander 126 2007 2:57 Moppin' And Boppin'
Massachusetts 21/03/08 11:21 AM Maxine Sullivan 147 1956 3:19 A Tribute To Andy Razaf
Shoutin' Blues 21/03/08 11:24 AM Count Basie and His Orchestra 148 1949 2:38 Kansas City Powerhouse
For Dancers Only 21/03/08 11:26 AM Jimmie Lunceford and His Orchestra 148 1937 2:41 Swingsation - Jimmie Lunceford
Afternoon of a Moax 20/03/08 9:14 PM Charlie Barnet 132 2004 3:24 Charlie Barnet
The Heebie Jeebies Are Rockin' The Town (Alt Tk) 21/03/08 11:30 AM Red Allen & Lionel Hampton, vocal, & His Orchestra 141 1939 2:44 The Complete Lionel Hampton Victor Sessions 1937-1941 (disc 3)
Laughing In Rhythm 21/03/08 11:33 AM Slim Gaillard and his Peruvians 142 1951 2:56 Laughing In Rhythm: The Best Of The Verve Years
Ain't Nothin' To It 21/03/08 11:36 AM Fats Waller & His Rhythm 134 1941 3:10 Last Years (1940-1943) (Disc 2)
Oh Red! 20/03/08 9:26 PM Sam Price and his Texas Blusicians with Sam Price 182 1940 3:05 1929-1941
A Viper's Moan 20/03/08 9:29 PM Willie Bryant And His Orchestra 153 3:26 Willie Bryant 1935-1936
My Baby Just Cares For Me 20/03/08 9:33 PM Nina Simone 120 3:38 The Great Nina Simone
Bli-Blip 20/03/08 9:35 PM Jonathan Stout And His Campus Five 140 2007 2:44 Moppin' And Boppin'
Gotta Do Some War Work 20/03/08 9:40 PM Jonathan Stout And His Campus Five 150 2004 4:10 Crazy Rhythm
Savoy Blues 20/03/08 9:43 PM Kid Ory 134 2002 3:01 Golden Greats: Greatest Dixieland Jazz Disc 3
Joshua Fit De Battle Of Jericho 20/03/08 9:46 PM Kid Ory And His Creole Jazz Band 160 1946 3:13 Kid Ory and his Creole Jazz Band 1944-46
I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate 20/03/08 9:49 PM Muggsy Spanier and his Ragtime Band 155 1939 2:56 Great Original Performances 1931 & 1939
Moppin' And Boppin' 20/03/08 9:53 PM Fats Waller & His Rhythm 173 1943 4:29 Last Years (1940-1943) (Disc 3)
Flying Home 20/03/08 9:56 PM Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra 197 1942 3:11 Lionel Hampton Story 2: Flying Home
Good Queen Bess 20/03/08 9:59 PM Duke Ellington 160 1940 3:00 The Duke Ellington Centennial Edition: Complete RCA Victor Recordings (disc 10)
The Back Room Romp 20/03/08 10:02 PM Rex Stewart and His 52nd Street Stompers 152 1937 2:49 The Duke's Men: Small Groups Vol. 1 (Disc 2)
Tippin' In 21/03/08 11:04 AM Erskine Hawkins and His Orchestra 144 1942 3:20 Tuxedo Junction

"last night's set" was posted by dogpossum on March 21, 2008 12:40 PM in the category djing and lindy hop & other dances i have known and music | Comments (1)

March 17, 2008

happy day

This lovely thing just arrived! Sure, it was a little embarrassing opening the door to the post dood wearing only a (very) short, light cotton dress, but I like to think I made his afternoon a little more interesting. But it was just GREAT to see a giant Mosaic cardboard box under his arm.

I love Lionel Hampton very much. He's one of those guys I got into when I was first interested in DJing. In fact, I think his album Tempo and Swing was one of the first I bought thinking 'this is DJing music'. I'm still a massive fan. He made great dancing music - stuff that's really stompy and makes you want to get up and stomp around. Probably has something to do with his being a percussionist.

Anyhoo, it was interesting to see Ziggy Elman's name on the first page of the first CD's liner notes. Elman's interesting, not just because he's responsible for the freakin' awesome solo at the beginning of Tommy Dorsey's song 'Well git it!'. He caught my interest initially because he was a Jewish musician 'performing' whiteness - he changed his name.
This is something that Dean Collins also did (Saul Cohen originally). And all of this rings a bell with me because I keep coming across articles about Jewish musicians and actors who performed 'blackness' in the early days of radio and vaudeville - putting on 'black' accents and black face paint. It's something I'd like to follow up in greater depth at some point, not only because of the interesting Jewish history of American show business, but also because of the ideological ramifications of 'performing' ethnicity in swing culture generally.

Because, of course, when we lindy hop, we are dancing what was an African American dance. Dancers who are into historical recreationism are particularly keen on emulating 'black' ways of moving and movement aesthetics. Which is problematic, when you remember that these are predominantly white, middle class kids (especially in America). But all this gets even more interesting when you take into account the fact that lindy hop is getting very popular in places like Korea. A recent exchange guest was telling me that there are thousands of swing dancers in Seoul, and that he social dances every single night of the week - far more often than we can here in Melbourne. And then, remember that not all Australian dancers are white - we see an increasingly multicultural local swing community here in Melbourne (though still not entirely multicultural or diverse).

But back to Ziggy Elman. His solo in 'Well Git it!' has particular cultural resonances for contemporary lindy hoppers, as mediated by the internet. The Mad Dog people performed a routine in Danvers to this song in 2002 which proved very popular with Australian dancers, particularly in the then-very-introverted Melbourne scene. Here was a group of young people dancing crazy, wild lindy hop without rules or costumes! Suddenly, there was an alternative to the carefully 'safe' teaching of the larger school, dancers who weren't the 'old' recreationists ('old' being over 30, mind you). Suddenly, lindy hop got cool. Coolness which seemed to manifest in dancers wearing jeans in performances. And, most refreshingly for olden days music nerds like me, an increased general interest in music from the 1930s rather than 50s and 60s.

The Mad Dog troupe featured a bunch of young dancers who're now rock stars, some of whom learnt to dance in Ithaca with Bill Borghida (and other teachers), and some of whom were in the Minnie's Moochers dance troupe (circa 1999, 2000), which I remember being very influential. In fact, I remember watching this 2000 comp performance in my first year in Melbourne. This is as white a lindy hop performance as you're going to see, but holy smokes, it's tight. And these guys were young teenagers. If you're familiar with Borghida's teaching, you can see his sound technical foundations in there, and you can't help but envy those kiddies their early start on lindy hop.
This performance is an interesting contrast with the Mad Dog routine in part because it is so tight and carefully choreographed - each dancer is attempting to dance and move in exactly the same way (here's an interesting clip of the girls doing solo charleston). In the Mad Dog routine we see choreographed steps, but each couple (and dancer) is quite unique. And of course, if you watch this composite clip of old school lindy hoppers, you can see that though the routines are really tight, each dancer has a unique style. The Big Apple contest is probably the best example of this. So this representation or performance of 'individuality' through improvisation and 'styling' signalled a shift away from very white, studio ballroom/concert dance aesthetics and towards a more 'vernacular' dance ethos. Vernacular in that people were actually dancing how they felt, in clothes they wore every day, with their own particular 'accents'. And of course, lindy is just made for young people - it's fast music, it's crazy dancing, it's irreverent, it's badass*.

It's probably worth pointing out that the American lindy hop competition culture in 2000 was very strictly regimented. The scoring was complicated, there was a whole range of weird rules about what you could and couldn't do or wear in the competitions, and the type of dancing produced by these competitions was kind of... well, boring.
Competitions were kind of the same in Australia at the time, though there were no competitions run by lindy hoppers with specific 'lindy hop' categories. The biggest Australian competition at the time was 'Best of the Best', run by the VRRDA (Victorian Rock and Roll Dance Association), similarly constrained and rules-bound. It was also very much a 'rock and roll' competition - it was unusual to see 'real' lindy hop performances until about 2002.

In 2002 the MLX hosted the first Hellzapoppin' competition, a model borrowed from the American Hellza competition - no rules, an impetus towards historical 'authenticity', run as part of an African American cultural history festival in Harlem. Though the American Hellza comp has been largely superseded by the ULHS (Ultimate Lindy Hop Show Down) competition for wild, crazy, 'authentic' lindy hop - not to mention popularity - Hellza is the only competition in Australia which actually carries on this particular ethos. All other large competitions in Australia are run by one school, and this school's teachers tend to dominate the field, with the general tone being a little... straight.

So the 2002 Mad Dog performance is important as it signaled a diversion from the rules-bound competitions of previous years. The Mad Dog routine is probably more significant in American lindy as it was a very public diversion from the supergroove style that was popular at the time. I recently heard one of those dancers make a general comment about how 'we' used to dance 'groovier, smoother' and are not into 'rawer' dancing. It struck me as an example of how American dancers often generalise their experiences to the international community. But this is important stuff because these dancers were very young (and still are - under 30) and have been very influential in Australia.

So Ziggy Elman's name probably carries a little more interpretive weight for me than for most people, and one day I'm going to read up on all that stuff on Jewish showbiz history. I promise.
For now I'm busy filling up the last tiny bits of space left on my hard drive with Lionel Hampton goodness. Yeah!

* old people like it too. Frankie is 93 and he still likes it.

"happy day" was posted by dogpossum on March 17, 2008 2:58 PM in the category cat blogging and digging and djing and lindy hop & other dances i have known and music | Comments (5)

March 9, 2008

i like to move it move it

I did a late night gig last night that was very excellent fun. Starting at 2am and finishing at 4, I had to follow 15 minutes of heel slide competition (if ever there was a showing of hegemonic masculinity, that'd be it) to the Rocky theme, so it was a bit tricky starting out. But who does a better job representing The Man than Jimmy Witherspoon?

It was really nice to play a large crowd of dancers from all over Australia (and some overseas places) who were keen to dance hard and fast. Even after a long day of workshops, on the fourth day of an exchange, they were ready to lindy hop like it was 1937. Actually, it's nice to play a set later in the weekend as the dancers are kind of relaxed and warmed up. The DJ before me had set up a high energy vibe which was really nice to step into - it spoils me to have a DJ do all that work to establish a crazy, fun dancing energy in the room, and to be able to just step on in (or sit right down, rather) and take advantage of that.
It's a large room, and I'm not all that fond of the sound in there (the speakers are at one end of the room, so that end gets really crowded, really hot as the dancers squeeze up against the speakers). I think I should have gotten up and walked about the room a bit more to check the sound more often, but I was tired and I my buddies were mostly clustered towards the back (where it was cooler and there was more room for stunts). They're not shy of letting me know if the sound is bodgy, either.

Half way through, though, I had to sprint off for a wee break. Took me literally 45 seconds, even having to squeeze through a crowd. I guess I shouldn't have drunk all that water while I was DJing. But it was so hot up there at the front of the room I felt a bit dehydrated (didn't help that I'd been up til 4 dancing like a freak the night before, then ridden up for lunch during a hot afternoon).

The weekend isn't over yet, though. I have a set on tomorrow night (lindy hop from 12 - 1.30am) and there's blooz dancing tonight (though I've just checked the roster and there's apparently lindy on tonight as well - YAY!). A female friend asked me to dance the night before and mid-way through I was reminded of how great leading is. So I led most of that night. There are just so many fabulous follows in town - so many great chicks who're totally fun to dance with. And there's a bit of a shortage of leads (of course), so I'm laughing. I am still working up the guts to dance with Hanna. Maybe tonight. Or tomorrow.

Froggy Bottom Jimmy Witherspoon With Jay McShann And His Band 155 1957 2:37 Goin' To Kansas City Blues 9/03/08 2:08 AM
Jump Through The Window Roy Eldridge and his Orchestra 154 1943 2:42 After You've Gone 9/03/08 2:11 AM
Lopin' Count Basie, his instrumentalists and Rhythm 190 1947 2:29 Kansas City Powerhouse 9/03/08 2:13 AM
For Dancers Only Jimmie Lunceford and His Orchestra 148 1937 2:41 Swingsation - Jimmie Lunceford 9/03/08 2:16 AM
Moppin' And Boppin' Fats Waller & His Rhythm 173 1943 4:29 Last Years (1940-1943) (Disc 3) 9/03/08 2:20 AM
I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate Muggsy Spanier and his Ragtime Band 155 1939 2:56 Great Original Performances 1931 & 1939 9/03/08 2:23 AM
Joshua Fit De Battle Of Jericho Kid Ory And His Creole Jazz Band 160 1946 3:13 Kid Ory and his Creole Jazz Band 1944-46 9/03/08 2:27 AM
All Star Strut Metronome All Star Nine 176 3:12 Charlie Christian: The Genius of The Electric Guitar (disc 4) 9/03/08 2:30 AM
The Back Room Romp Rex Stewart and His 52nd Street Stompers 152 1937 2:49 The Duke's Men: Small Groups Vol. 1 (Disc 2) 9/03/08 2:33 AM
Peckin' Johnny Hodges and His Orchestra 165 1937 3:10 The Duke's Men: Small Groups Vol. 1 (Disc 2) 9/03/08 2:36 AM
Shortnin' Bread Fats Waller 195 2005 2:41 The Panic Is On 9/03/08 2:38 AM
Laughing In Rhythm Slim Gaillard and his Peruvians 142 1951 2:56 Laughing In Rhythm: The Best Of The Verve Years 9/03/08 2:41 AM
Turn It Over Bus Moten and His Men 148 1949 2:38 Kansas City Blues 1944-1949 (Disc 3) 9/03/08 2:44 AM
The Grabtown Grapple Artie Shaw and His Gramercy 5 178 1945 2:57 Self Portrait (Disc 3) 9/03/08 2:47 AM
Lavender Coffin Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra with Sonny Parker and Joe James 134 1949 2:47 Hamp: The Legendary Decca Recordings 9/03/08 2:50 AM
Cole Slaw Jesse Stone and His Orchestra 145 2:57 Original Swingers: Hipsters, Zoots and Wingtips vol 2 9/03/08 2:53 AM
C-Jam Blues Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis 143 1999 3:34 Live In Swing City: Swingin' With Duke 9/03/08 2:56 AM
Sent For You Yesterday Count Basie and His Orchestra with Joe Williams 163 1960 3:10 The Count Basie Story (Disc 2) 9/03/08 2:59 AM
Shoutin' Blues Count Basie and His Orchestra 148 1949 2:38 Kansas City Powerhouse 9/03/08 3:02 AM
Just Kiddin' Around Artie Shaw and His Orchestra 159 1941 3:21 Self Portrait (Disc 3) 9/03/08 3:05 AM
The Jumpin' Jive Chu Berry with Cab Calloway, vocal, & His Orchestra 177 1939 2:52 Classic Chu Berry Columbia and Victor Sessions 9/03/08 3:08 AM
Stomp It Off Jimmie Lunceford and His Orchestra 190 1934 3:09 Swingsation - Jimmie Lunceford 9/03/08 3:11 AM
Loch Lomond Chu Berry with Wingy Mannone & His Orchestra 153 1938 2:36 Classic Chu Berry Columbia And Victor Sessions Vol. 4 9/03/08 3:14 AM
Massachusetts Maxine Sullivan 147 1956 3:19 A Tribute To Andy Razaf 9/03/08 3:17 AM
Blues In Hoss's Flat Count Basie 144 1958 3:13 Chairman Of The Board [Bonus Tracks] 9/03/08 3:20 AM
A Viper's Moan Mora's Modern Rhythmists 143 2000 3:30 Call Of The Freaks 9/03/08 3:24 AM
Good Queen Bess Duke Ellington 160 1940 3:00 The Duke Ellington Centennial Edition: Complete RCA Victor Recordings (disc 10) 9/03/08 3:27 AM
Mutiny in the Parlor Chu Berry with Gene Krupa's Swing Band; Helen Ward, vocal; 137 1936 3:06 Classic Chu Berry Columbia and Victor Sessions 9/03/08 3:30 AM
Joog, Joog Duke Ellington and His Orchestra 146 1949 3:01 Duke Ellington and his Orchestra: 1949-1950 9/03/08 3:33 AM
Ain't Nothin' To It Fats Waller & His Rhythm 134 1941 3:10 Last Years (1940-1943) (Disc 2) 9/03/08 3:36 AM
B-Sharp Boston Duke Ellington and His Orchestra 126 1949 2:55 Duke Ellington and his Orchestra: 1949-1950 9/03/08 3:39 AM
Lemonade Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five 117 1950 3:17 Louis Jordan And His Tympany Five (vol 6) 9/03/08 3:42 AM
It Takes Two to Tango Lester Young and Oscar Peterson 104 1997 6:09 Lester Young With the Oscar Peterson Trio 9/03/08 3:46 AM
Blues For Smedley Clark Terry, Ed Thigpen, Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown 137 1964 6:57 Oscar Peterson Trio + One: Clark Terry 9/03/08 3:53 AM
Christopher Columbus Maxine Sullivan 156 1956 2:21 A Tribute To Andy Razaf 9/03/08 3:55 AM
Smooth Sailing Ella Fitzgerald 118 2000 3:07 Ken Burns Jazz: Ella Fitzgerald 9/03/08 3:58 AM

Over all, the set went pretty well, I think. A few people came up to tell me they really liked it, which is always so nice. It's just so flattering to have people take the time to tell you that, especially if they don't know you. It makes me feel really good and encourages me to do my very best.
I played a few old favourites, mostly to hang a bit of shit on Trev, and I did think about doing a very mediocre set for all those people who've asked me to 'play something good' in the past. It maybe wasn't the very best I've ever done, but it felt like a good job. The floor was packajammed til 3am, and I kept a dozen couples on the floor after 3.30, which was pretty good. There were workshops this morning, so the numbers were bound to drop off, but I did a decent job keeping them up and lindy hopping. It was nice to see the floor suddenly fill up again when I played Blues for Smedley and then Christopher Columbus. That's a little super groove mini-set right there at the end. Two songs with chunky bass action a la Ray Brown at the end there (Two to Tango and BFS) for Jaymee to thank him for driving us home the other night (couldn't quite manage Blues for Stephanie, though).

Overall, it was a very fun set to do and I'm enjoying myself this weekend. Yay.

"i like to move it move it" was posted by dogpossum on March 9, 2008 2:44 PM in the category djing and lindy hop & other dances i have known and music | Comments (2)

February 18, 2008

fats waller v duke ellington

It's been tricky fitting in all my listening this past weekend.

Will it be Fats, or will it be Ellington? Witherspoon and Sam Price don't even get a foot in the door, I'm afraid.
I have 8 Ellington CDs to get through, and 3 Fats CDs to get through, and I'm not rushing, mind you. I like to listen to new CDs really slowly, lots of repeat listens to individual songs, lots of skipping back to check out a particular section.
So I'm not exactly running through my new goodies. And when I'm reading, I simply don't hear the music at all, so I never know when a song's finished. Or a CD's finished. I think this is partly why I hate having music on when I'm working - it's a waste. Music also tends to stop being music and just turn into the odd sound or bump or squeak which I catch every other minute as my attention shifts back to the aural world. I also really hate having that annoying background buzz distracting me from ideas when I'm thinking. So I like Total and Complete Silence when I'm working.

But I was all about Fats at first:

Fats Waller and His Rhythm the Last Years ( 1940-1943 ) to be precise. This is the other goody that came for me last week. It's really, really wonderful. I adore Fats, and this is perhaps the best collection I have (so far - there's no end in sight). So, seeing as it was the first collection that arrived, this was where my listening was at. But then the Ellington Mosaic arrived, and now I'm all about Ellington.
It's not a real competition, not really. But I'm finding it tricky getting through all these. And it feels like every single song on this Mosaic set is wonderful - I have to keep stopping to put songs into my 'should play' list for DJing. Luckily there's quite a bit of stuff I don't already have (I love, love, love the smaller group stuff, and have the Columbia 2-CD 'Duke's Men' vol 1 and vol 2.

I really should get my finger out and properly research all these guys, get a proper idea of who recorded with which companies when. Get some sort of clue as to who was in whose band at what time. But I really can't be arsed devoting valuable research time to something that's meant to be fun. There's so much other stuff I should be researching (let's not talk about reality TV, ok?), I just don't want to ruin music for me. I have read bits and pieces, but I just don't have a sensible, comprehensive set of facts and figures and names at my disposal.
I mean, I am totally crap with that sort of thing normally (my memory is so crap it's a joke), and I find it really difficult to remember the names of songs. I can pick the musicians or the bands (mostly because they tend to have quite distinct musical 'styles' or 'accents', so you can guess who's playing what), but names of songs? Nope. I can generally guess the era (30s, 40s, etc), but not reliably. This means that it's always a nice surprise to discover I actually own that song that such and such just DJed. But it also means my learning curve re jazz history is more of a plateau.
I've also noticed that a song seems to sound completely different when you're dancing to it than when you're DJing it or sitting at home listening to it. I think it's because when you're DJing or listening, you pay really close attention, in a conscious-brain sort of way. But when I'm dancing, I'm responding unconsciously, not actually consciously thinking 'oh, muted trumpet' or 'huh, chunky bass'. Plus there's a bunch of other things going on when you're dancing that distract you.

Anyways, the bottom line is, Ellington is winning, but Fats is kind of niggling in my hindbrain. It's high-brow versus visceral, bodily goodness - Ellington is clever, Fats is fun (Ellington is fun too, and Fats is clever, but Ellington is telling you he's smart and Fats is telling you he'd like you to sit a little closer and pass him a drink).

"fats waller v duke ellington" was posted by dogpossum on February 18, 2008 11:18 AM in the category digging and djing and lindy hop & other dances i have known and music | Comments (3)

February 15, 2008

Sam Price and His Texas Blusicians 1929-1941

Sam Price and His Texas Blusicians 1929-1941 is the other CD that came this week, part of the Big Binge. It's a Chronological Classic, which is important because this series of albums feature artists in chronological order - so you get a series of Duke Ellington CDs featuring songs in the order they were originally recorded.
It's the most comprehensive series of albums, and they're quite sought after. You can pay zillions of dollars for the rarer ones. But I've picked up ones that are cheaper and really great. My favourite is the Duke Ellington and his Orchestra: 1949-1950 one, which I picked up quite cheaply. It featured a song called B Sharp Boston which I really like and play quite often at late nights (it's a bit slower). It also features Joog Joog, which has some nice female vocals (again, the CD's in the other room, so I can't check the name for you, sorry, but I think it's a combination of Ivie Anderson and someone else [EDIT: I just checked and I think the notes are screwy, or I don't understand, as it has a bloke's name for the vocals, when I'm certain it's Ivie Anderson and someone else...]). It's quite an interesting album because it's later Ellington (round about the time of some of the late testament Basie stuff that I really like), but Ellington is quite a different band leader. Most of these songs aren't that wacky arty stuff he got into in the later period, but are much more popular songs. So it makes for interesting listening. And some great dancing.

Any how, this Sam Price action was drawn to my attention by Trev, king of fun scratchy music. And I'm quite in love. He apparently played with Lester Young's band (or at least Lester - this is another CD I have to check the liner notes on. It's only new, so I'm totally clueless on specifics). Sam Price, not Trev, that is.

One of my favourite bits of this album is in the song 'Do you Dig My Jive?' where he sings:

Ain't nothin' new about jive,
Believe it or not,
I know when jive first started,
The time and the spot,
Way back yonder,
In the year one-ty-one,
You can bet your sweet life,
That's when jive begun.

I like 'onety-one' - the first year. It makes me giggle.

So, of course, I'm swimming in lovely music today. And trying to pretend I don't have a dentist appointment this afternoon. I think I'll follow that up with a nice film. Probably Jumpers rather than the more serious things I want to see (There Will Be Blood, No Country For Old Men, American Gangster), as I'm always a bit traumatised after the dentist. Thing kind thoughts for me, will you?

"Sam Price and His Texas Blusicians 1929-1941" was posted by dogpossum on February 15, 2008 1:02 PM in the category digging and djing and lindy hop & other dances i have known and music | Comments (3)

mosaic Duke Ellington: 1936-40 Small Group Sessions and Witherspoon-McShann Goin' to Kansas City Blues

...and the last of my Big Binge CDs arrived today, along with a lovely needlepoint pack. It was just like christmas.
Let's start with the needlepoint. I bought it from this slightly dodgy looking site. I've recently gotten returned to needlepoint, c/o a christmas present Margarate Preseton job, and have gotten a bit obsessive about it. Had to have another to do, though I've managed to sate some of that obsession with a nice blue patchworked crocheted blanket for The Squeeze - I can't bear large crochet projects in summer, but the smaller squares are easier - remind me to post pics of my fabulous red flowered job. Note the price - $55 for printed canvas + all wool. That's not bad at all. And it's an Australian company, so there's less postage to pay.

Jimmy Witherspoon with Jay McShann Goin' to Kansas City Blues from Mosaic. I'm a big fan of Jay McShann, and while I don't like Witherspoon's politics, he can sing like a mofo. I'm still keen on that big, fat 50s sound. This one has lovely quality recording, and the band is so freakin' good (Emmett Berry, J. C. Higginbotham, Hilton Jefferson, Seldon Powell, Al Sears, Kenny Burrell, Gene Ramey and Mousey Alexander). Some of it veers off into post-swing (this is a 1957 recording after all).
Most of my Jay McShann is earlier - nice, dirty Kansas City stuff. Though I do have this album Hootie!, a live job by his trio in... damnit, I haven't entered the date! [EDIT: just checked it - it's 1997] And the CD is far away... Anyhow, that's a great album, but it's supergroove. Lots of long, tinkly songs with tinkly piano, often at supersonic speeds. Not really the best dancing (except for the odd blues track), but really good listening music. I really like McShann's piano style - it's so different to people like Basie and Ellington and Junior Mance and Oscar Peterson.
So, anyhow, this new CD is really fun. Lots of great, upenergy songs. As I said, though, it's a bit post-swing, in that it stops swinging quite so much. The slower ones are better, but the uptempo ones are kind of staccato or abrupt. Don't swing so much. What this means for dancers is that it feels like you're rushing from beat to beat, and that songs feel faster generally. This can be good for lifting the energy in the room every now and then (especially if it's a more recent recording), but ultimately, it does bad things to your lindy hop. We need that gushy, delayed timing to really make us swing, to keep us hanging back and soaking every last moment out of each beat.

My other lovely present is Duke Ellington: 1936-40 Small Group Sessions, another Mosaic set I've had my eye on for ages. Cost a freakin' bomb, but oh-baby, I have a serious thing for Ellington that's just not going away. I have quite a few Ellington CDs and collections, but I couldn't resist some lovely Mosaic remastering goodness (that's what makes these expensive things worth it - good remastering, not to mention fab liner notes and packaging and great service).
This is completely different stuff to the Witherspoon CD - 20-odd years earlier, different approach to the rhythm section, very different approach to composition/arrangement. Really, this is a nice comparison between classic 30s swinging jazz and the 'next generation'. While I adore the Witherspoon/McShann CD, this is where my heart truly lies. I love Ellington for the complexity and sophistication of the arrangements and plain old management of the band. Each musician has a very particular job, and they do it just wonderfully. I also prefer this bouncy old school sound - makes me want to lindy hop. None of that shuffle-rhythm going on in the drum kit area. Nice shouty choruses at the end of songs. Yes, please.

I also like these big 'complete, collected works' sets because they include multiple takes of the one song. This means you get to hear the band make minute variations in the way they play, and you really begin to understand how the band work together as a team, and how a slightly shorter solo can change the whole song. I also like hearing the people in the studio talking - it's like we're just that little bit closer to a world that feels imaginary, most of the time. They way they talk, the things they talk about - are all so far away from us. But when you hear them swearing about fucked up takes or laughing at jokes, it becomes a bit more real.

So, sitting up in bed looking through all these goodies this morning (it was an early delivery), it felt like my birthday. And it was lovely.
Now I just have to score a few more DJing gigs to cover these extravagances.

"mosaic Duke Ellington: 1936-40 Small Group Sessions and Witherspoon-McShann Goin' to Kansas City Blues" was posted by dogpossum on February 15, 2008 12:23 PM in the category digging and djing and music

February 12, 2008

slim gaillard's Laughing in Rhythm and Fats Waller and his Rhythm, the Last Years 1940-1943

Two new arrivals:
Slim Gaillard's Laughing in Rhythm. Can't believe I've only just bought this. I am so the slowest, uncoolest DJ on the block. I mean, I've bought bits and pieces from places like itunes, but still. It's a bit late. I'd still like the giant Gaillard Proper set, but I just can't bring myself to buy all that nonsense singing...





Fats Waller and his Rhythm, the Last Years 1940-1943. I now own about 60 million Waller CDs. And I'm not quite sure that's enough.

"slim gaillard's Laughing in Rhythm and Fats Waller and his Rhythm, the Last Years 1940-1943" was posted by dogpossum on February 12, 2008 10:22 AM in the category digging and djing and lindy hop & other dances i have known and music

January 9, 2008

want

• Any of these CDs from the Boilermaker Jazz Band.
• this CD from the Firecracker Jazz Band (listen - most especially to 'Digga Digga Doo' here)

And, because it's not all want, I'm quite enjoying the Loose Marbles CD the lovely D sent me. Check out their version of 'When I get low I get high' (yes, a drug reference, yes one of the bestest songs evah). You can hear and watch them here, playing one of my favourite songs, 'Four or Five Times', heading towards the version I most prefer (a la the McKinney's Cotton Pickers). The lyrics?

Four or Five times - McKinney's Cotton Pickers, 1928
[scat]
I'm never about,
??
Just keep a-strolling,
Keep the ball a-rolling,

This isn't a boast
But what i like most
Is to have someone true
Who will love me too,
four or five times.

Four or five times
Four or five times
there is delight in doing things right
four or five times
[four or five times]

Maybe I'll sigh,
Maybe I'll cry,
And if I die,
I'm gonna try...
four or five times.

We like to play
We like to sing
We like to go scedadilah do
Four or five times.

Bibop one
Bibop two
bibop three
Didahdiladee
Four or five times

[scat]
Yes, sure, ok!
What?
Yes. ! !

Four or five times,
Four or five times,
There is delight,
In doing things right,
Four or five times.

There's a bunch of scatting in there I couldn't transcribe, but you get the point.
Oh, and yes, it's all about double entendre, yet again.

I love this song a whole lot, especially this version, though I never get to play it (too old, too fast, to obscure for mainstream lindy hoppers). I do play a pretty fabulous 1930s version by Woody Herman and his Orchestra which always really rocks the dancers. It's a lot straighter and safer and very lindy hoppable, but still lots of fun.

There's a version by Jimmie Lunceford (c 1935) which gets a fair bit of play in Melbourne, and I do prefer it, musically, though it's lower energy than the Herman version. I play the Herman far more often than the Lunceford version. I also have a fully sick version by Lionel Hampton, which I never seem to play. I have no idea why not - it's freakin' awesome.

"want" was posted by dogpossum on January 9, 2008 6:09 PM in the category cat blogging and djing and objects of desire | Comments (0)

December 11, 2007

Jeeeeezuss!

I did a gig at the speegs during MLX which wasn't really very great. First, there were no dancers there but The Squeeze and I. So my swingin' jazz went down like a lead balloon. Thank heavens for James Brown, or I'd've been lynched. Though they booked me for a jazz gig, I just couldn't bear the empty floor any longer. So I played the very few soul and funk songs I had. And the punters loved it.
A bit later, some dancers arrived, so I started in with some good dancing from the jazz tradition. After 'Lavender Coffin' and midway through 'Joshua Fit De Battle of Jericho' some drunk prick tried to climb up on the stage (I dealt with that, quick-smart and used my scary body to move him back). "Are we going to be subjected to this gospel swing all night?" he demanded in a pleasant drunken slur. And I sort of shrugged it off with a tight smile. He kept lurking and I gave him the super snub. A few minutes later he returns with the same charming line. And I reply "If at all, possible, YES!"
What could be better than an evening of hardcore New Orleans Jeeeeezuss! music? I can't imagine. Then I gave that prick some serious snubbing.

There's nothing worse than a know-it-all jazznick heckler who thinks he knows better. Prick. Hope I never see that loser ever again.
But speaking of gospel, I'm quite struck on Mahalia Jackson live at Newport. I want it. At first it was just for that version of Jericho, but now I just want it. Not necessarily for DJing (though the Jericho would go down well at a blues event). The Basie Live in Antibes CD got me keen on Jackson, and I think I could well get over this swing malarkey and return to my soul and funk roots. Sigh. More obsessive collecting to come.

So, anyway, to finish off that bit about the speegs gig, Trev and Russ came in later and played the other bits of the set for me. If you look at the pic there (courtesy of Wendy), you can see me DJing (and probably freaking) and Trev leaning over my shoulder with beer in hand (there are no DJing rules at the Speegs).

Trev played excellent party lindy, moving into formerly uncharted territory, and Russ then decided it was partyhardy time. Yes, we did hear the theme from Footloose, amongst other 80s party anthems. The punters went nuts. The lindy hoppers went nuts. The speegs staff were very happy with us (I did check with them that it was ok to move on down this motown/stax/disco anthem track, and they approved), the pay was good.
I've done a few sets there, and I have to say I approve. Nice people, nice gear, fun crowds. Except for the stupid pricks. And I've been offered other DJing gigs (fielding phone calls all over the place), but I think I'm going to keep it real and only play for dancers. Unless the pay is good. Real good.

"Jeeeeezuss!" was posted by dogpossum on December 11, 2007 8:27 PM in the category djing and music and objects of desire | Comments (0)

December 3, 2007

west brunswick toodle-oo

So November is over. It was ok.

• I had a birthday (that was ok)
• I liked all the moustaches (I don't think there's enough facial hair in the world, and it made dance partners extra interesting)
• we did mlx and it went well (biggest ever, zillions of interstaters and internationals, the usual reluctance on the part of Melbournites to play nice with guests)
• we had galaxy plus a round of dancers stay with us (and that was very nice)
• I did all my marking and got it in with plenty of time to spare
• I got a job interview for a postdoc (argh! next week!)
• I got a small grant to get me to the CSAA conference this week (double argh! paper not written! flights not booked! accommodation not sorted!)
• I've had a few punters ringing me offering DJing gigs (I am resolute about only taking paying gigs - I've done enough freebies to know I never want to do one again, unless it's for a real charity)
• Galaxy and I met up with Mz Tartan pre-GG and the Austenauts (dang, I'm sorry I missed that! blogged with excellence here) and she was surprisingly cool, calm and collected

...and now I'm desperately trying to get my sleep pattern back to normal for the conference this week. I managed to have a relatively stress-free MLX (in fact, incredibly so), and slept at least 8 hours every night. From 8am til 4pm most days, but still, 8 fat hours of solid, dreamless sleep. Unheard of.

I've also met another dancer doing a phd on dance stuff, but she lives in Perth, so we're squeezing in a natter-fest tomorrow before she flies out. She's into sociology and anthropology and I'm not sure she's up there with the hardcore sister action. But we'll see. It'll be neat just to sit and have a nice, nerdy chat.

I'm planning to meet up with the Adelaidean dancers during the conference visit this week (Wednesday). So I'll be able to say I've danced in every scene in Australia. Except Launceston. That should be nice.

My paper is pretty much done - just some tidying up to do. It's a combination of bits from these three posts, but obviously with far less detail, seeing as how I only get 20 minutes. 20 minutes kills me, especially when I want to play some music and clips of dancers to actually make clear what I'm talking about. It's ridiculous to talk about dancing without showing any, particularly when you're talking about gender performance in dance. In fact, it's so ridiculous I should just show 6 clips and provide an exercise sheet to stimulate group discussion, a la tutorials past.

I've also noted I'm in kind of a dud session, parallel with papers I'd really like to see, and which everyone else would really like to see as well. Not a big deal, really, and just desserts for someone who fucked the programming around at the last minute (I'd missed out on another grant and cancelled on the organisers, then been offered one by someone else, so squeezed back into the program - people who pull that shit deserve to get dud sessions). But it's parallel with an old buddy's paper and in a session of licorice allsorts, so we'll have trouble asking each other questions. It is in the last session of a day, but this time it's not the last session of the last day, so I guess it's ok.
I don't mean this to sound like a big old bitch - I really am very lucky to be going at all, and I don't want you to think otherwise. But the part of me that's trying to get a job keeps saying 'how will you pimp your fine self out if there's no one in the audience?' But really, it only takes one. And there'll be plenty of afternoon teas for me to pimp myself about. I'm cringing, writing that stuff. I hate the thought of such aggressive self aggrandising, but at the end of the day, in such a competitive job market, I have to be a bit pushy.
So I'm going to experiment with performing pushiness, and pretend like I'm one of those blokes who, obliviously, introduces himself to all the Names at conferences. It's the sort of thing chicks tend to be reluctant to do. And as a consequence, those pushy blokes get remembered, simply because the chicks have been to shy to step up.
But I'm going to focus on Names that mean something to me - you know, the Old Girls network. The ladies who do. The sorts of women academics who I admire and want to work with and be like. They're the ladies who'll call me on bullshit pushiness and demand some sort of fer real talk. No bullshit (unless it's a story about my career as a stunt woman and there are Tasmanians in the room), all kick arse Sister. No pathetic arse-kissing. No sycophancy.... like I'd have the patience for that. And for sure I'd forget that it's not cool to swear in polite company. Must remember that for the job interview, actually. Swearing = not cool.
But we'll see. No doubt I'll forget all these plans and end up talking shit and eating all the chocolate biscuits with the homies from UQ. Awesome.

Galaxy asked me the other day if I'd written a 'why dance is important to cultural studies' paper, and I haven't. I'm not sure I really, hugely care - if you don't dance you don't understand why it's important. Words won't help convince you - you have to feel it to understand why it's good stuff. But I do have a short list of reasons which include things like 'class' and 'not needing literacy' and 'ethnicity' and 'faster than words' and 'freakin' great fun!' I'll have a think, though. Perhaps it'll be a paper I write when I actually have a job or a book or more than half a dozen papers. Right now I think I'd get more from a paper called 'Why cultural studies needs dogpossum' which is so effective it gets me lots of jobs. But I'll work on it.

"west brunswick toodle-oo" was posted by dogpossum on December 3, 2007 11:18 AM in the category conferences and djing and lindy hop & other dances i have known and travel | Comments (1)

November 5, 2007

mad

I don't really have time to write much (marking, marking, proximity to mlx, etc), but I am going to briefly tell you about the set I did at the Spiegeltent on Friday.

1. Best sound set up ever.
2. Best sound guy ever.
3. Best venue ever.
4. Best pay ever.
5. Best only rider ever.
6. Seeing students at gig = mutual discomfort.
7. Fun, fun fun.
8. Hours? 11.30-3am. Challenging when doing band breaks, but still a win gig.

"mad" was posted by dogpossum on November 5, 2007 1:09 PM in the category djing | Comments (0)

August 22, 2007

the legend of D4E

Whenever I see D4E (which is a few times a year at a lindy exchange - in Sydney, in Perth, in Melbourne) we plug our earbuds into each other's mobile music devices and play each other music.
This is where I learn about music that isn't jazz and wasn't released in 1992 on Shock Records.
I only play music - he makes it.

the legend of D4E Hip Hop Mixtape

(I'm not sure if he rocks, though)

"the legend of D4E" was posted by dogpossum on August 22, 2007 2:12 PM in the category clicky and djing and music and people i know | Comments (3)

May 2, 2007

hullabaloo round up

So a couple of weekends ago we went to Hullabaloo.

Thursday

We flew in on Thursday, taking a midday flight because we're sensible. I was really excited and had trouble sitting still on the plane. I took my laptop and headphones and copy of The Swing Era so that I could prepare for my sets over the weekend, but ended up far too excited to concentrate. The Squeeze slept the whole way. I ended up watching a dumb Hillary Swank film called the Freedom Writers which made me cry.

We arrived at about 6pm, and headed off to Chez Chez to dump our gear and change clothes. Chez's flat is quite small, and we filled it up with a Taswegian and us and Chez. But we're used to each other - they stay with us at MLX time each year.
From Chez's house we went off to a pub in Cottesloe to do some dancing. But first we ate fish and chips, and I was very pleased.
Then we went up to start the dancing, but got sidetracked by a lot of old friends who needed squeezing and teasing. I was delighted to see Dust For Eyes, who taught me how to do Snake Hips dancing and snaps.

After a lot of dancing there, we moved on to the late night venue so I could set up for my first set (eek!) at 2am. The late night venue was an interesting dance studio space with hiiiigh ceilings. The sound set up was not ideal. In fact, it was pretty damn ordinary and I really struggled to make things sound good. Well, to make them sound ok.
People straggled in slowly and I was mostly playing to a very small crowd (ie 5 or 10 people) for a while, but that was ok because I just played stuff to test the limits of the sound set up and to please myself. And those 5 or 10 people.
Once the rest of the punters arrived I stepped it up a bit.

I can't really remember how the set went, other than that I wasn't really happy with it, but it didn't suck. It was probably a combination of nerves and adjusting to an exchange crowd. This is what I played (title-artist-bpm-date-album-length-date/time played if it's accurate):

I'm Comin' Virginia- Maxine Sullivan - 110 - 1956 - A Tribute To Andy Razaf - 2:48 - 20/04/07 2:13 AM
Let's Call The Whole Thing Off - Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong - 120 - 1957 - Ella And Louis Again [MFSL] - 4:15 - 20/04/07 2:17 AM
I've Got A Mind To Ramble - Alberta Hunter - 112 - 1978 - Amtrak Blues - 4:13 - 20/04/07 2:21 AM
It Takes Two to Tango - Lester Young and Oscar Peterson - 104 - 1997 - Lester Young With the Oscar Peterson Trio - 6:09
B-Sharp Boston - Duke Ellington and His Orchestra - 126 - 1949 - Duke Ellington and his Orchestra: 1949-1950 - 2:54
Jive At Five - Count Basie and His Orchestra - 147 - 1960 - The Count Basie Story (Disc 1) - 3:02 - 20/04/07 2:30 AM
Easy Does It - Big 18 - 129 - 5:14
Every Day I Have The Blues - Count Basie - 116 - 1959 - Breakfast Dance And Barbecue - 3:48
C-Jam Blues - Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis - 143 - 1999 - Live In Swing City: Swingin' With Duke
Blues In Hoss' Flat - Count Basie and His Orchestra - 142 - 1995 - Big Band Renaissance Disc 1 - 3:13
Good Queen Bess - Duke Ellington - 160 - 1940 - The Duke Ellington Centennial Edition: Complete RCA Victor Recordings (disc 10) - 3:00
Flying Home - Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra - 197 - 1942 - Lionel Hampton Story 2: Flying Home - 3:10 - 20/04/07 2:52 AM
Lavender Coffin - Hampton, Lionel and His Orchestra with Sonny Parker and Joe James - 134 - 1949 - Hamp: The Legendary Decca Recordings - 2:47
Cole Slaw - Jesse Stone and His Orchestra - 145 - Original Swingers: Hipsters, Zoots and Wingtips vol 2 - 2:57
Four Or Five Times - Woody Herman Orchestra - 141 - The Great Swing Bands (Disc 2) - 3:09 - 20/04/07 3:01 AM
Stomp It Off - Jimmie Lunceford and His Orchestra - 190 - 1934 - Swingsation - Jimmie Lunceford - 3:08
Savoy Blues - Kid Ory - 134 - 2002 - Golden Greats: Greatest Dixieland Jazz Disc 3 - 3:00 - 20/04/07 3:07 AM
Joshua Fit De Battle Of Jericho - Kid Ory And His Creole Jazz Band - 160 - 1946 - Kid Ory and his Creole Jazz Band 1944-46 - 3:12
Perdido Street Blues - Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra with Sidney Bechet - 148 - 1940 - Blues In Thirds 1940-41 - 3:00 - 20/04/07 3:13 AM
East St. Louis Toodle-Oo - Michael McQuaid's Red Hot Rhythmakers - 152 - 2006 - Rhythm Of The Day - 3:21
Jungle Nights In Harlem - Charlestown Chasers - 213 - 1995 - Pleasure Mad mediumenergy - 2:48
Drinkin' Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee - Hampton, Lionel and His Orchestra with Sonny Parker - 134 - 1949 - Hamp: The Legendary Decca Recordings - 3:23 - 20/04/07 3:23 AM
Till Tom Special - Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra - 158 - 1940 - Tempo And Swing - 3:23
For Dancers Only - Jimmie Lunceford and His Harlem Express - 178 - 1944 - 1944-Uncollected - 2:22
Shoutin' Blues - Count Basie and His Orchestra - 148 - 1949 - Kansas City Powerhouse - 2:38
Turn It Over - Bus Moten and his Men - 148 - 1949 - Kansas City Blues 1944-1949 (Disc 3) - 2:38
Jump Session - Slim Gaillard and Slam Stewart - 162 - Slim & Slam, 1938-1939 - 2:35
Don't Be That Way - Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra - 137 - 1938 - Lionel Hampton Story 1: Hot Mallets great mediumenergy 2:35
Massachusetts - Maxine Sullivan - 144 - 2006 - A Tribute To Andy Razaf - 3:18

We don't have any photos from that night.

Friday

The next day was Friday, and The Squeeze was determined to get up in time for the tour of Fremantle. I was tired. But we bundled into the car with K (Chez was off to work - suckah!) to start our tour at the Round House. The Squeeze had heard there would be some kick boxing action to start off with, but this proved to be erroneous.

The tour was fun. We met up with some people, saw a cannon fired, were told a few lies by whiley Perthlings (I have discovered being lied to is as good as telling lies) and moved immediately to the best cafe in the area for sustenance. By this time it was at least 2pm and we were in need of caffeine and fewd. You can see some photos from the tour here at George's site. I'd like to say we saw more of Fremantle than a series of pubs and cafes, but that would be lying. We've seen Fremantle before, and we had people we needed to talk to.

Then DFE, The Squeeze and I sat in a nice cafe and ate a lot (I had a FABULOUS fettucini pescatore!) and talked a whole lot of shit. After a couple of hours The Squeeze got bored and went away. Then he came back. Then we walked to a pub where we saw more dancers drinking and eating. Then we went to another pub the Little Creatures Brewery and saw more dancers. And some of us drank a whoooooole lot. And some of the rest of us caught up with lovely friends. By this stage I had already talked so much about music and DJing I had almost grown my own pocket protector. But that part of the weekend was far from over.
After the beer had been drunk and the sun had gone down, we left that pub and went home to change our clothes nap. We accidentally missed the Friday night dance at a local pub gig. So we went straight to the after party where I had another set lined up. That's the gig where I did that (look right). I have no excuse for my ineptitude. I thought I could DJ for blues dancers. But apparently this crew weren't into old music. In fact, they weren't really into much except standing on the spot, really close to their partners or make human waves with their torsos. I ordinarily like blues dancing, but this was dull. But enough of that! Let's see the terrible set I played:

Harvard Blues - Kansas City Band - 83 - 1997 - KC After Dark - 6:50 - 21/04/07 3:36 AM
Wee Baby Blues - Big Joe Turner with Pete Johnson and Freddie Green - 79 - 1956 - The Boss Of The Blues - 7:18 - 21/04/07 3:43 AM
Hear Me Talking To Ya? - Ella Fitzgerald - 98 - 1963 - These Are The Blues - 3:02 - 21/04/07 3:46 AM
Back Water Blues - Dinah Washington with Belford Hendricks' Orchestra - 71 - 1957 - Ultimate Dinah Washington - 4:58
I Want A Little Sugar In My Bowl - Nina Simone - 65 - 1967 - Released - 2:33 - 60 - 21/04/07 3:54 AM
I'm Gonna Take What He's Got - Etta James - 57 - 1967 - The Best Of Etta James - 2:35 - 21/04/07 3:56 AM
Son Of A Preacher Man - Aretha Franklin - 77 - Greatest Hits - Disc 1 - 3:16
When I've Been Drinkin' - Jimmy Witherspoon - 71 - 1998 - Jazz Me Blues: the Best of Jimmy Witherspoon - 3:38 - 21/04/07 4:03 AM
Slow Down Baby - Walter Brown with Jay McShann and His Kycee Stompers - 73 - 1949 - Kansas City Blues 1944-1949 (Disc 3) - 2:56
Hamp's Salty Blues - Lionel Hampton and His Quartet - 86 - 1946 - Lionel Hampton Story 3: Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop - 3:10 - 21/04/07 4:09 AM
Minnie The Moocher - Cab Calloway - 97 - 1994 - Are You Hep To The Jive? - 3:16 - 21/04/07 4:13 AM
St. James Infirmary - Henry "Red" Allen - 98 - 1991 - World on a String - Legendary 1957 Sessions - 3:45 - 21/04/07 4:16 AM
Reckless Blues - Velma Middleton with Louis Armstrong and the All Stars - 88 - The Complete Decca Studio Recordings of Louis Armstrong and the All Stars (disc 06) - 2:30
Willow Weep For Me - Louis Armstrong - 90 - 1957 - Ella And Louis Again [MFSL] - 4:21
Rocks In My Bed - Ella Fitzgerald - 68 - 1956 - Ella Fitzgerald Day Dream: Best Of The Duke Ellington Songbook - 3:59 - 21/04/07 4:27 AM
Amtrak Blues - Alberta Hunter - 95 - 1978 - Amtrak Blues - 3:23
Resolution Blues - Dinah Washington - 65 - 22 Original Classics - 3:14 - 21/04/07 4:34 AM
It Takes Two to Tango - Lester Young and Oscar Peterson - 104 - 1997 - Lester Young With the Oscar Peterson Trio - 6:09 - 21/04/07 4:37 AM
Smooth Sailing - Ella Fitzgerald - 118 - 2000 - Ken Burns Jazz: Ella Fitzgerald - 3:07 - 21/04/07 4:40 AM
Happy Go Lucky Local (Night Train) - Oscar Peterson - 103 - 1962 - Night Train - 4:52 - 21/04/07 4:45 AM
Easy Does It - Big 18 - 129 - 5:14 - 21/04/07 4:50 AM
B-Sharp Boston - Duke Ellington and His Orchestra - 126 - 1949 - Duke Ellington and his Orchestra: 1949-1950 - 2:54
Jump Ditty! - Joe Carroll and The Ray Bryant Quintet - 134 - Red Kat Swing 1 - 2:53
The Deacon - Count Basie - 110 - 1959 - Breakfast Dance And Barbecue - 5:52 - 21/04/07 5:02 AM

It was round about "Minnie the Moocher" that things were at their lowest. I had trouble getting the feel of the room (I'd actually been told I'd be playing an hour later than I ended up starting, so I hadn't had a chance to be in the room and get a feel for things) and those kids - I don't really think they were ready for blues dancing just then. So I took the energy up with some "St James Infirmary" (though I should have gone straight to the Louis Armstrong), but it didn't help. Finally, things picked up at "Willow Weep for Me", and I decided to ooze into a bit of groovy lindy hop, then up the bpm ladder til the room was working again. It immediately improved numbers on the floor.
I tried some lower tempo stuff with Dinah again a bit later (because I felt I should play a blues set if I was booked for it), but that crashed. So I recovered with dirty Lester Young action.
And fled Mt DJ after "The Deacon".

Not my finest hour (and a half), and if you take a look at the set list of the DJ before me (lovely Jason from Perth), you'll see there were some double-ups.
In fact, there were quite a few repeats over the weekend - "Savoy Blues" was played by every single DJ on Thursday night up til me. If I'd been dancing more and talking less at the dance I'd have noticed.

So, thank god that set was over.
We went home after that - The Squeeze was tired and so was I.

Saturday
The next day we slept til 1 or 3pm. I forget which. We went and bought some fewd for dinner and drove and saw some sites. Then we went home and got ready for the dance, which was fun. I really liked the band at the dance, and had some fun dances with fun people. Trev won the Jack and Jill and I heard some good DJing action. Then we went to the after party. First we tried to organise a trip to eat nice Chinese fewd, but we failed. So we just went on to the after party, which was at the better two-room venue.

Some of us went in a team battle. At the time I was really regreting entering, and I didn't really have a good time at all. But in retrospect (ie, after watching the clip), it wasn't so bad. I was in Team Brunswick (named for Chez' shirt) - you can even hear me answering Trev at the beginning. We were ok. The best bit (in my mind) was where we (entirely by coincidence) did a 'waterfall' of swingouts to just the right bit in "Flying Home". I'm not a big fan of team battles (sorry Trev), and I've never seen one go really well or really inspire me. The secret to a good lindy battle is actually dancing lindy. But mostly people do dumb stuff, which I'm not all that interested in. Because I am a boring straighty-one-eighty stooge.

After that was all over, things got fun. There was a band (I think - or was that the night before? I can't remember). There was a lot of dancing fun, and I did another set (my best of the weekend, I think). Here's the set list (title - artist - bpm - date - album - time/date stamp (minus 2hours because I was working with Melbourne time, not Perth time):

Blues In Hoss' Flat - Count Basie and His Orchestra - 142 - 1995 - Big Band Renaissance Disc 1 - 3:13 - 22/04/07 4:19 AM
C-Jam Blues - Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis - 143 - 1999 - Live In Swing City: Swingin' With Duke - 3:33 - 2/05/07 1:15 PM
Sent For You Yesterday (And Here You Come Today) - Count Basie and His Orchestra - 172 - 1952 - Complete Clef/Verve Count Basie Fifties Studio Recordings (Disc 2) - 3:13 - 22/04/07 4:26 AM
Back Room Romp - Duke Ellington and his Orchestra - 151 - 2000 - Ken Burns Jazz: Duke Ellington - 2:49 - 22/04/07 4:29 AM
A Viper's Moan - Willie Bryant And His Orchestra - 153 - Willie Bryant 1935-1936 - 3:25 - 24/04/07 4:31 AM
Good Queen Bess - Duke Ellington - 160 - 1940 - The Duke Ellington Centennial Edition: Complete RCA Victor Recordings (disc 10) - 3:00 - 22/04/07 4:35 AM
Stomp It Off - Jimmie Lunceford and His Orchestra - 190 - 1934 - Swingsation - Jimmie Lunceford - 3:08 - 22/04/07 4:38 AM
Four Or Five Times - Jimmie Lunceford and His Orchestra - 140 - 1935 - Swingsation - Jimmie Lunceford - 3:07 - 22/04/07 4:41 AM
Turn It Over - Bus Moten and his Men - 148 - 1949 - Kansas City Blues 1944-1949 (Disc 3) - 2:38 - 24/04/07 4:34 AM
Easy Does It - Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra - 155 - 1939 - Yes, Indeed! - 3:15 - 22/04/07 4:47 AM
Apollo Jump - Lucky Millinder - 143 - Apollo Jump - 3:26
Krum Elbow Blues - Mora's Modern Swingtet - 162 - 2004 - 20th Century Closet - 2:45
Blues My Naughty Sweetie - Sidney Bechet - 140 - 1951 - The Blue Note Years - 5:43 - 22/04/07 4:59 AM
Joshua Fit De Battle Of Jericho - Kid Ory And His Creole Jazz Band - 160 - 1946 - Kid Ory and his Creole Jazz Band 1944-46 - 3:12 - 22/04/07 5:02 AM
East St. Louis Toodle-Oo - Michael McQuaid's Red Hot Rhythmakers - 152 - 2006 - Rhythm Of The Day - 3:21
Jungle Nights In Harlem - Charlestown Chasers - 213 - 1995 - Pleasure Mad - 2:48 - 22/04/07 5:09 AM
Lavender Coffin - Hampton, Lionel and His Orchestra with Sonny Parker and Joe James - 134 - 1949 - Hamp: The Legendary Decca Recordings - 2:47
Cole Slaw - Jesse Stone and His Orchestra - 145 - Original Swingers: Hipsters, Zoots and Wingtips vol 2 - 2:57 - 22/04/07 5:14 AM
Shoutin' Blues - Count Basie and His Orchestra - 148 - 1949 - Kansas City Powerhouse - 2:38 - 22/04/07 5:17 AM
For Dancers Only - Jimmie Lunceford and His Harlem Express - 178 - 1944 - 1944-Uncollected - 2:22 - 22/04/07 5:19 AM
Just Kiddin' Around - Artie Shaw and His Orchestra - 159 - 1941 - Self Portrait (Disc 3) - 3:21
Don't Be That Way - Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra - 137 - 1938 - Lionel Hampton Story 1: Hot Mallets - 2:35
Chicken Shack Boogie - Lionel Hampton and His Sextet - 124 - 1949 - Hamp: The Legendary Decca Recordings - 3:16 - 22/04/07 5:29 AM
Hey Now, Hey Now - Cab Calloway - 121 - 1994 - Are You Hep To The Jive? - 2:56 - 22/04/07 5:32 AM
Effervescent Blues - Mora's Modern Swingtet - 122 - 2004 - 20th Century Closet - 3:07
B-Sharp Boston - Duke Ellington and His Orchestra - 126 - 1949 - Duke Ellington and his Orchestra: 1949-1950 - 2:54 - 22/04/07 5:38 AM
Massachusetts - Maxine Sullivan - 144 - 2006 - A Tribute To Andy Razaf - 3:18 - 22/04/07 5:41 AM
Splanky - Count Basie - 157 - 1966 - Live at the Sands - 3:52 - 22/04/07 5:45 AM
Hallelujah, I Love Her So - Count Basie - 145 - 1959 - Breakfast Dance And Barbecue - 2:36 - 22/04/07 5:47 AM
King Porter Stomp - Kansas City Band - 170 - 1997 - KC After Dark - 4:38 - 22/04/07 5:52 AM
Till Tom Special - Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra - 158 - 1940 - Tempo And Swing - 3:23 - 22/04/07 5:55 AM
Shout, Sister, Shout - Lucky Millinder - 140 - Apollo Jump - good medium tempo dancing 2:44 - 22/04/07 5:58 AM
Le Jazz Hot - Jimmie Lunceford and his Orchestra - 144 - 1939 - Lunceford Special 1939-40 - 2:41 - 22/04/07 6:01 AM
My Baby Just Cares For Me - Nina Simone - 120 - The Great Nina Simone - 3:38 - 22/04/07 6:05 AM
Bli-Blip - Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis - 134 - 1999 - Live In Swing City: Swingin' With Duke - 3:16 - 22/04/07 6:08 AM

I started a bit earlier than expected because Russ had technical troubles and I had to take over. After the first three songs he gave up and introduced me. I was really happy with those first three songs - I had the room on fire. It's a pity Russ had to interrupt to introduce me, as we lost quite a few people then. But them's the breaks. I should probably have continued with hi-fi action to keep the room, but now I've learnt something useful.

I actually consciously chose to play a fair proportion of hi-fi because we'd heard a lot of old scratch so far that weekend. I wanted to change the vibe a bit and catch people's attention. It worked well, and I found that a useful thing to remember through my set. This was my first real late-late night set at a hardcore lindy exchange and I learnt a lot. I discovered that you need to change the energy in the room a bit to keep people dancing - from slow to fast to hi-fi to scratchy - and change more regularly than I normally would. The most important thing I learnt was that if you give people a chance to remember how tired they are when they're dancing at 2:30am (take two hours from those time stamps) they sit down and then they go home. So you have to keep the tempos above 120, or the energy levels nice and high.
Round about "Effervescent Blues" I let the tempos get lower and noticed a distinct drop in the room's energy. So I did a bit of stunt work with Maxine Sullivan. That version of "Massachusetts" is really swinging and energising. It's pretty hi-fi and hitting on the groove barrier, but it feels like fun. The band she's working with are so freaking good, you just want to dance.

From there I decided we needed more hi-fi action to wake people up. So I used some old favourite action - "Splanky" is a real swinger favourite, and that version is nicely uptempo and upenergy - and hi-fi. But it doesn't feel too crazy - people also think of "Splanky" as being slower, as many of the most popular versions are about 130bpm. That's the advantage of different versions of favourites - you can exploit people's expectations. By this stage I had the room really cooking, but I wanted to get the tempos much higher. Thing is, the dancers were actually a bit tired (it was 3:45am) so I gave them a bit of break with the hi-fi favourite "Hallelujah" (not my favourite song, but very effective and live which always feels good). Then I chucked it up with "King Porter Stomp", another hi-fi (but sounds old school) live song. It's a longish song, so I had to drop it down from there.

From there I went with an oldie but a goodie - "Til Tom Special" is upenergy, but it creeps up on you. It starts with a more mellow feeling, but builds. So I could get the kids who were sitting down (but ready to dance) up on the floor. Then another very safe favourite.

And I decided to change things again completely with Nina Simone at 4:00am. Hi-fi, super favourite, nice easy tempo. And I had 100% strike rate - everyone in the room dancing (which was about 30 or 40 people? I'm not sure). From here I was to hand over to the closing DJ, so I couldn't do much more than close up with a fun favourite. I really could have gone on a bit longer, I think, and had just begun to hit another wave of inspiration - "Blip Blip" could have gotten us to other, more interesting places - but that was the end of my set.

Then I wanted to dance and dance and dance and dance. The Squeeze was long gone by then - he was tired and had gone home to bed. But I was feeling all energised by a successful set, and thought I was the dancing queen. So I had some dances, proved - despite all that thinking - that I wasn't the dancing queen. And then I was taken home.
To Deb and Glen's home, where seven of us had toasted sandwiches and hot chocolate at about 6am. The Squeeze turned up with Chez who'd dropped home to pick up cheese (really), and he impressed people with his fleecy pajamas. Then Glen, Trev and I had a really lovely, nerdy music talk.

Then we went home as the sun came up and went to BED!

Some more things I've learnt about DJing at exchanges:
- the stuff that's old and boring at home isn't necessarily old and boring somewhere else. People at exchanges are from all over, and you can't be sure of what's cool in their home town (though it helps to know who there local DJs are and what they play). So songs like "Lavender Coffin", which I'm really sick of was new to the Perthlings. And "Cole Slaw", which is newish (ie new for new dancers and the groover crowd, old for people like me who learnt with old school teachers) for Melbourne is old for Perth.
- Perth DJs play a lot of scratch, so hi-fi was novel there. I had to be careful what I played, though - stuff that Melbourne kids would adore, Perthlings (especially Perthlings who'd been around for awhile) wouldn't like.
- The Squeeze reckons exchanges are the place to play safe favourites, because dancers are dancing with strangers and want each dance to be good. But I reckon it's also a place to experiment with more challenging stuff because you tend to have a more experienced crowd. Really, though, it's a combination of both, and depends on what time you play (that time slot was a really choice set), where you're playing, what the crowd is like and how the room feels.
- Having workshops affects how late people stay and how much energy they have. Workshosp can often leave people feeling trashed about their dancing, so 'safe' songs can be nice.
- Hullabaloo wasn't like MLX - it was a bit smaller and had more new dancers. At MLX you can really play the most hardcore stuff, because you have the most hardcore music. But Hullabaloo is a more mixed crowd. Having said that, Hullabaloo has a crowd of older dancers with more sophisticated taste - there's little they haven't heard and they want to be pushed.

Overall, I was happy with my sets in an okish way, but I don't think I pushed any envelopes and have certainly done better sets in the past. But it was lovely to DJ in a new town, far, far away from the bullshit politics of Melbourne. It was especially nice to be DJing in a town where set times and numbers weren't determined by whether or not you're in with the 'cool crowd' or best friends with the organisers. I was just one DJ in many, and I had to prove myself on the night - no pre-existing rep to protect or prove.

Sunday
On Sunday we got up at 3pm, and then looked for some food. It was hard because the shops are all closed in Perth on Sunday. People have been telling me that this is 'cute' and 'nice' and gives workers a break. I say it's BULLSHIT. We saw some more sites. Some by accident.

But after a bit we got some stuff. We made dinner for the crew and spent some time getting ready for the ball. I'm not a big fan of balls generally - I don't like the dressing up or the big, echoey barns they're held in. I like a more intimate venue and casual vibe for hardcore dancing. I'd also made a particularly crappy dress, which didn't help. But there was free food, I did more talking and that was nice.

After that we went to the late night party, which was at the first venue. There was some sort of DJ mix up and the music wasn't good for lindy - apparently the DJ'd been booked for a blues set, and was determined to play that no matter what. Which didn't make the mixed crowd happy (who were predominantly lindy hoppers).
Later I was asked to fill in at the end of the night with some stuff, so I ended up DJing some lindy then blues as the lindy crowd had pretty much gone home by then. It was an ok set, a bit dull, really. Kind of the 'greatest hits' of 2004/2005. The first lindy bit (up until "Smooth Sailing", then I swapped with a buddy, then we swapped back and I closed the night) was good, but it was really too late by then to catch the lindy crowd.
But here's what I played:

Every Day I Have The Blues - Count Basie - 116 - 1959 - Breakfast Dance And Barbecue - 3:48 - 23/04/07 6:28 AM
Lavender Coffin - Hampton, Lionel and His Orchestra with Sonny Parker and Joe James - 134 - 1949 - Hamp: The Legendary Decca Recordings - 2:47 - 23/04/07 6:31 AM
Solid as a Rock - Count Basie and His Orchestra with The Deep River Boys - 140 - Count Basie and His Orchestra 1950-1951 - 3:03 - 23/04/07 6:34 AM
Everybody Eats When They Come To My House - Cab Calloway - 151 - 1994 - Are You Hep To The Jive? - 2:46 - 23/04/07 6:36 AM
Oomph Fa Fa - Jonathan Stout And His Campus Five - 129 - 2003 - Jammin' the Blues - 3:35 - 23/04/07 6:40 AM
Jump Ditty! - Joe Carroll and The Ray Bryant Quintet - 134 - Red Kat Swing 1 - 2:53 - 23/04/07 6:43 AM
Smooth Sailing - Ella Fitzgerald - 118 - 2000 - Ken Burns Jazz: Ella Fitzgerald - 3:07
Get Back Temptation - Ollabelle - 80 - 2004 - Ollabelle - 2:49
Heartattack and Vine - Tom Waits - 90 - 1980 - Heartattack and Vine - 4:50 - 23/04/07 7:10 AM
Son Of A Preacher Man - Aretha Franklin - 77 - Greatest Hits - Disc 1 - 3:16 - 23/04/07 7:13 AM
My Chile - Jay McShann Trio - 145 - Hootie - 3:20 - 23/04/07 7:16 AM
Organ Grinder's Swing - Jimmy Smith - 168 - 1996 - Talkin' Verve - 2:15 - 23/04/07 7:19 AM
My Handy Man Ain't Handy No More - Alberta Hunter - 76 - 1978 - Amtrak Blues - 3:49
Reckless Blues - Velma Middleton with Louis Armstrong and the All Stars - 88 - The Complete Decca Studio Recordings of Louis Armstrong and the All Stars (disc 06) - 2:30
Do I Move You - Nina Simone - 53 - 1967 - Released - 2:46
I Never Loved A Man - Aretha Franklin - 90 - Greatest Hits - Disc 1 - 2:51
Dead End Street - Lou Rawls - 75 - Best Of Lou Rawls - 3:33
Please Please Please - James Brown - 74 - 1991 - Sex Machine - 2:45
When The Lights Go Out - Jimmy Witherspoon - 100 - 1998 - Jazz Me Blues: the Best of Jimmy Witherspoon - 3:00 - 80 - groovy blues - 25/04/07 7:22 PM
Slow Down Baby - Walter Brown with Jay McShann and His Kycee Stompers - 73 - 1949 - Kansas City Blues 1944-1949 (Disc 3) - 2:56 80 - 25/04/07 7:25 PM
I Feel Like Layin In Another Woman's Husband's Arms - Blu Lu Barker - 89 - 1946 - Don't You Feel My Leg: Apollo's Lady Blues Singers - 2:56 - 25/04/07 7:28 PM
How Long, How Long Blues - Ella Fitzgerald - 80 - 1963 - These Are The Blues - 4:00 - 25/04/07 7:32 PM
Willow Weep For Me - Louis Armstrong - 90 - 1957 - Ella And Louis Again [MFSL] - 4:21 - 25/04/07 7:37 PM
Amtrak Blues - Alberta Hunter - 95 - 1978 - Amtrak Blues - 3:23 - 25/04/07 7:40 PM
Back Water Blues - Dinah Washington with Belford Hendricks' Orchestra - 71 - 1957 - Ultimate Dinah Washington - 4:58 - 25/04/07 7:55 PM

I'm not sure what happened to the date stamp there - it was all on the morning of the 23rd/ late night of the 22nd, but the times are accurate if you minus 2 hours for Melbourne/Perth time differences.

I don't have much to say about this set as it was uninspiring to DJ and is kind of dull to think about (though it was very popular on the night - which just goes to show, considering it's almost the same as the other blues set I did that weekend - that timing is everything). That Ella blues album? Don't bother with it - Ella can't sing the blues. It's a nice album to listen to, but lacks emotional veracity.

I went home from here a bit tired and over it.

Monday:
We got up at about 12 to go to the picnic in the park, which was nice. They had GREEN GRASS!

That night we went to the final dance, and I have to say, I was kind of over the whole thing by then. It was fun, but I was bored and tired and actually more interested in interesting conversations that lasted longer than three minutes. I did hear some sweet DJing though (Trev and Glenn esp, with nice work by Russ).

It ended, then there were two rival after parties at people's houses. The teenagers' party blues party and the nanna party lindy party. I decided I wanted to go to a party where some lights were on, decent conversation was likely and the room didn't smell like heavy petting (yes, I had to say it - blues dancers stink, and not in a healthy exercise sweat way). That was fun. From there we went to the blues party to close up, and it was exactly as expected. The Squeeze was very disappointed - he was looking for the party where people were drinking and laughing and doing stunts. So we watched other people rub up against each other very slowly dance and went home to bed.

The next day we had a 1pm flight which we caught quite happily, then flew back to Melbourne to our beds.

Overall, it was really really nice to catch up with interstate friends and hang out. I think I prefer the day time stuff to the night time stuff, but I do like the late nights more than the evenings - there you just put on your comfortable hardcore dancing clothes and dance and dance and dance. I will get a bit fitter for next time so I can go harder and I will get hardcore with vitamins - the first day home I had a cold which had no doubt been brewing the last few days.
It was great to get a chance to talk nerdy DJ talk with other DJs, and I do love catching up with friends.

"hullabaloo round up" was posted by dogpossum on May 2, 2007 7:17 PM in the category djing and lindy hop & other dances i have known and perth

when swing djs get bored...

I'm Duke Ellington!

Just like the greatest of American composers, you see the big picture. You make the most of your resources by arranging them just so. A calm, cool demeanor on the outside is often just a front. Capable of a wide range of emotions and a prolific need for something new, you are at heart a whistful dreamer.







Take Which Jazz Musician Are You? today!
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"when swing djs get bored..." was posted by dogpossum on May 2, 2007 6:30 PM in the category djing | Comments (2)

April 27, 2007

i rock

I have lots of things to write about Hullabaloo, but I need some time to process.

But I do have some nerdy DJing talk.
I did a few sets over the weekend (about 4 all up, including drop-in help-outs), one of which was a blues set. It was just so great. I really rocked. In fact, I rocked so much I did this to some of the hardest harcore blues dancers in the country:

During the set, no less.

You can see more of The Squeeze's photos from the weekend here.

"i rock" was posted by dogpossum on April 27, 2007 2:47 PM in the category djing and perth

April 17, 2007

current favourite songs

I really love Stompy Jones (Ellington 1934 200bpms), but only played it for the first time last Thursday. It went down well. But I was playing such a shitty set I miscombined it and it didn't work as well as it should.

I love love love the song Jungle Nights in Harlem (Ellington again, 1930 202 bpms) but have only played the Charleston Chasers' version, which swings less and is more 'charlestony' (and is 213bpm). I like the trumpet. Of course.

On a completely different tack, I really like Turn it Over by Bus Moten and his Men (1949, 148bpm). I'm sure it's in a minor key (I'm sure JNIH is too, which is why I like it), it has a mellow, laid-back feel which makes it sit well with Slim and Slam, has a sparse instrumentation (on a quick listen - electric guitar, sax, piano, trumpet, drums, bass) and simple vocals. It's probably a song about sex (though the words are about playing records - "flip it, flop it, don't drop it, flip it flap, don't you slap it - turn it over on the other side") and has a nice hummy melody. I play it later at night when people are over their crazed energy but still have some juice in them - it starts mellow but gets more energetic. I like to sing along.

Four or Five Times - Woody Herman, Jimmie Lunceford, Lionel Hampton, McKinney's Cotton Pickers - any version is good. I really like the lyrics and the feel of it. This is definitely a song about sex, and how if you can manage 4 or 5 times the ladies will looooove you. Or possibly the fellas - the McKCP are a little more ambiguous. Because they are naughtier. I like the Herman version for high-energy, crazy lindy, the Lunceford one for mellower dancing, the McKCP one for crazy loungeroom dancing. And the Hamp one is just plain neat dancing.

Jimmie Lunceford
Is whetting my whistle. Again. I especially love his versions of Blues in the Groove (1939 205bpm) (surely a song about sex - groove being a euphemism for vaginas after all - and it's a fun, highenergy number that sounds like great, sweaty fun).
Stomp it Off (190bpm, 1934) - possibly another minor key, but great fun. Sounds lower energy so it gets people dancing, but is actually quite quick and energising. But 'light'.
Hittin' the Bottle (1935, 211bpm - the early-mid 30s were good to Lunceford) - great fun. I like the way they 'call' steps: "move it around, keep going to town, now make a break and wiggle like a snake" (the last two in 'the break'). I've always thought it would make a fun jazz routine song.
Organ Grinder's Swing (120bpm, 1936). A mellow, nice song that I love dancing to and singing as I ride home - it's the perfect bike riding song. I like it because it reminds me of the Mills Brothers (who do a version) and their version of Walking Stick (1938, 158bpm), which I also like. Mostly because it has humming, a really nice bit of Louis Armstrong singing (and I'm not a fan of his vocals), and a sparse bit of instrumentation - maybe just guitar? - with novelty 'instrumental' vocals.