Category Archives: djing

last night’s set

Last night I did the second set at CBD (as I mentioned), the first time I’ve done a second set in aaaages (since SEPTEMBER last year, and MLX last year in November), and I was a bit worried about it. I like going first because it’s like starting with a blank palette – you start at 0bpm and work the room to your comfort zone. I’ve been pretty successful getting the room really pumping – working from that 0 point (actually starting at about 130bpm and working the average tempo up to about 160bpm) – which can be tricky with a room that’s largely beginner dancers. But you know. Performance anxiety. But last night went well.
We are expecting a large event of our own next weekend, so the locals are getting a bit excited. Last night there were more experienced dancers in the room, and I heard a lot of “oh god, I HAVE to get fitter” and “shit, my charleston sucks” talk.
Basically, I went at it the way I would for a first set – get the tempos up high, regularly, and really pump the energy up. It was a bit tricky because it was pretty bloody hot and humid in that nasty skankpit of a venue, but people proved amenable to a little persuasion.
There’s a new mixer thingy, which proved a pain. Once again there were lines that didn’t work. Fiddling with the cords, I noticed that someone had plugged the CD players into the wrong lines (despite we lindy hoppers being lectured by some wanker sound guy about only using X plugs, etc – this time it wasn’t us), and then that the line I’d chosen was screwed. So I had to do some emergency unplugging/replugging mid-set. As per usual. Every single set, I’m lifting the fucker out of the desk (this new one is way heavier than the old one), pulling out plugs, inserting plugs and hunting down loose connections. The hairs on my arms stand on end.
So I start with a bit of hi-fi groove action to segue from Megger’s* set, and that goes ok. The second song? Long, hi-fi, supergroove – good for testing levels and shifting stylistic gears. There were some major technical issues, though (fucked if I know what was wrong – I didn’t touch the fucker!), so I had to change cords and plugs and so on. By that point the sound had cut out a couple of times and I was heartily sick of that bloody song. So I just thought ‘fuck it’, stopped the song mid-way, changed the cords over, and started again with something I actually liked.
It was very liberating to break all the rules like that – you’re not supposed to stop a song mid-way through, and you should make gentler transitions. But it was hot, the song had already been screwed by the tech issues and I just HATE that groover shit right now.
It was so nice to hear Buddy Johnson kicking on in. No bullshit organ crap. No fancy wank flourishes – just a kicking rhythm, some punchy brass and a nice clear melody. Bread and cheese action. A potato chip song that lets the dancers know what your action is all about. Once I had their attention I went to a crowd pleasing favourite – C-Jam Blues (that, even though it’s overplayed up the wazoo, is still a bitching song – buy that album if you’re interested in learning about lindy hop music). And we were off.
A third of the songs I played were over 160bpm, which is a bit of a shift for Melbournians – they like it slow. And the 120s were at the very beginning when I was still thinking about new dancers, or at the very end when people were starting to pass out from dehydration. But otherwise, we had quite a few more upper tempo songs than usual. I just kept dropping them in there, working up and down the tempos. And they kept dancing. It was really nice to work a crowd of more experienced dancers who were determined to dance like fools to decent tempos – I haven’t seen the experienced kids from different cliques so unified by dancing and enthusiasm in ages. I did, however, neglect the newer dancers a bit. But shit, just that one time, I wanted to play what I liked, and to really cater to more experienced dancers who often spend most of the night going through the motions rather than pushing themselves a bit.
I was still a bit clunky til about Four or Five Times (I didn’t really practice yesterday), but there were a couple of guys standing behind me talking shit and distracting me – I knew I’d hit my groove when they both said “ok, the music’s gotten good – I’m going to dance”, headed off in different directions to hit the floor. And I laughed at them. Man, my friends are big fat nerdy music snob nerds.
From there, though, things went really well.
I was actually happy with the songs preceding that point – I might have been a bit quick to get the Mora’s Modern Swingtet stuff in there, and did follow a combination of 3 or so songs I’d played with that afternoon rather than working the room thoroughly, but I was still finding my groove and beating off a case of weird nerves. When I’m nervy I just throw random songs on – sort of like the way I talk when I’m nervy. Lots of random comments rather than a coherent discussion.
I love Shout ’em Aunt Tillie (Ellington, of course, to follow on from the MMS verson of an Ellington track), but I should have left it til later in the night when the doods were ready for that sort of less familiar music. It was also a bit poor quality, which the crowd often can’t take so early in a set. Especially after a set of super hi-fi music. But I freakin’ love that song.
From Effervescent Blues, though, we were really cooking. Old Skool rules! Yee-haw!
I love Back Room Romp a great deal, and hope I don’t get sick of it soon. The dancers really like it too – it’s one of those songs where the floor starts off empty because it’s kind of lo-fi and a bit scratchy. But the beat is so insistent, the brass really rolls around and then gets up there with some nice spikey bits… the floor always ends up full and kicking. It’s almost painful to have to stand there watching people enjoying the music on the floor while I just have to be satisfied with a bit of bouncing on the spot.
Who Stole the Lock (On the Hen House Door?) was a bit of a punt. I wanted a high energy, old school lindy song. But people did charleston, which surprised me as it’s the song Todd and Naomi used in this routine (which I’ve talked about before). I’d thought the old school fans would think ‘Yee-haw! Lindy hop MUTHAFUCKAHS!’ but they thought ‘Yee-haw! Charleston MUTHAFUCKAHS!’ instead. Which was kind of a shame as I had some sweet Charleston Chasers and Vince Giordano lined up for later on. There’s only so much superfast music you can play on a hot night. And very few people actually dance 20s solo charleston, so it’ve been a bit exclusive to pound that theme to hard.
Because the quality of that recording is quite poor, I went for the Mora’s Modern Rhythmists version of A Viper’s Moan, because I wanted to stay old school, but needed to lift the sound quality a bit to change the mood and get the un-charleston people onto the floor again. It was a success. I’m almost really sick of that song (especially the MMR version), but it’s a useful potato chip song.
I’m also a bit over Savoy Blues. But I was going somewhere particular. And, weirdly, that New Orleans sound is really popular with Melbourne kiddies at the moment. It defies comprehension. But it’s very pleasing – I love that action, so it’s nice to play stuff for the kids that I really dig. But I guess I shouldn’t be surprised: it has stompy rhythms everyone can hear, it has a kind of uproarious, controlled-chaos approach to solos and parts. It’s not the sort of carefully unified and controlled stuff that Benny Goodman and Glen Miller are into. Nor is it the sort of wilder, yet still managed big band sound of Basie. It feels a bit crazy, but is still quite clear and easy to dance to.
But then I wanted to up the tempos a bit and change the mood. So I went with Stomp it Off by Lunceford, which is quite quick, but has a lovely light, energetic, fun feeling – it feels light hearted and fun. Which is quite a nice contrast to the New Orleans stuff which can be a bit heavy and lower and church-influenced (you can really hear the jesus gospel stuff and martial themes). I’m always delighted when people jump on the floor for uptempo stuff, people who don’t usually dance to quick stuff. I always figure it as a win if I’ve tricked them into dancing faster. But that version of Stomp it off is so fun and nice – it could almost be an Ellington recording, but it has that Lunceford naughtiness chugging along in there as well. And of course, it’s some nice Sy Oliver goodness (he wrote it).
Then I followed up with some mellower uptempo stuff. I’m almost over Good Queen Bess as well, but it’s a very effective tool for transitioning. At this point I was totally in the groove and thought I’d finally please the girl who wanted old school but really meant male vocal stuff. So I played a big fat bracket of chunky male vocal stuff. I say male vocal, but I’m actually thinking ‘silly songs with men talking about food, sex or both, accompanied by guitars’.
These songs always stump me, in terms of the sound quality, but Cammy was really nice and helpful and gave me some tips mid-way through to sort them out. They’re tricky because they’re not walls of sound like big band stuff – they’re really just a couple (or few) blokes singing along with a guitar, bass and possibly percussionist. Cam said they’re mostly sitting on about 220 somethings (I can’t remember the word), so we dumped the bass way down, upped the mids (or was it the opposite? I forget), and then fiddled with the highs. It was interesting to play with this stuff. And Cam encouraged me to get serious with my equalizer, which scares me. But heck, I’m all cowboy these days, so I might as well. It does bring home the drawbacks of itunes, though.
So I played a bunch of Slim and Slam, Cats and the Fiddle and Mills Brothers and peopel went NUTS. They really really dug it. Apparently the teachers at the Lismore camp in February played a lot of this action. It’s weird, because I learnt to dance on these guys, the Hot Shots use them a lot at Herrang for teaching and they really feel very familiar and kind of ‘overplayed’ in my mind – I love them, but I wouldn’t pack a set with them. But I had avoided playing them for a while as they’d not gone down well last year with CBD people, and I do actually adore Slim Gaillard in particular.
I almost added some Fats Waller in there, but I figured I needed to change the vibe a bit, so I went with a potato chip song (after the Potato Chips song), because I wanted to get to a request for the birthday boy – when someone requests For Dancers Only you hop to it. Particularly when they specifically request the higher tempo version I adore.
By this point people were looking really trashed. They were kind of euphoric and having a good time, but they were obviously not drinking enough water (arsehole venue manager won’t let people bring their own water and won’t turn on the air-con. Arsehole), so I figured I’d finish off this chunk then let it settle a bit. Savoy, one of my favourite songs, went down really well, and I thought I Want The Waiter (with the water) was a funny choice, a bit lower energy and a bit slower. And it also went down well. Jive at Five is such a nice song, and that version is slower again and kind of mellow, so people had a chance to chill.
It’s kind of a risk at that point in the evening (I started at 10.00 and it was about 11 by then), so this was a bit of a punt. But they were still nuts for dancing. So I built them up again. And played Minor Goes a’Muggin’ in honour of Trev. There was a protracted discussion about the meaning of the word ‘muggin’ at the DJ desk at this point, with some speculation that it could have something to do with smiling or a big face (kind of a British thing), or perhaps more to do with:

muggins |ˈməginz|
noun ( pl. same or mugginses ) Brit., informal a foolish and gullible person.
• humorous used to refer to oneself in order to suggest that one has been stupid, esp. in allowing oneself to be exploited : muggins has volunteered to do the catering.
ORIGIN mid 19th cent.: perhaps a use of the surname Muggins, with allusion to mug 1 .

(to use the dictionary on my computer).
People dug the song, though. By this point it was about 11.20 and I was getting tired. The last few songs were closers and I danced the last two (because it was after 11.30 and I wasn’t being paid any more and I WANTED TO). I should have ended at St James Infirmary rather than letting it peter out. Don’t Come Too Soon is a fairly lackluster attempt to construct a euphemism for the obvious. I like it.
It was a good set, I enjoyed it, and things went well.
Here’s the set list:
CBD set 2 1st March 2007
(title, artist, bpm, date, album, time)
Mumbles Oscar Peterson 188 1964 Ultimate Oscar Peterson As Selected By Ray Brown 2:02
Blues In Hoss’ Flat City Rhythm Orchestra 130 2004 Vibrant Tones 5:23
Shufflin’ And Rollin’ Buddy Johnson and His Orchestra 153 1952 Walk ‘Em 3:12
C-Jam Blues Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis 143 1999 Live In Swing City: Swingin’ With Duke 3:33
Krum Elbow Blues Mora’s Modern Swingtet 162 2004 20th Century Closet 2:45
Shout ‘Em Aunt Tillie Duke Ellington and His Orchestra 158 1930 Jazz Caravan 2:56
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
Four Or Five Times Woody Herman Orchestra 141 The Great Swing Bands (Disc 2) 3:09
Back Room Romp Duke Ellington and his Orchestra 155 2000 Ken Burns Jazz: Duke Ellington 2:49
Flying Home Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra 159 1940 Tempo And Swing 2:58
Who Stole the Lock (On the Hen House Door?) Jack Bland 245 2002 Golden Greats: Greatest Dixieland Jazz Disc 2 2:37
A Viper’s Moan Mora’s Modern Rhythmists 143 2000 Call Of The Freaks 3:30
Savoy Blues Kid Ory 134 2002 Golden Greats: Greatest Dixieland Jazz Disc 3 3:00
Perdido Street Blues Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra with Sidney Bechet 148 1940 Blues In Thirds 1940-41 3:00
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
Stomp It Off Jimmie Lunceford and His Orchestra 190 1934 Swingsation – Jimmie Lunceford 3:08
Good Queen Bess Duke Ellington 160 1940 The Duke Ellington Centennial Edition: Complete RCA Victor Recordings (disc 10) 3:00
Laughing In Rhythm Slim Gaillard 140 2:52
Groove Juice Special Slim Gaillard And His Flat Foot Floogie Boys 170 1942 Big Ben – Disc 2 – All Too Soon 2:43
Stomp, Stomp The Cats and The Fiddle 203 1941 We Cats Will Swing For You Volume 2 1940-41 2:55
My Walking Stick The Mills Brothers 158 1938 The Mills Brothers Featuring Louis Armstrong vol4 (1937-1940) 2:43
Potato Chips Slim Gaillard 143 2004 Jazz For Kids – Sing, Clap, Wiggle, and Shake 3:04
Apollo Jump Lucky Millinder 143 Apollo Jump 3:26
For Dancers Only Jimmie Lunceford and His Harlem Express 178 1944 1944-Uncollected 2:22
Savoy Lucky Millinder 166 1993 Anthology Of Big Band Swing (Disc 2) 3:04
I Want The Waiter (with the water) Jimmie Lunceford and his Orchestra 151 1939 Lunceford Special 1939-40 2:44
Jive At Five Count Basie and His Orchestra 147 1960 The Count Basie Story (Disc 1) 3:02
Shoutin’ Blues Count Basie and His Orchestra 148 1949 Kansas City Powerhouse 2:38
Till Tom Special Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra 158 1940 Tempo And Swing 3:23
The Minor Goes Muggin’ Duke Ellington 176 1946 The Duke Ellington Centennial Edition: Complete RCA Victor Recordings (disc 15) 3:02
Cole Slaw Jesse Stone and His Orchestra 145 Original Swingers: Hipsters, Zoots and Wingtips vol 2 2:57
Yes, Indeed! Sy Oliver and Jo Stafford with Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra 134 1941 Yes, Indeed! 3:30
St. James Infirmary Hot Lips Page and his Orchestra 122 1949 Jump For Joy! 3:12
Black And Tan Fantasy Jimmie Lunceford 104 1997 Rhythm Is Our Business 2:44
New Style Baby Walter Brown with Jay McShann and His Kycee Stompers 120 1949 Kansas City Blues 1944-1949 (Disc 3) 2:37
Don’t Come Too Soon Julia Lee And Her Boyfriends 123 1949 Kansas City Blues 1944-1949 (Disc 2) 2:59
*Megs and I have very different taste in music, but we like each other and enjoy DJing together – she’s an arse kicker and we make each other laugh a lot. So it’s always good when we’re paired up for sets.

Mora’s Modern Swingtet’s 20th Century Closet

Mora’s Modern Swinget‘s 20th Century Closet.
A contemporary band who specialise in the sort of music I like most (earlier swinging jazz and 20s hot jazz), the Swingtet are a smaller version of the Rhythmists (they could be a completely different band that Mora runs, I haven’t checked – I have Dumb Brain right now). I was happy with the Rhythmists’ Call of the Freaks and have my eye on their latest album
This is fun stuff because the quality’s good, the songs are really neat (some of my favourites) and this sort of action is a great introduction to old school music for the more conservative/groover dancing crowd.
It’s nice to have a few songs by my favourite artists – I’ll list them below – my favourite small group artists:

The album contains 20 tracks of great swing of the 1930s and 1940s, originally performed by such bands as the John Kirby Orchestra, Artie Shaw’s Gramercy Five, Tommy Dorsey’s Clambake Seven, and the Duke Ellington small groups

And you know how I feel about Ellington. But I’m also a keen fan of John Kirby. I like that smaller, ‘chamber jazz’ sound. Maybe I need to explore Tommy Dorsey’s smaller groups?
Song highlights:
Hop, Skip and Jump – 191bpm – 2004 – 2:44
It’s interesting to compare this with the Campus Five version (which I talked about here). I might prefer the Campus 5 version, but I haven’t listened to them back to back yet, so I can’t be sure.
Krum Elbow Blues – 162bpm – 2004 – 2:45
I love the Ellington version of this song that I have (‘Krum Elbow Blues’ – Johnny Hodges and His Orchestra – 153bpm – 1938 – The Duke’s Men: The Small Groups, vol. 2 – 2:35), and I don’t have Mora’s liner notes in front of me, but he could have used that arrangement (that’s actually a big fat guess). It’s still a great song, and this is a decent version.
Effervescent Blues – 122bpm – 2004 – 3:07
Another ‘cover’ of one of my favourite songs (‘Effervescent Blues’ – John Kirby Sextet – 119bpm – 1939 – John Kirby Sextet: Complete Columbia and RCA Victor Recordings (disc 01) – 2:50), I do prefer Kirby’s version, but the quality of that version that I have is a bit dodgy. Not really up to places like CBD at all.
Jump Steady – 172bpm – 2004 – 2:39
I don’t have the liner notes in front of me, nor do I have another version of this in my itunes, so I’m not sure who the original’s by. But this is fun.
There are many other great tracks, but these are the ones at the front of my brain right now.
I do have some complaints about this album, though. I’m not struck on the vocalist, Kayre Morrison. She’s a bit… hoity toity. This band, all over, is a bit… uptight. Unhep.
I prefer the Willie Bryant versions of Rigamarole and A Viper’s Moan, for example, because they sound rawer, wilder and more emotionally authentic. The problem with some of these recreationist guys, is that they spend so much energy and effort on doing really careful reproductions of other artists’ work, they forget to put themselves into the music. I’ve written about this before here, so I needn’t say more than to repeat the last line of that post: “I like a little grunt, a little grit in my …music”.

Roy Eldridge’s After You’ve Gone

Roy Eldridge’s After You’ve Gone.
I’m feeling a bit tired and bashed about my the anithistamines I’ve had to take to save my sanity (I could, quite possibly, scratch my nose off my face otherwise), so I can’t write much.
Song highlights:
All the Cats Join In – Buster Harding with Roy Eldridge and his Orchestra – 176bpm – 1946 – 2:45
Jump Through The Window – Roy Eldridge and his Orchestra – 154bpm – 1943 – 2:42
Hi Ho Trailus Boot Whip – Roy Eldridge and his Orchestra – 224bpm – 1946 – 2:45
Sometimes a bit too much squawky brass, but also some greatly fun dancing action.

i just couldn’t get it together

Friday night I played a crappy craptastic set at Funbags.
It was pretty hot, I’d been feeling a bit crook during the day and I didn’t take time to go through my music.
I was also pretty uncomfortable with the set up for the DJ. The sound system was pretty good, but the whole thing was at the same counter where the punters pay to come in near the front door. We had to sit our laptops on the counter with our backs to the mixing desk so we could see the dancers, but this meant that our cables had to hang across the entry to the behind-the-counter. And people kept coming in and out of that space all night, climbing under the cords. In addition, I was ideally placed for people to come talk to me.
I need at least ten minutes of alone time at the beginning of a set to get settled – fix the sound a bit, sort my laptop, pick out a couple of good starter songs so I can go walk the room, de-jitter, etc etc etc. But I don’t mind being visited later in the set.
I just couldn’t get it together – I had to tell people to leave me alone a couple of times and to move out of my way so I could see the floor at least three times til I gave up.
As a result, I was a bit jittery and couldn’t relax and get into gear. There was too much talking and bustling around me and it kept me on edge.
So the set sucked.
It was also a bit of an odd crowd, mostly beginner dancers with a couple of more experienced people. It also felt more like an after-class gig than a ‘social dancing’ gig, so pumping, upenergy crowd-kicking songs fell a bit flat. Those sorts of hardcore songs really go down better with more experienced dancers. The Bechet track was a particularly heinous fizzer.
sigh.
I didn’t kill the floor, though. I just couldn’t make a coherent set that really worked the energy in the room. Because it was mostly newer dancers who just love dancing, it was ok. But it wouldn’t have worked on a more experienced crowd.
I’m a bit sick of my music as well – I feel like I’m just playing the same old stodge each week. The same old songs. I haven’t bought a lot of great music lately, just a lot of stuff I really like…. well, that’s probably not true, that’s just how it feels. I actually feel like I’m a bit limited in the music I can play. I feel like I can’t pull out the less crowd-pleasery stuff. There are some songs that are just like chips at a party – they go down well, you can just keep filling the bowl and the crowd’ll just keep chewing em down. But they’re nothing special.
I want to make hoors doovers. Not chips.
I dunno, guess I need to spend more time listening to my music I spose. I think I need to find another artist that really drives me wild so I can get inspired again.
I’m actually feeling like I’d like to play a supergroove set – really pull out all the really good supergroove stuff. But I don’t want to waste a big night on that rubbish. I’d like a more mellow late night perhaps for that. A really late night… but I can’t fight my ‘drive them crazy’ arse-kicker instincts.
anyway…
Just so’s you can compare, he’s the set list. All good songs, just combined in a really shitty order.
(first set, Funpit 16 Feb 2007) song – artist – bpm – album – song length
My Baby Just Cares For Me – Nina Simone – 118 – The Great Nina Simone – 3:38
Cow Cow Boogie – Jennie Löbel and Swing Kings – 120 – 2001 – He Ain’t Got Rhythm – 2:56
Jump Ditty! – Joe Carroll and The Ray Bryant Quintet – 134 – Red Kat Swing 1 – 2:53
Oomph Fa Fa – Jonathan Stout And His Campus Five – 129 – 2003 – Jammin’ the Blues – 3:35
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
Splanky – Count Basie – 157 – 1966 – Live at the Sands – 3:52
Hallelujah, I Love Her So – Count Basie – 145 – 1959 – Breakfast Dance And Barbecue – 2:36
Undecided Blues – Count Basie and His Orchestra with Jimmy Rushing – 120 – 1941 – Cutting Butter – The Complete Columbia Recordings 1939 – 1942 (disc 03) – 2:55
Hey Now, Hey Now – Cab Calloway – 121 – 1994 – Are You Hep To The Jive? – 2:56
Four Or Five Times – Woody Herman Orchestra – 141 – The Great Swing Bands (Disc 2) – 3:09
Back Room Romp – Duke Ellington and his Orchestra – 155 – 2000 – Ken Burns Jazz: Duke Ellington – 2:49
Flying Home – Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra – 159 – 1940 – Tempo And Swing – 2:58
Cole Slaw – Jesse Stone and His Orchestra – 145 – Original Swingers: Hipsters, Zoots and Wingtips vol 2 – 2:57
Lavender Coffin – Lionel Hampton, etc – 138 – 1949 – Lionel Hampton Story 4: Midnight Sun – 2:47
Redskin Rhumba – Charlie Barnet – 186 – 1940 – Charlie Barnet : Skyliner – 2:41
Savoy Blues – Kid Ory – 134 – 2002 – Golden Greats: Greatest Dixieland Jazz Disc 3 – 3:00
Perdido Street Blues – Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra with Sidney Bechet – 148 – 1940 – Blues In Thirds – 1940-41 – 3:00
The Greatest There Is – Duke Ellington and His Orchestra – 133 – 1949 – Duke Ellington and his Orchestra: 1949-1950 – 2:43
Come On Over To My House – Julia Lee with Jay McShann’s Kansas City Stompers – 138 – 1944 – Jumpin’ The Blues (Disc 1) – 2:52
Six Appeal – Jonathan Stout And His Campus Five – 141 – 2004 – Crazy Rhythm – 3:29

As dangerous as a midnight coffee

Glen’s started a meme over here, and it’s one that actually caught my eye.
I meme when I’m trying to be cool, but I think this one is actually quite me.

I am starting up a meme. It is called the “As dangerous as a midnight coffee” meme.
Blurb: Five songs for going nuts when IT HAS TO BE DONE. This isn’t the Nike Just Do It song list of inspiration. It is a savage beast that attacks your weaknesses, and gives you the perspective of sickness, thus forcing you to be stronger. The songs have to currently be on a portable music playing device that you listen to at midnight brewing a coffee and getting ready to attack IT (or comparable scenario).

I do own an ipod (well, The Squeeze owns an ipod, and I see it as my Sistahly duty to appropriate it and use it for previewing old skewl jass for DJing on the bus… well I did, when I was catching the bus. I also used to use it for ‘read-a-long’ sessions with Gunther Schuller (I’ve just been humming and ahing over his books on abebooks, btw: I need them. I do. I really do)), but I think this meme really lends itself to the ‘hypothetical set list’.
Midnight Coffee – hm. I’m thinking of late night after parties, when the crowd are warmed up from the first gig, but you’ve just changed venues, so you have to get them really cooking again.
So, to rework the meme-theme, here are five songs that (I’d hope) would work together to GET IT DONE. In other words, five songs that would hopefully drive a crowd of dancers into a frenzy.
Now, five songs really isn’t very much for crowd frenzying, so let’s assume I’ve spent about five songs getting them warmed up.
…actually, I’m going to do two lists. One will be a chronological list of five songs, in the order I’d play to get the crowd nuts. The other list will be five seriously hardcore-kick your muthafucking arse hardcore YAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!! dancing songs that I would never play all in a row. Not if I wanted to have the floor even partly full.
1. ‘Blues In Hoss’ Flat’ Count Basie 142bpm 195? Big Band Renaissance Disc 1 3:13
Because Basie is the only way to kick a bunch of dancers into a frenzy… well, not really, but it’s a nice place to start.
I’m imagining I’m working with the Melbourne crowd at CBD rather than at MLX or another big exchange. Because exchanges are a different kettle of fish.
This song rocks because it’s hi-fi, it’s late Basie, it has some pretty major brass and people know it and love it. It’s also a very manageable 142bpm – a nice warm-up tempo.
2.
…look, this isn’t going to work. Five songs isn’t long enough for me to guarantee mass insanity. I ain’t that good, and I need to see the floor to judge my choices.
Instead, I’m just going to go list five arse kicker songs. The sorts of songs that make me crazy. That I’ve made dancers crazy with (with which I’ve made… whatever). And they’ll probably be my current favourites.
1. ‘Back Room Romp’ Duke Ellington and his Orchestra 155 2000 Ken Burns Jazz: Duke Ellington 2:49
Man, I can’t believe I only have one version of this song! It’s the best. This is a great warm-up track.
… wait, I’m doing it again! I just can’t list five big songs without working up to them!
Ok, now I’m just going to do hardcore, arse kicky songs that I might play at an afterparty. Maybe not all in a row, because the dancers would die. But definitely within one set. Between about 2 and 3 perhaps – when people have all arrived, had a slurpy or their second (or third) Red Bull and something to eat and have the energy to burn. Let’s also say that the room is pretty warm (but not hot – just not chilly), and it’s pretty crowded. But not so crowded you can’t really swing out like a fool.
I’ll try again.
1. ‘Jumpin’ At The Woodside’ Count Basie 237bpm 1938 Ken Burns Jazz Series: Count Basie
The 1930s versions are best. This is one kick your arse song. You can tell Basie got his start with a bit of stride piano with that stomping intro. The tempo is hot (but doable), there are lots of nice layers building up the energy.
Actually, I’m into this now. Now I’m just going to list hardcore songs that I love that would kick your arse if you danced to them all in a row.
2. ‘Lafayette’ Benny Moten’s Kansas City Orchestra with Count Basie 285bpm 1932 Kansas City Powerhouse 2:48
My comments for this one read “difficult but good fast dancing; ok quality”. It comes in shouting and then pounds away at 285bpm. I’ve never danced to it, I’m not sure you could, but it’s a cracking song. I like the stompy base. Basie of course began with Moten’s band – this is hot Kansas city action (those Kansas doods were wilder and rougher).
3. ‘Hotter Than Hell’ Fletcher Henderson 275bpm 1934 Tidal Wave 2:58
This is one frickin’ fast song. But it really rocks. Henderson is the king of hot, arse-kicking music for lindy hopping.
…I’m getting really excited listening to this stuff. It’s going to be impossible to settle down and work after this.
4.’Blues In The Groove’ Jimmie Lunceford and his Orchestra 205bpm 1939 Lunceford Special 1939-40 2:35
Not everyone’s pick of the Lunceford action (I know I was torn between this and ‘Lunceford Special’ or ‘Blue Blazes’), but this one, while it doesn’t have that pounding, driving structure is one of those songs that you can’t help but dance to – it makes you jump up and jiggle around. So it’s a ‘get it done song’ because it’ll get you dancing, despite yourself. And that’s a DJ’s job – getting people dancing despite themselves.
5. ‘Rigamarole’ Willie Bryant And His Orchestra 240bpm Willie Bryant 1935-1936 2:35
This one doesn’t actually sound all that fast, but it really builds you up and makes you crazy. It says DANCE MUTHAHFUCKAH! So people generally do. Mostly like crazy fools. It has shouting in it as well, which always helps. I often play the Mora’s Modern Rhythmists version for dancers because the quality is better, but the MMR version doesn’t have the same punch as Bryant’s.
That’s it, then.
There are about a million other songs I could have listed – we’re all about hard fast, getting-you-moving music here in the swinguverse – but these are five of my favourites.
I know some people’d be suprised to see no ‘Ride Red Ride’ in there, or ‘Man from Mars’ (or Chick Webb at all) or ‘Sugar Foot Stomp’ in some incarnation. I’m also a bit sorry not to have any really hot Ellington action there something like ‘Jubilee Stomp’, a 1928 Ellington track that clocks in at 265bpm (I have it on The Duke Ellington Centennial Edition: Complete RCA Victor Recordings (disc 01)) would have been a sensible addition. But I could have gone on forever. I could have done a top 5 Basie arse kicking songs. Or a top 5 old skewl. And I didn’t even touch the dixie or ‘charleston’ music.
Anyone got 5 other good, arse kicking, ‘get it done’, ‘dangerous as midnight coffee’ music?

because trev is a little baby

Last night I DJed for the second time since… well. I’ve only DJed three times this year, since November 2006 really. The last time was actually very ordinary and I wasn’t very happy with it (see earlier comment). Thing is, when I’m not DJing a lot, I’m dancing a lot. So it’s a trade off.
Anyways, last night I DJed a set which made me very, very happy. Practicing yesteday afternoon for the first time in ages probably helped (practicing = going through my music and doing ‘test’ sets, re-familiarising myself with all my music… well, most of my music).
Partway through the first or second or third (can’t remember which) song I had that crazy pulse-thumping ‘this freakin’ RAWKS’ feeling. I said to Dan about ten times “God, this sounds so GREAT on a big sound system!” Which was kind of duh, because it was either the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, from an album that every swing dancer and DJ must own – fabulous live recording of a fabulous band doing fabulous Ellington music, or it was Basie. And Basie is the best.
The night started kind of strange when a girl I thought knew my music asked if I could play some ‘old school’ music. And I thought she might be joking because I said “That’s like asking me if I like to lindy hop”. But she thought… well, who knows what she thought. Anyways, the upshot is that she really wanted to hear some Cats and the Fiddle. I showed her a short list of stuff I’d put together that afternoon with plenty of CATF, Slim and Slam and the Mills Brothers – male vocal groups which feature lots of guitar. And are, incidentally, from the late 30s and 40s for the most part. ‘Old school’ to me means early 30s, late 20s – serious scratch. It’s not difficult to convince me to play that stuff – I loves that action (and I’d probably add some select Fats freakin-wonderful Waller and Cab Calloway to that particular subgroup – sillier vocals, smaller groups (though not necessarily with Cab… though his earlier stuff has the right sort of sound), chunking rhythm section.
Despite the impression I might have given here, it was actually quite nice to be asked to play stuff I adore. I had to stop myself suddenly go through my music and revising my plans for the set. I had to stay cool and just work with the plan.
As it turns out, I didn’t play any of that stuff (not even any Cab!), nor did I play any serious old school, though I did have Who Stole The Lock (On The Henhouse Door) by Jack Bland and his Rhythmakers with Henry ‘Red’ Allen (1932, 243bpm) on my short list. In fact, I think it’s time for a little gratuitous lindy hop pr0n.

That’s Todd Yanacone and Naomi Unami (blowing all my arguments about ethnicity to shit right there) kickin’ it old school at the Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown in 2005 (linkage). Dat is where it’s at.
But I didn’t end up playing that either. That’s the sort of music that I think of as old school, and I’d add people like Willie Bryant (oh Willie, how do I love thee?), Henry Red Allen, Mills Blue Rhythm Band, McKinney’s Cotton Pickers, early Cab Calloway and early Ellington to that group). I really freakin’ love that action – it sounds crazy and fun and you can really hear the transition from ‘charleston’ music to ‘lindy hop’ music – ie this is where the swing is actually getting into jazz. It’s not quite right for hard core lindy hop, a la Frankie, but it has the crazy energy of the music that makes you dance de charleston and other ol’ timey dances. This is the sort of stuff that I associate with the breakaway – precursor to lindy hop (which you can see in the After Seben clip – Shorty George does the breakaway with an unknown partner right there at the end before the solo stuff (and that solo stuff, incidentally, was my obsession for a while – I love that crazy eccentric dance stuff)).
Though I adore this stuff, it’s not terribly general-audience-friendly. The tempos are generally very high (above 200 at least) for lindy hoppers… for Melbourne lindy hoppers – I’m sure Trev could offer some nice examples of lindy hoppers in other Australian cities and their tempo-comfort. And the lack of swinginess can actually make for quite tiring dancing when you’re doing lindy. It almost demands a more upright position and you don’t get that ‘flying’ lindy look. But, as Todd and Naomi demonstrate, it still makes for freakin’ amazing dancing.
Anyway, back to me and me and my stuff and me.
I think I’ll just cut and paste from my comment over on Swing Talk. Here’s my set list and commentary on how the set went:
[song title – artist – bpm – year – album title – song length]
Happy Go Lucky Local – Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis – 110 – 1999 – Live In Swing City: Swingin’ With Duke highenergy – 6:57
Moten Swing – Count Basie – 125 – 1959 – Breakfast Dance And Barbecue – 5:17
Blues In Hoss’ Flat – Count Basie – 142 – 1995 – Big Band Renaissance Disc 1 – 3:13
Shoutin’ Blues – Count Basie and His Orchestra – 148 – 1949 – Kansas City Powerhouse- 2:38
Four Or Five Times – Woody Herman Orchestra – 141 – The Great Swing Bands (Disc 2) – 3:09
Shout, Sister, Shout – Lucky Millinder – 140 – Apollo Jump – 2:44
Back Room Romp – Duke Ellington and his Orchestra – 155 – 2000 – Ken Burns Jazz: Duke Ellington – 9:07 PM
A Viper’s Moan – Mora’s Modern Rhythmists – 143 – 2000 – Call Of The Freaks – 3:30
Savoy Blues Kid Ory – 134 – 2002 – Golden Greats: Greatest Dixieland Jazz Disc 3 – 3:00
Perdido Street Blues – Louis Armstrong – 144 – 1997 – Priceless Jazz Collection #3 – 3:08
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
Lavender Coffin – Lionel Hampton, etc – 138 – 1949 – Lionel Hampton Story 4: Midnight Sun – 2:47
Cole Slaw – Jesse Stone and His Orchestra – 145 – Original Swingers: Hipsters, Zoots and Wingtips vol 2 – 2:57
Solid as a Rock – Count Basie and His Orchestra with The Deep River Boys – 140 – Count Basie and His Orchestra 1950-1951 – 3:03
Joog, Joog – Duke Ellington and His Orchestra – 146 – 1949 – Duke Ellington and his Orchestra: 1949-1950 – 3:00
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
Six Appeal – Jonathan Stout And His Campus Five – 141 – 2004 – Crazy Rhythm – 3:29
All The Cats Join In – Peggy Lee and Frank DeVol’s Orchestra – 150 – 1998 – Complete Peggy Lee & June Christy Capitol Transcription Sessions (Disc 2) – 2:18
Flying Home – Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra – 159 – 1940 – Tempo And Swing – 2:58
Blues In The Groove – Jimmie Lunceford and his Orchestra – 205 – 1939 – Lunceford Special 1939-40 – 2:35
Hop Skip and Jump – Jonathan Stout and his Campus Five, featuring Hilary Alexander – 192 – 2004 – Crazy Rhythm – 2:48
For Dancers Only – Jimmie Lunceford and His Harlem Express – 178 – 1944 – 1944-Uncollected – 2:22
Till Tom Special – Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra – 158 – 1940 – Tempo And Swing – 3:23
Jumpin’ At The Woodside – Count Basie – 235 – The Complete Decca Recordings (disc 02) – 3:10
Rundown:
I always begin with something ‘safe’ and hi-fi at CBD so I can fuss over the tech set up (because it always sucks). Happy Go Lucky Local went down really well (which surprised me). I’m not sure if I actually played Moten Swing or not – it was on my list but I think I was deciding between it or HGLL and didn’t actually play it. Whatever.
Keith tried to suggest the one-in-a-row rule to me at about Blues in Hoss’s Flat but I scoffed. I derided. Basie is such a great opener for a set – he really is the best lindy hopping music. Nice, high energy, kind of straight up and nothing too scary or difficult, you can get nice quality recordings and people know a lot of his stuff.
I consciously played a lot of favourites during the set – sort of speckled them in there between other ‘mini-sets’ (the mini-sets in order: the norleans set, the shouty-clapping set, the ‘chilling’ set, the ‘finally you’re warmed up, so let’s kick your arse’ set). Perdido Street Blues is one of my old faves which I actually DJ very rarely (it’s also actually a song I think of as ‘Sidney Bechet’ rather than Armstrong). I can’t play Blues My Naughty Sweety Gave To Me again – it make me want to hurl. Even though people love it, I’m over it. PSB was my BMNSGTM substitute.
The ‘mini set’ thing wasn’t deliberate – it just kind of worked out that way as I tried to play songs in a logical order (ie matching styles and then moving between styles using the clutch rather than just hacking them in there).
I did scew up at one point, doing a dreaded double click 3/4 of the way through Til Tom Special, which sucked, as I was building them into a frenzy for the last song. But no one seemed to mind and an jam circle formed instantly. It was the first spontaneous jam I’ve seen in Melbourne for ages. There were a couple of grumbles from people who wanted to dance to that song, but I say – get in there and DANCE to it.
I think I have to add for the non-dancers reading, that that last song Jumpin’ at the Woodsideis an iconic one. It’s hardcore Basie, doing the very best Basie action. It’s fast (though this wasn’t the version I thought I played, which is about 270 odd bpm), it’s fun and it’s crazy. It’s also been stamped as a ‘jam song’. I didn’t intend a jam, I just wanted to play an arse-kicking, fun, crazy fast song to close my set. As bigpants comments in that Swing Talk thread, though (and I really like this line):

“We interrupt the regular broadcast for this important jam announcement”
Maybe you shocked the jam into us. It worked.

If only I could say that I planned this. But I’m afraid it was sheer fluke.
One of my favourite parts of the night was playing Blues in the Groove (I’m on a(nother) Lunceford kick atm) and seeing people run to the floor. I blame that version of Flying Home – it’s slower but gets people all worked up. And you have to love balboans – they get in there and work it at all tempos.
Another highlight was playing that version of For Dancers Only – it’s off a new album I saw pimped on SwingDJs recently and which I absolutely LOVE. I think Gracenote has the wrong name for the album, but it looks like that to the right there.
As you can see from the Amazon link, it’s crazy cheap. And worth it for that version of FDO alone (incidentally, Dan played a version of Wham last night – I am currently loving that song atm. Lunceford and Hamp are my men).
Then Dan played his first Melbourne gig and did a neat job. We had a bit of a scuffle over who’d play what. The best bit of DJing first is that you get to play what you like, while the second DJ can’t repeat anything. Tough luck if you dig the same stuff (though that rocks because you get to dance to the stuff that way). But then, the first DJ has to suffer through thinking ‘why didn’t I play that?!’ in the second set. Actually, I enjoyed DJed with Trev at the Speegs at MLX – we have similar tastes, but different collections, and of course, different ways of putting a set together. I played the first set, he the second, me the third, and it was really nice rubbing in/bewailing our choices.
And just in case you thought I was the nerdiest DJ in the whole world, go look at this link and see I’m not. WHY didn’t I find that clip before I wrote that stuff about youtube?
Rightio. Enough postage for you there, Trev?
I have a job application to write, so I’m outy.
LCJO image stolen from here.

hm

I’m doing a set this Friday night (second set, if you’re interested, preceded by one of my least favourite DJs) and I’m not really on top of my music. I have been too busy reading and writing and haven’t spent enough time listening to music. I don’t listen to music when I’m working because it either distracts me or I just stop hearing it after a while.

it’s difficult to not think ‘oh, this Basie song would be good here’

It’s always difficult DJing for a crowd of lindy hoppers on a very hot night in a very hot room. Especially when they’re Melbournians, who tend to forget how to deal with hot weather, even though we have really hot summers. I think it’s all the rain and wind and cold in the winter.
But last night I was up for the first set, and over the course of yesterday revised my loose plans for the set. I had a quick look through my slower stuff – I knew I wouldn’t get terribly high bpms – but reminded myself of my favourite highenergy, fun slower stuff. Just because you’re playing slower music, don’t mean you should let the dancers get too lethargic. My goal was to keep the energy up so the dancers continually felt like they really wanted to dance fast and crazy. I wanted to build them up gradually, kind using the smaller wave idea, not only in terms of tempo (where you move from slower to medium to faster stuff in a general progression) but also in terms of mood (where you build up the energy and excitement, then quieten it down, progressively). But at the same time as I was working on these shorter waves, I also wanted to work on a broader, ‘big picture’ type wave, where I was gradually working up the energy in the room, even though I was giving them rests with the down parts of the mini-waves. It worked quite well, I think.
This was the first set, as I’ve said, and that means that the crowd was largely beginners from the class (though not super-beginners – more people with some lindy who’re loving dancing, but can’t quite hack mega tempos or really complicated melodies and rhythms yet). The more experienced dancers came in about a third of the way through the set, and that always builds the energy in the room, in part because their example invigorates the newer dancers watching them, but also because they really use the music (meaning, they’re beyond just thinking ‘move-move-move’ and can build in extra responses to the music within a move). Newer dancers can hear this stuff, but they don’t often have the physical ability to make this feeling flesh).
I do find, though (unfortunately) that the newer dancers tend to cede the floor to the more advanced dancers as they feel a bit intimidated. I guess that’s one aspect of a scene with more advanced dancers, but it’s also one of the less pleasant parts of the Melbourne scene – there’s a very clear heirarchy enforced by the system of performance troups, competitions, teaching cadetships and teaching roles, and of course, the supporting emails, websites and other assorted media and discourse. Nor do many of those more experienced dancers work to undo that heirarchy by asking newer people to dance.
So you can see on the set list below that the more experienced dancers came in at about Everyday I have the Blues.
There were a couple of eggs in there – If it don’t fit don’t force it just sounded shit on the sound system. CBD sucks arse – all my piano-only or sparser arrangements end up sounding like shit. It has to have a big, full orchestra to fill the room. I do not know why – I try to fix it with the levels, but that doesn’t work. I guess I need to get onto the whole equaliser thing, but…
I really wanted to play a bit of Jay McShann after I’m just a ladies’ man man by Witherspoon, because I liked the way Witherspoon’s dirtiness responded to Barrel House Annie’s crudeness, and because they’re both kind of solid, uptempo blues tracks – good stompin’ dancing fun. Witherspoon also got his start singing with McShann’s band, so it seemed appropriate. I did want to play a bit more McShann, as he passed away recently, but the little section kind of faltered with the poor quality. I’m just a ladies’ man did go down really well, though.
I pulled a few stunts during this set… stunts, as in DJing tricks. I played some old favourites, speckled through the set. These included Blues in hoss’s flat which we haven’t heard in a while, and which was overplayed earlier this year (mostly by me), Shout Sister Shout (whose unnoticed vulgarity and double entendre work really pleases me and seemed a good lead in to If it don’t fit), Be Careful (even if you can’t be good) which was me having a joke with myself – it’s an old favourite, I regard it as a ‘safety’ song as it’s good quality, is good, easy dancing (and has some nice musically bits), but I really like the synchronicity of the lyrics (“be careful… even if you can’t be good). This track is also edging into jump blues/early rock n roll in 1951, which kind of worked as a musical progression from the styles of the previous songs (a sort of timeline of the development of blues to rock n roll) – a point only a supernerd DJ would care about, but which actually works really well with dancers, as it leads them naturally between styles, rather than sort of dumping a nasty stylistic shift on them.
I wanted to get to Six Appeal, which is a Campus Five song I’m busily overplaying, and have noticed goes down really with dancers, and figured Shoo Fly Pie (another song riddled with overlooked inuendo) was a nice step. I had toyed with playing the Campus Five version of Why don’t you do right (the ‘Jessica Rabbit song’), but that’s too low a tempo and kind of kills it. Six appeal is more fun anyway.
I really like the way Campus Five play that older, echoes-of-Orleans style in Six Appeal – I think it’s the trumpet and the clarinet that make me think this way. Plus the odd bit of interesting percussion/drum work. From here the obvious choice seemed Bechet – he’s got that revivalist trad jazz sound that still swings. And Blues my naughty sweetie gives to me is very popular with Melbournians today so I figured it was a good choice.
From there, I had to play Joshua fit de battle of jericho as it really develops that New Orleans sound, and I really like that combination of songs. I like the way Blues my naughty sweetie works the crowd up, energy-wise with the stompy piano/base, but adds in a bit of sauciness with the trumpet (no, it’s not Louis Armstrong, though I always think it is). This song is great. It kind of feels like Western saloon honky tonk, but with a bit of saucy (and terribly cool) bluesy swing to give it a sense of humour. When the clarinet comes in (it could be a sax – I can’t be arsed checking), its work with the trumpet really lets you know where the naughty is at.
And Joshua really takes up the energy blues my naughty sweetie has been gradually building up and works it up a level – kind of the climax, really. Though it depends on the crowd. This combination of songs has gone arse up for me in the past, but the mellow tempos and the general vibe was working with me – I think the Campus Five got people in the mood, in a less confronting, twenty first century way, which made people more amenable to the quite-in-your-face yelling and shouting and almost unswingness of Joshua.
I’m generally not a big fan of Jesus songs (I do not like Wade in the water, for example) but Joshua seems a little more irreverent – I think funeral march rather than baptism. Kind of the way Lavender Coffin (another crowd pleaser I dropped in earlier to score cheap points) does. It’s about death and martyrs and saints and the bible, but in an old testament way. Kind of gloriously bloody, and with a bit of gospel-as-used-by-African-American slaves – a bit of tactical resistance from within an institution, where you know dark humour is the flip side of that slap stick clowning for the white folks.
Of course, Jericho has some sweet trumpet and clarinet as well. And you really feel like stomping along with this song – it has a nice, stompy rhythm. The ‘improvised’ bit at the end feels nicely chaotic and wild, but still purposeful and organised (if that makes sense).
And then I rounded it off with Ridin’ on the L&N, which I love dearly – I love the lyrics in these Hampton track (fuck, I LOVE Hamp more than anything – no one does stompy, going somewhere rhythms like him):

A man named Mose,
With (was?) a great big nose,
Was sleepin’ on a pile of clothes,
Conductor came and rang the bell,
The porter hollered ‘well well well’
I’m riding,
Riding on the L & N
Ain’t jivin’
Riding on the L & N
So long!

I did play this song particularly for a couple of balboa nuts I saw just getting into their groove with Jericho, and I know this song goes down well with balboa doods. That wide-handed piano and driving rhythm pleases them. I had considered Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen, the version by the Goodman small group (which features Hamp as well) with Martha Tilton, but that’s a little light and tinkly and I was getting a bit of a stompy groove on.
Basically, I wanted something with that ‘building up’ feeling, to work on the existing energy, but not a crazy all-out speeding lindy hop track. It was too hot, and I didn’t want the dancers spent on a track just before the end of my set – I wanted them all hot and ready and worked up.
Savoy Blues brought the tempos down again, but got all the less experienced (and post-christmas indulgant types) back onto the floor. It’s a song that’s kind of getting pretty popular, I love it (Kid Ory again, though a later period I think (at least a later feel – I don’t have the date for that song unfortunately)), and it kept up that stompy move yo ass! feel.
People were pretty much going nuts in that last bracket, which was impressive, as they’d not been able to hack a lot of pounding earlier on in the set.
That version of Splanky was a birthday dance, and was right for the people dancing in the circle.
Overall, it was nice to work from the enthusiastic newer dancers to the old sticks who can be much pickier, but can like a wider range of tempos and styles (if I’m lucky – depending on the crowd). Those newer doods just love to dance, and for whom I like to play some of the old faves, or play the better quality stuff so they can really hear swinging jazz at its best.
[rant] I do not, at all, in any way, subscribe to the idea that we should play neo swing for new dancers. That stuff sucks arse for dancing, doesn’t swing at all, and encourages bad dancing habits. It’s technically pretty poor musicianship (for the most part), and I refuse to add any to my collection. Beyond that, it’s more the case that people take up swing dancing for swing music and the influence of people like Jamie Cullen and (sigh) Robbie Williams than Royal Crown Revue or Cherry Poppin’ Daddies.[/rant]
I began with the Campus Five because I quite like that song, I needed something hifi and safe to test the set up before I got hardcore, and because it feels like the band are kind of ‘testing’ a melody, over a solid, obvious beat – good stuff for a warm up dance. I played Jump Ditty then because I’m very fond of it, even though I suspect that cooler types than I think it’s naff. And it always goes down well with a crowd of newer dancers – it feels like fun. The lyrics are a good thing – I’ve found that dropping in vocals is a good idea with newer dancers.
I played Massachussetts because it feels really swingy and gets me in the mood for dancing – Maxine really swings, and yet the rhythm is really clear and swingingly nice. It’s a nice bridge between the groovy and the solidly swinging old school. The musicians are top notch, and as a smaller combo, you can really appreciate each instrument individually. Unfortunately, everything on this album sounds like shit at CBD – all base and treble. Even when I up the mids. I think this is indicative of the problems with CBD generally – you lose definition in the middle range. And it SUCKS. I will work on learning how to fix it.
I like B Sharp Boston a whole lot, hi fi Ellington, feels like it’s going somewhere, kind of sassy. Still a good warm up song (ie not too challenging or fast or scary), but really great, musically. Blip Blip was a crowd-pleaser, and because I was thinking of Ellington (he did a great original version with Ray Nance on vocals before this Ella one). Slip of the lip sounded like arse – same problem of too much high, lows… but I think it’s indicative of many of the Ellington recordings I have from this period, only made worse by CBD’s system. It’s a shame as it’s a really fun song. Too fast for that crowd in that temperature at that time of night, though. So I went back to hifi (a safety strategy), with the wonderful Jive at Five, then thought I’d follow with a Basie track by a big band other than Basie’s orchestra. Which was a good thing, as I then played two Basie tracks in a row – two very safe, crowd-pleasing favourites.
But really, Basie makes for such great dancing music, it’s difficult to not think ‘oh, this Basie song would be good here’ – his stuff is so varied, so swingingly great for dancing.
After all that DJing, I tried to dance like a fool, but the temperature, post-christmas fatness and unfitness and so on prevented. Needless to say, riding home was difficult.
Fuck it was hot yesterday (and my laptop is burning my legs now!)
Oomph Fa Fa – Jonathan Stout And His Campus Five- 129 – 2003 – Jammin’ the Blues
Jump Ditty! – Joe Carroll and The Ray Bryant Quintet – 134 – Red Kat Swing 1
Massachusetts – Maxine Sullivan – 144 – 2006 – A Tribute To Andy Razaf
B-Sharp Boston – Duke Ellington and His Orchestra – 126 – 1949 – Duke Ellington and his Orchestra: 1949-1950
Bli-Blip – Ella Fitzgerald – 132 – 1956 – Ella Fitzgerald Day Dream: Best Of The Duke Ellington Songbook
A Slip Of The Lip – Duke Ellington with Ray Nance – 150 – 1942 – The Duke Ellington Centennial Edition: Complete RCA Victor Recordings (disc 13)
Jive At Five – Count Basie and His Orchestra – 147 – 1960 – The Count Basie Story (Disc 1)
Easy Does It – Big 18
Every Day I Have The Blues – Count Basie – 116 – 1959 – Breakfast Dance And Barbecue
Blues In Hoss’ Flat – Count Basie – 142 – 1995 – Big Band Renaissance Disc 1
Walk ‘Em – Buddy Johnson and His Orchestra – 131 – 1946 – Walk ‘Em
Back Room Romp – Duke Ellington and his Orchestra – 155 – 2000 – Ken Burns Jazz: Duke Ellington
Lavender Coffin – Lionel Hampton, etc – 138 – 1949 – Lionel Hampton Story 4: Midnight Sun
Drinkin’ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee – Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra – 130 – 1949 – Lionel Hampton Story 4: Midnight Sun
Le Jazz Hot – Jimmie Lunceford and his Orchestra – 144 – 1939 – Lunceford Special 1939-40
Shout, Sister, Shout – Lucky Millinder – 140 – Apollo Jump
If It Don’t Fit (Don’t Force It) – Barrel House Annie – 148 – 1937 – Raunchy Business: Hot Nuts and Lollypops
I’m Just A Lady’s Man – Jimmy Witherspoon – 144 – 2002 – Goin’ Around In Circles
Be Careful (If You Can’t Be Good) – Buddy Johnson and His Orchestra – 121 – 1951 – Walk ‘Em
Shoo Fly Pie – June Christy – 128 – Red Kat Swing 1
Six Appeal – Jonathan Stout And His Campus Five – 141 – 2004 – Crazy Rhythm
Blues My Naughty Sweetie – Sidney Bechet – 140 – 1951 – The Blue Note Years
Joshua Fit De Battle Of Jericho – Kid Ory And His Creole Jazz Band – 160 – 1946 – Kid Ory and his Creole Jazz Band 1944-46
Ridin’ On The L&N – Lionel Hampton and His Quartet- 170 – 1946 – Lionel Hampton Story 3: Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop
Savoy Blues – Kid Ory – 134 – 2002 – Golden Greats: Greatest Dixieland Jazz Disc 3
Splanky – Count Basie – 125 – 1957 – Complete Atomic Basie, the

very un-cultural studies of me

I’ve been writing a bit about women and blues music and dance lately, my ideas fed in part by my research for the thesis, but also (and perhaps more importantly), stimulated by my own experiences as a woman in the swing dance community.
I’ve been asked to do a guest spot on a fairly spec online culture blog, writing specifically about my own research. I’ve had a bit of a think about it, not much, I must admit, as I’ve been a bit distracted, and really, I just can’t seem to put anything together in my head. I mean, I have no idea what I’d like to write about. I’ve kind of got stage fright. This is the first mass-public airing of my work where I’m likely to get/see immediate feedback (in the form of comments), and unlike academic journals or conference papers, I feel there’s a bit of pressure to write well and accessibly. I do think that the format is quite different – shorter, lots of linkage, etc etc.
And while I just know that this is a fabulous opportunity, I can’t seem to put my ideas together.
I’d quite like to do something like this hot and cool entry (with some tidying and a more coherent structure and, well point), but I’m not sure how to start.
I actually got to the hot/cool entry by way of this entry on women, blues and dance, which developed from this (fairly ordinary) entry on the same topic. And of course, that was a response to Kate‘s responses to a CD I sent her with a copy of a blues set I did a few weeks ago.
Of course, for me the most interesting part of this whole chain of thinking is the fact that we began with a set list posted on the internet, which is something I have started doing recently as a replacement for the fairly fizzly thread on the Swing Talk board where we did list our set lists ages ago, but which has recently fallen out of favour.
I found that thread particularly useful as a beginner DJ – I could see what sorts of songs different DJs in Australia are playing, the ways they’re combining them, and then (perhaps even more interesting) I could read their own comments on the sets and how they went. I read that thread in conjunction with this DJ bubs thread (which gets interesting on the second page) and the Swing DJs board, where I’m too scared to post. And of course, I also spent a great deal of time clicking between amazon.com (or cduniverse.com) and allmusic (a site which used to be better) for sound clips and musicans’ bios respectively. Radio programs like Hey Mr Jesse, which are only delivered online as podcasts have recently become really important to me (I don’t think it’s a coincidence, as Jesse has been producing this show since January 2006 and I started DJing in February of this year).
Talking about DJing in person, with real, live DJs has played a suprisingly small part in my learning to DJ. I think this is in part because I prefer to dance when I’m not DJing, dance venues generally aren’t too good for talking about DJ, and I’m not really interested in getting together to talk DJing – I’d rather talk about other crap. I do discuss levels and technology when I’m DJing or when someone else is DJing – I ask knowledgeable friends questions like “why does that sound like shit?” and then do a little hypothetical problem solving.
These were the sorts of resources that I was using to help me learn how to DJ. I was full of ideas about DJing (in part prompted by my thesis work and chapter on DJing, but not entirely – I found that most of my theoretical ideas about DJing were actually bullshit and needed to be revised post-practical experience), and feeling creative and inspired. The fact that DJing is nine tenths compulsive CD collecting and song cataloguing no doubt helped me along (I can stop whenever I want. I don’t have a problem. I don’t need to organise things. No way).
Posting set lists (and posting my discussions of them), getting feedback from more experienced DJs, and learning about DJing from reading their posts, in combination with all those other sources helped me get a handle on DJing. I must add, without the practical experience of DJing, none of these things would have been any good to me at all. And of course, most of my ideas about DJing and how to DJ are in turn fostered by my own dance experience – both in Melbourne over the years and overseas – and and by listening and dancing to other DJs’ sets.
I think it’s also important to note that all this online toing and froing is a really interesting aspect of swing DJs’ activities generally – I wrote about this in the chapter on DJing. Because we live so far apart (particularly in Australia), the internet has developed as a fabulous tool for networking between DJs, for the development of skills (and increasingly for me), networking with event organisers for scoring gigs. Travel has also been important, as it gives me a chance to touch base with DJs from out of town.
And, of course, I have to make note of the fact that I know only one female DJ from out of state who has a decent amount of experience and comes out dancing regularly or posts on Swing Talk. Here in Melbourne, there are far more female DJs than in other scenes, in part (I think) as a result of the recent ‘opening up’ of DJing at major venues like CBD (which has so many sets to fill each month and has been organised by people who have been clearly interested in expanding the DJing base in Melbourne), and (to a degree), the importance of buddying between new DJs. Glancing over the DJing roster for CBD in January, I can see that six out of the eight DJs rostered on are female. I also note that of those eight DJs, there are only perhaps two who I’d make an effort to go dancing for. Of all these DJs, most tend to play far beyond the limits of ‘swinging jazz’, with only three (myself included) playing (almost exclusively) swinging jazz from the 1930s-50s.
I have wondered if the serious emphasis on the cultural (and material) capital required for playing swinging jazz is exclusive – does it discourage women? I would suspect so. The largely exclusive language of sites like Swing DJs requires a fair bit of dancing (and listening) experience, and most of the DJs on this one sample list have only a couple of years dancing experience. The least proficient have also travelled the least (and travel, of course, demands lots of dosh). On a further note, only two of the DJs on this list are determinedly not interested in acquiring their music by illegal or file-sharing means. They are, also, the ones with the greatest interest in swinging jazz.
How do I feel about all this? I think it’s quite clear (as I wrote in my thesis) that becoming a ‘good’ DJ (and I think that ability is a combination firstly (and most importantly) of DJing ability – combining songs, keeping the floor full, ranging across a variety of moods and styles – and musicall collection – playing swinging jazz) is restricted to those with the time, money and opportunity to invest. I feel uneasy with my personal insistence that ‘good DJs’ are those who play swinging jazz, even though I know that playing unswing results in inevitable adjustments to lindy hop technique (most of which I think are not good – they result in a simpler, musically and techically less interesting dance). I feel (on some level) that I should be ok with DJs playing unswing, as unswing is more accessible and therefore a means by which more women (and less financially well off DJs) can get access to the DJing role.
I have written at length about the ways in which the ‘recreationist’ imperative of many swing dancers is a discomforting (and selective) use of history which (as I have said before) neglects the darker parts of African American history and eventually recreates scary gender stuff.
So how am I to contribute to DJing discourse when I find so many bits of it so difficult?
There is the option of using ‘buddying’ to encourage new dancers to discover swinging jazz. But that feels condescending – who am I to tell people what ‘good’ music is, especially when many of them are patently not interested in this historical stuff? And really, when the whole history of African American vernacular dance is about cultural relevence, why should I encourage dancers (and DJs) away from the pop music of their day?
I might choose to give copies of the sorts of music I really like to other DJs – how else to be sure I get to dance to the music I like? I have reservations about this on the basis of IP, but also because I have found (in the past), that sharing really good songs with one person will see them spread out, diseminated to other dancers and DJs until I find that dancers are using that song (and that version of that song) to perform routines for paid gigs. And it’s even more frustrating to find that the artists’ name and recording details have dropped from the song, so it is circulating only as a digital, nameless file.
On the one hand, this is interesting stuff. On the other, it concerns me because (particularly when these are living artists), there are musicians being screwed. I will not go as far as some other DJs and say that I resent this illicit circulation because I’m losing some sort of cred as the ‘discoverer’ of this song who ‘brings it to the dancers’ (I’m not that naive or that arrogant – this is pop music, doods). Nor will I say that I resent this because other DJs play this song, so robbing me of my ‘ace in the hole’ crowd pleaser (and attendant status as ‘awesome DJ’), mostly because it’s cool for other DJs to hear a song, ask what it’s called, say “that frickin’ rocks”, hunt it out on itunes or amazon, then play it when they next DJ (and I get to dance to that song when they play it). That doesn’t worry me. It’s more that the song is circulated as a burnt disc or shared file, with the song title, artist, recording year and musicians’ details stripped from it. It also worries me that while I might share a song or songs as a gift, other DJs and dancers compile CDs which they then sell to others. That worries me.
As a dancer, it’s frustrating when DJs simply take a ‘found’ or ‘exchanged’ or ‘gifted’ song and play it to death, without exploring that artist’s other work. I hear one version of (for example) C Jam Blues by the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, and I think ‘yes – now we’re going to hear more swinging jazz. Finally. No more bullshit unswing that makes for crap dancing’ (and as a dancer, that’s how I think – I have no tolerance for unswing. I want to lindy hop to swinging jazz). But that song ends up just as one drop in anotherwise intolerable sea of overplayed pap played in clunky, unpleasant combinations that make for a night of shit dancing.
So I am in kind of a bind. My feminist instincts say ‘fight the power’ and ‘information (and music) wants to be free’. But my dancer instincts say ‘play some good frickin’ music, and learn to DJ well’.
This post has rambled on far longer than I had intended. And far beyond the original point that I wanted to make. And I kind of think it’s become a bit of a tirade against local media production and use practices in Melbourne swing culture. Which is very un-cultural studies of me.