Last night I did some fancy cooking.
It’s been a while since I really cooked – you know, the sort of cooking where you use every single pot and pan, the blender, the food processor and at least sixty zillion ingredients. Sure, I cook regularly, and have people over for meals, but I’m talking serious cooking. And for me, serious cooking means Indian cooking.
When I first moved to Melbourne I lived in a 4 person vegetarian share house. I took to it with a will, and relished our proximity to the Vic Markets. But it didn’t take long for me to get into dancing hardcore, and then I discovered that not everyone in Melbourne likes to eat. I was incredibly disappointed by swing dancers’ dining habits. And still am. There’s far too much bullshit pizza and ordinary pasta. No Indian. No Very little Asian (meaning any Asian cuisine) and far too many over-priced variations on meat and three veg.
The hours that I kept, as a hardcore dancer, meant that there wasn’t time to cook fancy food, and there wasn’t really much point when I wasn’t home long enough or often enough to enjoy it. I did enjoy the household – which had shifted from vegetarian to vegan, heavy on the co-op. I liked going to the co-op at UniMelb to pick up grains or to make my own peanut butter. I liked the Vic Markets very much, and eating sixty zillion types of veggie slop a week. But my inner epicure missed the challenge of serious cooking.
Seeing as how I’m now living the patriarchy’s dream – the little housewife* staying home to keep house while her man goes off to hunt down the bacon** – I’ve started getting serious about my domestic duties. I’ve started cleaning again (and now I’m thinking of PavCat and her post which sticks in my mind – I should print it out and stick it up on the wall), so our house is nice and I don’t have to wear thongs inside. I’ve been buying groceries regularly so we don’t get scurvy. I’ve been doing laundry regularly as well. And I’ve decided I needed to step it up, culinary-wise.
I am more than a little ob-con. I like order, I like strucure, I like tidying and sorting and putting things in containers. When we moved into this house The Squeeze was worried he’d come home one day to find his underwear in jars, lined up with the flour and sugar and lentils in their brand new Arc homes. If I’m working on something acka, it doesn’t matter if the house is blown up and there’s nothing to eat, so long as the words are all lining up nicely and carefully divided into chapters. But now that the whole writing thing isn’t working so well…
I’ve decided that I need to get into the hardcore cooking.
Last time I was into hardcore cooking, the rest of my domestic life wasn’t going so great. My seven year relationship was crumbling, my Masters was being squeeezed out of me, very slowly, and my family was kind of exploding. But fuck, I was eating like a princess. Home made pasta. Six course Indian feasts. Chutneys. Baked goods out the wazoo. Etcetera, etcetera.
Now I realise all that was seven years ago – it’s not long til I’ve been living in Melbourne for ten years. Ten years! I’d never made a definite plan for how long I’d live here, nor where I’d go next. Right now, I’d really like to go somewhere new, do something new. But that’s not really an option. Melbourne is great – I love it. But it’s getting kind of … old.
But, look, I’m off track, and wandering on with the introspection in a way that’s making my male readers uncomfortable…. holy crap, can you believe I actually wrote that?!?! GEEEZus. I really am slipping.
So anyway, back to me and what I want to cook.
Now I have this time on my hands, I’m thinking about getting jiggy with the food. Last night I was home alone for the third or fourth time this week (it’s been a busy week for The Squeeze, what with APPA and work meetings and interviews and things), and decided that I wasn’t going to cook stupid pasta again for my dinner, nor would I buy some dumb takeaway. I was going to use some of the neat veggies I’d just bought and get some curry action happening.
I have a few favourite Indian recipe books. Madhur Jaffrey, of course. A couple of others. And this great job. 
This is Camellia Panjabi’s 50 Great Curries of India (though mine’s cover looks more like this). It’s one of those lovely books with lots of useful desriptions and histories and tips. The recipes, though, are freakin’ hardcore. No canned coconut milk here – only fresh, grated coconut (which is kind of hard to get in Brunswick). Six zillion spices per dish. Whole Spices, though – no ground action. You roast them, then you grind them up. And spices and ingredients I’ve never, ever heard of. We’re talking a level above black cardamon here, at least.
So last night (at about 7pm, I should add), I decide that I’d like to whip up a veggie curry. At first I was kind of clumsy. I couldn’t figure out how to fit all the jars of spice on the counter. Then I realised all those spices were kind of old and neglected. Then I found my two cans of coconut milk had gone off (I subbed in a bit of dessicated coconut and some canned coconut milk for the fresh coconut – you have to fry the grated coconut a bit and the flavour is incredible. But adding too much dessicated coconut to a curry gives you a big pot of all-bran – chewy, kind of flavourless, frustrating). Things weren’t looking too great, so I swapped recipes. And then it was like my fingers and some unconscious part of my brain suddenly remembered what to do. I was the queen of frying whole spices, grating ginger, chopping cauliflower.
Midway through, I realised that I’d made this recipe before and not really liked it (I should have removed the cinamon stick rather than blending it in – it’s too strong), so I decided to whip up a quick chickpea curry. Do you know how long it’s been since I made chickpea curry?! That’s how far I’ve fallen. It took me about 10 seconds and I even remembered the recipe, after at least five years! But then I needed some greens. There was cauliflower, sweet potato and carrots in the curry, I’d found some frozen peas in the freezer (ask The Squeeze about those) and I had a big stack of spinach. So, while the rice was cooking (brown rice, because we’d run out of Basmati (!!) and I felt like it), I threw some chopped garlic and mustard seeds into some olive oil, then some chopped spinach into that. And I cooked it just right – still bright green and full of watery goodness, but not underdone – and it was perfect!
And then I sat down to a plate full of lovely goodness and at least three episodes of Gilmore Girls (did you know that Sam from Supernatural was Rory’s boyfriend? Or that Peter Petrelli from Heroes was her other boyfriend?!).
The smells! The aromas! How could I have gone so long without this?! I haven’t cooked Indian from complete scratch in years – there’s nothing at all like it. Nothing so sensual, so pleasing. And when you’re in there, making that spice paste, about an hour in and with at least an hour to go before you even put the rice on, you think this is complete indulgence. No freaking housewife would take this much time and effort! Cooking like this is pure indulgence. It is luxury. It is taking a whole lot of time to do something that could take half an hour. It’s taking cheap ingredients (all those vegetables) and making something truly special. And I didn’t even get into naan (of which I am a master) or sweets!
But really, this sort of cooking is cooking for pleasure. When it’s not the cooking you were raised with, or the sort of cooking you’re expected to do, it’s extravagance. Profligance even. And it makes me think about the way cooking means different things in different moments. It’s the luxury of time – to cook, to hunt down ingredients, to research recipes and particular food items and utensils. It’s also a marker of affluence and social opportunity. And when you get into things like Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson, it’s about ideas of luxury and being wealthy enough to afford Oliver’s cuts of meat in London, or Nigella’s kitchen accessories. Or – perhaps more importantly for women – being able to simply indulge, indulge, indulge. Without consequence. No calory counting. No expanding girth. No increasing weight. No guilt. It’s the complete and selfish absorption in a utterly sensual and unnecessary activity. This isn’t subsistence cooking, it’s intensive gastronomy. It is about waste. There’s time alone, cloistered in a lovely clean kitchen with just the right tools and raw materials. There are the physical sensations – the softness of fresh dough, the sting of cut chilli, the earthiness of ground spices. The intellectual and creative stimulation – considering how it will taste, making decisions about which ingredient to omit or increase and knowing how this will effect the end product. And the pleasure of expectation – imagining how it will taste, how it will look, how it will smell when it is done and displayed on just the right plate.
It all sounds very artyfarty, wanky, ridiculous. And that’s because it is, and that is what sells television like Nigella’s stupidly ill-focused and unsteadily filmed program and creates cults for cooks and chefs. There’s certainly an element of power and control – at least for me. When I’m cooking, I’m the boss. If there are mistakes, they’re my mistakes. If there are successes, they’re my successes. And there are always new and uncharted territories to explore. Or more excitingly, reams and reams of charts to be ferreted out of bookshelves, stalked in book shops and television guides and on the internet.
So I’m off to the shops in a minute. The Indian grocer is next door to the fresh pasta guy on Lygon Street, just up from a middle eastern nut shop. And then I have to get to the greengrocer on Sydney Road before I finish off at the Halal butcher for some goat. Or perhaps some lamb mince – Madhur has a nice recipe for boiled eggs wrapped in mince and then cooked in curry. Something The Squeeze would like.
Or perhaps, even better, I’ll just get a bunch of things I know I’ll like and make them for myself.
*I should point out here that ‘housewife’ is meant to refer to that imaginary beast who happily spends her entire existence thinking only of others, cooking, cleaning, entertaining, buying white goods, fetching, carrying for children and husband. Career? Are you kidding?! She doesn’t write books (or blogs) or draw pictures or sew anything other than clothes for her children or herself. She doesn’t teach or talk about anything more interesting than which brand of soap she should buy. She aspires to nothing more than domestic harmony and pleasing other people.
This housewife is not the same person as the woman who chooses to be the primary caregiver in her family yet doesn’t switch off her brain. This housewife is the person whose entire being is validated and justified by her service to her family, and she would never, ever consider dropping it all for a quick trip across to Richmond to chase down Japanese quilting fabrics, or that mythical Jazz shop in St Kilda or to take photos of installation art in the CBD.
**There is more than a little bitterness here. All that tertiary education and no corrections, and for what? A clean fucking house? Nice. Glad I put that effort in. Sure, being a housewife is fine, but not for me. In fact, for me, it’s like the world is saying “hey, you know how you’re really clever and can really write and research and stuff? It means nothing. Everything you are – it is worth less than your ability to wield a broom.
Author Archives: dogpossum
classy jazz musicians
There’s an audio file of Buddy Rich giving his band a good talking to, post-gig, which you can listen to here. But be warned – there’s a bit of F-word action.
From this SwingDJs thread
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.
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!
Created with Rum and Monkey‘s Personality Test Generator.
strong-arm
Galaxy‘s little brother (I never get tired of writing that – I’m sure it drives him nuts, but I feel like I get to associate with Galaxy’s Big Sister pride in Stew because I’ve known her so long) has been making nice things again. I particularly like that photo of the nannas with the the athletes. It reminds me of a comment a dance friend made about images of black men being intimidating. At the time I was kind of floored by the inadvertent racism at work, but now I’m also really interested in the idea of pictures of people being intimidating. And by the way particular people are set up to be intimidated. And of course, the ways race and gender are at work in all this.
a long dry route
It’s been a slow month or so for me.
The first rush of post-thesis creativity/productivity has ebbed, and I’m not doing any writing at all any more. Plenty of sewing, some crocheting, some quilting, some dancing, some DJing. We’re also getting onto MLX7 stuff – a trifle late, but still, getting on. Slowly. But there’s not been so much of the high-brain stuff lately.
I can’t honestly say I’ve been sitting down to write much lately. But I have a heavy post-exchange cold (of course) where my throat is killing me, I sport a temperature and some snot and generally poor concentration. So writing is hard.
Yesterday I had lunch with a scribbling friend who’s had similar issues. But it’s pictures for scribblers, not words.
But I noticed it’s Big Brother season again (why are all the characters the same person – I can’t tell any of them apart! But I do love listening to them talk crap – it’s like gossip. I love gossip. I love the complexities of group politics and personalities), and that seems to be a good time for writing for me. So maybe I’ll get lucky. Or productive.
I have a couple of zillion papers in the works. The one that keeps catching my interest is about the type of music swing dancers are into, and how this is about jazz – as ‘art music’ or ‘high culture’ – becoming young people music with a physical purpose. It’s there to be used again, not just listened to in silent clubs or theatres. It’s turned up really loud, having a few beers and arguing about room on the dance floor again. It’s thinking about sex, it’s touching other people inappropriately and laughing loudly and rudely. Finally.
So I want to write about how young people are getting into this action, and how they’re developing new relationships with bands. And, somewhere in there, I want to write about how the other people at the band gigs who best appreciate this, and really like it, are not the younger, cooler 30-somethings, but the nannas and poppas, who best appreciate the fact that jazz is about being rowdy and disreputable and having fun. And that black polar necks are really quite inappropriate wear for a jazz gig.
The other paper I’m thinking about is to do with gender performance on the social dance floor, and the way dancers use digital clips to learn ways of performing feminity or masculinity (remind me to tell you about K dancing with C at Perth: amazon lindy!). This is something I should have written about ages ago in a paper, but haven’t. It’s hard to write because I have so much to say. But it’s the sort of thing that feminist media studies people like.
So I kind of feel as though I’m getting a bit closer to being able to write some stuff down again. We’re kind of in the same room again. Not sitting next to each other, but closer.
On that note, I’ll leave you with a picture from the Hullabaloo ball the other weekend. Those Perthlings give good venue, that’s for sure. If you click on the pic there, you’ll be taken to the larger picture in The Squeeze’s gallery. And, for those who are interested, we love picasa Aperture (sorry) in our house, though it can be a bit resource hungry. It’s a lovely program that organises your photos and helps you make galleries for the internet quickly and simply. It makes The Squeeze all smiley.
new things to be strict about
The other night we were standing outside a bar saying goodbye to some friends, when one declared “What’s this rain? This sucks!” And I thought, as he was uniformly rounded on and told off, ‘This would never have happened a few years ago – we’re in Melbourne. We’re supposed to complain about rain.’
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.
totally badass
I’ve just carried a very heavy, three-shelf shelf-thingy. Sort of 50s style, where each layer of shelves is a bit shorter than the one below.
It’s white, but solid wood underneath – I will liberate it.
I saw it on the side of the road, on Victoria Street as I was going down to the butcher. I had a good squizz, couldn’t see anyone, and legged it, giant, heavy (solid wood) shelf over my shoulder. In the butcher I asked if anyone knew who owned it (or the four nice red-seat, black-leg 50s chairs it was standing with). No one did. I decided it was ok to take it, if I was quick.
After buying some stuff, I nipped across the road to the bus stop and spent 5 sort of worried minutes waiting for a bus. Thank goddess it was the 508 – they lower themselves to let old people and people carrying shelves climb up.
Then I carried it home. A ten minute walk extended. It’s a good thing I’m very strong and with a low, wide centre of gravity. I’d like to think I’m terribly badass, but I’m not sure taking abandoned furniture qualifies me.
long and boring. right on.
I am officiallly the most boring person on earth. What have I done for you lately?
Long, boring posts about DJing. And that’s about it. Nice one. Way to go.
But why?
Well, it’s mostly because I’ve been sewing a lot, and sewing and blogging… well, sewing and writing on a computer = not good friends. The former is not conducive to/for (?) the latter.
Also, I have been a bit low on the can-I-write-in-English? self esteem ladder. Writing – he is not something I can do. Any more. But yesterday I had a nice meeting with the ex-supes about making the thesis into a book and now I feel better. so about a year and a half or so (or however long it takes – I have absolutely no clue. A week? A year? Six months? How long?) from now, expect to see a nice book with a nice colourful cover, full of nice photos of dancers and postively bursting with accessible yet terribly clever and world-changing words about dancing. It will mostly be like reading my blog, but with better spelling. And it will cost more. Also, there will be more pictures. And the world-changing, it will be so fricking on, homies. Your worlds – they will be wearing new frickin’ PANTS, they will be so changed.
Meanwhile, we are off to Hullabaloo tomorrow*. That’s in Perth. I am DJing a few times. We will get up late, tell lies to trusting Westralians, eat foreign food (ie fish that does not need a layer of subcutaneous fat two metres deep to protect it from the antarctican water temperatures), squeeze old friends til they gasp, do some stunts, drink some beer, tell larger lies to truly gullible Taswegians (not all of them are gullible – some of them are sharp, like ze razor), sit about in cafes talking crap, dress up in inappropriate costumes for glamour events, tease everyone under the age of 30 until they cry, mock everyone weighing less than 65 kilograms until they buy themselves a hamburger (or should that be encourage everyone weighing less than 65kg until their self esteem is such that they don’t need to starve themselves to beauty?) and possibly, maybe, perhaps do some dancing. But no promises on that last one.
I will try to take some photos (or The Squeeze will take photos and I’ll claim them) and post about it later on. Don’t hold your breath, though – I suspect there may only be more long, boring posts about DJing. And me. And how I DJ. And what I think about DJing. And what I think about what dancers think of my DJing.
*also, I was convinced I was going to Perth this afternoon. It was at about 9.30 last night when The Squeeze arrived home from a night helping his friends launch their computer thing (BLACK TSHIRTS, doods – I’m looking to order a hundred or so Tshirts in a few months, and NONE of them will be white) that I realised that it wasn’t today but tomorrow that we’re leaving. Means I have a few more hours up my sleeve, but really. What is with my brain?