Category Archives: lindy hop and other dances

I am full of hayfever and premenstrual rage. I am, of course, excellent company. The Squeeze is in the garage with his earplugs in, podcasts a-blasting as he rebuilds his bike.

Thinking more about music I might play for the Gangbusters set.
Brief: > 180bpm, high energy music that gets people dancing like crazy fools.

Classic big band swing rock stars
These guys are the top ten, Christina Aguileras of the swing era. It sounds a bit same, but that’s because you’re listening to the popular music of one very specific period, music whose primary purpose was dancing. The large bands are firmly managed by serious, competent (and often quite gifted) arrangements. The musicians are highly skilled, and the bands themselves were playing to live audiences, on the radio and in recordings every week, travelling all the time. These are professional musicians with serious skills. Solos are usually pre-planned, if not scored ahead of time.

Musicians are grouped by section (eg ‘brass’, ‘rhythm’, etc) and you often get a number of people playing the same instrument – a couple of trumpeters, a couple of clarinetists. This grouping and concentration of instrumentation allows the bands to bring a solid wall of sound. I like this stuff as a dancer because there are layers of sound – different parts, multiple parts to the melody happening at any one time. Beyond notes, there are layers of rhythms which can be very simple (the chunk chunk chunk of a walking bass line) or very complex (the brass, rhythm section and woodwinds all playing contrasting and complementary rhythms as well as notes). Solos are often contrasted against a ‘background’ of supporting instruments. There’s lots to hear, and lots to work with in my body.

Smaller groups of the same period
These are smaller groups, usually made up of smaller sections of a big band, of a group of like-minded musicians or of groups put together for promotional or creative purposes. The arrangements are sweet, but there’re usually more opportunities for improvisation. Each instrument is showcased in a way large bands don’t allow. There aren’t the same walls of sound or complex layers of melody and rhythm. Bands like Benny Goodman’s small groups often had quite sophisticated, complicated relationships between the instruments, but in his case in particular, they were also quite delicate rather than ear-shaking thumpers. I’m very fond of Ellington’s small groups for the way they show cased particular instrumentalists and matched chunky rhythms with interesting melodies and musicianship. I like the Chicago boys of the late 20s for their raucous exuberance. People like Joe Venuti and Django Reinhardt add a more string-driven sound that feels a little less chunky and a little more visually interesting. I’m also fond of bands like the blokes from Glenn Miller’s band working in France after his death, or Roy Eldridge’s smaller groups.
There are lots of smaller bands from this same 30s-40s period, and I tend to think of them as complements to larger projects (like Ellington’s smaller groups or Basie’s work with Benny Goodman’s small bands). There are also New Orleans revivalist projects, or, to put it another way, smaller or medium sized bands featuring New Orleans stars, but doing a more swinging version of New Orleans style hot jazz. Sidney Bechet, Louis Armstrong, Kid Ory – all these guys were involved in projects like these. Sidney Bechet’s groups in this vein are massively popular with lindy hoppers, though they’re not quite the super-hot stuff they were five years ago. And then there are vocal groups and groups with a humorous or novelty twist. Slim and Slam. Cats and the Fiddle. Stuff Smith’s groups. Fats Waller. Teddy Wilson. And so on.

Working with all this stuff, I’ve certainly got plenty to get me through the set. But there are lots of less well-known musicians and groups to add. Western swing doods like Bob Wills. British acts like Danny Polo. The Harlem Hamfats (who have gotten quite popular lately, but who I’m not entirely sure are top shelf acts). European bands like the Harlem Kiddies and Leo Mathisen’s various bands. Smaller combos or bands led or fronted by vocalists like Una Mae Carlisle or Maxine Sullivan. Willie the Lion Smith’s bits and pieces.

…and so on and so on…

There’s so much to work with even before I get to contemporary bands. And I tend to feel there just aren’t modern bands who were as good as some of these bands when they were at the best. There are the odd contemporary bands who are really, really good. But the social and lifestyle factors which produced the musicians of the swing era just don’t exist today.
I know this makes me a bit of a boring old stick, but I guess I am quite conservative. But that doesn’t mean I will ignore or not play contemporary bands that are good. My sets are loaded with new bands. Loaded.

Who are my go-to guys for this set, then?

• Count Basie, 1930s-40s. Kind of a blunt object, but his rhythm section really pounds along. 1937-1949, for the most part. I don’t have anything between 1932 and 1936, which seems odd to me – I’ll check it out. But I like this late 30s/40s big band sound. Lots of musicians, thoroughly organised, pounding out solid, four-on-the-floor, commonest of common time swinging hits. Good fun for dancing, solid rhythms, catchy melodies. This Basie period is pretty much the archetypal swing era, and many of his band’s biggest hits are iconic songs in the contemporary swing world.
• Chick Webb, Ella Fitzgerald and the 1930s Webb’s band did some really amazing stuff without Ella, and then Ella did some really good stuff with the band after Webb died. I’m not talking about the cheesy novelty lyric stuff she sang, but the bits where she led the band in some really freaking amazing live recordings. This stuff is exactly what I’m talking about when I say ‘classic swinging big band for lindy hop’. There’s a reason they were the Savoy house band. And this stuff is built for excellent, up tempo lindy hop.
• Fletcher Henderson, early 1930s. Henderson’s early 30s band was super hot and super good. Lots of fast, hardcore songs which are just perfect for lindy hop. I think the band tailed off a little in the later 30s, but his arranging work with Benny Goodman during this moment demonstrates his badassery.
• Jimmie Lunceford, 1930s. This was one of those bands that is, in my mind, associated with the American (and mainstream Melbourne) lindy hop world shifting from groover to more old school music. I don’t have quite as much Lunceford as I’d like, but my preference is for the 30s stuff. Big, solid swinging orchestras kicking it extremely hardcore.
• Lionel Hampton Someone I used to play a lot, but really someone I’ll put in this basket, mostly because I tend to lump him in with the 40s guys. Which is a bit silly. There are great songs like ‘Gin For Christmas’, ‘Flying Home’, ‘Munson Street Breakdown’ and so on. But he’s not really my go-to guy for this sort of set.
• Duke Ellington, 1930s I have a lot of love for Ellington’s big band. At times he can be a bit too finicky or precise for dancing like a crazy fool. I find the discordant, experimental elements of his 40s and later stuff irritates me when I’m lindy hopping. But he wrote some amazing pieces of music, and I adore his 30s band. I actually prefer his late 20s big band stuff above all others, but it’s not quite swinging enough for what I’d think of as second wave lindy hop. There are a few songs I’d like to stuff into this set, though – ‘Stevedore Stomp’ (1929), ‘Hittin’ the Bottle’ (1930), ‘Jungle nights in Harlem’ (1930) and so on.
• Other people: Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, Willie Bryant, Andy Kirk. I love these guys, but I don’t have a whole heap of them. Andy Kirk because his band didn’t do that much before they got too sweet and mainstream. Willie Bryant because… I just don’t. Artie Shaw I have quite a bit of, but most of it is not exactly where I’d like to go. Not counting, of course, songs like ‘Traffic Jam’, some of the Grammercy Five stuff and so on. I have masses and masses of Goodman small group stuff, but not quite enough of his big band to really work him properly. I have the hits, but I don’t really have a thorough understanding of his big band. Which is a shame, as songs like ‘Bugle Call Rag’, ‘Roll em’ and so on are great. I have quite a bit of his live stuff, but the quality is just too crap. Charlie Barnet, the Dorseys, etc. All good. Will play.
• Mills Blue Rhythm Band and related acts. ‘Big John’s Special’, ‘Algier’s Stomp’ and so on. All win. I tend to lump the McKinney’s Cotton Pickers in with the MBRB. No real reason, other than I got into them at about the same time. Henry Red Allen. Joining many of these bands together. Luis Russell’s bands, for linking up Allen, Louis Armstrong and other folk. At this point I tend to follow artists and pick them up in various bands.