djing – Page 24 – dogpossum

west brunswick toodle-oo

So November is over. It was ok.

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

…and now I’m desperately trying to get my sleep pattern back to normal for the conference this week. I managed to have a relatively stress-free MLX (in fact, incredibly so), and slept at least 8 hours every night. From 8am til 4pm most days, but still, 8 fat hours of solid, dreamless sleep. Unheard of.
I’ve also met another dancer doing a phd on dance stuff, but she lives in Perth, so we’re squeezing in a natter-fest tomorrow before she flies out. She’s into sociology and anthropology and I’m not sure she’s up there with the hardcore sister action. But we’ll see. It’ll be neat just to sit and have a nice, nerdy chat.
I’m planning to meet up with the Adelaidean dancers during the conference visit this week (Wednesday). So I’ll be able to say I’ve danced in every scene in Australia. Except Launceston. That should be nice.
My paper is pretty much done – just some tidying up to do. It’s a combination of bits from these three posts, but obviously with far less detail, seeing as how I only get 20 minutes. 20 minutes kills me, especially when I want to play some music and clips of dancers to actually make clear what I’m talking about. It’s ridiculous to talk about dancing without showing any, particularly when you’re talking about gender performance in dance. In fact, it’s so ridiculous I should just show 6 clips and provide an exercise sheet to stimulate group discussion, a la tutorials past.
I’ve also noted I’m in kind of a dud session, parallel with papers I’d really like to see, and which everyone else would really like to see as well. Not a big deal, really, and just desserts for someone who fucked the programming around at the last minute (I’d missed out on another grant and cancelled on the organisers, then been offered one by someone else, so squeezed back into the program – people who pull that shit deserve to get dud sessions). But it’s parallel with an old buddy’s paper and in a session of licorice allsorts, so we’ll have trouble asking each other questions. It is in the last session of a day, but this time it’s not the last session of the last day, so I guess it’s ok.
I don’t mean this to sound like a big old bitch – I really am very lucky to be going at all, and I don’t want you to think otherwise. But the part of me that’s trying to get a job keeps saying ‘how will you pimp your fine self out if there’s no one in the audience?’ But really, it only takes one. And there’ll be plenty of afternoon teas for me to pimp myself about. I’m cringing, writing that stuff. I hate the thought of such aggressive self aggrandising, but at the end of the day, in such a competitive job market, I have to be a bit pushy.
So I’m going to experiment with performing pushiness, and pretend like I’m one of those blokes who, obliviously, introduces himself to all the Names at conferences. It’s the sort of thing chicks tend to be reluctant to do. And as a consequence, those pushy blokes get remembered, simply because the chicks have been to shy to step up.
But I’m going to focus on Names that mean something to me – you know, the Old Girls network. The ladies who do. The sorts of women academics who I admire and want to work with and be like. They’re the ladies who’ll call me on bullshit pushiness and demand some sort of fer real talk. No bullshit (unless it’s a story about my career as a stunt woman and there are Tasmanians in the room), all kick arse Sister. No pathetic arse-kissing. No sycophancy…. like I’d have the patience for that. And for sure I’d forget that it’s not cool to swear in polite company. Must remember that for the job interview, actually. Swearing = not cool.
But we’ll see. No doubt I’ll forget all these plans and end up talking shit and eating all the chocolate biscuits with the homies from UQ. Awesome.
Galaxy asked me the other day if I’d written a ‘why dance is important to cultural studies’ paper, and I haven’t. I’m not sure I really, hugely care – if you don’t dance you don’t understand why it’s important. Words won’t help convince you – you have to feel it to understand why it’s good stuff. But I do have a short list of reasons which include things like ‘class’ and ‘not needing literacy’ and ‘ethnicity’ and ‘faster than words’ and ‘freakin’ great fun!’ I’ll have a think, though. Perhaps it’ll be a paper I write when I actually have a job or a book or more than half a dozen papers. Right now I think I’d get more from a paper called ‘Why cultural studies needs dogpossum’ which is so effective it gets me lots of jobs. But I’ll work on it.

mad

I don’t really have time to write much (marking, marking, proximity to mlx, etc), but I am going to briefly tell you about the set I did at the Spiegeltent on Friday.
1. Best sound set up ever.
2. Best sound guy ever.
3. Best venue ever.
4. Best pay ever.
5. ~~Best~~ only rider ever.
6. Seeing students at gig = mutual discomfort.
7. Fun, fun fun.
8. Hours? 11.30-3am. Challenging when doing band breaks, but still a win gig.

the legend of D4E

Whenever I see D4E (which is a few times a year at a lindy exchange – in Sydney, in Perth, in Melbourne) we plug our earbuds into each other’s mobile music devices and play each other music.
This is where I learn about music that isn’t jazz and wasn’t released in 1992 on Shock Records.
I only play music – he makes it.
the legend of D4E Hip Hop Mixtape
(I’m not sure if he rocks, though)

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.

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.

current favourite songs

I really love Stompy Jones (Ellington 1934 200bpms), but only played it for the first time last Thursday. It went down well. But I was playing such a shitty set I miscombined it and it didn’t work as well as it should.
I love love love the song Jungle Nights in Harlem (Ellington again, 1930 202 bpms) but have only played the Charleston Chasers’ version, which swings less and is more ‘charlestony’ (and is 213bpm). I like the trumpet. Of course.
On a completely different tack, I really like Turn it Over by Bus Moten and his Men (1949, 148bpm). I’m sure it’s in a minor key (I’m sure JNIH is too, which is why I like it), it has a mellow, laid-back feel which makes it sit well with Slim and Slam, has a sparse instrumentation (on a quick listen – electric guitar, sax, piano, trumpet, drums, bass) and simple vocals. It’s probably a song about sex (though the words are about playing records – “flip it, flop it, don’t drop it, flip it flap, don’t you slap it – turn it over on the other side”) and has a nice hummy melody. I play it later at night when people are over their crazed energy but still have some juice in them – it starts mellow but gets more energetic. I like to sing along.
Four or Five Times – Woody Herman, Jimmie Lunceford, Lionel Hampton, McKinney’s Cotton Pickers – any version is good. I really like the lyrics and the feel of it. This is definitely a song about sex, and how if you can manage 4 or 5 times the ladies will looooove you. Or possibly the fellas – the McKCP are a little more ambiguous. Because they are naughtier. I like the Herman version for high-energy, crazy lindy, the Lunceford one for mellower dancing, the McKCP one for crazy loungeroom dancing. And the Hamp one is just plain neat dancing.
Jimmie Lunceford
Is whetting my whistle. Again. I especially love his versions of Blues in the Groove (1939 205bpm) (surely a song about sex – groove being a euphemism for vaginas after all – and it’s a fun, highenergy number that sounds like great, sweaty fun).
Stomp it Off (190bpm, 1934) – possibly another minor key, but great fun. Sounds lower energy so it gets people dancing, but is actually quite quick and energising. But ‘light’.
Hittin’ the Bottle (1935, 211bpm – the early-mid 30s were good to Lunceford) – great fun. I like the way they ‘call’ steps: “move it around, keep going to town, now make a break and wiggle like a snake” (the last two in ‘the break’). I’ve always thought it would make a fun jazz routine song.
Organ Grinder’s Swing (120bpm, 1936). A mellow, nice song that I love dancing to and singing as I ride home – it’s the perfect bike riding song. I like it because it reminds me of the Mills Brothers (who do a version) and their version of Walking Stick (1938, 158bpm), which I also like. Mostly because it has humming, a really nice bit of Louis Armstrong singing (and I’m not a fan of his vocals), and a sparse bit of instrumentation – maybe just guitar? – with novelty ‘instrumental’ vocals.

DJing talk

The Thursday night before the easter weekend I did the second set at CBD, starting at 10pm and finishing at 12.30. I was rostered til 11.30, but the crowd were in partay mode. It was a great set, I was very pleased with it, and I had lots of happy dancers complimenting me on it (which is the absolute height of pleasure and satisfaction – nothing makes you feel better than dancers rushing up, all covered in sweat, with their hair in their eyes and their clothes disheveled, telling you that they loved your set. That’s happiness). A few people have asked me to post it on the swing talk board, but I’d rather do it here as it helps me keep track of when/what I played without cluttering up the discussion board with massive posts.
I can’t really remember many of the specifics of the set, other than that I came in swinging with a crowd-favourite, hardcore, hi-fi, big band wall-of-sound Basie, lindy hopping track. Blues in Hoss’s Flat is great stuff. Followed by another. And then a less common version of another. It was cheating, really.
I have to say that Dan set up the set perfectly. He played a mellow, groovier first half of the first set – very noob friendly – and then kicked it up a notch with a great combination of old school, nu skewl, hi-fi and lo-fi lindy hopping action. I just slid on in to a partyhardy room full of crazy dancing spastics. I also totally ripped off his idea for a stroll – he asked “do you think the shim sham would go down well now?” and he didn’t end up doing it. But I did steal the idea and play the Big Apple song. There were so many people doing the routine they had to form two lines opposite it each other, and it was GREAT. I was dying of jealousy up on the DJ stand.
I was very happy with the way I worked the energy in the room over 2 and a half hours. I called it at 12.30, even though we could have gone on longer and the crowd was still dancing, but I was buggered. And an hour unpaid while the bar makes money is kind of galling. It was nice to end with a bit of supergroove medium tempo stuff.
But out of 43 songs, only 10 were above 160, which isn’t good. Especially when 13 were under 140. We should be a bit more hardcore. But I didn’t feel I could push it much higher – people were kind of crazed as it was.
One weird thing that happened: when I played the Charleston Chasers track (which is more ‘charlestoney’ than the Ellington one), people danced lindy, and the floor was full. Every other time I’ve played this, it’s been solo 20s charleston city. But I think it was because I moved from a New Orleans/trad sound (which I had gotten to from some swinging stuff), and people were tricked into continuing with their lindy. It was unusual, but gratifying to see people trying such high tempos without resorting to bal or solo dancing. But the Giordano track really called ‘charleston’ to them, and they obliged.
Oh, and Disco Keith commented that Dan and I were playing the same songs a number of times – ie I played a song Dan had played, but a different version, and Dan (apparently) had played 2 versions of one song. After I heard that I went out of my way to find more repeats. Because I like to see Keith squirm (Keith is a wedding DJ with some strict Rules – one is no repeats. Another is ‘only one song by each artist – don’t play 2 or more in a row’. I like to break that second one a lot. Brian once played an entire set of Basie at the Funbags and no one noticed. That was ace).
I also have to mention that the George Gee stuf was a plug. A visiting dancer is giving out Gee’s earlier albums as promotion for the new one (which I’ve also scored), and playing this artist was a thankyou plug. But it wasn’t forced: that’s a great album, and the new one is equally great dancing music.
This set was pretty heavy on the late testament Basie. Because I am in love again. It was heavy on the hi-fi and later recordings of things (rather than the older orginals) and newer bands because CBD has shitful sound and I wanted the high energy of newer recordings. Plus that’s how I felt.
I’m actually having a ‘classic swing’ moment – I’m really into stuff from the late 30s, 40s and some 50s stuff (and 60s with Basie, really). I just like music that makes for great, swinging lindy hop. I still love that older stuff a whole LOT, but I’ve been hankering for the beautiful quality of some of the later stuff. And I really prefer Basie’s band in the later years – that’s some good shit.
But I still prefer Ellington’s earlier stuff.
I adore Hamp, and he’s a good indicator of my current tastes.
I am also on a Jimmie Lunceford kick. I just can’t get enough. I need more. More.
I’m also having a Kansas City jump blues moment. I don’t know if any of the Melbourne dancers will be able to handle many more hand-clapping, foot-stomping, shouting-about-food jump blues songs. I will certainly get punched if I play Cole Slaw again any time soon – even a noob dancer noticed that I’d played it in my last 4 sets (ie last night, last Thursday, the Friday before, and the Thursday before that). It’s time to let it rest.
I also did a really fun set at the Funpit last Friday. It’s mostly a new dancer crowd, and the numbers were up last week. We were also in the room with a better vibe. And I had a hankering to play hi-fi. So I played a solidly swinging mid-tempo set with lots of hi-fi stuff I don’t play very often as I associate it with my beginner days and feel it’s a bit un-complicated for more advanced dancers (it is – it’s musically and rhythmically pretty simple, but vocally quite nice). I may post that set list later if I can be bothered.
But it went down a treat. Once again, Keith and I were teamed up as DJs, and he followed me, muttering “I’m getting a reputation as an old school DJ and I want to be more flexible”, and then playing a whole bunch of hi-fi which I really enjoyed dancing to. It was really an example of how you can play hi-fi, good quality music which is still hard-driving, bad-ass swinging jazz. No freakin trip hop rhythm n blues bullshit here, thankyou very much.
The crowd went nuts. It’s so nice to see beginner dancers dancing like they’re on crack.
PLEASE NOTE: If you’re looking at this set with an eye to picking up the songs – get into it! But if you’re looking to do some torrenting or CD copying, please think twice, especially when it’s a song by a contemporary band. I’ve added links to these bands sites, or to their CDs on amazon – give them a click. Some are really, really, crazily cheap. And these guys are the guys we dancers hire for our dancing pleasure. If we steal their music they’ll go bust and we won’t get to dance like fools to them LIVE!
DJ Snoop Doggydogpossum’s set, CBD, Thursday 5th April 10pm-12:30am (second shift).
title – artist – bpm – date – album – length
Blues In Hoss’ Flat – Count Basie and His Orchestra – 142 – 1995 – Big Band Renaissance Disc 1 – 3:13
C-Jam Blues – Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis – 143 – 1999 – Live In Swing City: Swingin’ With Duke – 3:33
For Dancers Only – Jimmie Lunceford and His Harlem Express – 178 – 1944 – 1944-Uncollected – 2:22
“Big Apple Contest”- The Solomon Douglas Swingtet – 211 – 2006 – Swingmatism – 2:57
Shoutin’ Blues – Count Basie and His Orchestra – 148 – 1949 – Kansas City Powerhouse- 2:38
Jive At Five – Count Basie and His Orchestra – 147 – 1960 – The Count Basie Story (Disc 1) – 3:02
Back Room Romp – Duke Ellington and his Orchestra – 155 – 2000 – Ken Burns Jazz: Duke Ellington – 2:49
Stomp It Off – Jimmie Lunceford and His Orchestra – 190 – 1934 – Swingsation – Jimmie Lunceford upenergy – 3:08
Foo A Little Bally-Hoo – Cab Calloway – 175 – 1994 – Are You Hep To The Jive? – 3:01
Four Or Five Times – Woody Herman Orchestra – 141 – The Great Swing Bands (Disc 2) – 3:09
Savoy Blues – Kid Ory – 134 – 2002 – Golden Greats: Greatest Dixieland Jazz Disc 3 – 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
Perdido Street Blues – Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra with Sidney Bechet – 148 – 1940 – Blues In Thirds 1940-41 – 3:00
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
Yellow Dog Blues – Vince Giordano – 195 – 2004 – The Aviator – 2:29
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
Flying Home – Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra – 159 – 1940 – Tempo And Swing – 2:58
Savoy – Lucky Millinder – 192 – Apollo Jump – 3:26
Le Jazz Hot – Jimmie Lunceford and his Orchestra – 144 – 1939 – Lunceford Special 1939-40 – 2:41
I Want The Waiter (with the water) – Jimmie Lunceford and his Orchestra – 151 – 1939 – Lunceford Special 1939-40 – 2:44
Apollo Jump – Lucky Millinder – 143 – Apollo Jump – 3:26
Sent For You Yesterday – Count Basie and His Orchestra with Joe Williams – 163 – 1960 – The Count Basie Story (Disc 2) – 3:09
Good Rockin’ Tonight – Jimmy Witherspoon – 155 – 1998 – Jazz Me Blues: the Best of Jimmy Witherspoon – 4:15
Blues For Stephanie – George Gee And His Make-Believe Ballroom Orchestra – 140 – Swingin’ Live! – 4:55
Rock-A-Bye Basie – Count Basie and His Orchestra – 175 – 1960 – The Count Basie Story (Disc 1) – 3:37
Splanky – Count Basie – 125 – 1957 – Complete Atomic Basie, the – 3:36
Every Day I Have The Blues – Count Basie – 116 – 1959 – Breakfast Dance And Barbecue – 3:48
A Viper’s Moan – Mora’s Modern Rhythmists – 143 – 2000 – Call Of The Freaks – 3:30
Krum Elbow Blues – Mora’s Modern Swingtet – 162 – 2004 – 20th Century Closet – 2:45
Till Tom Special – Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra – 158 – 1940 – Tempo And Swing – 3:23
Six Appeal – Jonathan Stout And His Campus Five – 141 – 2004 – Crazy Rhythm – 3:29
Effervescent Blues – Mora’s Modern Swingtet – 122 – 2004 – 20th Century Closet – 3:07
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
Why Don’t You Right – Jonathan Stout And His Campus Five featuring Hillary Alexander – 118 – 2004 – Crazy Rhythm – 4:59
Down Hearted Blues – Ella Fitzgerald – 122 – 1963 – These Are The Blues – 3:11
My Chile Jay – McShann Trio – 145 – Hootie – 3:20
Blues In Hoss’ Flat – City Rhythm Orchestra – 130 – 2004 – Vibrant Tones – 5:23
Moten Swing – Count Basie – 125 – 1959 – Breakfast Dance And Barbecue – 5:17
Easy Does It – Big 18Smooth Sailing – Ella Fitzgerald – 118 – 2000 – Ken Burns Jazz: Ella Fitzgerald – 3:07

tech up

A revivial of the “Previewing. How do you DJ without it” thread on Swing DJs, coupled with a case of god-I’m-bored and the anniversary of my getting into DJing has prompted me to take an interest in DJing hardware. It probably doesn’t help that I’ve been reading that book by Justina Robson*.
I’ve been looking into some sort of software/hardware option to expand my DJing from a laptop for a while now. I want to be able to preview songs on headphones while I’m playing music that goes out to the mixer at the same time. With a pc laptop that’s as simple as opening two versions of winamp and telling it each where they should send the sound. But with a mac, there are far fewer DJing/music media player options.
I use itunes as my default music library/searcher/player. Problem is, macs won’t let you open more than one version of an application at a time – great when you’re working with word documents, but not so great if you’re looking to DJ. It wouldn’t be a problem if itunes would let me send music to two different outs. But it’s not a DJing tool, despite its popularity with swing DJs – it has a sweet search, nice layout, reassuring colour scheme, etc etc, but simply can’t handle the sheer volume of music and complexities of DJing. Winamp doesn’t work on macs. I have tried windows media player (gag), but it won’t let me click and drag songs from itunes to the media player (which is pretty important if I’m keeping itunes as my library – which I’d like). Plus it sucks. And Cuephase, one of the few plug ins for itunes isn’t terribly sexy or useful. The Squeeze was going to experiment with a bit of applescript, but I don’t see that happening any time soon (sorry love, but you know it’s true).
There are a whole heap of DJing software packages, but very few specifically for macs, and even fewer in a sensible price range. The problem is to do with the fact that there are so few mac users out here in the wilderness, especially not in comparison with winblows stooges. The PC doods often use PCDJ if they’re getting fancy (though the itunes/winamp option is a lasting favourite), but there really isn’t much for the mac DJ beyond DJ1800, which isn’t a great product. It has little ‘blank out’ moments when it pauses or simply drops out for a second or two. Recovering from these can lead to crashage. It’s also a bit resource-hungry. It costs ($US60 or $AUD77), it’s ugly as sin, but you can do nice things like click and drag songs across from itunes, shrink or minimise the various ‘cd players’ in the set up and tell it where you want it to send the sound – to the mixer, to the headphones, wherever. You can download a test version (which is worth playing with if you’re interested) which closes after 20 minutes, but I’ve had trouble convincing it to recognise my USB headphones. I’ll have another bash, but I don’t think it’s playing.
Anyhow, today I bought it (which means that it gave me the password so it won’t close after 20minutes), and I’ll have a play before letting you know how it goes.
To make playing through two sources at once possible (ie through headphones and through the mixing desk), you need to use a USB/headphone jack combination, or get jiggy with an external soundcard. I’ve been looking at a few, including the ever-popular-with-DJs turtle beach thingy and extravagant items like the numark mixers with 2 USB ports (look under products then mixers) which is complete overkill, ridiculously heavy for carrying with me on my bike, but too darn tempting for a DJ nerd. I haven’t exactly figured out whether or not I need the external sound card in combination with DJ1800 and itunes to be able to preview on headphones and play through the mixer at the same time, but there are other reasons for using an external sound card. Better sound quality is the most important (I’ve had one on my christmas list for a while). I’ll have a fiddle and see what’s what.
What I want:
– to be able to play music through two media players at once, previewing on headphones and playing through a mixer
– decent sound quality
Wish me luck.
It’s probably worth noting that I’m the only girl in my town who talks about this stuff. Meggers and I have become DJing buddies, though, and while we have very different tastes in music, we have similar philosophies of DJing (ie get the energy up and kick their arses, fill the floor and Keep It Street) and are equally interested in figuring out how all the equipment works. She uses a pc laptop, though, so we have different technical issues. It’s really nice to have someone with similar interests and experiences to play with. We take the desk out and figure out what’s connected where, trade tips as we learn new things and give each other feedback on the sound in the room when one of us is DJing. It’s nice and encouraging but also a great chance to explore technical stuff which is so male-dominated. We’ve also been charmed by the willingness of young Cameron to help us learn about this stuff. I guess he likes the fact that we’re more than happy to let him come up there and twiddle our knobs (wo-ho!) to demonstrate how to get a better sound from a particular song – I know there are a few DJs (both male and female) who are too defensive to ask for help or give help unstintingly. There is a degree of competitiveness between DJs in our town (because there are so many of us, and because Melbourne swing is all about competition – in ethos as well as practice), so it’s nice to have an amigo bandido.
Having said that, the SwingDJs discussion board is full of lovely, helpful people, and there are other DJs in other cities who’ll happily help out or share their experiences!
*It’s not a fabulous book, but it’s kind of addictive. As my dad describes it, it’s a combination of science fantasy elves and fairies stuff (literally) and cyber punk (literally – the female protagonist is a cyborg body guard for a rock star – what is it with books that like female cyborg assassin types? Or rather, what is it with the idea of a cyborg woman capable of violence?). And if something so silly can keep my hardcore-Sci-Fict dad interested…

Hullabaloo 2007

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it or not, but we’re going to Hullabaloo soon. Next month, I think it is.
This is the forth annual Hullabaloo – and Hullabaloo is kind of the Perth equivalent to MLX. It’s not an all-social exchange (there are only two of those in this country – MLX and Canberrang), mostly because it’s very difficult to make an all-social event sustainable, unless you live in a giant local scene (like us here in Melbourne), have quite a few years of successful events under your belt to serve as promotion (like us here in Melbourne), live in a very tourist-attracting city (like us here in Melbourne) or just couldn’t give a shit, and want to have a party (like the kids in Canberra).
So we go and just don’t do any workshops – we pretend it’s an all social event, and sleep in late every day, go to cafes, wander around like the cheery holidaying tourists we are. The very best bit of going to someone else’s exchange isn’t that you don’t have to run anything or work on anything (you always end up doing something at some point to help out – it’s an instinct you can’t fight when you’re used to running events), it’s that you’re on holiday with a hundred or so other people. And they all want to wander around like tourists, visit cafes and breweries, eat nice meals, talk a whole lot of shit and then dance like crazy fools all night.
Hullabaloo is The Squeeze’s favourite exchange. We get hosted by dear friends (who we host when they come to us), with dear friends (who we see regularly when we host an exchange – it’s a real exchange and it’s wonderful), we don’t do anything particularly difficult, The Squeeze is very popular with the Perth ladies (not just because he’s cute – also because he’s naughty and inclined to pranks, drinking games and stunts) and I like to dance like a fool. Unfortunately I haven’t been to an exchange yet where I haven’t gotten really ill. I think it’s because my body tends to think ‘ok, we’re on holiday, let’s relax’. So I have to spend far too much time sitting about being tired and pathetic. Which sucks arse because I love de late night dancing.

I love Hullabaloo because you can feel every step a Perth lead takes, they bounce and they play good music. They are a bit anal and weird about vintage costume, but The Squeeze sets a good example and just completely ignores any dress standards rubbish. He simply doesn’t bother reading that part of the events guide and doesn’t bother his pretty little head about it. And he never gets in trouble for it.
So yeah, we’re going there next month.
They’re also planning a lindy battle thing as well. Trev will no doubt chime in with a comment on that, seeing as how he’s organising it (Trev is a Perth person). My buddy Dan (who has a blog, but I can’t remember the url) has decided we’re goint to enter the battle. And I think it’s a good idea. So we’ve started hassling all our friends to put together a team, including people like Kara. I’m not going to read any rules, because these sorts of things are always much more fun if you don’t plan anything too seriously.
There’s been a flurry of emails this ~~morning~~ afternoon (I got up LATE – DJed the second set at CBD last night and didn’t get home til 1am. Now I’m really tired) with all sorts of exciting ideas for the team. Mostly involving tshirts and how cool we are. Not much talk of actual dancing. Trev, I hope you’re not reading this, because I want to talk about it… ok, well, this is the internet, so I won’t talk about it til later.
Anyway, I’ve also put my name in for DJing at Hullabaloo, which will be way fun, but also way pressure – I’ve DJed interstate before (SLX), but no DJing for a hardcore lindy hopping crowd out of my home town. I DJed at MLX, and I’ve DJed local big events, but it’s different when you travel to a new town. There’s new equipment to learn. The fear of forgetting essential cords. Not knowing what a local crowd will like/not like. And so on. I’m excited, but a bit scared. I don’t doubt I’ll do a decent job, but I will need to work on learning my music a bit better and do some serious practicing. But I have faith.
[all photos are by The Squeeze from Hullabaloo 2005]