I love Fats. It’s no secret. This love is becoming an obsession. But A Good Man Is Hard to Find: The Middle Years, Part 2 is another in an excellent series of collections from Bluebird/RCA. I’ve been happy with every Bluebird purchase I’ve made – they seem to have recorded my favourite artists and to have produced some lovely albums.
I also have ‘the Last Years’ and ‘the Middle Years part 1’. There’re three ‘Early Years’ sets in this series.
I don’t recommend them to new Fats fans – it’s pretty samey, and if you don’t like one Fats song, there’s a good chance you won’t like the others. But if you do… well. These are the best collections I’ve seen around (which are also easily accessible/purchased), the quality is pretty decent and the liner notes are interesting.
Category Archives: music
The Chronological Martha Davis 1946-1951
The Chronological Martha Davis 1946-1951. I have a couple of her songs from a great compilation of Kansas Blues singers and I play them over and over and over. There’s not a lot of Davis stuff about, but that’s what I want. I play one song, ‘Kitchen Blues’ an awful lot – she has a lovely, velvety voice.
[edit: marking these essays has apparently done irreparable damage to my language skills]
lovely blooz action
Firstly, I just wrote a decent version of this post then deleted it. Shit.
Ok, so I’ll see what I can remember.
Firstly, you have to watch this clip below.
I think a lot of people think that blues dancing is just standing about cuddling to really slow music – sort of frottage on the hoof. But it’s not. It’s not that boring (and I have to say, there’s nothing more boring than DJing that type of blues gig – booooring. Unless you’re into voyeurism. But I guess even then you’d lose interest after about 4 hours). It’s not. There’s lots more fun stuff going on.
I think Blues Shout is on the top of my list of American camps I’d like to go to, right now. There’s lots of interesting stuff going on there.
I blogged about this a little while ago with this great clip from 2007.
So what do I like about that latest clip?
1. body shapes. There’s a lot more going on there than the muscle and sinew action we’ve been seeing in lindy hop lately as the tempos get really high. But there’s no silly barbie frou-frou rubbish either. I keep thinking ‘built for comfort’.
2. sass + sauce. The extreme sensuality, but also the radical parody. The snicker with the shimmy. I like the way you really have to bring it to make this work – you have to commit, physically and emotionally, and really perform to make the tension between humour and sexuality work.
3. hot and cool. The relationship between extremely hot bodies and very cool faces.
Well, with all that in mind, here’s the set I did last night. It was quite a long set, which was nice (though a bit scary, as I really don’t have that much music for blues dancing – just what I find on my ‘lindy’ CDs… hahahah… well, really, this is a good argument for buying CDs rather than downloading individual songs – with an album you get the whole emotional spectrum and a selection of songs by an artist, with one song you get … just one song).
It was a lovely set to do, though I was fanging for a dance. I would have, perhaps, as this crowd is pretty laid back, but I don’t feel confident enough to line up a few songs and then dance, with blues. I’m just not experienced enough to be sure it’ll work. I ran through a whole range of styles, partly because my tastes are quite varied, but also because I think it’s a better idea with a group of dancers who are newer to a style – give people a general taster. Also, I’m not sure I have enough music to do a solid speciality set. People really seemed to like it… I think. There’s a lot more socialising and drinking here in Sydney than at Melbourne dance events, and that makes it harder to judge the crowd. Also, there were about six zillion chicks there last night, so there’d always be a lot of people sitting and watching.
A couple of notes about the music:
I’ve been exploring Taj Mahal lately. He’s not my number one favourite, but you have to respect a legend. I’ve downloaded a couple of songs from his greatest hits albums from itunes, but I’m not sure I really need entire albums just yet. I’ll think about it though, especially if I see them cheap at a shop.
I came in loud and proud, partly because I wanted to get the energy up and fun, rather than coming in all quiet and kissy. Most useful thing I’ve ever learnt about DJing blues was from Andy: keep it loud, like a party. Loud as in high energy. I also favour a little humour and sass in my blues, so I’m not much good with the overly earnest artists (though I do like a little Nina Simone).
There was a birthday dance, for which I chose ‘Miss Celie’s Blues’. I had a feeling the birthday girl would be into that Sistah action, and she was very happy with the choice.
People seemed to like ‘New Orleans Bump’. I mean, I’ve played it before, but the reaction of dancers last night was more interesting than in the past. They were warmed up, which helped. They were feeling ‘up’, which helped. They’d had a couple of drinks, which helped. The class before hand (which was really quite interesting) was all about dancing to the music, and how to combine moves and types of movements to illustrate the music, and the dancers were all trying out the ideas all night. It made DJing a whole lot more interesting. But anyhow, people were experimenting with stuff in the percussion intro, and then they really seemed to dig the tango rhythms, and then were totally digging the ‘drama’ of the song – there were many campy dips and uber-emoting. Which is just perfect for Jelly Roll, who’s all about making shit up and showing off.
I still don’t feel that I’m a terribly good blues DJ. I feel as though I ignore tempos too much, and tend to ram songs together based on style, rather than working for a longer-range emotional wave. But there’s a much smaller tempo range to work with (about 45-120bpm as opposed to 120-300 bpm for lindy) and you can’t apply the usual rules about giving dancers a break ’cause they’re tired. It’s all slow, so you can just dance every single song, forever. I think I jump about, ‘mood’ wise, and that’s not so cool. But I guess I just need more practice.
I don’t much like Molly Johnson, but I do like it that she sounds like Masie Grey (sp?). She’s really not as good as the old school chicks. But she doesn’t suck. I bought a few of her songs from itunes after listening my way through most of her albums on amazon.
Every time I play Dinah Washington a woman asks me who that artist was. She goes down well with ladies. Because she rocks. I own a lot of Washington, but I still want this Mosaic set. Because.
Carol Ralph also always goes down well. People can’t believe she’s local. But she is. And that album is really very good – the musicians are top shelf. Not many Australians can pull off the sass/humour of those old school blues queens. But she can.
[title, artist, bpm, year, length, album, last played – NB there are some inaccurate dates as I just can’t keep up with that data – I can’t keep up with making sure all the dates are actually the recording dates and not the album release date. This is especially tricky because sometimes CDs’ liner notes don’t include recording details, especially if they’re a cheap CD (like that Aretha greatist hits).]
Sleep in Late Molly Johnson 86 2002 2:47 Another Day 21/09/08 9:55 PM
Built for Comfort Taj Mahal 98 1998 4:46 In Progress & In Motion (1965-1998) 21/09/08 10:00 PM
Blues Stay Away George Smith 82 1955 3:10 Kansas City – Jumping The Blues From 6 To 6 21/09/08 10:03 PM
Confessin’ The Blues Jimmy Witherspoon With Jay McShann And His Band 92 1957 4:16 Goin’ To Kansas City Blues 21/09/08 10:08 PM
Bargain Day Dinah Washington 89 1956 2:55 The Swingin’ Miss “D” 21/09/08 10:11 PM
Jealous Hearted Blues Carol Ralph 80 2005 3:48 Swinging Jazz Portrait 21/09/08 10:14 PM
Reckless Blues Velma Middleton with Louis Armstrong and the All Stars 88 2:30 The Complete Decca Studio Recordings of Louis Armstrong and the All Stars (disc 06) 21/09/08 10:17 PM
Rosetta Blues Rosetta Howard with the Harlem Hamfats 103 1937 3:00 History of the Blues – disc2 21/09/08 10:20 PM
Kitchen Blues Martha Davis 80 1947 3:05 BluesWomen Girls Play And Sing The Blues 21/09/08 10:23 PM
I Want A Little Sugar In My Bowl Nina Simone 65 1967 2:33 Released 21/09/08 10:26 PM
Rangoon Cootie Williams 63 2:12 In Hi-Fi 21/09/08 10:28 PM
Goin’ To Chicago Count Basie and His Orchestra with Jimmy Rushing 79 1952 3:22 Complete Clef/Verve Count Basie Fifties Studio Recordings (Disc 2) 21/09/08 10:31 PM
Incoherent Blues Clark Terry, Ed Thigpen, Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown 64 1964 2:41 Oscar Peterson Trio + One: Clark Terry 21/09/08 10:34 PM
My Handy Man Ain’t Handy No More Alberta Hunter 76 1978 3:49 Amtrak Blues 21/09/08 10:38 PM
I Feel Like Layin In Another Woman’s Husband’s Arms Blu Lu Barker 89 1946 2:57 Don’t You Feel My Leg: Apollo’s Lady Blues Singers 21/09/08 10:41 PM
I Ain’t No Ice Man Cow Cow Davenport 89 1938 2:51 History of the Blues – disc2 21/09/08 10:43 PM
Tin Roof Blues Wingy Manone and the New Orleans Rhythm Kings 92 1934 2:58 The Wingy Manone Collection Vol. 2 21/09/08 10:46 PM
New Orleans Bump Wynton Marsalis 128 1999 4:36 Mr. Jelly Lord – Standard Time, Vol. 6 21/09/08 10:51 PM
St. James Infirmary Henry “Red” Allen 98 1991 3:45 World on a String – Legendary 1957 Sessions 21/09/08 10:55 PM
Wild Man Blues Louis Armstrong and the All Stars 75 3:58 The Complete Decca Studio Recordings of Louis Armstrong and the All Stars (disc 05) 21/09/08 10:59 PM
Do I Move You? (Second Version) (Bonus Track) Nina Simone 70 2006 2:20 Nina Simone Sings the Blues 21/09/08 11:01 PM
Shave ’em Dry Asylum Street Spankers 131 1997 4:21 Nasty Novelties 21/09/08 11:05 PM
Son Of A Preacher Man Aretha Franklin 77 3:16 Greatest Hits – Disc 1 21/09/08 11:09 PM
Soul of a Man Irma Thomas 121 2006 3:02 After the Rain 21/09/08 11:12 PM
Telephone Blues George Smith 68 1955 3:03 Kansas City – Jumping The Blues From 6 To 6 21/09/08 11:15 PM
Miss Celie’s Blues Molly Johnson 97 2002 3:46 Another Day 21/09/08 11:19 PM
Back Water Blues Dinah Washington with Belford Hendricks’ Orchestra 71 1957 4:58 Ultimate Dinah Washington 21/09/08 11:24 PM
Wee Baby Blues Count Basie with Mahalia Jackson 64 1968 3:14 Live In Antibes 1968 21/09/08 11:27 PM
Gee Baby, Ain’t I Good To You Count Basie and His Orchestra with Joe Williams 68 1957 2:32 The Count Basie Story (Disc 2) 21/09/08 11:30 PM
When The Lights Go Out Jimmy Witherspoon 100 1998 3:01 Jazz Me Blues: the Best of Jimmy Witherspoon 21/09/08 11:33 PM
The Mooche Michael McQuaid’s Red Hot Rhythmakers 117 2006 3:41 Rhythm Of The Day 21/09/08 11:36 PM
Blue Leaf Clover Firecracker Jazz Band 111 2005 4:59 The Firecracker Jazz Band 21/09/08 11:41 PM
Sweet Home Chicago Taj Mahal 93 1998 3:15 In Progress & In Motion (1965-1998) 21/09/08 11:45 PM
Young Woman’s Blues Loose Marbles 102 4:22 21/09/08 11:49 PM
old fat blokes making sweet, sweet jass
I’m off to DJ some blooz tonight, and have just paused to show The Squeeze on of the Best Things about youtube:
Live concerts by freakin’ amazing musicians. This is Oscar Peterson and Count Basie playing lovely jazz. Basie was about a zillion years old then. Peterson has only passed away in the last couple of years.
This is a really nice song, and one I might consider playing for blooz dancers. Or lindy hoppers in a quiet moment. Either way, it’s sweet listening and dancing.
I especially love the way the drummer is penned off in a little bubble. That’s become drummers are Trouble and need to be kept away from the big kids.
see that? that’s me, djing
That’s me DJing at… hm… not sure where. MLX? Probably – looks like a set list there next to me, and I’d’ve been doing band breaks.
A good friend, Scott (big, not scribbler) took that photo. See my hand – it’s tappa-tapping. I’m actually DJing, right there, in that photo.
See my generous bum, hips and legs? That’s professional DJing gear, that – for when you do 4-hour late-night sets. I could stand, but that’d suck after a while.
See those headphones? They’re sennheisers. And the best bit about them is that they reduce sound, so I can put them on if I’m finding it all a bit noisy. But don’t tell anyone – they think I’m previewing. In that photo, I think I am previewing, because you can see DJ1800, which I use to preview.
See that microphone, there? I don’t use them. I’m afraid of them. Also, you can see my imic – a tiny little external sound card. It’s round and white. You can also almost see my green and red alligator necklace – that’s the most important accessory in this photo.
I wish I was sitting up properly in this photo. Right now I have a sore right arm from DJing at a table that was too high for me. I look at this photo and think about how great the sound set up is at MLX – the bestest ever, of any of the places I’ve ever DJed. Brian yells at you if you touch the set up. And justifiably so, I guess. Some people need a good yelling at – some DJs in particular. Especially the ones with alligator necklaces. But that’s mostly because they a) have work-place related industrial deafness, or b) have forgotten to take their ear plugs out.
Another thing about that photo – I remember doing that set in something of a rush-and-panic. You can’t DJ on a weekend you’re running, even if you’re not running that night. Well, I can’t – there’s always something that needs fixing, or someone who needs your help. The best was that same exchange, when I was DJing in one room, the DJ from the other room came in and was all, “hey, who’s DJing after me?” about 10 minutes (3 songs) before their set ended. I was all “woah, shit. How will I fix this?” I reassured the other DJ I’d fix it, if he wouldn’t mind doing an extra 10 mins or so if it took a while, set up a song, then ran to find out who was rostered on to DJ next. Then I went back, set up another song, checked the sound, etc, and ran to find the missing DJ. He was asleep on a beanbag. Then I woke him up, scolded him, and sent him to DJ. I assume it worked out ok – he was in there DJing when I finished my set. It was about 3am, so he shouldn’t have been asleep – he should have been dancing!
But that’s the thing about DJing – you know where the music comes from, so there’s no more mystery. And it is possible to drink and DJ. I once saw a DJ drink a rum and coke, a beer, a scotch and dry and then another beer in 15 minutes, while he was DJing. Then he ran a competition, then he had another beer. I was all ‘woah, he’s brave. I wouldn’t leave an open drink near my laptop like that.” But then, I guess he didn’t let them sit there long enough to risk a spill.
The most important thing I’ve learnt about DJing? Go to the little DJs’ room before you start a set.
sometimes
when other people are DJing, I feel like this:
Sometimes, when I am DJing and trying to talk to a friend, I do turn the music down. Because there are Priorities, aren’t there?
it could just be that nerds – no matter their flavour – love to talk to other nerds about stuff they love
I’ve been crapping on about DJing on the SwingDJs board. I started a thread called mad skillz: mentoring, encouraging and skilling up (new) DJs. As with all threads I’ve begun with long, expository posts that don’t really make much sense and which tend to be far to theoretical, the thread has been languishing. Kind of like my tutorials when I ask a long question which is really a bit of exposition or otherwise impossible to answer.
But someone asked a question which caught my interest, so I’m going to answer it here, at length.
I made this comment (in a post that was far too long):
One thing I’ve noticed – if a scene values social dancing and has quite a tight community vibe, there’s a strong emphasis on skilling up new DJs. But the local culture dictates how this skilling up is achieved.
(Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2008 20:40, first page of the thread at URL above)
And Haydn replied:
Can I ask you – in practice, how does this ‘tight community vibe’ translate into DJs helping each other?
I’m going to answer this at length here, rather than cluttering up that discussion board with my own opinions/rambles.
I have to reiterate: I’m working largely from an Australian perspective, with only a bit of international experience. I’m sure things are vary in different places.
‘A tight community vibe’ needn’t actually translate into DJs helping each other. I don’t see it very often, but I’m sure there’ve been times when a DJ has made it difficult for a new DJ or experienced DJ to ‘break into’ a scene – to preserve their own status, to preserve their own profits, etc.
Also, definitions of ‘community’ (and who’s actually considered part of that community) are ideologically and politically loaded. Do you count west coast swing dancers as part of your ‘swing’ community? Rock and rollers? People from other dance schools/studios? Musicians? People you don’t know?
When I say a ‘tight community vibe’, I’m thinking about scenes where people articulate some sense of ‘communitas’ or identify themselves as part of a scene or community with some sort of pride, protectiveness, etc.
But how might that translate to DJs helping each other?
Well, if a local scene has an active social club or organisation who also run social events, then that club might have an incentive to manage DJs quite carefully – so new DJs will get a bit of mentoring or coaching. I’ve noticed that gigs run by a smaller more coherent group – or by one person, or coordinated by someone who really cares about the DJing/social dancing – often manage the DJs more carefully. If the night is only one of many, is managed by an inexperienced dancer (or DJ) or isn’t actually ‘valued’ terribly highly, the DJing might be less strictly managed. Also, interestingly, if an event (or club) has a particularly fervent revivalist bent (ie they’re really really really into historical ‘accuracy’), they’re also pretty anal about music and about ‘teaching’ their DJs to like the ‘right’ music. But people might ‘manage’ DJs for other reasons – nepotism, interpersonal rivalries, failed romances, burning desires, professional networking, etc – all might affect who hires whom for which gigs.
I’ve noticed that these trends increase as a scene develops – in a newer scene, for example, where there are fewer DJs, there’s less ‘regulation’ of DJing: people are just happy to have someone play some music. As DJing becomes increasingly ‘professionalised’ or formalised in a scene (eg introducing pay rates, introducing a DJ roster, introducing preferences for particular types of music), then it becomes more ‘regulated’. It can also become less accessible. I’ve wondered if this is as a scene or community grows it also develops increasingly complex modes of cultural production and management (whether we’re talking DJing, dancing, dress making, event management, website design, whatever). Also, people figure out that formalised ways of working together can be useful on large projects – a camp has ‘rules’ for teachers (whether unspoken or not), an exchange is run by a group who become a nonprofit organisation to deal with tax and insurance, a social night has formal (or informally enforced) ‘no aerials’ rules for public safety.
What I’ve noticed (and I guess I’m talking about Australian examples, and only very vaguely in reference to the US, etc) is that if a local scene has quite a close community – ie people volunteering their time for events, events run by committees with a ‘community development’ agenda and ethos rather than (or in addition to) a profit motive, etc – then there’s a greater interest in ‘skilling up’ DJs – for the community’s benefit. More experienced DJs are more likely to volunteer to mentor new DJs in that context out of a spirit of ‘communitas’ or ‘doing good stuff for the community’.
There are other reasons for managing new DJs, though – profit motive is a good one, especially if you’re in a scene where dancers really value or care about the quality of DJing. Or plain old competition for cultural capital – a DJ might feel it’s in their interests to discourage new DJs or to not open their night to new DJs (ie they want to keep their status and ward off competitors). If a particular event has a specific musical focus (eg it might want to showcase a particular musical style or moment in history), then there’d also be reason to manage the DJs – if you were (for example), interested in running a ‘neo revival’ night, you might favour DJs who play BBVD, etc, and not hire DJs who play old school exclusively. I’ve even played gigs where what I’ve looked like – on stage – has been important: wearing vintage gear was specifically requested… which leads to interesting questions about the ‘performance’ of DJing. And how we might ‘perform’ the role of ‘vintage music fan’ or ‘swing dancer = vintage costume fan’ for an audience of non-dancers, for example. [That last bit is interesting in the light of things like the Facebook group ‘Embracing my embarrassing swing adolescence’ which seems largely to be about aesthetics and protocols of swing dance fashion – ie what not to wear]
There’s also another interesting aspect to all this. Throughout much of the academic literature dealing with online communities, authors note the importance of ‘answering questions’, especially in an established and well-moderated online ‘community’. People might answer questions for a number of reasons: to help out; to demonstrate their own knowledge (and status); to test their own knowledge; to enter into the discussion (and hence participate in the community – basically, answering simply as a way of getting into the conversation and enjoying the process of answering and discussing questions); etc etc etc.
I’ve always been interested in noticing what type of people answer what types of questions in swing dance discussion boards. In the years I was gathering data for my doctoral thesis (and before), I was really surprised by some of my findings. Sure, the data suggested all this stuff, but I was really hoping to find that how we play online wasn’t so tightly bound to gender. But I found that female posters tend to be quicker to offer assistance (eg hosting, info, etc), but that they mightn’t do so publicly (they’re almost always over-represented in offering condolences, giving positive feedback, compliments and proffering kind words generally). Men are more likely to post ‘information’ or ‘facts’, and to disagree. There are exceptions, but on the whole these tropes are consistent, and they also correlate with the way we talk in groups face to face. I’m also interested in the way the threaded discussion echoes ‘formal turn taking’ in a meeting – which is something all-male groups tend to favour (whereas women tend to favour a more casual, more interrupting/cooperative meaning-making approach). There are also ethnic issues at work here – I was at a fascinating book launch the other day for indigenous literacy day: the speeches and discussion was very very different to the usual middle class ‘literati’ book launch: a room full of koori ladies don’t really do formal turn taking :D.
This is partly to do with how we’re socialised (which of course will result in regional variations), but also to do with the social/cultural context of online communication, especially on something like a discussion board. I’ve been wondering how Facebook changes all that, especially as it’s far more accessible than something like a discussion board.
All this might mean, in the context of DJs helping each other, that women are more likely to answer questions via private message or to ask for help via private message, and less likely to post publicly on the board generally. It also suggests that people post answers and ‘help each other’ for a range of reasons.
SwingDJs is a tricky case study as DJing generally is so male-dominated: there are more men posting regularly here than women, for example (which could be a result of the culture of online communication rather than directly correlating to the number of women DJs IRL).
Something I’ve noticed: experienced DJs, no matter what their gender, are generally very helpful and welcoming to new DJs. They mightn’t be very good at actually helping or communicating their welcome, but they certainly want to be helpful and care about this stuff. This might be a trickle-on effect from the revivalist impulses of contemporary swing dance generally – there’s this impetus towards ‘recruiting’ new dancers, so as to ‘preserve’ historic dance forms.
Or it could just be that nerds – no matter their flavour – love to talk to other nerds about stuff they love.
good things
Prawns, and their cheapness here.
The sunshine. All of it. One, maybe two days of rain, then it’s over and it’s back to sun. Yes.
The remnant warehouse. Oh Goddess, yes.
Rosetta Howard, Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday.
The beach. Here, this town, it has the beach. It has real sand, real surf, real water. It is amazing on a clear day.
Sprouted seeds: go, seedies, go!
you know the inspector gadget theme?
It’s actually ripped from a song called ‘Zonky’.
You know this song is a Fats Waller/Andy Razaf gem.
I would have illustrated this post with a picture Inspector Gadget, but I used google with the safety switch off and am now feeling a bit distressed (not to mention confused).
oh goodness me: the new orleans jazz vipers
But I do like the New Orleans Jazz Vipers.
They play olden days music with a nasty olden days energy that gets me all excited. I can’t wait to DJ this stuff.
I couldn’t help but buy all their CDs from www.cdbaby.com. And I love shopping at CDbaby – they got these kids to me in about 10 days from the States, they send nice thank you emails, and they pimp indy music. There’re quite a few artists I like DJing who sell their gear through CDbaby – Gordon Webster, who’s a really great pianist and also a nice guy and a lindy hopper. I’ve had my eye on that CD for a while – that’s some sweet action for blues dancing. His other half (oh, how they’d hate me describing them that way), Solomon Douglas is also sold through CDbaby… I can’t think of any others just now, but I’ve bought a few CDs through them.
And I love love love these Vipers CDs. I also have my eye on a Tshirt.