Henry ‘Red’ Allen’s World on a String


I have my eye on Henry Red Allen’s World on a String after reading about the version of St James Infirmary discussed on SwingDJs here. The song caught my ear while watching the ULHS finals (which I talked about here).
I don’t have any Red Allen, but I’m definitely interested.
As for my stalking yet another version of SJI, alls I can say, is that if obsessing about multiple versions of particuar songs is good enough for Jesse in his October show, it’s certainly good enough for me.
Although, on a side-note, one of my reasons for seeking out the older or ‘betterer’ versions of particular songs is motivated by the current musical clime in Melbourne lindy hop. There’s been a recent rash of new DJs in our town, which I do applaud. I am particularly happy about the fact that most of (if not all of) these noobs are women. But I do have a great deal of issue with the fact that they’re all into boring old groove, and that most of the Melbourne DJs playing this sort of action don’t actually own their music – they’ve ripped it off someone else. Which is problematic not only for the fact that they’re, well, ripping people off, but just as importantly for a community of dancers, it means that the same old music is being recycled through the speakers every night. We hear no music – only poor quality versions of ordinary songs someone’s downloaded illegally (in a shitty mp3) and then shared around.
So when I hear a particularly shitful version of a song, I’m immediately motivated to play a betterer version so people can hear that there is more to the jazz world than fucked up versions of goddamn Lou Rawls goddamn version of SJI!
Dang – I am SO on my high horse here!
…the thing of it is, though, that un-groove is out of style here in Melbourne town, and even if I do play a ‘better’ version, it’s unlikely that there’ll be any dancers there who’d value it in the same way I do!
argh.
So, yeah, I’m hot for that Red Allen album, but goddess knows when I’d get to play it for dancers. Guess I’ll just have to love it on my own. Like I loves de McKinney’s Cotton Pickers and early Cab on my own…

Hot Lips Page’s Jump for Joy


Hot Lips Page’s Jump for Joy!
I’m not sure how I feel about this album. I have been a bit keen on Hot Lips Page playing with Billie Holiday in the Olden Days of Scratch, but this album is an overview of his career ranging from 1937 to 1950 and the later stuff really isn’t that amazing. I quite like a couple of the tracks for novelty’s sake – The Hucklebuck is a cutey, I like the melody/vocal line of I’ve got an uncle in Harlem, but the rest of the band is kind of annoying…
There is a nice, higher tempo version of St James Infirmary which clocks in at 122bpm, as opposed to the <100bpms of most versions other than the Cab Calloway 1930 version which is 125bpm and my current favourite). Nothing like a little necrophiliac blues to kick start your evening, huh? But the Count Basie Story CD is still winning – it’s a great band doing great music.

a partial reckoning

We have returned from SLX.
Injuries acquired:

  • sore ear from my cold (and flying with ear infection – never have I felt such pain. Ever. I cried like a baby and people stared. But I didn’t care, because having blocked ears is like closing your eyes – no one can see you)
  • sore groin from doing stunts at a late night party (The Cheese regrets his spontaneity)
  • sore thigh from lawn bowls (The Squeeze does not regret learning to bowl)
  • a big bag of regrets (I wish I had been well enough to acquire injuries like The Squeeze’s – but I did a lot of sitting about and talking shit. It seems that Sydneysiders do not fall for long lines of bullshit as do our Southern Cousins from Tasmania. But I tried)

the hamranos

sopranos.gif
Prompted by marking quite a few essays about The Sopranos of late, I brought home the first few discs of season 1 from the video shop.
The Squeeze was instantly enthralled, and I was more than happy when he brought home our very own copy the other night. We are enchanted.
It seems we are bound to adore all gangstah action, after our brush with the Godfather, Raging Bull and assorted others.
So it seems strangely fitting that Laura posted this Sesame Streets clippy today:

Australian-Melbourne-Irish-Global media?

As some of you know, I’m booked in to give a paper at the annual CSAA conference in Canberra in December. I wrote about my abstract here and moaned about not scoring a bursary here.
Well, things have actually turned around a bit since then. I have actually scored a smallish grant from the nice people at the CSAA, which will cover my conference registration and part of my airfare. Yay.
So, come December, I’m flying up to the Can to talk theoretical turkey with acadackas, hang out with my old school friend Kate (no, not ‘old skewl’, nor is she particularly ‘old’ – she is a friend I have had for a long time) and possibly see some local dancers.
This was all very nice to hear – I’m quite proud of having scored a competitive grant from an organisation which will look good on my CV. I’m also happy to be funded for my trip to the Can – I need to get a job some time soon, and these things are good networking activities… though I seem to spend an inordinate amount of time hanging about with old UQ buddies. And as you can see from this entry, I seemed to spend more time thinking about jazz than any professional business at the last CSAA conference.
So anyways, I’m off to do a paper.
Here is the abstract again:

Swing Talk and Swing Dance: online and embodied networks in the ‘Australian’ swing dance community.
Since its revival in the 1980s, lindy hop and other swing dances have become increasingly popular with middle class youth throughout the developed world.
There are vibrant local swing dance communities in Melbourne, Sydney, Hobart, Perth, Canberra and Brisbane for whom dancing – an embodied cultural practice – is the most important form of social interaction. Swing dancers will travel vast distances and spend large amounts of money solely to attend dance events in other cities. The success and appeal of these events lies in their promotion as unique and showcasing their local dance ‘scene’.
In travel itineraries which criss-cross the country, swing dancers develop networks between local communities that are not only cemented by their embodied interpersonal interaction, but also by their uses of digital media. In this paper, I examine the ways in which the online Swing Talk discussion board is utilised by Australian swing dancers to develop personal relationships with dancers in other cities, which in turn serve to develop relationships between local communities. This insistence of local community identity in swing dance culture in Australia defies a definition of a ‘national’ swing dance community. I describe the ways in which ‘Australian’ swing dance is an ‘unAustralia’ – not a homogenous ‘whole’ but a network of embodied and mediated relationships between diverse local communities and individuals.

Right now I’m having trouble remembering what I wanted to write about. I suspect there wasn’t actually a lot of planning in there. But I have started to have some ideas. Of course stimulated by my impending trip to SLX (I’ll be off to the tram stop in a few hours – nursing this horrid cold that’s sprung up), but also prompted by planning for MLX6 planning.
Have a listen to this:

powered by ODEO
(which you can find here on the MLX6 music page).
Now, if that’s not an advertisement for glocal community, I don’t know what is. I mean, before we even get to the dance/exchange stuff, we’re listening to an Irish guy pimping Australian jazz for a Melbourne exchange to an international audience. Neat stuff, huh?
This is the stuff about lindy hoppers that I really love: the way they go nuts and do all sorts of creative things – off as well as on the dance floor. And much of this creative work is centered on big dance events like exchanges and camps. There are lots of film clips, mini-films, websites, DVDs, etc etc – and a couple of special official CDs produced – but I’m beginning to get interested in the way swing dancers use radio and audio technology. Specifically, digital audio technology. I mean, there is all that stuff about DJing, but swing dancers do other really interesting things as well: Yehoodi radio is streaming music chosen by swing dancing DJs from all over the world, the Yehoodi Talk Show is really just a chance for a couple of engaging dance/music nerds to have a chat online and Hey Mr Jess is even nerdier – a particularly lovely DJ chatting about swing music and DJing with another dance/music nerd.
Hello podcasts.
This promotional podcast by one of our MLX6 crew is interesting for the way it combines samples from local musicians’ albums (these are all bands we’re hosting for MLX6, from Melbourne and Sydney) – they’re all still living, all contemporary artists – with pimpage for our event.
I do need to sit down and do a bit of analysis of the content, but this is some interesting stuff. Radio has proved a particularly effective medium for connecting dancers in different countries – a natural complement to discussion boards. And this is one of (if not the) first Australian contribution to the international lindy hop radio world (excluding contributions by local DJs to the Yehoodi radio show) – this is the first locally produced Australian swing dance radio ‘bit’. And it’s narrated by an Irishman!
Wonderful!
I do need to sit down and think about how this works: the way ‘Melbourne’ is presented, the way ‘Australia’ is presented, and how different audiences within and without Australia (and Melbourne) might receive/interpret/read this text, but it’s a starting point – a bit of motivation – for my paper. At the very least, I can add that to my usual list of clips and photos for the presentation – always fun to do.
Yay!
–edit: you know, part of my brain is also a bit interested in the way I’ve used that odeo plugin, there: most times you see those sorts of things they’re ‘invisible’, in the way my sidebar over there is largely ‘invisible’ from the main body of the page over here. But I’ve actually framed that odeo thingy as something to use and listen to, rather than just stuffing it into my sidebar or at the bottom of this post. It’s an interesting contrast to the livefm thingy over there in the sidebar (which is still stuffed and giving me the shits). I am, of course, delighted and fascinated by all this convergence action – my blog as combining audio and visual as well as written? Let’s see a newspaper try that then! Of course, this issue is one I’ve been plaguing my students with lately in tutes – as I heard in a Media Report story about cross-media ownership and digital technology, the cross-media ownership legislation kind of collapses when faced with the internet and the fancy things newspapers have been doing online: they combine av with traditional ‘static’ text… and bloggage, and audio, and… lots of other lovely stuff.
This is such a great time to be a media studies stooge! How could you not love the internet?!

set list

I thought you might be interested to see the latest set I’ve played. I’ve done a few truly crap sets recently, in part because I’m too tired and too busy to put much thought into my music or DJing since I’ve started teaching. But I did a ‘practice’ set at a local venue recently which has a mindblowingly good set-up: don’t matter how old or how scratchy it is, it sounds GREAT there. So I took the opportunity to play only stuff I love, no matter how old or scratchy. There was a tiny crowd there, who really didn’t care what I was playing, so it was all very useful for me.
The following Thursday I played this set, which I was very proud of. Admittedly, it was kind of an easy crowd – the Thursday before a big performance ball (wtf? yes, you read right) – so there was a room packed with dancers ready to party. There were dancers with a wide range of tastes, and with different abilities, so I could really mix it up. I also used quicker transitions between tempos, though kept within my preferred genre. The first few songs were actually time-fillers because Dave and I were trying to figure out why the sound was screwed. Note to self: check all laptop settings before DJing. Again, another side-effect of being so busy and thinking so little about DJing. Viper’s Moan was where I started paying attention to the floor and working it a bit more.
The set went really really well, and I enjoyed myself DJing more than I have in ages. I also played a lot of stuff I don’t usually play. I don’t play it so much because I’ve played for a lot of intolerant groover crowds lately (blurgh), which has made for some seriously dull DJing on my part. And recent fits of pique – nay, sulkiness.
So here’s the set list (title – artist – bpm – year (NB dates are often album release date rather than song release date; bands like M’s M R, Charleston Chasers and Vince Giordano are contemporary artists) – album)
Atomic Cocktail (Original) – Slim Gaillard – 129 – 2006 – Slim Gaillard Selected Hits Vol. 1
Chicken Shack Boogie – Lionel Hampton and His Sextet – 122 – 1949 – Lionel Hampton Story 4: Midnight Sun
Hamp’s Got A Duke – Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra – 142 – 1947 – Lionel Hampton Story 4: Midnight Sun
It’s Only A Paper Moon – Ella Fitzgerald – 125 – 1996 – Ella and Her Fellas
Splanky – Count Basie – 125 – 1957 – Complete Atomic Basie, the
Stop, Pretty Baby, Stop – Count Basie and Joe Williams – 134 – 1956 – One O’Clock Jump
You’re Driving Me Crazy – Big Joe Turner with Pete Johnson and Freddie Green – 161 – 1956 – The Boss Of The Blues
A Viper’s Moan – Mora’s Modern Rhythmists – 143 – 2000 – Call Of The Freaks
For Dancers Only – Jimmie Lunceford and His Orchestra – 154 – 1937 – Swingsation – Jimmie Lunceford
Four Or Five Times – Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra – 18 – 1939 – Tempo And Swing
Good Queen Bess – Duke Ellington – 160 – 1940 – The Duke Ellington Centennial Edition: Complete RCA Victor Recordings (disc 10)
Shoutin’ Blues – Count Basie and His Orchestra – 148 – 1949 – Kansas City Powerhouse
Till Tom Special – Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra – 158 – 1940 – Tempo And Swing
Stomp It Off – Jimmie Lunceford and His Orchestra – 190 – 193 – Swingsation – Jimmie Lunceford
Foo A Little Bally-Hoo – Cab Calloway – 175 – 1994 – Are You Hep To The Jive?
Back Room Romp – Duke Ellington and his Orchestra – 155 – 2000 – Ken Burns Jazz: Duke Ellington
Savoy Blues – Kid Ory – 134 – 2002 – Golden Greats: Greatest Dixieland Jazz Disc 3
Tuxedo Junction – Erskine Hawkins and His Orchestra – 153 – 1939 – Tuxedo Junction
The Minor Goes Muggin’ – Duke Ellington – 176 – 1946 – The Duke Ellington Centennial Edition: Complete RCA Victor Recordings (disc 15)
We Cats Will Swing For You – The Cats and The Fiddle – 184 – 1939 – We Cats Will Swing For You 1939-1940
Potato Chips – Slim Gaillard – 143 – 2004 – Jazz For Kids – Sing, Clap, Wiggle, and Shake
Well Alright Then – Jimmie Lunceford and his Orchestra – 137 – 1939 – Lunceford Special 1939-40
Joshua Fit De Battle Of Jericho – Kid Ory And His Creole Jazz Band – 160 – 1946 – Kid Ory and his Creole Jazz Band 1944-46
Jungle Nights In Harlem – Charlestown Chasers – 213 1995 – Pleasure Mad
Yellow Dog Blues – Vince Giordano – 195 – 2004 – The Aviator
Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gave To Me – Sidney Bechet – 140 – 1951 – The Blue Note Years
Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen, Part 1 [alt take] – Martha Tilton with Benny Goodman Quartet – 195 – 1937 – RCA Victor Small Group Recordings (Disc 2)
A Chicken Ain’t Nothin’ But A Bird – Cab Calloway – 162 – 1994 – Are You Hep To The Jive?