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DJ Set – Canberra Social

July 31, 2011 Reply

I was down in Canberra for work last week and managed to make it out to the social on Thursday night. I ended up DJing the first set – here’s what I played:

Name – Artist – Album – Duration – Date – BPM
Blues for Stephanie – George Gee and His Make Believe Ballroom Orchestra – Swingin’ Live! – 4:55 – 1998 – 137
Don’t Get Around Much Any More – Gordon Webster – Live in Philadelphia – 4:14 – 2010 – 145
The Beaver Bump – Glenn Crytzer and His Syncopators – Harlem Mad – 3:35 – 2011 – 155
Dark Eyes – Fats Waller – Fats Waller Performance: Radio Recordings from 1931-1943 – 3:22 – 1931 – 163
The Right Idea – Charlie Barnet – Cherokee – 3:13 – 1939 – 184
Baby Won’t You Please Come Home – Lionel Hampton – Complete Victor Sessions 1937-1941 – 2:52 – 1937 – 134
I Don’t Care Who Knows – Catherine Russell – Sentimental Streak – 3:18 – 2008 – 130
He’s Smilin’ Too – The Cope Street Parade – The Cope Street Parade – 3:41 – 2010 – 117
Bucket’s Got A Hole In It – Kid Ory’s Creole Jazz Band – This Kid’s The Greatest! – 2:51 – 1953 – 121
Fortunate Love – Glenn Crytzer and His Syncopators – Harlem Mad – 2:54 – 2011 – 132
Keep On Churnin’ – Wynonie Harris with Todd Rhodes Orchestra – Eat to the Beat – 2:54 – 1952 – 144
Don’t Roll Those Bloodshot Eyes at Me – Pugsley Buzzard – Chicago Typewriter – 3:36 – 2008 – 156
You Better Watch Yourself, Bub – Catherine Russell – Sentimental Streak – 2:57 – 2008 – 167
You Can Have My Husband – Tuba Skinny – Six Feet Down – 3:50 – 2010 – 140
Moan You Moaners – Palmetto Bug Stompers – Live @ Dba – 4:46 – 2009 – 126
Sister Kate – New Orleans Moonshiners – Frenchmen St. Parade – 3:31 – 2011 – 116
T’Aint What You Do – Billy May and His Orchestra – Oscillatin’ Rhythm – 3:00 – 1957 – 166
All Right, Okay, You Win – Gordon Webster – Happy When I’m With You – 4:41 – 2009 – 140

Treme, Lindy Hop, New Orleans and the Mythology of Rebirth

July 19, 2011 Reply
This is part review, part lindy blog and part personal reflection. But mainly its me talking about stuff I don’t know nearly enough about, so feel free to tell me I’m full of shit.

I’ve just finished watching the first season of Treme on DVD (it’s finally out here*). It’s by the same producers and some of the same directors and actors as The Wire (which I haven’t seen the but plan on doing now). The writers do a masterful job of weaving of weaving together reality and fiction. A lot of musicians feature in the series playing themselves not just their instruments (like Kermit Ruffins – the HBO website has a fairly complete list of songs and musicians featured). A number of characters are also loosely based on local personalities. It’s a character driven show, which is strange as I normally don’t go for character pieces, but the HBO format allows for deeper examination of these characters than in your standard series and the fantastic acting makes them thoroughly believable.

Whilst the story is good I wanted to watch it for the character not played by any actor – the music. It’s what drew me to New Orleans last year and what is tugging at me to go back (the series was screening when I went last year – but I didn’t see any episodes). Treme didn’t disappoint. The show is filled with music, including plenty of full songs, and it draws from the incredible musical diversity that exists in New Orleans.  I was particularly amazed that pretty much all the music was recorded live on set. Yet even for a show that features so much music it’s just the tip of the iceberg of what’s there.

One of the more poignant moments of the earlier episode is when Albert Lambreaux the leader of a Mardi Gras Indian tribe appears out of the night wearing his suit, evoking imagery of the phoenix.

One of the more reductionist interpretations of Treme is that it is a story about rebirth of a shattered city after Hurricane Katrina. The writers disagree, but the recovery of the city in the months after (the first episode opens with the simple text “New Orleans: 3 months after”) is a significant plot line in the series. I would tend to agree with the writers, but I think that many viewers would see the story through this sort of lens. More about this later.

I’ve also been reading Jerry Almonte’s ‘Artistry in Rhythm‘ series, a series of short articles about the ongoing development of a ‘culture’ in the contemporary Lindy Hop scene. It’s a great piece of recent history written by someone who had first hand experience and knows many of the key players involved. The Artistry in Rhythm series finishes around 2007, the year I started dancing – in Canada  before moving back to Australia at the beginning of 2008. As a recent starter I largely missed the groove trend and the style wars but I’ve definitely seen the influence of some of the more recent trends Jerry talks about. Things have sure changed in the short time since I’ve started dancing – and youtube, Yehoodi and more recently the various Lindy blogs have allowed a window on the changes in other parts of the lindyverse and also allowed some of the bigger influences to cross the Pacific.

One of the more obvious changes in the scene recently has been the influence of  New Orleans. A lot of Lindy hoppers have moved there over the last several years including many high-level and influential dancers in the scene. ULHS (which Jerry noted was already a trend setter) moved to New Orleans in 2009 (the organiser, Amy Johnson, move there herself in 2007).

There’s also been a claimed influx of street musicians in the last 6 years (though I question how much truth there is in this – street music has a long history in New Orleans). This is notable as some of the most popular bands in the Lindy Hop scene that are out of or associated with New Orleans are the street bands such as Tuba Skinny, the Loose Marbles, the Smokin’ Time Jazz Club and Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns.

The quality of the music in New Orleans is high, as is the interaction between the musicians and the dancers. The music is high energy (which fits with the trend that Jerry mentions in his blog towards more fast music) and fun and you can find somewhere to dance to it every night of the week. The dance spaces aren’t ideal (some would make Unity Hall in Sydney look like a palace – crowded, small concrete floors, and smoking still permitted in many bars) but for many the music makes up for it.

But does this explain the attraction? There’s other cities with great music, New York, Seattle, Southern California and more. Is the impact of a couple of influential dancers moving to a city enough to snowball like this? Or is there something else?

I want to propose what might be a controversial hypothesis: lindy hoppers are attracted to ‘rebirth mythology’.

The history of contemporary Lindy Hop is often told as one of rebirth (i.e. ‘The Revival’) – that the dance ‘died out’ after World War 2 until it was ‘rediscovered’ by a group of dancers in the US, the UK and Sweden and that it is ‘alive and well’ today. This ignores the fact that there were still many (though few in number) individuals who kept doing, performing and teaching Lindy Hop (such as Mama Lou Parks and many of the LA dancers). I think many people find the idea of recreating an old dance that ‘almost died out’ attractive – to restore Lindy Hop to its former glory.

Is this something peculiar to Lindy hoppers, or are we just like everyone else? The story of rebirth is a feature of many religions and cultures, ancient and contemporary, think the phoenix, Jesus, reincarnation in eastern religions etc. (though there are some criticisms, some scholars say that it attempts to view everything through a Christian lens).

Of the huge group of YURPs (Young Urban Rebuilding Professionals) that moved to New Orleans following the storm many were attracted by a desire to help rebuild. They seem to be succeeding but it’s also changing the city. This group is young, childless, single, well educated, white and liberal compared to the general population. Sounds a lot like your average group of Lindy hoppers to me.

People often talk about recovery, rebuilding and getting back to normal after a major shock change like a disaster. But there isn’t any return to before, people have to find a ‘new normal’ after such a change. New Orleans will never be the same not least because of the demographic change brought by the people seeking to reconstruct it.

As is the same with Lindy Hop. The community today is different people in a different time with different lives and a half century of new music, dance and culture to influence us. The dance we do today is not and will never be that done by a group of young people in the ballrooms of Harlem in the 1930s. It will never be recreated, revived or reborn – but as a new normal, what we’ve got seems mighty fine to me.

* Season 2 is starting on Showtime at the end of July. That and the ice hockey almost make it worthwhile to get pay TV. But there is the episode and audio commentaries to keep me busy until it comes out on DVD next year.

Djd Set: Devil City Swing, Sunday Night

June 28, 2011 Reply

Devil City Swing has got to be one of my favourite exchanges. So I was thrilled to be playing a set there. My set was Sunday night at the last venue (The Grand Poobah). We were late getting into the venue so I couldn’t have music playing when people arrived. The first couple of songs were essentially the sound check as the system was set up. As it was the last night I knew that folk would be sitting, chatting and drinking (though clearly not enough as the venue didn’t go through till as late as they could have) as well as dancing so I tried to play tunes that would work for both listening and dancing.


Name – Artist – Album – Duration – BPM

Sweet Home Chicago – The Blues Brothers – Motion Picture Soundtrack – 7:51 – 124

Like I said this was a ‘set up’ song. Everyone was still coming in and getting settled and the sound gear was still being tuned.

Billie Jean – Pink Turtle – Back Again – 4:58 – 137

Continuing with a blues theme I played this version of Billie Jean. It’s a good version but the harmonica solo in the middle gets a bit much for dancing, which makes it perfect for when nobody’s ready to dance yet.

Red Top/Ella’s Blues/C-Jam Blues/Blow Top Blues – Barbara Morrison – By Request: Volume 2 – 3:12 – 141

Heading back into Lindyland I threw down this number which was the first that a couple of people started dancing. 


Big Fine Girl – Jimmy Witherspoon – The ‘Spoon Concerts – 4:54 – 153

Keeping with the blues I went straight to Mr. Blues himself. His vocals are fantastic and he has an awesome band backing him on these live recordings.

Sixty Minute Man – The Dominoes – Eat to the Beat – 2:30 – 130

This was hardly the dirtiest song I played but seeing as how my set ended up going for about 60 minutes once we were all in the venue, set up and ready to dance in retrospect it was appropriate.

Sister Kate – New Orleans Moonshiners – Frenchmen St. Parade – 3:31 – 116

This is a new release. I love the song Sister Kate (and yes I wish I could shimmy like her) and this is a nice slow version. I don’t have many versions of the song (the Gordon Webster version I have goes insane-fast at the end, which is just cruel and unusual punishment at the end of a lindy exchange) so this felt like a good option to open up a ‘New Orleans’ mini set. Oh yeah and check out this album, it’s awesome (it even has a track about lindy hop on it)

Moan You Moaners – Palmetto Bug Stompers – Live @ Dba – 4:46 – 126

The second of my New Orleans mini set featuring Washboard Chaz on the well…. it needs no explanation. With the washboard and two guitars you get a nice chunking bass line on this tune.

Fortunate Love – Glenn Crytzer and His Syncopators – Harlem Mad – 2:54 – 132

This is a new release and a new composition. And it counts as the third in my New Orleans mini-set as the vocalist, Meschiya Lake, is from there. It’s a seriously dirty ditty (the entire song is essentially one big ‘that’s what she said’ joke). I’m not sure how many people picked up on the baudiness, but I enjoyed myself (in bed!).


And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine – Stan Kenton – Artistry in Rhythm – 3:05 – 152

I played alot of new material in this set and wanted to get some old tracks in to balance it out a little. Stan Kenton has a bunch of really swingin’ tracks with good audio quality. This one seemed to fit the bill with the tempos heading higher.

C Jam Blues – Gordon Webster – Live in Philadelphia – 4:12 – 170

I hadn’t wanted to play any Gordon Webster as his tracks had gotten a good workout over the weekend. But I hadn’t gotten the next song cued up properly so I tossed this one down. 

Black Coffee -The Careless Lovers – From the Seattle Vintage Jazz Dance Swing/Jazz Music Video Contest

Now this was something a little bit different. The Careless Lovers are amazing – I heard them play live when I went to Camp Jitterbug last year (in the back room at the late night and then in the street after the last afternoon of the camp – when we pretty much closed the road by dancing on it). After seeing this clip online (and linking it around like crazy) I wanted to play it. However they don’t yet have a CD out so I decided to DJ it off Youtube. 🙂 It was a fast song for this point of the weekend but there were a bunch of couples out there digging it (and I think they’d seen the clip before as they were hitting the breaks just a little too easily).

Apollo Jump – Lucky Millinder and his Orchestra – Apollo Jump: Disc 1 – 3:26 – 147

After a fast unfamiliar tune I wanted to play a crowd-pleaser, slightly uptempo, to get the floor moving again. It’s a standard but I hadn’t heard it before during the weekend.

I Don’t Care Who Knows – Catherine Russell – Sentimental Streak – 3:18 – 130

I play this song a lot. It’s got a nice blues bass line, great vocals and some good piano action. It’s a great party tune and keeps the energy from Apollo Jump going.

Kitchen Man – Tuba Skinny – Six Feet Down – 3:59 – 119

Returning to New Orleans and showcasing a band that had recently visted Australia I played this version of Kitchen man. There had been a number of other Tuba Skinny songs played during the weekend but I felt that this one was worth listening too.

Mr. Rhythm – Glenn Crytzer and His Syncopators – Harlem Mad – 4:08 – 131

Another new composition featuring Meschiya Lake this is one nice cruisy number. I feel like I’m going to be playing much more of it. Oh yeah and buy the CD.

Bizet Has His Day – Les Brown & His Band of Renown – Session #55 – 2:27 – 158

This is a modern version of the song played by the new Band of Renown (no longer featuring Les Brown but still with a number of the original musicians). It was recorded in about 2002 I think and is slightly more uptempo than the most popular version of Bizet Has His Day. It’s a fucking awesome song with lots of contrast.

Song of the Volga Boatmen – Glenn Miller – The Magic of Glen Miller Unforgettable Moments – 3:26 – 125

This is one of the rare Glenn Miller tunes that swings hard. I tend to play it a fair bit, if only to proove that Glenn Miller can actually swing (I’ve found that a lot of his transcript/live recordings tend to be far superior to the stuff that he recorded for records).

Daydream – Casey MacGill’s Blue 4 Trio – Three Cool Cats – 3:46 – 108

A slower tune before I finished off my set and another Seattle band (it seems that there was a lot of Seattle and New Orleans featured in this set).

Shake That Thing – Smoking Time Jazz Club – Smoking Time Jazz Club – 4:25 – 123

I really like this song, I really like this band and I had a really great time with this set.
Thankyou.

Swing dancing analogies: A chocolate teapot

May 20, 2011 2 comments

I’ve observed with interest the recent multiplication of swing dancing analogies. Perhaps it’s the rise of the swing dancing blog, or there’s more people thinking about dancing but I’m beginning to think that it’s getting a bit much. Some of them are cute, some of them show the nerdiness of Lindy Hoppers and yet others can get the user into hot water.

Don’t get me wrong, I like analogies and they have their uses. But that’s the problem. An analogy is a comparison used to explain a difficult concept, by stripping out the complexity and comparing it to something within the bounds of common experience. Back when I did science and math tutoring they came in handy to take concepts and ideas beyond experience (like electricity – electrons flow around a circuit like water in a pipe) and make them easier to understand.

But here’s the catch. Dancing is something that is within the bounds of regular experience. You can see it and feel it. Even though some things can be difficult to get I can’t see how trying to wrap your head around something involving boxes, springs or flashlights helps the matter. The concept being proposed can be more complex than what it’s trying to explain. A writer will then spend more of their time trying to explain the analogy than they devote to the original concept.

Much of the time I feel that analogies are being used to make a point and fair enough. It can be hard to get heard in the lindysphere these days so anything to get your point across is a plus in this marketplace of ideas.

Remember, though, that analogies will always fail. There’s only so far they can be stretched. This is the opportunity for real understanding. When my student asked “what happens when all the electrons (ie water) runs out of the pipe?” they can learn that the electrons don’t “run out” but are conserved in the system.

That’s where the true success of an analogy is: its failure.

Why Men Lead and Women Follow – 10 Wrong Reasons

March 9, 2011 5 comments

Spuds posted a link on Yehooid to this article written by a dancer named Lloyd on his blog. It claims 10 ‘good’ reasons why men should lead and women should follow in partnered social dance. He doesn’t refer specifically Lindy Hop much but it’s definitely relevant to the Lindy scene.

Enough preamble – here’s why he’s wrong:

1. Someone has to lead
This is no more a justification for men to lead than for women, or space monkeys, or cats…..

2. Men are taller than women
I’ve 5’5″, which is about the average height of Australian women – does that mean I should restrict myself to following? I disagree with the ‘simple fact’ that taller follows are harder to lead, I’ve never found that in my experience. I’d say that, if anything, taller leads find it harder to lead (particularly when they’re learning) as they need to match the size of their movements to the range of movement of their, sometimes much, shorter partner. This is a skill that some may associate more with following than leading.

He also says something about the leader needing to be closer to a tall follow in order to turn her with his hand above her head. A big height difference can create opportunities for cool moves, such as jumping when you lead this sort of turn. No uncomfortable contortions required.

In any case – there only needs to be one counterpoint to this argument – Shorty George. Enough said.

3. Men are stronger than women
Lloyd argues that there are many moves (particularly in ‘Jitterbug’) that involve the lead taking the follow’s weight including aerials. You could apply this argument to performances or competitions, but how many moves like this do you actually see on the social dance floor apart from established couples (who should know better than to pull crazy aerials on the social floor anyway).

There’s plenty of moves where the follow supports the leads weight. Moves that involve one of the partnership taking the ‘weight’ of the other are much more about timing, balance and counterbalance and making the physics work for you than they are about brute strength.

He goes on to say that followers need to trust their leaders to support them and that men are unlikely to trust women, particularly if they are a stranger. Lloyd should consider that the reverse of this might be as valid. It’s a damn good argument for not pulling crazy stuff on strangers. More importantly trust in a dance partnership needs to be mutual for these sort of moves to work and be safe and fun.

4. It avoids arguments
Yes, I know Lindy Hoppers aren’t renowned for this, but the only thing that avoids arguments is communication. It only takes a couple of words to establish who’s leading and following and if this exchange were a convention it would be even easier. In fact you can ask it in the same question as asking the person to dance. For example the conversation:
“Would you like to dance balboa with me?”
“Sorry, I don’t dance bal – would you like to lindy instead?”
“Sure – let’s dance”

becomes:
“Would you like to dance as a lead with me?”
“Sorry, I don’t lead – would you like to lead instead?”
“Sure – let’s dance”

5. Each sex can specialise
The argument presented is that a new dancer should pick one part and stick with it. Whilst Lloyd uses this to support the established gender roles it’s not really an argument for it per se. Nevertheless it’s still wrong.

Think of all the best dancers you know. You’d have trouble naming any who can’t both lead and follow. Knowing the other part makes you a better dancer.

It may be advisable for a beginner to pick what role they’re going to start out with and stick with that whilst they’re learning. Once they decide to pick up the other part they will be able to do so quicker as they  already have fundamentals such as pulse, balance, frame, connection etc. It will never take twice as long to learn both parts and ultimately learning the other part improves your dancing.

Having said that I think there is a case for teaching both parts from the get go and I’d be interested to hear from anyone who has ever learnt or taught both parts more or less at the same time. The first ever blues class I did had a huge excess of guys, so some of us followed as well as led. Whilst it probably helps that I was already a lindy hopper and blues isn’t really a left or right handed dance I managed both parts fairly easily. I actually ended up having a couple of insights during that class that helped me pick up the basics well.

6. Sex is part of the fun

Here I will refer to number 10: You need to get out more and post some videos

Dawn Hampton dancing with Steven Mitchell, Virginie Jensen, and Frida Segerdahl

7. Men prefer it
8. Women prefer it
I’ll group these together as it’s basically the same argument and makes the common fallacies of appeal to popularity, appeal to tradition and appeal to common practice. I’m sure there’s plenty of men who like to follow and plenty of follows who like to lead all to a greater or lesser degree. And you will find plenty of people who prefer to exclusively dance in their traditional gender role. Reasons for preference probably have more to do entrenched socio-cultural norms than pop evolutionary psychology (which isn’t really a science) explanations.

9. It isn’t command and obey 
This is about the only point that’s on its own is correct. Many dancers have discussed the partnership in great detail, for example here , here and here. However it still doesn’t refute the argument that in partnered social dancing generally and Lindy Hop specifically there is a strong current of sexually conservative gender norms and to a greater or lesser extent more obvious sexism.

10. You need to get out more

Basically this entire argument is an appeal to common practice, a common fallacy. Just because something is a common practice or a tradition, doesn’t make it right. And the truth is that there is a lot of sexism (much of it not intended and little of it malicious) in the lindy hop community. Others have posted about this at length, for example this excellent posting by Sarah.

Whilst most of us do have fun within this construct of gender roles I believe that we could have more fun by breaking them down. We’re also excluding many members of our society who could enrich the community we are a part of. I don’t think this will really change until more men start learning to follow, but more about that another time…

Swing dancing on Australian screens

February 28, 2011 Reply

I found a video today through Yehoodi of some jitterbug dancers in 1961. The poster expressed a bit of surprise to find footage of swing dancing in the 1960’s. This got me thinking about the history of lindy hop in Australia – something I have an interest in but have never had the time, and still don’t, to go research properly.

I thought I’d turn to the intertubz to see what I could find…

Although there’s record of Lindy Hop making it’s way to Australia before World War II (The Big Apple was being taught in Sydney in early 1938 and Frankie Manning and a troupe of Harlem dancers performed in Australia in 1938 and 1939) it seems that it wasn’t caught on film until 1940.

I’ve done some searching on the National Film and Sound Archive website and come up with a list of clips that I’d be interested in checking out. Unfortunately the majority of the holdings of the NFSA are very difficult to access and impossible to reproduce without permission from the copyright holder. I’ll put this on the list of longer term projects and see what I can come up with…

The British Pathé does have a few clips available. This one features a couple of young swing dancers and a bunch of kids joining in – reminds me of Groovie Movie

1943: This clip details the R&R experience of an American serviceman in Australia. It’s not clear where this was shot, but it certainly shows a rather different view of the War in the Pacific.

1944: This film show footage from a Jitterbug contest in July of 1944. It’s difficult to say where this was shot, contests were occurring in Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart, even Papua New Guinea.
The Australian Jitterbug Championships, which saw contestants from all over the country compete, were first held in the early 40s (probably 1940 or 41) and continued until at least 1954

Here’s a few more modern videos charting some of the Lindy Hop revival. There’s not a lot of information out there about how the revival got going in Australia. The prevailing assumption is that it first got going through groups of Rock and Roll dancers (who danced rock and roll back in the 60s when it was very popular) where it is still danced today – it’s also how I first started dancing. I need to go and do some more research and talk to some folk to learn more.

1995?: The early days of the revival in Australia

1997: Frankie Manning returns to Australia

2001: Competition Lindy Hop in Sydney

2003: The Today Show and ABC’s Stateline featured the return of the Australian Jitterbug Championships:

I’ve also tracked down the first group email newsletter from Swing Patrol in Sydney 

There’s plenty of other recent footage out there on the intertubz, but if anyone else knows of anything older, particularly vintage footage or clips from the 90s please let me know. I’m going to keep updating this post; it will be linked on my Lindy History page.

Swing Pit – 25 Feb – Set list

February 26, 2011 Reply

Although it’s been cooler lately the venue was still quite warm and muggy – I was playing second after the birthday/welcome jam. It was a fairly small crowd at the start of the night after the lesson but things picked up pretty quickly after that.

I didn’t really think I played that well – it’s my first actual dance gig in a while and I’ve been buying too much music so I really need to consolidate. There was too many new acquisitions that I wanted to work into my set. It’s also a fairly short gig so I felt like I hadn’t really found the groove before it was time to start wrapping things up. Nevertheless the floor was generally full and everybody else seemed to be having fun.

I Love Being Here With You – Barbara Morrison – Live at the 9:20 Special – 155BPM – 3:07

The teachers were using the Ernestine Anderson version in the class so I thought this would make a nice opener and get people dancing after the welcome/birthday jam.

Long Gone John – Gordon Webster – Happy When I’m With You – 144BPM – 3:57

I wanted to throw another well known tune in there to try and balance out the less new stuff that I was wanting to play. This track has almost reached overplayed status here in Sydney, but that’s cause it is quite a good track.

16 Tonnes – Jacques Hellian and Jean Louis Tristan – Swing Party – 130BPM – 2:30

Everyone knows the Tennessee Ernie Ford version of this song, though it hasn’t gotten much playtime in recent months. This french version has a very similar arrangement and went down nicely.

Tuxedo Junction – Glenn Miller Orchestra – Chesterfield Broadcasts – 112BPM – 4:28

Too slow, too muddy and too long, I should have played some early 1940’s Duke Ellington.

Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy – Stan Kenton – Intermission Riff – 124BPM – 2:36

To keep the music oldish, well-known and cut the time down I played this one.

Shout Sister Shout! – Shout Sister Shout – Hit that Jive Jack – 141BPM – 2:46

Another new acquisition and another well known song. I really like this version but I feel like the band needs a washboard (though this probably has more to do with my own washboard aspirations than anything else).

You Better Watch Yourself, Bub – Catherine Russell – Sentimental Streak – 167BPM – 2:57

I wanted to kick the pace up a bit. I’ve also been playing a lot of Catherine Russell since since I got back from the States last year. Virtually every single set of mine has one of her tracks in it.

C-Jam Blues – Gordon Webster – Live in Philadelphia – 170BPM – 4:12

Keeping the pace up and a well known song – but by the end of this one people were getting tired. The floor had started to empty out a bit so it was time to bring it back down a little.

Lavender Coffin – Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra – 137BPM – 2:47

All dancers want a lavender coffin. This song’s probably my number 1 go-to when I’m trying to pack the floor again. The folk that had sat down by the end of the last number were back up dancing.

Operator, Operator – Sister Wynona Carr – Dragnet for Jesus – 119BPM – 2:49

Probably a little too slow and it sounded fairly muddy on the speakers – I should have played some Lucky Millinder or Louis Jordan.

Alright, Okay, You Win with Everyday I Have the Blues – Barbara Morrison – Live at the 9:20 Special – 130BPM – 5:27
Billie Jean – Pink Turtle – Back Again – 137BPM – 4:58

Playing these two tracks was a mistake – both 5 minutes long and high energy and by this time of night a lot of the dancers’ stamina was starting to flag. Billie Jean certainly got a few strange looks from the crowd when the lyrics started up and they realised what it was, but it’s too long and has some lengthy harmonica solos. It’s also another new acquisition and now that it’s out of my system I think I can put it on the ‘low-rotation’ list.

Let the Good Times Roll – George Gee and His Make Believe Ballroom Orchestra – Swingin Live – 150BPM – 2:32
Your Feet’s Too Big – Pugsley Buzzard – Chicago Typewriter – 124BPM – 3:24

Coming up to the end of the night I wanted to focus my attention on shorter tracks so that folk could get more dances in (particularly after the 2x5min tracks). I started dropping the energy down a bit as well before coming back up to the last song.

Ain’t Nothing Too It – Fats Waller and His Orchestra – 127BPM – 3:14
Let’s Do It – Benny Goodman – Essential Benny Goodman – 137BPM – 2:03
For Dancers Only – Jimmie Lunceford and His Orchestra – Life is Fine – 149BPM – 2:43
Bli Blip – Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra – Live in Swing City – 137BPM – 3:16

I finished off with For Dancers Only and Bli Blip – crowd faves and nice high energy songs.

I’m playing the same set and venue in 2 weeks time so I’ve got some work to do to consolidate and improve.

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