Hey Blogosphere.
For those interested I’ve started up a new gig guide at http://sydneylindy.blogspot.com.au/
The content on this blog has been migrated over there where a new curator will take over the gig guide.
This blog will take a bit of a different turn, cataloguing my adventures living in Nepal (I move there in a week and a half).
Let me know what you think of the new format.
Oh and you can subscribe to the new gig guide too.
Thanks for all your traffic!
Lindypenguin
Well 2012 is now in full swing and the media is full of talk about Mayans and the end of the world (why do I feel like we’ve been here before). I thought I’d put together a bit of list from some of the best alternative commentary on the web.
The first is this video from CGPGrey (who also appears to be a big election geek making videos about various voting systems. And reminds me of Yahtzee another videoblogger):
Then we have this comic from xkcd:
Only problem with this approach is that it will only take about a week before all the new age hippies (sorry, alternative lifestyle enthusiasts) start rabbiting on about something else.
Then we have this one from Dinosaur Comics:
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Perhaps the best commentary comes from prolific blogger and debunker Phil Plait of Bad Astronomy. He has written many posts debunking 2012 including some rather sombre ones. He writes:
I hate to write this, but I expect we’ll be hearing more about people going through with suicide over the next few months because of these doomsday claims. How many of them might have had a chance to seek help, to live longer, if the idea of a 2012 doomsday weren’t so prevalent?
A timely reminder that even though we might laugh at the idea of a 2012 doomsday there’s a much more serious side. (And if you or someone you know needs help Lifeline is there 24/7)
I was having a chat with a gentleman on the weekend (you know who you are) about ties and how I’d seen a post discussing the various authentic ways of wearing them. In particular how to keep them from flying all over the place. Then I realised that many folk have been blogging about current vintage trends in the lindy hop scene and linking back to authentic vintage fashion:
The ever stylish Bobby White put together this excellent and extensive guide to ties, bowties and neckerchiefs (if you’re feeling like a gig on Masterchef). Well worth the read even if you don’t wear them. Swungover has this short post about stripey socks. Not only did Fred Astaire wear them, but they’re back in fashion. Bobby plans on doing plenty more blogging about vintage manliness.
Another way of keeping your tie in place is wear a vest. Yehoodi has just posted an article where Lindyshopper interviews David Lochner about Being Well Vested. Lindyshopper has many posts about stylishness (particularly from Lindydandy) and plenty of links to vintage gear available online and on eBay.
But vintage fashion does have a dark side. Dogpossum looks at the recent history of the zoot suit in Sydney. I’d tend to agree that most people who wear them just look a bit naff (and then there’s the whole link to the zoot suit riots. Plus the whole historical appropriation of wearing a symbol of rebellious second generation Mexican American youth whilst doing a dance invented by lower class African American youth boggles the mind a bit).
On a more contemporary note Dax Hock hypothesises that tracky dacks almost killed the lindy hop.
From the tragic to the ridiculous Lindybeige has this video about mustaches. (via Jo Hoffberg)
Speaking of Jo Hoffberg, she’s also made a very strong case for why every man should carry a handkerchief.
Anyhow it’s late and I need to stop pretending like I’m still on holidays. At some point I will write a post about hats, which I like.
Well another year rounds to a close and it has been almost a year since I started this blogging thing. So as to be completely original and not copy anyone else at all I thought I’d post my #lindyhop and #musicnerd highlights for the year.
I’m glad it has been such a great year for dancing for me. Next April I head off to Nepal to do volunteer work for 12 months so this blog will take a different turn (there won’t be much about lindy to blog about); I might actually start posting more stuff about what I’m up to 🙂
So here we are:
Best Exchange – MLX Turn it up to 11
Now there’s been a lot of love out there for MLX this year but that’s cause it was freakin’ awesome. Great venues, bands that were in the pocket and gun DJs who brought it. And every night was consistently good, which is rare at exchanges – usually there’s one event that doesn’t quite go off as much as the rest. What was really great this year was to see a whole bunch more Sydney folk there than is usually the case. Here’s hoping that continues.
Best Workshop – Jazz with Ramona in Sydney
I don’t usually take too many workshops (so this is hardly indicative of what’s on offer around the traps), I’ve only done a handful this year, but this was great. A single day broken into 3 sessions working on Charleston and solo jazz. Ramona has such a relaxed and flexible teaching style – it felt she was acting more in the role of a facilitator than an instructor and that’s the sort of situations where I feel I get the best learning outcomes. Sure it was ridiculously hard and I still have a whole bunch of things to unlearn, but I had a great time.
Best Social Event at an Exchange – Hullabaloo Wine Tour
I like Hulla, this was my second year there. It’s also the second year that they’ve done a wine tour around the Swan Valley (though my first time on the tour). Good wine, good beer, good spirits, good food and chocolate = full of win! Plus getting to hang out with a bunch of other interstaters for a day was fab!
Best Band at an Exchange – Oz Big Band, MLX11
Perthies sure represented at MLX this year. In addition to the usual invasion of dancers we had an invasion of musicians as well with two bands being brought over for the event. The Saturday night dance featured Oz Big Band who really brought it playing a whole bunch of ‘Greatest Hits of Lindy’ like Corner Pocket, Blues in Hoss’ Flat and more. Each track was solid and swinging done by a serious group of musicians who really held it together. Hoping I can see them again soon!
Best Live Music Gig – Big Jay McNeely with Adam Hall and (some of) the Velvet Playboys
This was a hard one. Between Tuba Skinny, all the great exchange music and plenty of other live gigs I’ve been to it has been a year of awesome music. The Big Jay gig just pips out the Legends of New Orleans concert (only cause the Opera House is a silly venue to have Jon Cleary, Allen Toussaint and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band rock it out). He comes out – not on stage – but through the crowd having to use his sax as a walking stick to get up on stage, and proceeded to play 2 honkin’ sets of music leaving the other guys in the band (who weren’t even half his age) trying to catch up.
I was talking to Adam Hall after the gig and he said that after the first set when a bunch of people were leaving Big Jay said to him “What are all these people leavin’ for” to which Adam responded “They think you’re only going to do one set”. Well they got back out there and proved them wrong.
Most Surprising Live Music Gig – Big Village Christmas Party
I went to this show last week to see the Hi Tops Brass Band perform expecting to be a bit ho-hum about the rest of the hip hop but I was very pleasantly surprised. The MCs were fantastic and some quite comical too. There was a recently formed all-girl hip hop band called She-Rex (the guitarist that plays with the Sirens is a member) who knocked all our socks off. Then there was an act called Sketch the Rhyme which featured a bunch of MCs and a bunch of sketch artists with their work displayed on a projection screen. It was fascinating and hugely entertaining, they even threw in a game of celebrity heads. Towards the end of the night all these DJs started pulling out horns and guitars and belting out riffs in between laying down scratches. Last up was True Vibenation with three guys on horns throwing down honking riffs in between some great verse. A really cool night – there are some seriously talented musicians in Sydney.
Best New Album Release – Bernard Berkhout’s Swing Orchestra – Let’s Dance
Every track on this album is solid big band swinging goodness. I would play any and all of them at any dance and fill the floor. Gold!
Best New Australian Album Release – Christa Hughes and the Honky Tonk Shonks – Shonky
Combine the consummate showwoman Christa Hughes (who has had a long and varied career including being part of experimental rock band Machine Gun Fellatio and a stint as ringmistress at Circus Oz) and a bunch of the cats from the Cope Street Parade and you get one rollercoaster ride of an album. This album covers a bunch of popular artists ranging from the White Stripes to the Jackson 5 but all as a jazz/blues band. (I’m pretty sure the insanely talented Grant Arthur, who plays Sousaphone with the Cope Street and Banjo and Trombone in this band, did the arrangements) Well worth checking out.
Though it’s only been 6 months since my original post there’s been quite a few changes on the music buying circuit so I thought I’d update and re-post it.
I’ve had a lot of people asking me lately where to buy swing music from so I thought I’d put together a post outlining the best places to purchase music from. I’ll cover physical stores and buying CDs online as well as digital downloads. This is written from the Australian viewpoint – noting that many of the large online stores (for digital downloads) have geographic restrictions.
Props to Jesse and Spuds for starting this conversation on ‘Hey Mr Jesse‘ and to various Australian listeners for their feedback to the show which pointed me in some good directions. If you’re interested in swing music their show is a must listen. For the international readers Spuds put together a brief review of digital download sites that are available in various locations. They also regularly discuss the various streaming services available – which I don’t.
Bricks and Mortar
For briefness I’ll stick to Sydney, but there are plenty of retailers out there around the traps. If anyone wants to send me info about other cities in Oz I’ll include them.
One of the best places to pick up CDs is at gigs. They’re often cheaper than you can find in the store and you can be sure that the most amount of money possible is actually finding its way to the artist. And besides, what better way to preview the music than live!
Fish Fine Music – QVB, King St, Newtown and Balmain (which is moving to Leichhardt)
Fish has a good selection and breaks it up into a couple of categories (usually blues, jazz and nostalgia). They also tend to stock decent box sets. They are also more than happy to order stuff in (and it’s generally much quicker than trying to buy off amazon). Their bargain bins generally have quite a lot of cheap compilations of jazz stuff. Good if you’re looking to start a collection.
Birdland – George Street, Sydney
This is pretty much the only speciality jazz retailer in Sydney (they also run a website and mail order business). They’re also only open Thursday, Friday and Saturday. They have a lot of Australian content and also stock a lot of vinyl and SACDs (for the audiophiles out there).
JB Hi Fi
The big ugly yellow retailer, but the only one with a decent variety of jazz CDs. Many of their stores do have separate jazz and blues sections, but the selection tends towards post 50’s material and contemporary jazz. Their bargain bins are not worth going through. They can order stuff in, but if I’m doing that I’d rather go local.
2MBS Book and Record Bazaar – Moves Around
This second hand fair moves around town every couple of months and has books, sheet music, records and CDs. They do have a jazz section, but it pays to check pop music and classical for the occasional gem that goes astray. You can often get good out-of-print stuff here if you’re prepared to spend the time leafing through the bins. Make sure you check the CDs though, some of them can be scratched or not in the case at all. It’s also well advised to get there when the doors open on the first night as there’s a bunch of music nerds that descend on the place looking to snatch up a bargain.
Plastic and Aluminium
I’m listing sellers with large catalogues here, but many artists sell their own and other CDs direct through their own websites. There’s also many specialist labels and other niche distributors out there as well which are worth seeking out for stuff that’s more off the beaten path.
Amazon
This is usually my first go-to for old stuff. They have a huge catalogue and also act as a distributor for many other resellers. You may even be able to find out-of-print stuff there through the resellers. However most out-of-print CDs and many emerging and unsigned artists are not available.
Unfortunately Amazon Mp3 is not yet available in Australia.
CDBaby
Though there’s only a handful of CDs of old swing music here but this site is very popular with new musicians, particularly independents. If I’m looking for contemporary stuff this is my go-to. They also do digital downloads for many of the releases they carry.
Louisiana Music Factory
This store specialises in New Orleans and Louisiana music. They also carry a lot of trad jazz and all sorts of other stuff (Cajun, Zydeco etc.) If the artist is from New Orleans this store has it. The interface isn’t as slick as Amazon or CDBaby but you can find it if you know what you’re looking for. I like to make my New Orleans purchases from this store as I know more money is going back to the local community that way.
Mosaic Records
The store for high quality, complete box sets. They also do smaller compilations of particular artists. The audio quality is the best you will get and liner notes thoroughly researched and discographies complete with alternate takes. It’s expensive and the releases are limited, but well worth it. Sign up to their mail list to find out what’s coming up.
Jazz By Mail
Specialises in Trad Jazz and other early jazz (including the various revivals). It also stocks the catalogues of a number of specialist re-issuers including Arbors Records. They are also gearing up to do some digital downloads.
Amoeba
These guys are based in California and have three huge stores of music new and used. I found a tonne of out-of-print stuff when I was there. Although their online purchasing is fairly limited they do run a service where you can fill out a form on their website and they’ll try and track down the CD or LP in store and send it to you.
Ones and Zeros
Now before I start this section I must profess that I buy all my music on CD. I like doing so because I get the liner notes with good pictures, prose and complete details. It’s also an additional back-up if my electronic files fail. And even though you need specialised equipment to read them (a record can be played with a paper cone) I like having the physical product in my hand. As such I don’t have any personal experience with these services. Many of them have a variety of payment options (credit card or store bought cards) and all offer discounts for buying a whole album.
There’s really only 5 large online stores that have a good range of both contemporary and old stuff. I’m going to take my cue from Spuds on Hey Mr Jesse and test each by the availability of three artists: Count Basie, Billy Kyle and Nikki Yanofsky. To that I’m going to add a couple of Australian artists: James Morrison as the popular one and Pugsley Buzzard as the less common. I’ve also listed a couple of other sites – Bandcamp which focussing on indie artists is not directly comparable and emusic and Google music for completeness.
iTunes comes out on top, as it has by far the largest collection. They’re all fairly comparable on price (most tracks being about $1.69 across all services) and naturally the local sites largely fail on the local musicians (ie. buy it from the musician direct).
iTunes
Apple – biggest collection, but you need to download iTunes to use it.
Total Collection: 14 million songs
General Price: $1.19-$2.19 per track
Count Basie: Lots (100s of albums)
Billy Kyle: Some (about 15 albums)
Nikki Yanofsky: Yes (1 album – only release)
James Morrison: Lots (about 15 albums)
Pugsley Buzzard:Yes (2 out of 3 albums)
Ovi
This is Nokia’s offering and you don’t need to own a Nokia phone to buy. There is a however an emusic-like subscription model for owners of a particular Nokia phone. It appears to be web-based and offers a downloadable player and browser.
Total Collection: 11 million
General Price: $1.49 per track
Count Basie: 268 albums
Billy Kyle: 12 albums
Nikki Yanofsky: Yes (1 album – only release)
James Morrison: 10 albums
Pugsley Buzzard: Nil
Bandit.fm
Primarily tracks on the Sony label (includes vintage jazz labels Columbia, RCA Victor, RCA, Okeh) and bits and pieces from other labels. It’s web-based.
Total Collection: 2 million songs
General Price: $1.69-$2.20 per track
Count Basie: 189 tracks
Billy Kyle: Nil
Nikki Yanofsky: Yes (1 album – only release)
James Morrison: Nil
Pugsley Buzzard: Yes (1 out of 3 albums)
Big Pond Music
You don’t need to be a ‘bog pond’ customer to access this service and it’s web-based.
Total Collection: 1 million songs
General Price: $1.10-$2.05 per track
Count Basie: 68 albums
Billy Kyle: 1 album
Nikki Yanofsky: Yes (1 album – only release)
James Morrison: 2 albums
Pugsley Buzzard: Yes (1 out of 3 albums)
Optus Music Store
Likewise you don’t need to be an Optus customer to buy. It’s also web-based.
Total Collection: Unknown
General Price: $1.69 per track
Count Basie: 279 albums
Billy Kyle: Nil
Nikki Yanofsky: Yes (1 album – only release)
James Morrison: Nil
Pugsley Buzzard: Nil
Bandcamp
This falls into a similar camp to CDBaby as it is all about independent artists. In addition to showcasing independent artists this website allows you to listen to the entire album before you download it (no 30 second samples here) and you can download in a range of formats (including a number of lossless formats like FLAC). It has an impressive 2.5 million catalogue.
eMusic
If you’ve got it, you’ll know about it. If you don’t have it you can’t get it.
Google Music
Not yet available in Australia (unless you do something fancy with a VPN). No word yet on a launch date.
I’ve been thinking a lot about gender and sexuality issues particularly in the dance space so I thought I’d post a bunch of links I’ve come across.
ABC’s Artscape follows a group of gay and lesbian ballroom dancers as they battle injuries and prejudice to compete in the gay games.
Dahlia Lithwick on slate.com looks at the lengths conservatives will go to to protect people in power no longer are they denying the claims of women who experience sexual harassment, they’re now denying sexual harassment even exists.
Michelle Griffin in the Herald explores how even in today’s workplace women are still the ones who face the more difficult choices around parenting and career.
On a related note Amanda Czerniawski has some interesting commentary on Sociological Images on the following laundry powder commercial
And finally the world’s population supposedly hit 7 billion in the last month. Rob Brooks writes in the Conversation that if you’re serious about population control, you should be serious about feminism.
I’m not feeling particularly inspired to write anything at the moment. But here are some interesting links this week.
I came across this excellent parody video (with thanks to Sociological Images) of Miss USA contestants asked “Should Math be taught in schools?”. Check out the original evolution video here if you can stomach a quarter of an hour of airheadedness.
Also on Sociological images Brady Potts compares modern and old responses to disasters after some moron Republican said the response to Hurricane Irene should have been more like 1900. This is the storm that another Republican (and presidential hopeful) Michelle Bachmann says is a ‘message from God‘.
In related news New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is terrified that the Republican party is becoming the ‘anti-science’ party.
Bernard Keane at Crickey ponders that the latest protest movement (typified by the Tea Party and its Australian analogues) of middle-aged, conservative, white, middle- or higher-income men (ie. the most advantaged group of people in the world) is because they’re feeling slightly less advantaged than they used to.
Meanwhile Empirica Research has released a study commissioned by the ACTU on wealth inequality in Australia. Some key findings:
And finally videos from ILHC are up – check out Patrick and Natasha’s Youtube channel
This past weekend was Canberrang – Canberra’s Lindy Exchange and one of the jewels in the crown of the Australian Lindy Calendar. I had an awesome time over the weekend and managed to squeeze in two sets. I wanted to get them up now as a lot of folk were asking me questions about the songs; I might add some commentary later. Here they are:
Thursday Night: 10pm-11.30pm
Hotel Kurrajong
Seq – Name – Artist – Album – Duration – Date – BPM
1 – Red Top/Ella’s Blues/C-Jam Blues/Blow Top Blues – Barbara Morrison – By Request: Volume 2 – 3:12 – 2009 – 141
2 – Open House – Lionel Hampton – Complete Victor Sessions 1937-1941 – 3:01 – 1940 – 133
3 – Ain’t Nothing To It – Fats Waller and His Orchestra – Chant Of The Groove – 3:14 – 1941 – 127
4 – All the Cats Join In – Catherine Russell – Inside This Heart of Mine – 3:38 – 2010 – 117
5 – Afternoon Of A Moax (Shake, Rattle ‘n’ Roll) – Charlie Barnet – Cherokee – 3:23 – 1940 – 131
6 – You Don’t Say – Glenn Crytzer and His Syncopators – Harlem Mad – 3:51 – 2011 – 139
7 – Bounce Me, Brother, With a Solid Four – Will Bradley and His Orchestra – Howdy, Friends – 3:17 – 1941 – 146
8 – Sermonette – Gordon Webster – Happy When I’m With You – 3:40 – 2009 – 118
9 – The Frim Fram Sauce – Louis Armstrong – Meet the Girls – 3:14 – 1946 – 106
10 – All of Me – Billie Holiday – The Billie Holiday Collection: Volume 2 – 3:04 – – 106
11 – Whispers in the Dark – Brooks Tegler Small Groups – Uncommon Denominator – 2:30 – 2008 – 128
12 – Drinkin’ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee – Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra – The Lionel Hampton Story – Midnight Sun – 3:24 – 1949 – 132
13 – Accentuate The Positive – Johnny Mercer and The Pied Pipers – Swingin’ ‘Round The Clock – 3:25 – 1944 – 137
14 – Booglie Wooglie Piggy (Live) – Glenn Miller – The Magic of Glen Miller All Time Favourites – 2:34 – 1941 – 142
15 – Shoo Fly Pie And Apple Pan Dowdy – Stan Kenton – Intermission Riff – 2:36 – 1945 – 124
16 – Baby Won’t You Please Come Home – Topsy Chapman & The Pros – My One and My Only Love – 5:08 – 2001 – 117
17 – Preaching the Blues – LaVern Baker – LaVern Baker Sings Bessie Smith – 2:50 – 1958 – 105
18 – Kitchen Man – Catherine Russell – Sentimental Streak – 3:05 – 2008 – 101
19 – Splanky – Count Basie – The Complete Atomic Basie – 3:36 – 1957 – 121
20 – Mr. Rhythm – Glenn Crytzer and His Syncopators – Harlem Mad – 4:08 – 2011 – 131
21 – Perdido – Duke Ellington and his Famous Orchestra – Take the A-Train – 3:10 – 1942 – 127
22 – Uptown Sop – Gordon Webster – Happy When I’m With You – 5:44 – 2009 – 115
23 – Down Home Blues – Barbara Morrison – By Request: Volume 2 – 4:57 – 2009 – 86
24 – Sugar Blues – Creole Syncopators – The Storyville Years – 3:55 – 2011 – 87
25 – Shake Your Tailfeather – The Blues Brothers – Motion Picture Soundtrack – 2:52 – 1980 – 160
26 – New Orleans – The Louisiana Gator Boys and the Blues Brothers Band – Blues Brothers 2000 – 4:01 – 1998 – 163
Saturday Late Night: 2am-3am
White Eagle Polish Club
Seq – Name – Artist – Album – Genre – Duration – Date – BPM
1 – Going to Chicago – Barbara Morrison – Live at the 9:20 Special – 5:33 – 2002 – 127
2 – Lavendar Coffin – Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra – The Lionel Hampton Story – Midnight Sun – 2:47 – 1949 – 137
3 – Silent George – Lucky Millinder and his Orchestra – Apollo Jump – 2:39 – 1950 – 134
4 – The Ball Game – Sister Wynona Carr – Dragnet for Jesus – 3:06 – 1952 – 140
5 – Shout Sister Shout! – Shout Sister Shout – Hit That Jive – 2:46 – 2006 – 141
6 – Bienvenue Dans Ma Vie – Nikki Yanofsky – Nikki – 3:50 – 2010 – 144
7 – I Don’t Care Who Knows – Catherine Russell – Sentimental Streak – 3:18 – 2008 – 130
8 – It’s My Lazy Day – Casey MacGill’s Blue 4 Trio – Three Cool Cats – 3:40 – 2008 – 114
9 – Hallelujah, I Love Her So – Joe Sample & David T. Walker – Swing Street Cafe – 5:01 – 1978 – 124
10 – I Love Being Here with You – Barbara Morrison – Live at the 9:20 Special – 3:07 – 2002 – 155
11 – 16 Tonnes – Jacques Helian/Jean Louis Tristan – Swing Party – 2:30 – 1956 – 130
12 – Secret Love – Les Brown & His Band of Renown – Session #55 – 2:47 – 2001 – 118
13 – Volare – Oscar Peterson Trio – Night Train – Jazz – 2:49 – 1962 – 120
14 – Look a There – Slim Gaillard & Slam Stewart – Complete Columbia Master Takes – 2:17 – 1938 – 178
15 – Sister Kate – Gordon Webster – Live in Philadelphia – 5:23 – 2010 – 158
16 – Do Your Duty – Tuba Skinny – Six Feet Down – 3:48 – 2010 – 123
17 – Mr. Rhythm – Glenn Crytzer and His Syncopators – Harlem Mad – 4:08 – 2011 – 131
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
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.
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