Music via the interwebs, Part 3: Amazon mp3

Returning to my reviews of online music sources, let me say a few words about Amazon mp3. This source has two advantages over iTunes: it's slightly cheaper (by about 10 cents per track, $1 or more per album) and ALL of the files are high bit-rate mp3s. Those are both big reasons to shop Amazon.

In terms of the catalog of available music, it seems to be mostly the same as iTunes. Lots of the same obscure tracks are available through both, and I have yet to find a track on one but not the other. (Of course, sometimes neither source has what I need...)

The integrated search engine is good (it's integrated with the rest of Amazon), but the browsing interface is less than stellar. iTunes still has the edge there. My only other complaint with Amazon is that there are very few reviews integrated in with the browsing interface. Not that I even put much stock in them, but it is nice to have something to read if you've stumbled across a new artist.

Fizz setlist 12/08/2008

This was the late set from last night, starting around 11:00 p.m. Honestly I was kind of phoning this one in--we had so much trouble with the sound last night, I was focused on trying to get that sorted out. (Thanks again for your help, Luke.)

1. Yes Indeed - Slam Stewart - Slamboree - 3:35
2. I Ain't Got Nobody (Graham-Peyton-Williams) - Ruby Braff & Ralph Sutton - For Dancers Only! (A Lindy Hop Compilation) - 3:52
3. San Francisco Bay Blues - Lu Watters' Yerba Buena Jazz Band - Blues Over Bodega - 3:41
4. Everything Is Jumpin' - Artie Shaw - The Very Best Of Artie Shaw - 5:09
5. Hop, Skip And Jump - Engelbert Wroebel's Swing Society - Sophisticated Swing - 3:47
6. All Of Me - Helen O'Connell - Great Girl Singers, Sing 22 Original Hits - 2:09
7. Okay for Baby - Jimmie Lunceford - For Dancers Only - 3:13
8. Smooth Sailing - Ella Fitzgerald - Bluella: Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Blues - 3:08
9. Hesitation Blues - Dave Van Ronk - The Two Sides Of Dave Van Ronk - 3:32
10. Cole Slaw - Louis Jordan - Louis Jordan And His Tympani Five, Volume 1 - 2:44
11. Buzz-Buzz-Buzz - Jimmie Lunceford - Jimmie Lunceford - 2:27
12. Evenin' ['36] - Jimmy Rushing - Count Basie - America's #1 Band - 2:56
13. Rhythm Itch - Jonathan Stout and his Campus Five, featuring Hilary Alexander - Moppin' and Boppin' - 3:11
14. At Long Last Love - Bill Henderson - Bill Henderson With the Oscar Peterson Trio - 2:30
15. Fibre de verre - Paris Combo - Attraction - 3:39
16. Gotta Be This Or That - Benny Goodman - Benny Goodman '45 & '47 - 3:10
17. Le Jazz Hot - Jimmie Lunceford - Jimmie Lunceford - 2:44
18. Ridin' And Jivin' - Earl Hines - Rosetta - 2:39
19. Too Darn Hot - Ella Fitzgerald - Mack The Knife: The Complete Ella In Berlin (Live) - 3:16
20. Viper mad - Swing Parade South - Hommage à Sidney Bechet - 4:30
21. Gang Busters - Cats & The Fiddle - We Cats Will Swing For You - 3:06
22. Hello, Dolly! - Louis Armstrong - Ken Burns Jazz - 2:24
23. Hold It Right There - Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson - Redux - 5:27
24. Let The Good Times Roll - Helen Humes - Let The Good Times Roll - 3:02
25. Blues for Stephanie - Paul Tillotson the Love Trio - Lindy Hop Blues - 4:29
26. Ja-Da - The Famous Castle Jazz Band - The Five Pennies - 3:07
27. Grabtown Grapple - Artie Shaw - 1944-45 - 3:00
28. You Talk a Little Trash - Jonathan Stout and his Campus Five - Crazy Rhythm - 3:55
29. All Of Me - Twin Cities Hot Club - Twin Cities Hot Club - 4:10
30. Sleepy Head - Firecracker Jazz Band - Firecracker Jazz Band Explodes - 5:29
31. My Old Daddy's Got a Brand New Way to Love - Catherine Russell - Sentimental Streak - 3:20
32. Honeysuckle Rose - Django Reinhardt - The Swing Sessions Volume 1 - 2:49
33. Fiddle Dee Dee - Lionel Hampton - Lionel Hampton Story 1: Hot Mallets - 2:39

Set list from First Friday at Big City Swing

The dance at Big City Swing last Friday was really fun and really crowded. It was an interesting mix of people--lots of folks came for the beginner lesson and then stuck around for quite a while (which is great--I get the impression that often those people stick around for half an hour and then disappear) and a bunch of scene regulars. And some of our favorite out-of-towners, which was a treat. My set ran from about 8:45 to 12:15ish, and we had to kick people out at the end. It's always a good feeling when you finish to a full house, instead of the crowd thinning out towards the end of the night. Leave 'em wanting more, right?

1. Mood Hollywood - Don Neely's Royal Society Jazz Orchestra - Radio Rhythm - 3:31 - 170
   
2. Honey Pie - Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers - Everybody's Talkin' 'Bout Miss Thing! - 4:10 - 150
3. Apollo Jump - Lucky Millinder - Classic Big Band Jazz - 3:26 - 145
4. Gotta Be This Or That - Benny Goodman - Benny Goodman '45 & '47 - 3:10 - 140
5. Bli Blip - Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis - Live In Swing City: Swingin' With Duke - 3:16 - 135
6. When I Grow Too Old To Dream - Della Reese - Song Book, Vol. 3 - 2:35 - 145
7. Flat Foot Floogee - Ray Bryant - Swing Dance Special - 2:42 - 160
8. Easy Does It - Paul Tillotson the Love Trio - Lindy Hop Blues - 2:57 - 130
9. Okay for Baby - Jimmie Lunceford - For Dancers Only - 3:13 - 145
10. Goody, Goody - Ella Fitzgerald - Something To Live For - 2:31 - 150
11. I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket - The Boilermaker Jazz Band - Give Me Your Telephone Number - 3:59 - 160
12. Route 66 - Linda Hopkins - Wild Women Blues - 3:05 - 160
13. They Raided The Joint - Helen Humes - Let The Good Times Roll - 3:19 - 160
14. Ridin' And Jivin' - Earl Hines - Rosetta - 2:39 - 155
15. Hoodle-Addle - Ray McKinley Orchestra - You Came A Long Way From St. Louis - 3:21 - 140
16. Yes Indeed - Slam Stewart - Slamboree - 3:35 - 150
17. I'm Crazy 'Bout My Baby - Louis Armstrong - Satch Plays Fats (Remaster) - 4:41 - 160
18. We Cats Will Swing For You - Cats & The Fiddle - We Cats Will Swing For You - 2:42 - 175
19. Sugarfoot Rag - Ella Fitzgerald - Ella Fitzgerald Story Vol. 2 - 3:06 - 190
20. San Francisco Bay Blues - Lu Watters' Yerba Buena Jazz Band - Blues Over Bodega - 3:41 - 160
21. Madame Dynamite - Eddie Condon - Let's Swing It - 2:55 - 185
22. Snake Hips - Mills Blue Rhythm Band - Jazz Age! - 2:59 - 215
23. Papa What Are You Trying To Do To Me - Randy Sandke - The Re-Discovered Louis & Bix - 3:49 - 200
24. Four Or Five Times - Jimmie Lunceford - Jimmie Lunceford - 3:12 - 135
25. Chicken Ain't Nothin' But A Bird - Cab Calloway - Are You Hep To The Jive? - 2:53 - 160
26. I Sent For You Yesterday And Here You Come Today - Benny Goodman - Benny Goodman - 3:09 - 160
27. All Of Me - Helen O'Connell - Great Girl Singers, Sing 22 Original Hits - 2:09 - 145
28. Ain't No Flies On Me - Roy Eldridge - Little Jazz Giant - 3:15 - 120
29. Shine On Harvest Moon - Pete Fountain - Dixieland's Kings - 2:50 - 160
30. Yacht Club Swing - Fats Waller - Yacht Club Swing 1938 - 3:51 - 162
31. Tain't What You Do - Jimmie Lunceford - Jimmie Lunceford - 3:06 - 160
32. For Dancers Only - Jimmie Lunceford - Jimmie Lunceford - 2:41 - 152
33. Keepin' Out A Mishif Now - Carling Family - 20th Jubilee - 3:32 - 122
34. It's De-Lovely - The Boilermaker Jazz Band - Give Me Your Telephone Number - 4:04 - 152
35. Everything Is Jumpin' - Artie Shaw - The Very Best Of Artie Shaw - 5:09 - 165
36. Lindyhopper's Delight - Chick Webb - Strictly Jive - 2:45 - 195
37. Rose Room - Artie Shaw - Artie Shaw, King Of The Clarinet - 2:43 - 155
38. Who Walks In When I Walk Out? with Ella Fitzgerald - Louis Armstrong - The Wonderful Duets - 2:21 - 135
39. Sugar Blues - Clarence Williams - Boogie Woogie Blues - 3:40 - 135
40. Sermonette - Earl Grant - Singin' & Swingin': The Best Of Earl Grant - 2:42 - 125
41. Love Me or Leave Me - Peggy Lee - Black Coffee - 2:10 - 135
42. My Baby Likes To Be-Bop - Ella Fitzgerald - Swingin' Ella - 2:45 - 140
43. Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives To Me - Sidney Bechet - The Fabulous Sidney Bechet - 5:43 - 145
44. I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate - Muggsy Spanier - Vintage Jazz Volume 8 - 2:54 - 155
45. Shout, Sister, Shout! - Sister Rosetta Tharpe - The Gospel of the Blues - 2:41 - 145
46. Vine Street Boogie - Jay McShann - Jumpin' The Blues - 2:37 - 155
47. I Don't Care Who Knows - Catherine Russell - Sentimental Streak - 3:18 - 125
48. I Ain't Goin' To Cry Anymore - Dinah Washington - Mixed Emotions - 2:40 - 135
49. Hop, Skip And Jump - Engelbert Wroebel's Swing Society - Sophisticated Swing - 3:47 - 175
50. All The Cats Join In - Jessica Molaskey - A Good Day - 4:15 - 125
51. Fever - Kenny Burrell & Jimmy Smith - Blue Bash! - 5:36 - 115
52. Just One Of Those Things - Ella Fitzgerald - Mack The Knife: The Complete Ella In Berlin (Live) - 3:53 - 135
53. Honeysuckle Rose - Twin Cities Hot Club - Twin Cities Hot Club - 4:47 - 140
54. My Blue Heaven - Stuff Smith Quartet - Swingin' Stuff - 3:46 - 160
55. As Long As I Live - Ernestine Anderson - Never Make Your Move Too Soon - 4:40 - 130
56. Ain't Doin' Too Bad - Bobby "Blue" Bland - The Bobby "Blue" Bland Anthology (Disc 1) - 2:42 - 110
57. Hesitation Blues - Dave Van Ronk - The Two Sides Of Dave Van Ronk - 3:32 - 115
58. All That Jazz - Banu Gibson - Vintage Banu - 2:55 - 110
59. Viper mad - Swing Parade South - Hommage a Sidney Bechet - 4:30 - 175

Music via the interwebs, Part 2: One more thought on EMusic

One more thought about EMusic, specifically using EMusic to build a music collection for DJing. This is an avuncular scolding for would-be DJs out there, maybe with a dash of "do what I say, not what I do" thrown in.

So as I said in my earlier post, EMusic is a good way to ramp up a collection if you are just starting out or looking to see what the view is like from behind the DJ table. And it's also a good way to branch out and discover new music.

BUT....

I think it is a bad idea to be an exclusively EMusic DJ, especially if you are using the (less than stellar) social recommendation aspects of EMusic. If you do, you're going to end up with exactly the same collection as all the other DJs that use it and we would all start to sound homogeneous and boring. It's lesson one of Web 2.0: crowd-sourcing can easily breed group-think.

On its own, EMusic is not a very good tool for learning about music. Sure it is a source for music, but without other resources to learn about musicians and jazz, it's not a good way to actually learn. You can easily blow hours browsing around at random, listening to hundreds of 20 second clips, and not gain anything by it. But if you have some other way of learning about musicians, bands, composers, jazz culture, that sort of thing, then EMusic is a useful tool to have access to.

What are those other ways of learning? Friends, books, maybe the Internet (Swing DJs, Pandora), and of course cd/LP liner notes.

Friday is First Friday

This Friday, 8:45 to Midnight, is the First Friday dance at Big City Swing. I'm DJing for the evening. Thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor, admission is FREE.