Set list from First Friday at Big City 2/6/2009

Last night Big City Swing was PACKED full of dancers. After the intro lesson, Nathan deejayed until about 10:15, then I took over and went until about 12:15. The crowd thinned out a bit after 11:00, but it stayed hopping 'til the end. Couple things I wondered about:

• Looking at the tempo distribution from last night, and from the past couple times I've deejayed, I always seem to have a spike at 135-145 bpm. Last night looks kind of like a Poisson distribution, except for the lack of songs between 145 and 155--I think that's a hole in my collection that I should work on filling. My ideal set is really more of a uniform distribution between 130 and 200, then tapering off at each end, but of course that doesn't account for the crowd in the room at all. Last night was a mix of beginners, experienced dancers who like it old school, and experienced dancers who like things groovier, and I think my set reflects that.
  
• At one point, a jam seemed to break out midway through a song. I was on the fence about pushing it over into the next track, decided not to at the last minute. Good call or not?
• I always play a shim-sham at Big City--I usually get a request for T'ain't What You Do, so last night I anticipated and played it before a request (or in spite of not getting one). Is the shim-sham a good community builder, or divisive? Opinion in Chicago seems to be mixed. If you were a beginner, what would you think?
  
• If you listened to Hey Mr. Jesse this month, you may notice that I listened to it as well.
  

Here's the set:

1. Hep Cat's Love Song - Cab Calloway - Are You Hep To The Jive? - 3:03 - 160
2. It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing) - Lionel Hampton - Hot Mallets - 3:15 - 180
3. Jeep Jockey Jump - Glenn Miller - Inspirational Swing! - 2:13 - 200
4. Okay for Baby - Jimmie Lunceford - For Dancers Only - 3:13 - 145
5. Hey, Ba-Ba-Re-Bop - Lionel Hampton - Lionel Hampton Story 3: Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop - 3:21 - 140
6. Everybody Loves My Baby - Sippie Wallace - Sippie - 3:11 - 145
7. Shine On Harvest Moon - Pete Fountain - Dixieland's Kings - 2:50 - 160
8. Let's Misbehave - The Boilermaker Jazz Band - You Do Something To Me - 2:52 - 188 (This was when the jam started. I thought about bumping things up to about 215 bpm to see what would happen, but decided not to.)
   
9. Jump Steady - Mora's Modern Swingtet - 20th Century Closet - 2:39 - 170
10. (I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My) Sister Kate - Bill Coleman - Bill Coleman In Paris 1936-1938 - 2:51 - 180
11. All Right, Okay, You Win - Count Basie - Count Basie at Newport - 2:45 - 145
12. My Blue Heaven - Bob Wilber & Kenny Davern - For Dancers Only! - 4:00 - 134
13. Keepin' Out Of Mischief Now - Louis Armstrong - Satch Plays Fats - 3:21 - 130
14. Tain't What You Do - Jimmie Lunceford - Jimmie Lunceford - 3:06 - 160
15. On Revival Day - Lavern Baker - LaVern Sings Bessie Smith - 3:16 - 143
16. Savoy Blues - Kenny Ball And His Jazzmen - Trad Jazz Masters - 3:53 - 135
17. Buzz-Buzz-Buzz - Jimmie Lunceford - Jimmie Lunceford - 2:27 - 160
18. My Baby Likes To Be-Bop - Ella Fitzgerald - Swingin' Ella - 2:45 - 139
19. Shoot the Sherbert to Me, Herbert - Tommy Dorsey - Historic Jazz Recordings, Volume 4 - 3:24 - 145 (This one was from Hey Mr. Jesse. I played it because I knew my friend Jason would like it--he's been diggin' on corny old Chicago jazz lately.)
    
20. The Flat Foot Floogie - Slim Gaillard - 1938-46 - 2:50 - 175
21. San Francisco Bay Blues - Lu Watters' Yerba Buena Jazz Band - Blues Over Bodega - 3:41 - 160
22. Easy Does It - Paul Tillotson the Love Trio - Lindy Hop Blues - 2:57 - 130
23. Ain't Misbehavin' - Kermit Ruffins - Putumayo Presents: Kermit Ruffins - 4:36 - 140
24. I Know - Ruth Brown - Rockin' In Rhythm - Best Of - 2:49 - 125
25. On the Sunny Side of the Street - Dizzy Gillespie - The Champ - 3:09 - 137
26. My Blue Heaven - Stuff Smith Quartet - Swingin' Stuff - 3:46 - 160
27. I'se Muggin' - Django Reinhardt - Django Reinhardt 1: Swing Guitars - 3:07 - 170
28. Splanky - Benny Goodman - The Yale University Music Library, Volume 7: Florida Session - 5:12 - 132 (Yet another Hey Mr. Jesse pick.)
    
29. Ain't Misbehavin' - Sidney Bechet - Perdido Street Blues - 2:52 - 145
30. The Back Room Romp - Duke Ellington - The Duke's Men: The Small Groups, Vol. 1 - 2:49 - 150
31. Harlem Air Shaft - Duke Ellington - Piano In the Background - 4:03 - 170
32. Just A Sittin' And A Rockin' - Joe Williams - Havin' A Good Time - 4:21 - 120
33. I Gotta Right To Sing The Blues - Doc Cheatham & Nicholas Payton - Putumayo Presents: New Orleans - 3:20 - 120
34. Baby Don't You Tear My Clothes - The Harlem Hamfats - Harlem Hamfats Vol. 2 1936-1937 - 2:42 - 160
35. Wah-Dee-Dah - Cab Calloway - The Early Years 1930-1934 - 3:00 - 230 (This was meant to be scare-folks-off-so-they'd-go-home music. Didn't work though.)
    
36. Frankie and Johnnie - The Ink Spots - Voice Masters Vol. 2 - 2:56 - 130
    (After this Jenna took over with her latest jam from Common...)