Here's my setlist from Fizz last night, the BPM sparkline and frequency distribution. The first three are from when I was trading off with my friend Chris, who had the first set.

1. Frankie And Johnny - The Palmetto Bug Stompers - Live @ D.B.A. - 4:28 - 160
2. Big Mamou - The Mighty Blue Kings - Meet Me In Uptown - 3:31 - 125
3. Sure, Had A Wonderful Time - Louis Jordan - Louis Jordan And His Tympani Five, Volume 1 - 3:00 - 135 (The Chris played 3 songs.)
4. Collier's Clambake - Edmond Hall - Edmond Hall Blues - 2:35 - 215
5. My Baby's Sweet - Stompy Jones - The Swing Session - 3:08 - 155 (Graduation dance for Swing I class.)
6. Soul Swinga Nova (Soul Bossa Nova) - Paul Tillotson the Love Trio - Lindy Hop Blues - 2:54 - 135 (Birthday/going-away jam. Following this, Chris played Jumpin' at the Woodside and folks jammed to celebrate Frankie Manning's birthday.)
   
7. Yacht Club Swing - Echoes of Swing - Harlem Joys - 3:19 - 160
8. Did I Remember - Stephanie Nakasian - Billie Remembered: The Classic Songs Of Billie Holiday - 3:03 - 140
9. Just Because You Can - Catherine Russell - Inside This Heart of Mine - 4:09 - 130
10. Cool Kind Of Poppa - Mildred Anderson - Person To Person - 2:57 - 140
11. Flat Foot Floogee - Ray Bryant - Swing Dance Special - 2:42 - 160
12. Georgia Cake Walk - Eddie Condon - We Called It Music - 3:06 - 165
13. Perdido Street Blues - Louis Armstrong - The Complete Decca Studio Master Takes 1940-1949 - 3:08 - 145
14. Sweet Sue - Svend Asmussen - Musical Miracle Vol. 1: 1935-40 - 2:55 - 185
15. Ain't Misbehavin' - Benny Goodman - Benny Goodman et son orchestre: 1945 Vol.2 - 2:47 - 120
16. On The Sunny Side of the Street - Benny Goodman - The Yale University Archives, Volume 3: Big Band In Europe - 3:11 - 135
17. Ain't Misbehavin' - Kermit Ruffins - Putumayo Presents: Kermit Ruffins - 4:36 - 140
18. All Of Me - Frank Sinatra - The Essential Frank Sinatra (The Columbia Years) - 2:40 - 130
19. Little Jazz - Roy Eldridge - Little Jazz Giant - 3:06 - 140
20. My Blue Heaven - Artie Shaw - The Very Best Of Artie Shaw - 3:47 - 164
21. I'm Not Evil - Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers - Miss Smith To You! - 3:23 - 125
22. Summertime - Hep Chaps - Swingin' On Nothing - 4:01 - 135
23. It's Love Baby (Twenty Four Hours A Day) - Janiva Magness Band - My Bad Luck Soul - 3:47 - 90
24. Billie's Blues - Billie Holiday - Blue Billie - 2:40 - 120
25. Dallas Blues - Graeme Bell & His Australian Jazz Band - The Historical Prague & Paris Recordings, 1947-48 - 3:08 - 135
26. Old Mother Hubbard - Ella Fitzgerald - Swingin' Ella - 2:44 - 145
27. Come On Over To My House - Jay McShann - Jumpin' The Blues - 2:52 - 145
28. I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water - Nicolas Bearde - Live At Yoshi's - a Salute to Lou - 4:16 - 125
29. Somebody Loves Me - Stuff Smith - Cat On A Hot Fiddle - 3:42 - 150
30. Put A Lid On It - Davina & The Vagabonds - Live @ The Times - 3:13 - 170
31. Fidgety Feet - Lu Watters' Yerba Buena Jazz Band - Lu Watters' Yerba Buena Jazz Band - 3:26 - 195
32. How'm I Doin', Hey-Hey - The Mills Brothers - The Mills Brothers: Chronological Vol. 2 - 2:16 - 210
33. I Love The Life I Live - Royal Crown Revue - Mugzy's Move - 3:37 - 115
34. Love - Davina & The Vagabonds - Live @ The Times - 4:46 - 135
35. When I Grow Too Old To Dream - Della Reese - Song Book, Vol. 3 - 2:35 - 145
36. Old Joe's Hittin' The Jug - Stuff Smith - Stuff Smith: 1936-1939 - 2:45 - 250
37. Lawd, Lawd - Cecil Scott & His Bright Boys - Harlem Big Bands - 3:13 - 215
38. Blitzkrieg Baby (You Can't Bomb Me) - Count Basie Sidemen - Away From Base With Glenn, Una Mae & Sam 1939/41 - 3:21 - 130

Judgement

Three qualities that DJs should strive for: flow, range, judgement.

Judgement is the ability to evaluate how others will perceive the music you play. When you try to flow from Kid Ory to the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, will that transition be perceived as smooth or jarring? When you try to broaden your range by playing both Charlie Barnet and Mills Blue Rhythm Band, will the tracks you pick be recognized as different and varied, or instead just be taken as "more scratchy old big band"?

Judgement can be particularly challenging for DJs because on the whole they have more knowledge, more developed taste, and more specific interests than their audience. They hear the difference between a 1929 Jabbo Smith recording and a 1937 Louis Armstrong track. They appreciate a track because of the great Coleman Hawkins solo in the middle of it, whereas most of the people dancing probably didn't even notice that it was a saxophone. And oftentimes, a DJ's taste in music extends far beyond the subset that is good for swing dancing. Judgement involves moderating one's own passions and understanding the tastes of your audience. It is an exercise in musical empathy.

Range

Three qualities that DJs should strive for: flow, range, judgement.

Range is the ability to offer a variety of musical styles and sounds over the course of a set, similar to an actor who can play a wide range of characters. A DJ with range can offer different sounds during the course of an evening of dancing: big bands, groovy piano trios, vocals, instrumentals, New Orleans style, Chicago style, Harlem style, between 100 and 230 beats per minute, anything from Duke Ellington and Count Basie to Sam Cooke and Lou Rawls, Jumpin' at the Woodside to Wade in the Water. Not that all those styles would be hit in the course of a given evening, but a good DJ has the ability to go there if it is called for. And over the course of an hour set, he mixes up the style, tempo, and feel several times.

Range is particularly important at regular scene venues (as oppose to themed dances--if it's a 1920's Prohibition Party, then obviously you need to stick to that--and sometimes weekend events, where DJs sometimes get hired because they specialize in a particular style). At your regular event, range helps a DJ negotiate one of the great challenges of the job: varied taste. At many dances, there will be dancers who only know 6-count swing and dancers who want to swing-the-f-out, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy fans and Mouldy Figs, folks who want to balboa and folks who don't want to dance to anything faster than Shiny Stockings. You can't satisfy all of them. But you can try to entertain them all by playing a couple of songs that really fit with what one crowd wants, and then moving (flowing!) into a different taste range, and then giving a nod to the balboa crowd, and then making your way back to that first group again.

I should also add, varied taste applies not just across cliques of people, but within individuals as well. Most people get bored easily. They don't know enough balboa to do it all night, they don't have enough energy or spare t-shirts to charleston for two hours straight, they've memorized all the breaks on Gene Harris's Best of the Concord Years, and there are only so many ways they can think of to hit 1 and 4. So playing a range of music will keep them interested, challenged, and feeling like their dancing is fresh and fun, even if they only know 4 moves.

Flow

Three qualities that DJs should strive for: flow, range, judgement.

Flow (in DJing, not psychology) is the ability to smooth the transitions from one song to another. Rather than making big jumps in tempo, style, recording quality, or feel, a DJ who flows chooses songs that resemble each other enough so that dancers don't look up and make confused faces or shoot dirty looks at him. Instead, the songs should make sense one after the other--they should sound like they go together. I think pop radio DJs aim for something similar (to the extent that they are humans rather than computers), and club DJs take flow to the extreme, mixing one track into the next to create a seamless transition with no dead time.

Chicago DJs generally take the concept of flow very seriously. One of them once put it to me that the difference between a DJ and someone who "just presses play" is that the DJ flows. (I would add to that: a DJ also has range and judgement.)

Flow, Range, Judgement (The Tao of DJing?)

Three qualities that DJs should strive for: flow, range, judgement.

Range and flow are yin and yang. A DJ with range but not flow is disconcerting. A DJ with flow but not range is monotonous.

Judgement is necessary to have range and flow. Without judgement, a DJ who thinks he has range may not have range. Without judgement, a DJ trying to flow may not be moving at all.

Coming up, I'll explain each of these a bit more.

Stephanie Nakasian

I just stumbled across a new album by the vocalist Stephanie Nakasian, called Billie Remembered: The Classic Songs Of Billie Holiday. Ms. Nakasian sings this material in a style that is readily identifiable with, and pays tribute to, Billie Holiday, but she does so without dropping into caricature or mere imitation.

But what really caught my attention about this album was the backing combo,which includes Randy Sandke on trumpet, Marty Gross on guitar, and Ms. Nakasian's husband Hod O'Brien on piano. I'm a big Randy Sandke fan--he can really do no wrong in my book. And Marty Gross's solid rhythm guitar work is nice and prominent in the mix. It gives the tunes a nice steady chunk-chunk-chunk-chunk that makes for easy dancing, especially for newer dancers that are still working on keeping on beat. Overall, the combo has a loose, jam-session feel that is pretty unusual to hear on jazz albums these days.

One last note for DJs: the album includes a good range of tempos, from 85 to 250 bpm, but over half the album is at comfortable lindy-hop pace. I could see myself relying on several of the tracks as go-to floor-fillers when I'm DJing.

First Friday at Big City Swing 5/7/2010

Whew. Last night at Big City Swing was FUN. Lots of beginners, lots of seasoned dancers, some out-of-town friends, and weather that wasn't too hot. (And some generous folks who had BYOB'ed.) FUN! I'll leave it at that.

My friend Bob played the first set downstairs, until about 10:30. Here's what I played from 10:30 to about 12:15 a.m. (Here's the BPM sparkline and frequency distribution.)

1. Papa What Are You Trying To Do To Me I've Been Doing It For Myself - Randy Sandke - The Re-Discovered Louis & Bix - 3:49 - 200 (I'd had a request for a charleston number.)
2. I'm Alone Because I Love You - The Palmetto Bug Stompers - Live @ D.B.A. - 3:29 - 150
3. Ballin' The Jack - Kid Ory's Creole Jazz Band - This Kid's The Greatest! - 3:15 - 145
4. One Monkey Don't Stop No Show - Big Maybelle - The Okeh Rhythm & Blues Story 1949-1957 - 2:50 - 125 (I wanted to do a long build starting with the next tune, using classic big band. Lavay provided a transition to that sort of sound.)
5. Miss Brown To You - Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers - Miss Smith To You! - 2:58 - 130
6. Little Jazz - Roy Eldridge - Little Jazz Giant - 3:06 - 140
7. Ridin' And Jivin' - Earl Hines - Rosetta - 2:39 - 155
8. Sent For You Yesterday - Count Basie - The Complete Decca Recordings - 2:58 - 165
9. Posin' - Jimmie Lunceford - Jukebox Hits 1935-1947 - 3:01 - 190 (Peak of the build, but this song has more of a relaxed playful energy to it, rather than driving or big. I wanted to go out big, so I backed off the tempo a bit...)
10. Jump Session - Slim Gaillard - 1938-1939 - 2:35 - 160 (Then bumped it back up with something more energetic.)
11. Minor Swing - The Boilermaker Jazz Band - Give Me Your Telephone Number - 3:41 - 195
12. No Regrets - Stephanie Nakasian - Billie Remembered: The Classic Songs Of Billie Holiday - 2:52 - 130
13. Don't Be That Way - Lionel Hampton - Lionel Hampton Story 1: Hot Mallets - 2:35 - 132
14. As Long As I Live - Catherine Russell - Inside This Heart of Mine - 3:33 - 120
15. Easy Does It - Paul Tillotson the Love Trio - Lindy Hop Blues - 2:57 - 130
16. Bizet Has His Day - The Solomon Douglas Swingtet - Ain't No School Like the Old School - 3:43 - 155 (This is a really cool recording off Solomon's latest album, which is due out soon.)
17. Solid As A Rock - Count Basie - Count Basie Et Son Orchestre 1950-1951 - 3:03 - 135
18. The Back Room Romp - Duke Ellington - The Duke's Men: The Small Groups, Vol. 1 - 2:49 - 150
19. Buzz-Buzz-Buzz - Jimmie Lunceford - Jimmie Lunceford - 2:27 - 160
20. Gettin' In The Groove - Al Cooper's Savoy Sultans - Al Cooper's Savoy Sultan: 1938-1941 - 2:58 - 140 (I played the wrong version of this tune--I meant to play the Panama Francis version, recorded 35 years after this one, and much less scratchy.)
21. Summit Ridge Drive - Artie Shaw - His First Three Bands: 1936-1940 - 3:19 - 125
22. Smile - Asylum Street Spankers - My Favorite Record - 3:54 - 140 (Novelty music, but the room seemed ready for it.)
23. It's Love Baby (24 Hours a Day) - Erbie Bowser, T.D. Bell, and the Blues Specialists - Down Home Saturday Night - 4:13 - 125 (There were audible shrieks of delight when I played this tune. Not kidding.)
24. You Can Have My Husband - Koko Taylor - The Earthshaker - 2:47 - 130
25. Put A Lid On It - Squirrel Nut Zippers - Hot - 2:39 - 198
26. My Blue Heaven - Preservation Hall Jazz Band - Songs of New Orleans - 5:21 - 148
27. Yacht Club Swing - Echoes of Swing - Harlem Joys - 3:19 - 160
28. Life Begins When You're In Love - Billie Holiday - Lady Day: The Master Takes And Singles - 3:02 - 180 (This was going to be my last official song of the night, since it was midnight. I kept going, but took license to play whatever the heck I wanted to.)
29. Callin' Your Bluff - Mills Blue Rhythm Band - Mills Blue Rhythm Band: 1933-1936 - 3:00 - 190
30. Rockin' In Rhythm - Duke Ellington - Early Ellington: The Complete Brunswick and Vocalion Recordings, 1926-1931 - 3:02 - 185
31. Beyond The Sea - Royal Crown Revue - Mugzy's Move - 3:48 - 125 (Throwback tune, I thought the folks that were still there would enjoy it.)
32. T'Ain't No Use - Stuff Smith - Time And Again - 3:34 - 107 (My friend Carlos turned me on to this one.)
33. Chant Of The Groove - Fats Waller - Fats Waller 1941 - 3:05 - 185