Fizz 9/13/2010

I had the early set at Fizz last night. I felt like I was kind of all over the place, but in the end I was reasonably happy with this set. I played a couple of streaks--several songs in a row by the same artist, but with a variety of feels. I ended up playing 4 (!) Ellington tracks, which is unusual for me. My friend John (affectionately known as DJ Puppy) was in the booth with me, watching over my shoulder and suggesting tracks. Some of the picks below are his.

Here's the BPM sparkline and frequency distribution (a long-tailed distribution for once! nice and symmetric too), and here's the run-down:

1. I Don't Care Who Knows - Catherine Russell - Sentimental Streak - 3:18 - 125
2. Pick-a-Rib - The Bob Wilber & Dany Doritz Quintet - Memories of you : Lionel and Benny - 3:03 - 155
3. Stuffy - Jonathan Stout & His Campus Five - Jammin' the Blues - 3:46 - 150
4. Savoy Blues - Duke Heitger - Duke Heitger's "Krazy Kapers" - 4:11 - 100
5. Did I Remember - Stephanie Nakasian - Billie Remembered: The Classic Songs Of Billie Holiday - 3:03 - 140
6. My Blue Heaven - Django Reinhardt - Django In Rome, 1949 /1950 (Disc B) - 3:32 - 185 (For all the bal dancers)
7. Empty Glass - Lionel Hampton - Lionel Hampton Story 3: Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop - 3:07 - 140
8. The Back Room Romp - Duke Ellington - The Duke's Men: The Small Groups, Vol. 1 - 2:49 - 150
9. Ain't Misbehavin' - Kermit Ruffins - Putumayo Presents: Kermit Ruffins - 4:36 - 140
10. If You're A Viper - Helen Humes - Deed I Do - 3:41 - 100 (For Dan)
11. Little Jazz - Roy Eldridge - Little Jazz Giant - 3:06 - 140
12. Hey, Ba-Ba-Re-Bop - Lionel Hampton - Lionel Hampton Story 3: Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop - 3:21 - 140
13. Betcha Nickel - Ella Fitzgerald - My Heart Belongs to Daddy - 2:51 - 160
14. Mood Hollywood - Don Neely's Royal Society Jazz Orchestra - Radio Rhythm - 3:31 - 170
15. Blue Lou - Benny Goodman - B.G. In Hi-Fi - 2:51 - 195
16. Ballin' The Jack - Kid Ory - This Kid's The Greatest! - 3:15 - 145
17. My Blue Heaven - Preservation Hall Jazz Band - Songs of New Orleans - 5:21 - 148 (Played this tune twice--whoops! Different feels though.)
18. Bli-Blip - Duke Ellington - The Blanton-Webster Band - 3:09 - 150
19. Harlem Air Shaft - Duke Ellington - Piano In the Background - 4:03 - 170 (I was on the fence about going one more with Ellington--it would have been Main Stem, which is a kick-ass track but a challenge for most dancers. Opted for Glenn Miller instead. Sigh.)
20. Jeep Jockey Jump - Glenn Miller - Inspirational Swing! - 2:13 - 200
21. Apollo Jump - Lucky Millinder - Classic Big Band Jazz - 3:26 - 145
22. Hey Sweet Potato - Buddy Johnson & His Orchestra - The Best of Buddy's - 2:43 - 130
23. Wailing Interval - Duke Ellington - The Private Collection: Volume Six, Dance Dates, California, - 3:39 - 160 (Puppy's suggestion.)
24. Boogie Woogie (I May Be Wrong) - Count Basie - The Complete Decca Recordings - 2:50 - 172
25. Behave Yourself - Benny Goodman - Benny Goodman - Small Group Recordings Vol. 3/2 (CD 06) - 3:00 - 135
26. Vibraphone Blues - Benny Goodman - Benny Goodman - 3:23 - 85
27. Georgia Grind - Louis Armstrong - Satchmo: A Musical Autobiography Disc 1 - 3:19 - 115 (Another Puppy pick.)
28. Do Your Duty - Tuba Skinny - Tuba Skinny - 3:46 - 120 (For Bob B.)
29. Bring It On Down - The Baby Soda Jazz Band - Cures Everything But The Blues - 2:34 - 175
30. Forty Days & Forty Nights - The Blue Vipers of Brooklyn - Forty Days and Forty Nights - 2:51 - 215
31. Short Dressed Gal - Preservation Hall Jazz Band - New Orleans Preservation, Vol. 1 - 2:38 - 160 (More Preservation Hall, I know. These guys are so good though.)
32. Goodnight Moon - Shivaree - I Oughtta Give You a Shot in the Head for Making Me Live in This Dump - 4:03 - 115 (This one was for a birthday jam, by request. I usually wouldn't play this, because it's both too long for a birthday jam and also it's not swing music, not even remotely. The birthday dude's friends pleaded with me to play it, and since there weren't any other birthdays that I knew of, I conceded.)
33. Fibre de verre - Paris Combo - Attraction - 3:39 - 135 (Trying to follow up the feel of the last track, but bring it back towards jazz.)
34. Soul Swinga Nova - Paul Tillotson the Love Trio - Lindy Hop Blues - 2:54 - 135 (Evidently I should be burned at the stake for playing this tune. Everybody's a critic.)
35. Fiddle Dee Dee - Lionel Hampton - Lionel Hampton Story 1: Hot Mallets - 2:39 - 195 (For Thea.)

Madison Invasion

This past weekend I was up in Madison for their Jumptown Invasion. Saturday night's dance featured Patty and the Buttons, an amazing combo from Minneapolis, MN. They are incredibly talented, rather sardonic, very tuned in to making dance music, and have great taste in music. I danced pretty much the entire time they played, then had to take a break and play music between their sets. Here's what I played during the first short break:

1. Four Or Five Times - Kid Ory - This Kid's The Greatest! - 3:14 - 142
2. Stuffy - Jonathan Stout & His Campus Five - Jammin' the Blues - 3:46 - 150
3. If You're A Viper - Helen Humes - Deed I Do - 3:41 - 100
4. A Smo-o-oth One - Benny Goodman - Benny Goodman - 3:16 - 130
5. One O'Clock Jump - Delta Rhythm Boys - The Best Of 1940-50 - 2:40 - 180

During the second break we had a little jack & jill contest. Here's the tracks I picked out for the contest. They were supposed to be medium, slow, and fast tempo. The second track isn't all that slow but it is groovier. The third track isn't all that fast--I picked it at the last second (as the slow track was playing) because I thought it would be better to play something comfortable for the dancers in the contest than to make them all sweat too much.

1. My Baby Likes To Be-Bop - Ella Fitzgerald - Swingin' Ella - 2:45 - 139
2. I Don't Care Who Knows - Catherine Russell - Sentimental Streak - 3:18 - 125
3. You Talk a Little Trash - Jonathan Stout & His Campus Five - Crazy Rhythm - 3:55 - 170

Congrats to all the contestants! And thanks a bunch to Jumptown for having us out. We had a great time dancing with y'all.

BPM graphs

Someone asked about how I make the BPM sparklines and frequency distributions that I post with each of my sets, so I thought I'd explain. It isn't a very elegant method: I export each setlist from my media player, copy it into Excel, and use a spreadsheet that I have set up to generate Google Chart API code. The code is embedded in the links I post, so the graph is generated when you click the link. To do this yourself, you need JRiver Media Center (or some other way of exporting setlists) and Excel.

1. Create a customized view in your J-River Media Center. Under View->Customize View, select the following Columns to show, in this order: Name, Artist, Album, Duration, BPM. Click on Preset, save this view as "Setlist Export."
2. Play a set, save it as a playlist. When viewing the playlist, select View->Customize View, then click on Preset and select "Setlist Export." Hit okay.
3. Select File->Export Playlist, choose "Text File, delimited" and include fields "Only Visible Fields." Remember where the file is going to be saved, then hit okay.
4. Download this excel file that I created, open it up, and select the tab called "set data."
5. Find the set list file you just saved, open it in a text editor. Select all, hit Ctrl-C to copy it, and paste it into cell A1 of the excel sheet. It should automatically open the Text-to-Columns dialogue box. Enter "|" as the delimiter, hit okay. Your set should now appear in columns C through G of this sheet.
6. Go to the "output" tab. Enter a title for your set into cell B1. Copy the contents of cell B4 and paste it into your internet browser. You should see a sparkline. Do the same with cell B5 to get the frequency distribution.
7. Exclaim something nerdy. "Neato!" or "Mwaaaaaaahhhahaha!" would be appropriate.
8. Go to column K of the tab "set data." Fill down to the end of your set, then copy-paste this into your blog entry to get the nicely formatted setlist.
9. Leave a comment to this post and let me know how it works. Also let me know if you have improvements or alternative methods that work better.

By the way, back when I was using a Mac, I had a series of AppleScripts that did all this stuff. It was a bit cleaner than using Excel.

Swing, IN 2010

This past weekend Jenna and I were at Swing, IN in Indianapolis to teach and to play music and to dance and dance and dance and dance. Many of my favorite people were all in the same place at the same time, which was an all- too-rare treat for me. (Plus I get some them again next weekend!)

The Saturday night dance featured the Boilermaker Jazz Band in very fine form--I'm not a huge fan of most sax solos, but Paul Cosentino effectively persuaded me otherwise that night. I played during the band breaks--both short, as you can tell from the lists below. Here's the music from just after the first set:

• Moten Swing - Barney Kessel - To Swing Or Not To Swing - 3:57 - 160
• I Love Jazz - Louis Armstrong - Louis Armstrong - 4:40 - 170
• My Blue Heaven - The Cangelosi Cards - Clinton Street Recordings, I - 4:11 - 145
• Daphne - Django Reinhardt - Django Reinhardt 3: Minor Swing - 3:03 - 210
• The Back Room Romp - Duke Ellington - The Duke's Men: The Small Groups, Vol. 1 - 2:49 - 150

And here's the tracks from after the second set (between the team comps and the strictly):

• Peckin' - Benny Goodman - Benny Goodman - 3:30 - 180
• Blue Drag - Earl Hines - Swingin' Down - 2:59 - 140
• He Ain't Got Rhythm (Jimmy Rushing, Vocals) - Benny Goodman - Benny Goodman - 2:49 - 155
• The Right Idea - Charlie Barnet & His Orchestra - Swing Street Strut - 3:13 - 185
• Mood Hollywood - Don Neely's Royal Society Jazz Orchestra - Radio Rhythm - 3:31 - 170

Sunday night brought us a dj'ed dance, featuring tunes picked by Jason Zabinski, Brian Tietz, and me. Jason's taste is impeccable (up to and including his choices for men's and women's deodorant), so of course I enjoyed his set. I'd never met Brian before but I was quite impressed by all of his sets. He opened the Friday late night and hit just the right note, keeping the music solidly swinging and energetic until the jack and jill finals. He read the room well on Sunday evening too. At one point he played an uptempo swing version of the Super Mario Brothers theme, and initially I was thinking, "really did he just go there?" but once I saw the reaction from the crowd (and the jam that broke out) I concede that it was a perfect call.

I played the last set of the evening dance on Sunday, and didn't think too hard about my picks. Mostly I was sorting my music by rating and picking all the tracks that I'd rated as 4 or 5 stars. Here's my set, along with BPM sparkline and frequency distribution:

1. Fiddle Dee Dee - Lionel Hampton - Lionel Hampton Story 1: Hot Mallets - 2:39 - 195 (I like using songs with unusual introductions as the first track of a set, especially if I'm picking up after announcements or something. It gives people a chance to find a dance partner, and hopefully catches their ear. This one has a mysterious introduction that lasts for about 45 seconds, and then it starts to swing like hell.)
2. Good Queen Bess - Johnny Hodges - Perfect Swing - 3:02 - 155
3. Ochi Chornya - Wingy Manone - Wingy Manone: 1940-1944 - 2:54 - 165 (also known as Dark Eyes.)
4. Spreadin' Rhythm Around - Billie Holiday - Swing Brother Swing - 2:52 - 195 (For Bigs.)
5. On The Sunny Side of The Street - Dizzy Gillespie - Dizzy Gillespie et son orchestre : 1951-1952 - 3:07 - 135 (For Tigert.)
6. Georgia Grind - Louis Armstrong - Satchmo: A Musical Autobiography Disc 1 - 3:19 - 115
7. Solid As A Rock - Count Basie - Count Basie Et Son Orchestre 1950-1951 - 3:03 - 135
8. My Blue Heaven - Preservation Hall Jazz Band - Songs of New Orleans - 5:21 - 148 (For Jason.)
9. The Five Pennies - The Famous Castle Jazz Band - The Five Pennies - 2:52 - 205
10. Shine On Harvest Moon - Pete Fountain - Dixieland's Kings - 2:50 - 160
11. Gettin' In The Groove - Panama Francis & his Savoy Sultans - Gettin' in the groove (Paris 1971) - 3:06 - 130
12. Little Jazz - Roy Eldridge - Little Jazz Giant - 3:06 - 140 (Because Jump Through the Window had already been played about 8 times.)
13. Cole Slaw - Louis Jordan - Louis Jordan And His Tympani Five, Volume 1 - 2:44 - 135
14. Just A Gigolo, I Ain't Got Nobody - Louis Prima - Louis Prima - Retro High School Party - 4:43 - 125 (I had one person come up and thank me for playing this one because it's her favorite. I also had one person come up and tell me that they think this song is annoying as hell, but they had an amazing dance to it just now. So there.)
15. The Darktown Strutters' Ball - Alberta Hunter - Amtrak Blues - 5:23 - 150 (I heard someone exclaim "Yes!" when this one came on.)
16. Sweet Georgia Brown - Benny Goodman - Benny Goodman: Very Best of Benny Goodman - 3:07 - 175
17. Minor Swing - Django Reinhardt - Django Reinhardt 3: Minor Swing - 3:16 - 200 (Never gets old.)
18. Ridin' And Jivin' - Earl Hines - Rosetta - 2:39 - 155
19. Perdido Street Blues - Louis Armstrong - The Complete Decca Studio Master Takes 1940-1949 - 3:08 - 145 (Forgot that this song was played already this weekend.)
20. Somebody Loves Me - Stuff Smith - Cat On A Hot Fiddle - 3:42 - 150
21. My Daddy Rocks Me - Benny Goodman - Benny Goodman et son orchestre: 1945 Vol.2 - 2:48 - 100
22. Put A Lid On It - Squirrel Nut Zippers - Hot - 2:39 - 198
23. Beans And Corn Bread - Louis Jordan - Louis Jordan And His Tympani Five, Volume 1 - 2:50 - 215 (This song was stuck in my wife's head all weekend.)
24. Heart Of Steel - Galactic - Ya-Ka-May - 3:27 -
25. I've Been Loving You Too Long - Otis Redding - Good To Me: Recorded Live At The Whiskey A Go Go Volume 2 - 5:51 -