CodeBLUE 10/14/2011

Last night I spun the early set at CodeBLUE, which was moving into nice new digs at OuterSpace in Wicker Park. The change of address didn't appear to throw anybody off, since a healthy crowd arrived early on. Unfortunately we hadn't quite gotten the sound straightened out--the organizers had rented a good portable sound system, but the vendor hadn't provided all of the necessary cables, so I had to DJ off of one speaker for most of the evening. (Two frantic trips to the vendor later, and finally both were working, in time for the last 10 songs of my set.)

Thanks to organizers Tia, Anna, & Heather for inviting me to DJ--I had a lot of fun stretching outside my usual lindy hop box. Here's what I played (along with the usual sparkline and histogram):

1. Rock Me All Night Long - The Fabulous Treniers - The Hoss Allen Sessions - 2:41 - 155
2. Tight Like This - Tuba Skinny - Tubaskinny - 4:28 - 125
3. Shake That Thing - Wynonie Harris - Risque Blues - It Ain't the Meat - 2:17 - 135
4. Juke - Little Walter - The Best Of Little Walter - 2:45 - 135
5. Bad Bad Whiskey - Buddy Guy & Junior Wells - Buddy Guy & Junior Wells Play The Blues - 4:14 - 115
6. Yes Sir, That's My Baby - Earl Hines - A Monday Date - 3:00 - 140
7. Last Night On The Backporch - The Palmetto Bug Stompers - Ol' New Orleans Home - 4:10 - 150
8. Love Me or Leave Me - Banu Gibson - Let Yourself Go - 3:07 - 165
9. If You'se a Viper - John Sinclair - No Money Down - 3:55 - 150
10. I Don't Care Who Knows - Catherine Russell - Sentimental Streak - 3:18 - 125
11. Tears Of Joy - Janiva Magness - My Bad Luck Soul - 3:08 - 110
12. Don't Go No Farther - Muddy Waters - The Chess Box - 2:56 - 105
13. Blooz ... First Thaingh 'Dis Moanin' - Wycliffe Gordon - Originals Only - 5:23 - 85
14. Summertime - Gordon Webster - Happy When I'm With You - 4:04 - 120
15. Bassology - Slim Gaillard - The Very Best Of - 2:49 - 155
16. Communications - Slim Gaillard - Slim Gaillard: 1947-1951 - 2:29 - 175
17. The Wild Mab Of The Fish Pond - Charlie Barnet & His Orchestra - 1941-Transcription Performance - 2:20 - 155
18. Chant Of The Groove - Fats Waller - Fats Waller 1941 - 3:05 - 185
19. Artillerie Lourde - Twin Cities Hot Club - Twin Cities Hot Club - 5:28 - 140
20. That Ain't Right - Fats Waller - Last Testament - His Final Recordings 9-23-43 - 2:59 - 80
21. You Just Usin' Me for a Convenience - Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - A Long Way from Home - 3:45 - 85
22. Ray's Cookie Dance - Gerry Hundt - Acoustic - 3:09 - 135
23. Lowdown Baby - Joe Morris - Best Of The Early Years - 2:56 - 70
24. Hesitation Blues - Dave Van Ronk - The Two Sides Of Dave Van Ronk - 3:32 - 115
25. When I Get Low - Gordon Webster - Live In Philadelphia - 5:27 - 105
26. Honeysuckle Rose - Louis Armstrong - Satch Plays Fats - 2:56 - 170
27. Dark Eyes - Fats Waller - Happy Birthday Fats Vol. 1 - 3:22 - 160
28. Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen - Adrian Rollini - 1937-1938 - 3:12 - 215
29. Lumby - Charlie Barnet & His Orchestra - Essential, Vol. 2 - 2:31 - 195
30. Blue Drag - Earl Hines - Swingin' Down - 2:59 - 140
31. Song With No Words - Asylum Street Spankers - Strawberry - 5:43 - 102
32. Little Red Rooster - Sam Cooke - The Rhythm And The Blues - 2:52 - 95
33. 3 O'Clock In The Morning Blues - Ike & Tina Turner - Mississippi Blues - 2:40 - 60
34. Sure Hope You Mean It - Raphael Saadiq - The Way I See It - 3:40 - 100
35. Heart Of Steel - Galactic - Ya-Ka-May - 3:27 - 90

CodeBLUE contest music

Last night I went dancing at CodeBLUE, the newest venue addition to the Chicago dance scene. The organizers had invited me and Jenna to judge the low-key strictly lindy contest that evening (they've been running a series of different contests at the dances), and we were happy to oblige. We've got some fairly developed opinions about contests and contest music--not just from a competitors point of view but also in terms of how contests affect an event. We tried our best to keep to our guns: choose music that will make the competitors look good, have somebody to count them in for spotlights, make the whole thing as short & snappy as possible.

Here's a run-down of the music and a play-by-play of the contest:

1. Look-a-There - Slim Gaillard - The Very Best Of - 2:18 - 180. After clearing a space and telling the competitors how the contest was going to work, we introduced all 8 couples and did a short all-skate warm-up. Then line back up and get ready for a spotlight round.
2. Moppin' & Boppin' - Fats Waller - 100 Swing & Big Band Classics - 4:27 - 170. The spotlights were a standard jam format, with each competitor getting eight 8-counts. Since there were 8 competitors, that meant the song had to be 4 choruses long to squeeze everyone in. I knew Moppin' & Boppin' was long enough, and had a good energy, but the drum solo introduction slipped my mind. It's ten 8-counts long (ugh!), so we just let it run before the first spotlight. Unfortunately that meant leaving Phil & Jame in the middle of the floor waiting to start--sorry you two!
3. Lindyhopper's Delight - Chick Webb - Strictly Jive - 2:45 - 195. We did another round of spotlights with this song. I picked this one because it's an old standby--probably all of the competitors have heard it a zillion times before, so they'd be very comfortable with it--but I bet many people in the audience were not very familiar with it.
4. Forty Days & Forty Nights - The Blue Vipers of Brooklyn - Forty Days & Forty Nights - 2:52 - 215. We had planned to just do a very short all-skate at the end, but on the spur of the moment, we decided to do make it a tap-out. All eight couples started dancing, then we tapped them out one at a time until there were only two couples left. The audience cheered for their favorites between these two, and then we tapped out one of them to leave a winner.

The top three couples were:

• 3rd - Phil & Jame
• 2nd - Blake & Kristine
• 1st - John & Kathryn

Congratulations to all eight couples who competed--you all looked great and pulled out some great dancing.

On the whole I think things went down pretty well, though the whole thing could have been slightly shorter, and there was the one hiccup with the music I picked. Start to finish, I think the contest took about 15 minutes. With a little more forethought/coordination, we might have been able to get it down to 10 or 12 minutes. I'm not sure how we could have made it shorter than that, since I wouldn't have wanted to shorten it to one spotlight a piece, and we didn't really have enough couples to do a prelim round. Hmmm....