First Friday at BCS 2/3/2012

I played mp3s for a very fun, crowded dance at Big City last night. There were probably 40 enthusiastic folks there for the lesson at 8, then a bunch more showed up right around 9. Both floors were open, and a good thing too--otherwise there wouldn't have been any room. I had the first half of the evening, followed by my friend (and now co-blogger!) Bob. It was the sort of night where we could have played the Gettysburg address over and over, and the floor would have stayed full--everyone seemed like they were just itching to dance.

Several folks asked me about specific songs. If you asked about a song, see

• #21 below, by the Swedish jazz-makers the Carling Family. Their website has full mp3s of some of their music.
• #26, by San Francisco-based Gaucho, featuring vocals by Tamar Korn, formerly of the Cangelosi Cards. You can get Gaucho's albums on EMusic.

Back to my set: check out the BPM sparkline--I think it's kind of interesting because it changes amplitude. For the first part of my set, I stayed in a pretty narrow  tempo range, then later I expanded outward by quite a bit. Here's the BPM histogram for completeness, and here's the run-down of what I played:

1. Hello, Dolly! - Louis Armstrong - Ken Burns Jazz - 2:24 - 155 
2. Sent For You Yesterday And Here You Come Today - Benny Goodman - B.G. In Hi-Fi - 3:05 - 155 
3. Baby Drives Me Wild - The Mighty Blue Kings - Meet Me In Uptown - 2:18 - 170 
4. 5 Foot 2 - Davina & The Vagabonds - Songs From Thomas Ave. - 3:42 - 175 
5. Look-A There - Slim Gaillard - The Very Best Of - 2:17 - 180 
6. Mumbles' Blues - Stompy Jones - The Swing Session - 2:39 - 160 
7. Froggy Bottom - Andy Kirk & His Clouds of Joy - Kansas City: Swing, Blues, Jive & Boogie - 3:05 - 150 
8. Betcha Nickel - Ella Fitzgerald - My Heart Belongs to Daddy - 2:51 - 160 
9. Savoy - Lucky Millinder - An Anthology Of Big Band Swing 1930-1955 - 3:04 - 164 
10. Hey-Ba-Ba-Re-Bop - Lionel Hampton - The Jubilee Sessions, 1943 to 1946 - 4:27 - 170 
11. One O'Clock Jump - Count Basie - Swinging The Blues: 1930-1939 - 3:03 - 171 
12. Bizet Has His Day - The Solomon Douglas Swingtet - Ain't No School Like the Old School - 3:43 - 155 
13. Fortunate Love - Glenn Crytzer And His Sycopators - Harlem Mad - 2:54 - 130 
14. Dear Old Southland - Sidney Bechet - Classic Sides 1931-1937 - 3:03 - 140 
15. Bucket Got a Hole In It - Kid Ory - In the Forties - 2:30 - 144 
16. Georgia Grind - Lillian Boutté - Music Is My Life - 3:32 - 145 
17. Black Coffee - The Careless Lovers - Black Coffee - Single - 2:39 - 195 
18. Last Night On The Backporch - The Palmetto Bug Stompers - Ol' New Orleans Home - 4:10 - 150 
19. Savoy Blues - Kenny Ball And His Jazzmen - Trad Jazz Masters - 3:53 - 135 
20. I Ain't Gonna Play No Second Fiddle - Lavern Baker - LaVern Sings Bessie Smith - 4:05 - 90 
21. Keepin' Out A Mishif Now - Carling Family - 20th Jubilee - 3:32 - 120 
22. Tain't What You Do - Sy Oliver - Sy Oliver et son orchestre: 1949-1952 - 3:07 - 155 
23. Let's Get Together - Duke Ellington - Recollections Of The Big Band Era - 2:37 - 175 
24. My Blue Heaven - The Rosenberg Trio - Roots - 2:54 - 210 
25. I Like Pie, I Like Cake - The Four Clefs - BLUEBIRD 8884 - 2:48 - 155 
26. Sing On (Odessa Sing On) - Gaucho - Pearl - 5:07 - 135 
27. If You'se a Viper - John Sinclair - No Money Down : John Sinclair's Greatest Hits , Volume One - 3:55 - 150 
28. Baby Can Dance - Carsie Blanton - Buoy - 2:56 - 180