Friday night was one of the crazier First Fridays in recent memory. Perhaps it was the busload of eager high-schoolers who showed up for the lesson, maybe also the group of college students who'd driven several hours to come to the dance. Maybe the camera crew from ABC, filming a segment on swing dancing for 190 North. Or the OTHER camera crew, in from Korea to film a documentary about American jazz culture (or something like that).
Anyways, add it all up and it was pretty nutso. Despite my best efforts to drive people away (cf #22 below), the floor stayed pretty jammed all night, with the exception of the "jam" that we staged for the benefit of the cameras. (They wanted to capture the natives in their natural habitat.) I ended up playing mostly modern bands, with just a few classic swing tracks--the crowd seemed pretty new, and seemed to respond best to the brighter and crisper sounds of modern recordings. In retrospect, I wish I hadn't skewed so heavily toward new stuff. Here's the usual BPM sparkline and histogram, and here's my setlist:
Anyways, add it all up and it was pretty nutso. Despite my best efforts to drive people away (cf #22 below), the floor stayed pretty jammed all night, with the exception of the "jam" that we staged for the benefit of the cameras. (They wanted to capture the natives in their natural habitat.) I ended up playing mostly modern bands, with just a few classic swing tracks--the crowd seemed pretty new, and seemed to respond best to the brighter and crisper sounds of modern recordings. In retrospect, I wish I hadn't skewed so heavily toward new stuff. Here's the usual BPM sparkline and histogram, and here's my setlist:
- Route 66 - Gordon Webster - Live In Philadelphia - 4:24 - 150
- All Of Me - Della Reese - Cocktail Classics - 2:01 - 160
- Slow Boat to China - The Boilermaker Jazz Band - The Mood I'm In - 3:37 - 160
- Mood Hollywood - Don Neely's Royal Society Jazz Orchestra - Radio Rhythm - 3:31 - 170
- Choo Choo Ch' Boogie - Louis Jordan - Jukebox Hits Volume 1 1942-1947 - 2:45 - 165
- Sing Me a Swing Song (And Let Me Dance) - Benny Goodman - The Birth of Swing - 2:23 - 177
- My Blue Heaven - The Cangelosi Cards - Clinton Street Recordings, I - 4:11 - 145
- Jersey Bounce - Bernard Berkhout - Doctor Bernard and His Swing Orchestra - 3:27 - 135
- Rose Room - Crytzer's Blue Rhythm Band - Chasin' the Blues - 2:49 - 160
- I've Got A Feeling I'm Falling - Louis Armstrong - Satch Plays Fats - 3:13 - 160
- 8, 9 And 10 - Slim Gaillard - The Very Best Of - 2:43 - 175
- Blue Drag - The Blue Vipers of Brooklyn - Permanent Magic - 3:40 - 190
- Rosetta - The Palmetto Bug Stompers - Ol' New Orleans Home - 3:36 - 205 (I love how lazy this track is, despite the tempo.)
- A Woman's Intuition - Stompy Jones - Stompy Jones - 3:17 - 140
- All Right, Okay, You Win - Joe Williams - The Definitive Joe Williams - 3:05 - 130
- Twenty-Four Robbers - Jimmie Lunceford - Jimmie Lunceford - 3:10 - 140
- Six-appeal - Charlie Christian - Six-appeal - 3:20 - 145
- All I Know - The Countdown Quartet - Sadlack's Stomp - 2:56 - 125
- Last Night On The Backporch - The Palmetto Bug Stompers - Ol' New Orleans Home - 4:10 - 150
- Put A Lid On It - Davina & The Vagabonds - Live @ The Times - 3:13 - 170
- Satchel Mouth Baby - Catherine Russell - Strictly Romancin' - 3:19 - 130 (Off her new album, which is FULL of great stuff)
- Prince Nez - Squirrel Nut Zippers - Hot - 2:53 - 180 (This song doubles in tempo midway through, topping out at about 350 bpm)
- Lindyhopper's Delight - Chick Webb - Strictly Jive - 2:45 - 195 (Jam circle)
- I Can't Dance I Got Ants In My Pants - The Smoking Time Jazz Club - Quarter Note Vol. 1 - 4:13 - 210 (Jam circle continued)
- Tain't What You Do - Jimmie Lunceford - Jimmie Lunceford - 3:06 - 160 (right in to shim-sham)
- Wham (Re-Bop-Boom-Bam) - Glenn Miller - Perfect Swing - 3:36 - 165
- Le Jazz Hot - Jimmie Lunceford - Jimmie Lunceford - 2:44 - 140
- Ridin' And Jivin' - Earl Hines - Rosetta - 2:39 - 155 (The trombone player on this track has a dirty, dirty mind.)
- Why Don't You Do Right - Benny Goodman - Benny Goodman - 3:17 - 125
- Swing Brother Swing - Miss Sophie Lee - Tallulah Moon - 3:55 - 165
- Just A Closer Walk With Thee - The Smoking Time Jazz Club - Quarter Note Vol. 1 - 6:06 - 75/160 (I started this track midway through the slow section. Lots of confused looks at first, until it picked up and started to swing. I wanted to play this one not just because it's a good tune, but to make sure that Bob, who was up to DJ right after me, would be kept on his toes. Don't want to let his reflexes get too dull.)
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The issue of choosing new vs. classic (e.g trad or big band) stuff seems pretty tricky to me as a DJ. In my scene, a large portion of the regular dancers like their traditional jazz and would be turned away by something like Squirrel Nut Zippers. However I think the newer dancers have a harder time connecting with the traditional stuff. I am afraid this might be taking a toll on new dancer retention. As a DJ, how do you walk the line to keep everyone engaged?
ReplyDeleteHi Jeff, I'll try to do a full post about this question sometime soon, but I think the short answer is: play to whatever crowd you have, and try to find as much music as possible that appeals to both newer dancers and regulars. It's also important to remember that if newer dancers never hear older big band recordings, they'll never learn to like them. It's a bit like feeding a 1 year old spinach--mix it in a smoothie with enough bananas and blueberries, and they'll eventually learn to love it. (For the same reason, I think it's important to play older music during beginner classes too.)
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