Blues DJ Set 1/14/12

I will likely not post all my DJ sets, but this post is a follow up on my previous post on Blues Music 101.

People often ask about what would separate a great DJ to a good DJ. I feel a good DJ plays great music that the crowd likes and dances to. A great DJ plays great music, reads the crowd, and can shift the energy of the floor. I don't want to get into a lot on DJ theory during this post, but I wanted to shed some thoughts I have on some Blues DJ'ing since I cross over between the lindy hop and blues worlds.

First a few tips about blues DJ sets:

Blues music has a variety of different styles and tempos. I think too often blues DJ’s fall into playing only on genre. Everyone is going to have a favorite genre. For me, it’s slower Jazz. I love New Orleans Jazz and find myself most creative in dancing to it. I tend to play more what I would consider “classic/traditional” vs. contemporary music. I think it gets back to pure forms of the music and dance.

I think it’s important to switch up between the genres of music throughout a blues set. I try to expose students to all the different genres throughout lessons, especially during musicality exercises. The different genres call for different movements and moods. It’s important not to be a “roller coaster” DJ switching genres too quickly. The same applies for tempos. I think it’s reasonable to play songs at similar tempos over a period of 3-5 songs as long as the feel of the song is different. 15 minutes of the same tempo/genre/feel can easily kill the energy of a dance floor.

With that said, below is the most recent set I played. A few background notes/thoughts I was thinking about:

• Audience: My audience consisted of mostly beginner dancers who had just learned basic blues dancing.
• Music Selection: After discussion of blues music using food and other analogies to refer to sex, I was encouraged to play some of my “dirty” music. Maybe sometime, I’ll write about the “dirtiest songs” in my collection, but that will need to be another time. I repeated some artists to feature artists or tracks people asked about. Sound quality is important as old blues/jazz recordings aren’t the best sound quality. I also mixed in some songs used during the lessons.
• Tempo: I varied tempo and varied genres throughout the 90 minute set. You will also see a portion where tempo was very close across 5 songs, but the feel of the music was different.
• Length of Song: I generally try to vary time length. It was a smaller group at the dance so I attempted to keep the 4:00+ songs to a minimum to encourage switching partners and keep a “fresh” feeling among the room. I also wanted to build some confidence in case some of the new beginners didn’t feel they ran out of ideas or “moves” they could do.

I would say I was fairly conservative being I was playing for a beginner crowd and played some good standards. Overall, I got good feedback and response from the crowd.

1. "Tain’t Nobody’s Business if I do” - Ernestine Anderson - 77 BPM - 4:31

People just start arriving - trying to create ambiance with first 2 songs

2. "Need your love so bad” - B.B. King & Sheryl Crow - 76 BPM - 3:57

3. “(Night Time is) the Right Time” - Ray Charles - 81 BPM - 3:24

Time to get the dance kicked off with a classic

3. "I ain’t got Nobody” - Big Maybelle - 81 BPM - 2:53

Respond to “soulful” female vocal call/response to Ray Charles in previous song

4. "The World’s Jazz Crazy” - Claire Austin - 84 BPM - 2:45

Let’s move into some Jazz - song had symbolism in lyrics too

5. "When I get low, I get High” - Gordon Webster - 113 BPM - 5:27

Pick up tempo

6 "St. James Infirmary” - New Orleans All Star Stompers - 66 BPM - 3:07

Some of the beginners looked challenged by faster tempo, so slowed down with recognizable tune in a different style than traditional versions of this song

7. "Nobody Knows you when you’re down and out” - Bessie Smith - 92 BPM - 2:58

Transition song - classic Blues

8. “Walk on” - Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee - 115 BPM - 3:14

This song has a little speaking intro part - now playing with instrumental feel

9. "Dirty Low Down and Bad” - Keb’ Mo’ - 100 BPM- 3:07

Contemporary blues - keeping tempo moving - strong guitar sound

10. "I Got Rambling on my Mind” - Otis Spann - 89 BPM - 4:07

Chicago Blues - slowing down a little adding piano to transition to next song

The last 3 songs had guitar as a primary instrument, but had completely different feels.

11. "All Over Again” - B.B. King & Mark Knopfler - 83 BPM - 4:54

12. “My Handy Man Ain’t Handy No More” - Alberta Hunter - 103 BPM - 3:46

First of 3 “dirty” songs played by request/suggestion

13. Shave ‘Em Dry II” - Lucille Bogan - 115 BPM - 3:22

This is not the best version of the song, but I played it because this song doesn’t disguise the “dirty.”

14. "Three Time Lose” - Linda Hopkins - 82 BPM - 2:24

I was listening to a women in jazz/blues documentary so I think I was inspired to play some sassy “woman power” music

15. “How Many More Years” - Howlin’ Wolf - 99 BPM - 2:51

16. “Love in Vain” - Robert Johnson - 85 BPM - 2:21

17. “You Know My Love” - Otis Rush - 78 BPM - 2:42

18. “Blue Drag” - Django Reinhardt -111 BPM - 2:56

One of my favorite songs - it has a quiet intro so it worked as a great transition back into some Jazz

19. "Egyptian Fantasy” - Kenny Davern - 90 BPM - 4:01

Another favorite - played it in particular for my friend Justin who was DJ’ing next.

20. “Horn Man Blues” - Dr. Michael White - 73 BPM - 7:01 (faded this one out)

Song 3 of “dirty” - this starts the streak of “woman power”

21. "A Good Man is Hard to Find” - Big Maybelle - 86 BPM - 2:12

22. “Mannish Boy” - Muddy Waters - 72 BPM - 2:57

A little intermission and response to “woman power”

23. “Backlash Blues” - Nina Simone - 77 BPM - 2:29

24. “I’ll Never Be Free” - Lavern Baker - 72 BPM - 2:22

25. “Mean Old World” - Snooks Eaglin - 75 BPM - 3:51

Transition song

26. “Kind Hearted Woman” - Big Head Blues Club ft. Ruthie Foster - 75 BPM - 4:08

27. “Blues in the Night” - Eva Cassidy - 70 BPM - 4:08

Notice similar tempo of last 6 songs, but all had different feel. I played the Eva Cassidy track in response to a discussion to the unfortunate dancing “sexy” to her “popular” cover of the traditional gospel tune “Wade in the Water.”

Side effects may include geekiness

Based on a couple recent conversations I've had about encouraging more people to take an interest in DJing, I'm wondering whether some folks out there may have a mis-impression about swing DJing. Being a good swing DJ does not require that you know a lot (or really almost anything) about music theory or jazz history. These are common side effects of DJing, not pre-requisites to getting into the club. Really, all you need to start is 1) some good music--maybe enough to get you through 2 hours without playing anything really shoddy--and 2) the means and the nerve to play that music in public. It's possible to start out really modestly--to just get a toe in the water--without even having a ton of music, decide whether you like it, and then gradually wade deeper and deeper in (the water, children....).

If and when you do get more into it, many DJs tend to start to get interested in jazz history, to read books like Good Morning, Blues and Pops, to start combing through the archives of SwingDJs.com, quoting early episodes of Hey, Mr. Jesse, wondering whether the correct spelling is janky or djanky, and fretting about copyright infringement while scouring Jazz-On-Line.com. But none of this is at all required.

It periodically occurs to me that Chicago could really use more low-pressure opportunities for people to DJ. Right now there's....Java Jive, maybe? Maybe something up at Northwestern? But nothing in terms of city venues.* In my mind, the ideal opportunity would be hour-long (or even less maybe) slots at venues that have a dependable core of dancers. Maybe the organizers could give the DJs a small tip or let them in for free, but beyond that, no compensation--just some experience, status if you can really win the crowd, and satisfaction from sharing your favorite music. I could see some venues including one or two of these slots every week/month, with the rest of the evening covered by a more experienced house DJ (swing DJ, not house).

Readers, what do you think? Would you give something like that a try if the opportunity was there? Organizers, what say you?

* Of the regular swing and blues events:

• Fizz (Mon., weekly) has a group of decrepit old dudes who've been DJing there for ever.
• Black Rock (Tues., weekly), I think Nicolle usually spins on non-band nights, though I'm not totally sure. She invited me to DJ there once--a Mardi Gras set--and I had a fun time.
• Java Jive (Fri., weekly), I have no idea, never having been there.
• First Friday at Big City Swing (monthly) I almost always DJ, along with Bob or Chris.
• Lucky's Savoy Stomp (First Saturday, monthly) is a new venue, not sure who will be DJing.
• CodeBlue (second Fri., monthly), the organizers cover some of the DJing but have also asked others to step up.
• Saturday Swings (usually third Sat., monthly) usually hosts live bands, with the organizers DJing the band breaks.
• Alhambra Palace (last Wed., monthly), always has a live band and somebody I don't know plays music during the set breaks.
• Bluetopia (last Fri., monthly), not sure how they work.
• Willowbrook (occasionally), I think it's probably mostly Riley.

Looking at this list now....man is this everything Chicago has going right now?!?! How many million people live in this city?

[Updated to revise the venue list.]

Tempo changes - more tunes

Continuing on the theme of tunes that change tempo mid-song...

I associate tempo-changing tunes with older styles of music, from the early days of jazz when the tunes had crazy structures to them instead of just just straight 32 bar phrasing, and all of the New Orleans musicians still played in marching bands in addition to night clubs. Taking a slow tune out with a piping hot chorus must have be a standard Dixie trick.

As far DJing goes, tempo changers are almost always strictly novelties. I play them sparingly for fear of getting a reputation as a jerk who likes to mess with the dancers. But I do enjoy them myself, especially when you can feel the change coming on and dance through it. Here's my list of tunes with fun tempo changes, starting with the ones that all the DJs probably know:

• All the Cats Join In - Jessica Molaskey - A Good Day - 4:15 - 125/250/125. Slinky, groovy, then all of a sudden really flipping fast, then back to groovy. Jessica Molaskey is really a Broadway singer, but she dabbles with jazzy stuff and is married to the guitarist John Pizzarelli.
• Bei Mir Bist Du Shane - Janis Siegel - Swing Kids soundtrack - 4:11 - 150/90/180. There was a time when I watched this video over and over and over again. If you've been dancing for more than 8 years, admit it, you were watching it too.
• Darktown Strutter's Ball - Alberta Hunter - Amtrak Blues - 5:24 - 90/150. More evidence that these sort of tempo changes come from old-time show music, since Alberta Hunter was there at the beginning. I know of one other version of this tune that mimics the tempo changes in this one: Jeff Healey - It's Tight Like That - 4:51 - 115/215. It's fun and peppy, though I don't care for the electric guitar in this (it's there because Healey was originally a rock guitarist, who turned to jazz only later) or the fiddle solo.

Tunes that I have DJed to good effect:

• Honeysuckle Rose - Louis Armstrong - Satch Plays Fats - 2:56 - 85/170. The slow intro, featuring a seldom-heard verse of this tune, will fool people into thinking it's a blues. Then it doubles, forcing them to swing out. Hahaha gotcha. (You could also fade in after the slow intro.)
• Yesterdays - Carmen McRae - Carmen McRae Sings Lover Man - 4:54 - 60/120. Starts as a very slow ballad, truly spell-binding. I could listen to nothing but Carmen McRae for days on end. Midway through, the tempo doubles to a very comfortable, groovy 120 bpm. Great song for transitioning and notching up the energy.

Old school jazz with crazy bits:

• Honeysuckle Rose - Adrian Rollini - 1934-1938 - 3:13 - 105/185. A live recording that starts as a deceptively mellow vibraphone solo before jumping into a surprising, swinging jam session.
• Swing It Way Down Low - Louis Prima - Complete Brunswick & Vocalion Recordings - 2:43 - 130/260/130/260. Danceable small combo jazz with one of Prima's distinctive vocals, plus extremely fast interludes.
• Tin Roof Blues - Louis Prima -Complete Brunswick & Vocalion Recordings - 2:59 - 90/205. Classic Dixie blues number, with a peppy out-chorus.
• Dear Old Southland - Sidney Bechet - Perdido Street Blues - 4:01 -90/215. Almost dirge-like blues, taking on a much more up-beat mood for the fast finish. (Note that Bechet recorded this tune many times, at different tempos. Another good version can be found on Classic Sides, 1931-1937, at about 140 bpm throughout.)
• Ain't Misbehavin' - Fast Waller - The Very Best of Fats Waller - 4:00 - 100/260/100. Starts as a genteel, delicate piano feature, then adding Waller's vocal to one of his best known songs. A long, building drum-solo takes things into an exciting up-tempo chorus, then everything slows down again for the last little tag.
• That's A Plenty - Ella Fitzgerald & Bing Crosby - Bing Crosby with Ella Fitzgerald & Peggy Lee - 2:24 - 185/230. Snobs will object to Bing Crosby being put on the same footing as Ella Fitgerald. Whatever. Before discovering this track, I didn't realize that there were lyrics to the tune. Ella & Bing do a nice duet, then there's a fast instrumental interlude, pure dixieland, and then a fast vocal verse for good measure.

Tunes that are too theatrical or showy to use for DJing:

• Prince Nez - Squirrel Nut Zippers - Hot - 253 - 175/300+. I have a soft spot for this one (again, showing my age here). This starts as a duet, then has a minute-long outro that sounds like the finale of a Vaudeville show.
• St. Louis Blues - The Deep River Boys - London Harmony - 2:50 - 120/300. This is like something out of a Vegas rat-pack show, complete with big brass arrangement and (I can imagine) flashy choreography for the Deep River Boys. And of course, since it's St. Louis Blues, you have the rhythm changes in addition to the tempo changes. A train wreck of a tune.
• Bill Bailey - Patsy Cline - The Last Sessions - 2:48 - 70/140. Yeah, sure, Patsy is pure country. But the arrangement here is so jazzy, that I could almost play it at a dance. If only Patsy could have ditched her male backup singers.

So these are just a few that I had marked in my iTunes library. I know I must be missing many more, especially big band numbers (Chick Webb? Jimmie Lunceford?). Some commenters on the previous post have already added to the list. Let me know if you have a favorite tempo-changing swing tune by leaving a comment.

Tempo changes - After You've Gone

For whatever reason, my latest obsession is songs that have tempo changes (purposeful...not just because the drummer can't keep steady time for three minutes). I remember years ago, my (future) wife and I were at the late night of an exchange in Portland, Maine, and the DJ played a slow, slinky version of "All the Cat's Join In" and everybody was getting into the groove of it when all of a sudden it doubled in tempo and basically the whole crowd went "WTF?!?!?" as the DJ cackled. I went up to him afterwards to ask what the song was (it was Jessica Molaskey, off the album A Good Day) and tell him that he was a jerk for taking everyone off guard.

When I think of tempo changes, the other thing that always comes to mind is the routine that Zach Richard & Carla Heiney did a few years ago, to the Titan Hot Seven's version of After You've Gone. They had to heavily edit the recording, since the original is way too long, but they did it quite seamlessly so all of the umpteen tempo changes sound natural. It's a great routine, made all the more engaging by the way they capture the different character of the slower and faster sections of the song.

After You've Gone is the quintessential tempo-changing tune. Of the 22 versions of the tune in my iTunes library, 6 have tempo changes:

• Tuba Skinny - Tubaskinny - My current favorite. Starts off around 100 bpm, then doubles without feeling at all frantic.
• Sidney Bechet - Blues in the Air - Great soloing from Bechet, at 90 bpm but with a lot of momentum. Then a short drum solo and it is suddenly TRIPLE time. Yes, a blazing 270 bpm. Don't mess with Bechet.
• Fats Waller - Yacht Club Swing 1938 - This is only a snippet, barely 2 minutes long, just a glimpse of Waller & his Rhythm at their perfectly laid back, swinging best. The thing that kills me here is how Waller handles the ritards. At 0:58 he stretches out his break, then rolls into his solo at full time. Then at 1:12 he plays the same stretched out break, but this time it is a signal to move to half time. If only this were a full recording with a vocal! Two other recordings of his (both off the Definitive Fats Waller, Vol 1.) do have the full vocal treatment, but the tempo changes aren't handled as artfully.
• Cecile Mclorin Savant - Cecile. I love this woman's voice. Great modern treatment of the tune, which I would totally play at a dance if it weren't for the extended drum solo that starts the fast section.
• Katherine Whalen - Jazz Squad. This version goes from 75 to a relaxed 210 bpm, then back to 75 at the very end, handling the transitions nicely. The ensemble is an odd hybrid of a modern combo with Dixie leanings. Very danceable throughout.
• LaVern Baker - LaVern Sings Bessie Smith. This version starts out really slow (under 65 bpm), acts as if it is wrapping up, and then finishes out at about 230 bpm (that's quadruple time!). The transition is a bit corny though, and the fast section has a stagey feel.

As you've probably guessed, I'm completely smitten with this tune at the moment, and have been driving my (present) wife nuts by playing all 22 versions on repeat all day long. Please leave a comment and let me know if you have a favorite version, so that I can continue obsessing.

Also, in a future post: other tunes with tempo changes.

Finding & organizing music

Danny writes:

I have started to DJ a bit outside of my college club and I was wondering if you had any tips. The main things I am wondering are (1) once you have a music base, how do you organize it and (2) what is your main source for acquiring new music/discovering new music. I read what you said about acquiring music, but I'm just wondering if you pick from all of those sites equally (do you use jazz-online.com?) or do you have one you use most?

My response:

My go-to source for finding tracks is definitely EMusic (followed by Amazon if it is not available on EMusic). I use jazz-online every now and again, especially if I am interested in exploring odd-ball tracks by a particular artist. For instance, I grabbed pretty much every Hot Lips Page off that site. He's got a fantastic rendition of St. James Infirmary that you should check out. I also buy a lot of music from current bands, either through BandCamp or directly from the artist webpages. When I'm at a weekend event with one or more good bands, I almost always buy some (or ALL) of their music.

As far as sources for finding out about new artists and music, I read blogs by other DJs and musicians (like Christian Bossert's, Sam Carroll's, Christian Frommelt's, Glenn Crytzer's, and of course Michael Steinman's). I listen to Hey Mr. Jesse and browse EMusic and Youtube. I've also found that reading about jazz musicians is a great way to discover new music--for instance, Count Basie has a fantastic autobiography, and there is a new biography of Louis Armstrong that is worth reading, and has a list of 30 essential Armstrong recordings.

Finally, as far as organization goes. I use iTunes to manage my music and JRiver Media Center to DJ. It's annoying to have to go back and forth, but I just can't work up the willpower to move everything over to JRiver. Regardless, I think that my organization scheme would be applicable to most music management software. I use the following fields: BPM (here's an online metronome), rating, comments, and grouping. I use the comment field to note anything peculiar about a track, such as an 8-minute introduction that can be skipped, or an extended drum solo. When I started out, I used the grouping field to describe the track as "lindy," "balboa," "blues," "charleston," etc. But as I gained experience, I realized that this was an inadequate (or irrelevant maybe) way to describe a tune. These days, I list the style of music (classic big band, small group swing, trad. jazz, modern combo) as well as whether there is a vocal (male and/or female) and any prominent instruments. Not that I list "clarinet" in every single Benny Goodman track, just anything that's not immediately obvious. I then create smart playlists that pull up styles, or I can search for tracks using the keywords that I've entered.

So there's my take. I'd be curious if there are other blogs or things that you find helpful. Leave a note in the comments!

DJing for newer dancers

dogpossum, an Australian DJ, recently posted some interesting thoughts about how to DJ for newer dancers. I agree with nearly all of what she says. The only thing I might push back on is the tempo stuff--I'd say that the rule on tempo should always be to feel it out based on the crowd at the moment. So I agree in principle that there should be no rules for tempo, but some nights you will find that the crowd just won't dance to anything over 175. On nights like that, you should just give them what they want, rather than trying to push the boundaries to demonstrate that "there are no rules."

Also, maybe it's a difference in scenes, but I'm in a really weird place right now with neo swing. I'd guess that most lindy hoppers around here would react with something like "Are you f-ing kidding me?" if they heard neo at Fizz or some other venue around town. But lately my dance partner and I have been....yes, I admit it...kind of okay with a little neo flavor every now and again. Just every once in a while, it can be fun in a cheesetastic sort of way. Even more, I kind of wish someone would play Cherry Poppin' Daddies or something like that at the big events, just to remind everyone not to take themselves too seriously. Since after all, we are swing dancers, not Alvin Ailey...and swing is awesome and all but honestly swing dancing gives you just slightly more respect than being really good at Magic: The Gathering.

More DJ theory

Here's a nice post from Kyle Smith about what DJs should be going for when they're spinning for an evening. Kyle has been head DJ for All Balboa Weekend for a long time, and really knows his stuff.

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.