First Friday at Big City Swing

As I mentioned, It's been about two months since I was last out dancing, so as you can imagine, I was pretty excited to get out of the house and DJ at Big City Swing. We had a crowd full of fresh new faces, which explains certain of my track choices below--yes, I played Zoot Suit Riot, and the crowd LOVED it. Early in the evening, I had some problems with JRMC (version 15) crashing on me and ended up having to DJ straight from iTunes, with no preview capability. That made for a little bit of a rough night, and also led to some sound quality issues. Here's my set (plus the usual BPM sparkline and frequency distribution):

1. My Baby's Sweet - Stompy Jones - The Swing Session - 3:08 - 155
2. Oo Poppa Do - Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers - One Hour Mama - 3:13 - 160
3. I Cried For You - Stephanie Nakasian - Billie Remembered: The Classic Songs Of Billie Holiday - 3:51 - 160
4. Put A Lid On It - Squirrel Nut Zippers - Hot - 2:39 - 198
5. Nice Work if You Can Get It - The Boilermaker Jazz Band - Nice Work If You Can Get It - 3:19 - 170
6. Rosetta - The Baby Soda Jazz Band - Cures Everything But The Blues - 4:34 - 165
7. My Blue Heaven - The Cangelosi Cards - Clinton Street Recordings, I - 4:11 - 145
8. Bennie's Bugle - 4Beat6 - The band that plays the music of Benny Goodman - 3:01 - 195
9. 5 Foot 2 - Davina & The Vagabonds - Songs From Thomas Ave. - 3:42 - 175
10. Cole Slaw - Louis Jordan - Louis Jordan And His Tympani Five, Volume 1 - 2:44 - 135
11. Zoot Suit Riot - Cherry Poppin' Daddies - Zoot Suit Riot - 3:53 - 185
12. Hey! Stop Kissin' My Sister - Fats Waller - The Unique Mr. Waller - 2:50 - 190
13. Banana Split for My Baby - Louis Prima - The Wildest! - 2:31 - 137
14. 8, 9 And 10 - Slim Gaillard - The Very Best Of - 2:43 - 175
15. In the Mood - Glenn Miller - Best of the Lost Recordings & The Secret Broadcasts - 3:15 - 180
16. Take The "A" Train - Duke Ellington - The Blanton-Webster Band - 2:54 - 168
17. On Revival Day - Lavern Baker - LaVern Sings Bessie Smith - 3:16 - 143
18. Honeysuckle Rose - Gordon Webster - Live In Philadelphia - 3:59 - 150
19. Money's Getting Cheaper - Jimmy Witherspoon - Jimmy Witherspoon - 2:59 - 135
20. At Long Last Love - Carmen McRae - The Great American Songbook - 2:27 - 132
21. Number Two - The Hot Club Of San Francisco - Yerba Buena Bounce - 3:42 - 180
22. Deed I Do - Katharine Whalen - Jazz Squad - 2:42 - 170
23. Tain't What You Do - Jimmie Lunceford - Jimmie Lunceford - 3:06 - 160
24. Peckin' - Benny Goodman - Benny Goodman - 3:30 - 180
25. Blue Drag - The Blue Vipers of Brooklyn - Permanent Magic - 3:40 - 190
26. When I Get Low I Get High - Chick Webb - Stomping At The Savoy (Disc 2) - 2:29 - 205
27. Shake That Thing - The Smoking Time Jazz Club - Quarter Note Vol. 1 - 4:25 - 125
28. Short Dressed Gal - Preservation Hall Jazz Band - New Orleans Preservation, Vol. 1 - 2:38 - 160
29. Everybody Loves My Baby - Sippie Wallace - Sippie - 3:11 - 145
30. Flat Foot Floogee - Benny Goodman & His Orchestra - The Fabulous Benny Goodman - 3:22 - 160

Been busy with other things

I realized that I haven't shared the news with all of my readers (meaning the three of you, besides my wife, who knows the news)...I've been a bit busy lately. Specifically, I've been DJing only for a very specific audience, and dancing a lot with one particular girl.

She's 6 weeks old now and rather fond of Django Reinhardt. Last Friday was the first night I went out dancing (and got to DJ) since she was born. I'll post my set-list from that soon.

Amazon mp3 jazz album deal

On a tip from Swifty, I learned that Amazon has about 400 jazz albums on sale for $5 a pop during May. Most of it is stuff I'm not terribly interested in, but there's definitely some good music available there. Here are the two that I just bought:

Oscar Peterson with the Stephane Grappelli Quartet, vol. 1. Nearly every time I hear Stephane Grappelli, I 1) curse and 2) then think to myself, "Man, Grappelli really is the most swingin' jazz violinist in history." Of course, then I hear Stuff Smith, curse, and think to myself, "Stuff Smith is undeniably the world's greatest jazz violinist!" And then again I'm kind of partial to Ray Nance too. (He was the quadruple threat: trumpeter, violinist, vocalist, and dancer!)

Jimmy Witherspoon & Jay McShann - 24 tracks for $5.00! That's 21 cents a track. How can you not buy this one?

one cool dude

Check this video out:

The singer is Matt Lewis, one of my favorite jazz musicians in Chicago. How cool is this guy, that he can just walk up to some street musicians in a foreign country and sound so good with them?!?!

Matt is often featured--as both a trumpeter and vocalist--with the Swing Shift Orchestra, the knock-your-socks-off big band that plays Thursdays at the Green Mill. I've been out on performance gigs with him many times, and the music he makes is always a pleasure to dance to--he's an amazing soloist and quite the showman as well. Oh and he swing dances too.

Here's Matt's website.

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!

Soul, Gospel, Ears

Anyone who appreciates soul, or enjoys gospel music, or...pretty much anyone who has ears to hear with...should check out this article on Soul & Gospel from Sir Shambling's Deep Soul Heaven. The authors discuss the mutual influences between the styles of music and give a bunch of examples of gospel groups covering or adapting hit soul songs for sanctified purposes. There's samples (low fidelity, but complete tracks) of some really amazing, intense music. The Mississippi Nightingales' version of Devil Ride is awesome--certainly something you could play at a blues/soul latenight. Plus there's a version of Wade in the Water that you could spring on folks next time you get a request for it. Sit back and ask "What??!? You asked for this one--why aren't you dancing?"

Fat Tuesday set from the Black Rock Tavern

I was invited to DJ on March 8th, Fat Tuesday, for the swing night at Black Rock Tavern. I'm just now getting around to posting the setlist...

I play a lot of New Orleans-flavored music during most of my sets (which was why I was invited, I think), and that night I went even further. In the spirit of Mardi Gras excess, I played almost exclusively music by New Orleans artists. It wasn't that hard, considering so much music from throughout jazz history came and continues to come from there. Here's my set (along with the usual BPM sparkline and frequency distribution):

1. Indian Sagua - George Lewis Band - Jimmy Yancey / Jazz At Preservation Hall / Pure Blues - 2:20 - 220
2. My Blue Heaven - Preservation Hall Jazz Band - Songs of New Orleans - 5:21 - 148
3. Flat Foot Floogie - Louis Armstrong - Swinging With The Mills Brothers - 3:02 - 185
4. Four Or Five Times - Jimmy Noone - Jimmy Noone - 3:08 - 160
5. If You're A Viper - Kermit Ruffins - The Big Butter & Egg Man - 3:08 - 170
6. Going Back to New Orleans - Joe Liggins And The Honeydrippers - Joe Liggins And The Honeydrippers - 2:52 - 175
7. Last Night On The Backporch - The Palmetto Bug Stompers - Ol' New Orleans Home - 4:10 - 150
8. Fat and Greasy - Fats Waller - Ain't Misbehavin - 3:09 - 160
9. All Of Me - Sidney Bechet - The Fabulous Sidney Bechet - 4:08 - 110
10. You Can Have My Husband - Tuba Skinny - Six Feet Down - 3:48 - 140
11. Just A Gigolo - Duke Heitger - Duke Heitger's "Krazy Kapers" - 3:41 - 85
12. Ballin' The Jack - Kid Ory - This Kid's The Greatest! - 3:15 - 145
13. Wrap Your Trouble In Dreams - Preservation Hall Hot 4 with Duke Jean - Putumayo Presents: New Orleans - 4:49 - 110
14. Sugar Blues - Clarence Williams - Boogie Woogie Blues - 3:40 - 135
15. Drop That Sack - Louis Armstrong - The Complete Hot Five and Hot Seven Recordings - 2:49 - 180
16. That's Where the South Begins - Louis Prima - Complete Brunswick & Vocalion Recordings of Louis Prima and Wingy Manone (1924-1937) - 3:25 - 138
17. Rhythm On The Radio - Louis Prima - Complete Brunswick & Vocalion Recordings of Louis Prima and Wingy Manone (1924-1937) - 2:33 - 210
18. Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives To Me - Sidney Bechet - The Fabulous Sidney Bechet - 5:43 - 145
19. Joseph! Joseph! - Meschiya Lake And The Little Big Horns - Lucky Devil - 3:03 - 185
20. Gimme A Pigfoot - Meschiya Lake And The Little Big Horns - Lucky Devil - 3:17 - 100
21. Heebie Jeebies - Preservation Hall Jazz Band - The Hurricane Sessions - 1:55 - 180
22. Short Dressed Gal - Preservation Hall Jazz Band - New Orleans Preservation, Vol. 1 - 2:38 - 160
23. Bucket Got a Hole In It - Kid Ory - In the Forties - 2:30 - 144
24. Shake That Thing - The Smoking Time Jazz Club - Quarter Note Vol. 1 - 4:25 - 125
25. Sunny Side Of The Street (Live) - James Booker - A Taste Of Honey Vol. 1 - 2:43 - 125
26. Hip Shaken' Mama - Irma Thomas - Soul Queen Of New Orleans - 3:13 - 73
27. St. James Infirmary - Hot Lips Page - CO38291 HARMONY-Ha1069 - 4:33 - 95
28. Yes Sir, That's My Baby - Earl Hines - A Monday Date - 3:00 - 140
29. Do Nothin' Till You Hear From Me - Evan Christopher, Spanky - The Sidney Bechet Society Jam Session Concert - 4:05 - 80
30. Milenberg Joys - Gordon Webster - Live In Philadelphia - 3:45 - 190
31. Joshua Fit the Battle - Gordon Webster - Live In Philadelphia - 3:57 - 180
32. Way Down Yonder In New Orleans - Bill Coleman - Bill Coleman In Paris 1936-1938 - 3:17 - 175
33. All That Meat And No Potatoes - Louis Armstrong - Satch Plays Fats - 5:16 - 107
34. Ain't Misbehavin' - Bobby Charles - Walking To New Orleans - 2:10 - 75
35. Comes Love - Meschiya Lake And The Little Big Horns - Lucky Devil - 3:15 - 170
36. New Orleans Bump - The Solomon Douglas Swingtet - Ain't No School Like the Old School - 3:35 - 119
37. Some of These Days - Billie & DeDe Pierce - Gulf Coast Blues - 2:38 - 150
38. Moan You Moaners - The Palmetto Bug Stompers - Live @ D.B.A. - 4:46 - 130
39. New Orleans - The Solomon Douglas Swingtet - Live at the Legion - 4:40 - 105
40. Crazy People - Boswell Sisters - Greatest Hits Of The 1930s - 2:41 - 210
41. Swing Pan Alley - Duke Heitger - Swing Around The World - 2:27 - 219
42. Georgia Grind - Louis Armstrong - Satchmo: A Musical Autobiography Disc 1 - 3:19 - 115
43. Muddy Water - Aretha Franklin - Aretha Sings The Blues - 2:31 - 120
44. Sure Hope You Mean It - Raphael Saadiq - The Way I See It - 3:40 - 100
45. 5-10-15 Hours - Ruth Brown - Rockin' In Rhythm - Best Of - 3:13 - 120
46. Heart Of Steel - Galactic - Ya-Ka-May - 3:27 - 90