Lately I have been on the hunt to find recordings of live performances by swing era jazz bands for my personal collection and for DJing. In that hunt I have stumbled on what I consider a treasure trove of live recordings, at this link:
Before and during WWII many jazz artists like Benny Goodman and Glen Miller did live broadcasts on the air. While amazing, unfortunately if you wanted to DJ any of this stuff you would have to self edit the songs in between annoucements and commercials from companies like Camel Caravan.
However the folks over at http://www.archive.org/ were kind enough to edit and in most cases label songs from many of Benny Goodman’s broadcasts during the WWII era.
While some of the songs due to recording technology at the time are probably not the best to DJ at certain venues, one can appreciate the different feel these live recordings have from recording sessions.
If you plan to use the blog linked, my recommendation is scroll down to “More Free Benny Goodman MP3 Compilation Downloads”. To quote the blog’s suggestion,
Benny Goodman (unspecified 795 10 songs without names!) The amazing thing about this one is that it contains 10 live broadcasts of 30 minutes each from Manhatten, presumably in 1937! All are commercial-free except the last one (Camel Caravan).
The best part of this all (at least according to the blog), all of these are free and legal! If you have any suggestions for other live recordings, please comment below. Otherwise, enjoy!
A few days ago I wrote a post about a flier which was handed out as part of the efforts to quell the tensions during the “Style Wars” in the late 90’s/early 2000’s.
However without context it is a far reach to not see the people getting involved in this debate without seeming a bit loony. So to help put you in the shoes of a late 90’s LA swing dancer I have this article written by John Cooper for Swivel Magazine [1].
I Did Derby
I DID DERBY
by John Cooper
As it appeared in Swivel Magazine
“Derby.” “Derby.” “Derby.” If you live anywhere near the United States and you like Swing, you’ve heard of The Derby, right? And if you live near Los Angeles and like Swing, you’ve been to The Derby, right? Wrong! Some of us just have never made it over. I mean, come on! I live seven entire miles from the place! Yet I can’t just zoom over there in five minutes! It’s gotta be a fifteen minutes drive easy. So, anyway… every swing lover/swing dancer of legal age I know has been to the Derby… EXCEPT ME!!! That is until this past Monday night when I became Derby de-virginized. It went something like this…
Mora’s Modern Rhythmists, the Monday night house band at The Derby was having their new CD release party that evening. Since I wrote the liner notes to Dean Mora’s new CD, I wanted to be there for the big occasion.Yes, I’d meant to go numerous times in the past, but stuff happens. I mean we all know stuff happens.
So… I announce to my friends that I’m going, really going this time, and I go. Monday is always a zonky day for me and I almost skipped it, but when I got home, I had an e-mail from Peter Loggins that said simply, “Monday.Mora.Derby.Be There.” So I go.
I motor over. I know where it is. No mystery. I cruise on down Los Feliz Blvd. I make a left on Hillhurst. WOW! Better than a pretty woman: two beautiful parking spaces right on the street! And I maneuver my land yacht right into the loading zone. I knew it was too good to be true because I’ve lived in Los Angeles to long to believe in the power of positive parking. I cruise out of the Fool’s Paradise and just guide my machine into the parking lot.
I eyeball the place from the outside. I walk around the building looking for the entrance. Not that door, that’s a restaurant. Not that door, that’s an exit. How do I gain entrance? I do 360 degrees around the building. Look! Up that flight of stairs! People! I walk up the steps that have measured a million swing feet. I announce myself. I am in!
Now… I had no notion of how the place would look. I just knew that the dance floor in the main room was considered small and the back room was off to the left as I would enter. I went to the right to the main room. Oooohhh! Pretty nice! A big circular bar dominating the room. A vaulted ceiling. The band stand at the opposite end of the room. Nice. I head out to take a look at the back room where the Lindy lesson is already in progress. Erik and Sylvia are at it again. The room is packed with ‘progressing’ Lindy Hoppers. Even as I lean against the wall, I am in the way of several rock steps and the humidity is killer in there, like a night in the tropics. I exit back to the main room and stake out a choice seat at the bar. I order a delicious Mai Tai. I see Dean Mora setting up his men. I saunter over and say “Hi.” Friends and people I know are beginning to arrive. They either see me or I see them.Handshakes, hugs and dropped jaws are the order of the evening. “You’ve never BEEN here before?” No. “I’ve never SEEN you here before!” First time. And on and on.
Soooo many people I know are there tonight for Dean’s CD party. We meet and greet. Peter and Lisa. Debbie and Darren. Rusty Frank. Chuck Cecil. Lisa Johnson. Tip and Holly. Hilary Alexander. Jeff Beauregard. Nicole and Bill. Hey! There’s Chekov from “Star Trek” out there! There’s famed movie swing dancer John Mills milling around! Then… an announcement by Dean Mora, and his Modern Rhythmists tear into a track from their new CD and the party is underway!
The dance floor holds a dozen or so couples comfortably. Most every one is doing Hollywood style Lindy and/or Shag. Dean’s snappy band and attire make the room glow almost as much as the perspiration on the foreheads of the pounding feeted patrons.Very few posers here on Mondays, it seems. Just people into the dancing and into the music. Real music! ‘Quality Shout.’ Oh, yeah!
After an hour, the second set begins with more (A) great music and dancing. More people I know have arrived. There’s an Australian TV crew wandering about and shooting Erik and Sylvia on the dance floor, while Dean Mora jovially suggests to the camera crew that they would do well to get him in the shot, too.
Soon, Dean is giving away CDs to patrons who can answer Swing history questions. If you don’t know Duke Ellington’s first name, you lose. If you know where the Palomar Ballroom was in Los Angeles, you win. If you don’t know what band was playing there the night in 1939 when the Palomar burned to the ground, you lose. (By the way, in order: Edward, between 2nd and 3rd on Vermont, and Charlie Barnet.)
Another hour passes into Derby memory. Peter Loggins and I exchange money for Jan Savitt and Charlie Barnet records. I eye a stack of “Swivel” magazines to take back to my store. Mora’s Modern Rhythmists are cracking like a whip. The Swing and the good feelings engulf the room.There’s Rory. There’s Adrian. There’s Minh. There’s Shawn and Cassandra. There’s Morris. All real people doing real dancing, not posing, to real music. You saw “Swingers?” Forget it! It’s a hoax! It’s not ‘money’ (What a fake-a-roo phrase that was.) This is the real Derby, at least on Monday nights. Men and women who take the time, trouble and expense to dress ‘vintage’ and to learn an established form of dance properly and devote themselves to it, not obsessively or stupidly, but out of love and a sense of sheer joy.
I stayed until the end, but even the ‘end’ was not the ‘end,’ for the dancing continued even after the Dean and his men had packed up and left. Moves were practiced, stories told, dances danced. Plans and partings until tomorrow or the next time. Hugs, kisses, hand shakes and promises of more visits. “See? I TOLD you you’d like it!” The dude was right, I did.
Unfortunately I never had the privilege of dancing of dancing at the Derby in Los Angeles. However you ask any dancer of 5+ years in California about the Derby (or Old Memories/Monsters of Swing) they will have a gleam in their eye as they spin a few yarns.
The Derby was simply legendary at the time, even “Swingers” director Doug Liman wrote in an LA Times interview [2],
Though no film could ever do the Derby justice, I am proud to have been part of a film that will continue to invite people into that magical world frozen in time. – Doug Liman”
Socalswing
An amusing tripod site, http://socalswing.tripod.com/ was the precursor to the forum JiveJunction which for awhile existed as Yehoodi’s rival forum until mysteriously disappearing becoming Ruben Browns personal homepage.
The site has some interesting sub-pages that offer insight into the culture of the late 90’s/early 2000’s Southern California swing dance scene. One that caught my attention was a page (http://socalswing.tripod.com/youmightbe.html) listing offshoots of a popular joke “You might by a (insert noun) here if….” modified for the So Cal swing dance scene. My personal favorite was, “You might be a Hollywood style Lindy Hopper if….”.
Some of the winning ones in my mind were,
the faster the song, the better.
you can’t hear the “clang clang clang” section of a certain Andrews Sisters song without picturing Jewel McGowan swiveling.
you become convinced that someone requesting “Zoot Suit Riot” at a Bill Elliot show is one of the seven signs of the coming apocalypse.
you can walk into a club full of 400 people and say, “There’s no one to dance with.”
you have come to realize you will never win a contest again as long as Josh & Theresa, Minn and Corina, and Jeremy and Debbie are in it.
Another unique page was The First Church of Lindy Hop – Los Angeles Congregation. I could try to explain it as part insight to the obession with Hollywood style Lindy Hop, part inside jokes, and part good old fashioned So Cal craziness. However I recommend you take a look at it yourself (http://socalswing.tripod.com/church.html). The fact that there are links to two other defunct congregations in Orange County and Riverside, delights and scares me at the same time. A sample of the fun collections of writing on this page is as follows,
Matthew 7:15, Beware of false prophets, who come to you in vintage clothing but inwardly are flaming West Coasters. -Guru Reuben
Even though I have given you a small taste of what it was like back then my advice if you want the whole picture is talk to someone who danced there. I promise you most of them will be more then happy to talk your ear off with stories about Monsters of Swing, The Catalina Jazz Dance Festival, Old Memories, and et cetera. I’ve just given you a small glimpse into a much larger picture.
“What style are you?” was a popular question that was asked instead of “Would you like to dance?” back in late 90’s. Ask any old-school dancer about “The Style Wars” here in the United States and you will probably elicit a groan that will reach Herrang Dance Camp in Sweden.
I won’t rehash the details here, but Jerry Almonte has a nice article in his Artistry in Rhythm series, in his blog Wandering and Pondering that touches the issue. Yehoodi like always, has a post about the style wars. Bobby White even lampooned it in a Jam Cellar email, coining the term Savollywood.
Savollywood: (SUH-vol-lee-wood) (ProperNoun): A failed late-90s amusement park where all the men were given baggy cargo pants and newsboy hats, and women went on rides that took them through twelve-count side-passes and half-assed whips. – Bobby White
For the longest time I was looking for a picture of a flier handed out at some workshops in the early 2000s which had a great explanation of what Hollywood Style was all about, but to much avail could not find it. Recently I stumbled upon and I am putting it up so, hopefully it will not be lost again.
A key point that Jerry noted about Hollywood Style, is it was not just a dance style but to some people a life style. Hence why for some people, emotions ran high over people who may have criticized it. Katy Perry who is not as well known for her teenage hobby, swing dancing writes in this interview,
“I used to go swing dancing, Lindy Hop style at the Santa Barbara Rec Hall and I would be taught by seasoned dancers, involved in the scene. They were like rockabilly but not as annoying. These girls would get out of vintage Cadillacs, wearing pencil skirts, bullet bras and cardigans. “
This flier, among other things were an attempt to get people to spend less time debating about how to dance and more time actually dancing.
However as usual the community moved onto arguing about newer topics such as should follows wear or not wear heels? the merits of Wiggly Hop Groove style Lindy Hop.
Jerry also noted in his blog post, Poke Alex probably sums up the aftermath of the whole “Style Wars” best in this post on yehoodi,
Yeah, if I remember correctly nobody “won.” I think for the most part people realized that not only was the battle stupid, it was really about nothing.
Erik & Sylvia originally coined the “Hollywood” term as a buzzwordish way to identify the style that they taught and pay homage to the fact that they borrowed a lot more from Dean Collins and his gang than from Frankie Manning and his.
Then a bunch of idiots (read: Lindy Hoppers) decided that “Hollywood” equaled “Dean Collins”, and therefore “Savoy” equaled “Frankie Manning”. Furthermore they inexplicably decided that not only were the styles completely 180-degrees different from each other, each with its own technique and feel, not just in the movement but in the lead and follow. The real kicker was when everybody decided one was inherently better than the other.
How it all got to that point is a mystery along the lines of Stonehenge or crop circles.
Anyway, a couple of years later it all finally wound down. Justin and Jenn in particular were instrumental in that, by carrying around to their workshops a video they made that showed both Frankie & Dean, side-by-side, in the same position relative to the camera, doing swingouts at the same speed. They were able to demonstrate the lack of difference in their technique sufficiently for some people to quiet down about it. Eventually the whole debate just cooled off and vanished.
Nobody could win because there was no real argument in the first place. – Poke Alex
Visually Learn (Swing Dance Definition): The ability to learn something in swing dance via one’s own sense of vision.
People Who Can Learn How to Dance V.S. People Who Need Dance Instruction
“Eyes are more accurate witnesses than ears” - Heraclitus of Ephesus
It is a strong belief of mine that when it comes to being a swing dancer, once of the skills that separates people who can learn how to dance and those who need dance instruction is the ability to visually learn.
Besides being the main avenue of dance instruction back in the actual swing era, there are many advantages to acquiring the skill of being able to virtually learn. One of the advantages of acquiring this skill is in group lessons you can understand material at a much faster rate then people who need to wait for descriptions will require. In addition you may pick up on stylistic variations the instructors are doing and possibly details about the move they are not mentioning for time/simplicity reasons.
Another advantage of improving your ability to visually learn is not being limited to group/private lessons & instructional videos as avenues to learn. Your learning avenues expand to your fellow dancers at your local scene, your peers in the swing dance community on youtube, and vintage clips of dancers back in the 20’s-40’s. Anything you can watch, can potentially become yours. You become your own teacher and responsible for learning.
Hal Talkier, being awesome as usual.
Lastly, when it comes to learning choreography (which some people dread like the plague) it gives you a serious edge in understanding and storing the material. On a personal note I notice people who tend to struggle with choreography are also those who tend to have trouble visually picking things up and require the instructor to repeat which moves, with what counts, happen after what moves.
Jeremy Otth, utilized visual learning well with Hal's dancing. As well as Laura Keat with Betty's.
By visually learning you; gain the ability to acquire material on average faster in group classes, notice details in the instructors body language that give you additional insight to the material being taught in classes, give yourself many additional learning resources for dance, allows one to a certain degree become their own teacher, and helps to make learning choreography a less difficult and stressful endeavor.
How to Gain the Ability
The trick to getting better at learning things visually is as you probably guessed, repetition of attempting to learn things visually. It is not something that one can get overnight and like all skills is something to be refined and maintained with practice.
There are some tricks to getting better at visually learning though and pitfalls to avoid. One of the rookie mistakes a lot of people make is they only watch the footwork. Watch how the body moves, often there are subtle clues on how a movement operates, the legs and feet usually just follow from the origin of motion there. In addition when you watch, pay full attention. Even in group classes when an instructor is demoing something, until they say to try it, don’t jump the gun and try the move at the same time. Instead watch carefully and try to visually absorb every detail they are presenting through their motion. When you actually attempt the move, most likely it will come a lot easier.
If somebody was to take one thing away from this I would say, listening is important however make sure to watch as well.
So I was reading a topic on yehoodi today that made me just mentally facepalm when I read one of the responses. If you are unfamilar with the term facepalm, according to wikipedia it is defined as,
A colloquial term referring to the physical gesture of striking one’s own face in a display of exasperation. It is similar in function to a sigh. In Internet discussions, the term is used as an expression of embarrassment, frustration, disbelief, disgust or general woe. It is also used when the person making the gesture does not believe that words can express the level of idiocy.
Normally I am a pretty easy going guy, however like everybody certain things make me simply boggled with how people do certain actions.
However this is a personal list of pet-peeves/things I find moronic when i’m out and about swing dancing.
1. Constantly Talking Trash on Other Dancers
This is bad enough because it shows you aren’t a polite person. However, I have found in 99% of cases that I run into these people they actually tend to be bad dancers as well, which then strays into the realm of being a hypocrite. I’ll never forget one of the worst first impressions someone ever made on myself is when one person approached me talking trash about the non-amazing dancers at a venue.
2. Making Up Swing Era/Dance History
Unlike a college exam where making up information on the spot might get you some partial credit points, when talking about history in relation to swing dances/the swing era you get no points for at best telling partial truths, at worst making up false information. “I don’t know” is always a better answer then spreading misinformation.
3. Doing Aerials on the Social Dance Floor
Aerials have a few places such as jam circles, performances, and competitions. Right next to my face when I am trying to lead a swingout on the social dance floor is not one of them. I have been trying to be more pro-active about this and I encourage everybody else, if you catch someone doing it politely say something. Most venues have strict anti-aerials on the social dance floor rules, so you can always start the conversation with the excuse you don’t want them to lose their cover charge for the night.
4. Constantly Claiming To Wanting to Get Better, Then Doing Nothing About It
If I had a nickel for every time I have heard someone claiming they wanted to get better at swing dancing, I could probably afford to go to Herrang. I am though a firm believer in the idiom, talk is cheap. I wish I could save many newbies from the $40-$120 private lesson where they expect the magic secret on how to become amazing and tell them one of the biggest secrets to getting better at swing dancing is called consistent practice. People can talk about how much they want to be a better swing dancer and then give reasons of why they can never make it out dancing, but that isn’t going to make them a better dancer. It is actually more likely to make me think of them as lazy and whiners.
5. People Who Insist Late Night Music Must be Slower.
I have no problem with people saying, “Well this area has people who are really into blues dancing, so we play it later on to make them happy.” However something I have gotten from a few DJs and people in certain blues heavy scenes is, “Well when it gets later the music just has to slow down” citing people get tired or worse that its common practice.
Newsflash, what do all these events have in common: ILHC, Camp Hollywood, Boston Tea Party, Hawkeye Swing Festival? Answer, they all feature music you can Lindy Hop to with a decent BPM count after midnight. I assume when people say late night music has to be slower it is because either they don’t travel much outside of their local scene or they forgot to advertise it was a blues night.
After Hours
Well I am going to end this post with some videos of fast dancing after midnight for the potential haters out there.
So this past weekend the Penn State Swing dance club threw a unique event, Shagception a full two days of Collegiate Shag workshops taught by David and Chelsea Lee from Washington D.C.
It was a fun weekend which I intend to write a more in depth post about later, but for now I wanted to write about a problem I seriously had to deal with with preparing for this event. How do I DJ for a Collegiate Shag event?
Preconceived Notions
Before I started contacting people my only preconceived notion for what to DJ for a Collegiate Shag event was from Camp Hollywood Shag division competitions I witnessed personally. Namely 2009 where they played Everybody Loves My Baby by Glen Miller and 2010 where they played Oh Lady Be Good! by Artie Shaw. In addition to that I had the All The Cats Join In, Disney short featuring music by Benny Goodman [1] and the song Mr. Ghost Goes to Town from the classic Arthur Murry Shag clip.
Yehoodi Lends a Hand
First thing I did was as usual use the search function in Yehoodi which come up with the topic: “Balboa-Collegiate Shag Music for Practice?“. One useful quote from the topic was,
You need a narrower range of tempos for shag. For shag, on the low end 180 and up. There are some songs that I particularly associate with shag. “All the Cats Join In” Benny Gooodman, “Lady Be Good” Artie Shaw. These are good ones to practice to because they aren’t too fast. As you get more comfortable try practicing to a version of Bugle Call Rag which is on the higher side of the tempo range. – Lamar
So from this I gleaned that for songs that are danceable for Collegiate Shag its probably more comfortable to go 180 BPM. As I have learned personally through trial and error, it is awkward to try to dance Collegiate Shag to slower tempos. Another useful quote was,
I feel shag in songs that have a strong “bounce” rhythm, although you shouldn’t have a huge bounce in your shag basic. – Capt Morgan
I’ve heard this described by different dancers as a “chug” rhythm, a solid four beat or in this case a strong “bounce” rhythm. For me what this meant was stay away from small group combos and songs that have long periods of dragging out or solos with the rest of the band not coming back in.
SwingDJs.com Helps Out As Well
Another useful resource was a thread titled “Collegiate Shag Please?” on swingdjs.com. One thing I noticed is Artie Shaw’s music is mentioned several times in the thread with recommendations such as “The Carioca”, “The Man From Mars”, “Diga Diga Doo”, “Back Bay Shuffle”, “Free Wheeling”, and “Bird Calls”. What I inferred from this is Shaw tunes are considered a safe bet and will get people out on the floor for Collegiate Shag, similar to how Lavender Coffin will put life back into a dead room at Lindy events (in spite of it being overplayed at times).
An interesting comment from Capt Morgan was,
Collegiate Shag is a dance from the 30’s, and is inherently connected to the music of this era (more so than Lindy Hop). Dancing to Neo-Swing, or Rockabilly, or Bebop just doesn’t fit.
Lorenzo, a Los Angeles swing band musician notes,
I picked some of the songs listed below for the preliminaries of a Collegiate Shag contest, after a discussion with Sailor Mike Mizgalski (two time NJC Shag Champion). The general guideline to pick a good Shag is to look for a bouncy feeling.
Cheers,
Lorenzo
Steamboat Bill, Mora’s Modern Rhythmists (1996) – 200 bpm
Darktown Strutter’s Ball, Sidney Bechet (1945) – 220 bpm
Too Wet To Plow, Cliff Bruner (1944) – 230 bpm
You Just Take Her, Bob Wills (Tiffany Transcriptions 1947) – 210 bpm
Again I notice the pattern of staying above the 180 BPM mark and a consistent rhythm through out most or all of the songs listed.
With a Little Help From my Friends
Unfortunately I did not save the exact transcriptions of the advice (with the exception of Morgan), but Augie Freeman, Morgan Day, and David Lee all helped to provide insightful advice that I shaped my playlist around.
Jonathan Stout as usual laying down a solid rhythm.
Something that Augie mentioned that was particularly useful was not to keep the tempos blazingly fast the whole night. Which I did try to keep that piece of advice in mind for my playlist.
Morgan wrote,
The most important thing is to have a really strong “chug” on every single beat. Personally I stick with music by Jonathan Stout. A good range is 170 – 200 bpm for lessons. If you teach too slow, people won’t get the feeling of shag.
Again the reinforcement of two concepts covered previously in Yehoodi and swingDJs.com.
Difficulty of the Crowd
One big issue I had was I had three very different type of attendees to please for this event:
Ridiclously good Collegiate Shag dancers who were all in this competition.
Newbie Collegiate Shag dancers who in many cases had 1-4 hours of instruction that day.
Random dancers who showed up to the dance who have no knowledge of Collegiate Shag.
So my compromise was play tunes with a really solid “chug” rhythm but try to hug around the 180 BPM range. I threw a few faster ones in the for the advanced dancers like Rigamarole by Mora’s Modern Rhythmists and Digga Digga Doo by Jonathan Stout and his Campus Five. I also threw in Eddie Lang’s Dinah for those who may have been intimidated by the consistent 180+ range at I stayed at for my set. In addition I included Django Reinhart’s I’se A Muggin because of its laid back feel and the fact I knew there were a few Balboa dancers in the room.
Overall
While in retrospect I would have tweaked a few things with my set, I think it went over fairly well. Two songs that worked fairly well I think that I haven’t seen recommended for Collegiate Shag in the past was Caprice XXIV Paganini and King Porter Stomp, both by Benny Goodman.
If you have DJ’ed for a Collegiate Shag event or have opinions on the matter as a Collegiate Shag dancer I would love to hear them, the more resources we have on the topic the better.
Footnote:
[1] If you DJ All the Cats Join In, unless if you have a ton of newbies my personal opinion is stick with the non Disney-version. The reason why is the Disney sound effects cover up a very beautiful piano solo.
So a few days ago I did a post on Boston Tea party that I mentioned a couple Maéva Truntzer and William Mauvais which I can only describe as high-energy, fun to watch, and zany. After witnessing their dancing for the first time in person, my curiosity was piqued so I decided to poke around a bit on youtube. Below I will share with you two performances from different events that were entertaining to watch.
In this particular version what I like is I feel like I am part of the crowd and it really captures the high energy that these two are putting out. However the lights are slightly overbearing and I think take away partially from the lines they are trying to create.
This version is well shot, i’m assuming by someone who knows how to use a camera by how the two were always in frame and the zooms were timed and not rushed. In this clip I feel like I am getting the whole experience and seeing everything they are trying to convey with the performance.
William and Maéva at Lindy Shock 2010
If you’ve ever wanted to see a couple dance to a song from the Muppet’s Show cast album, your day is about to drastically improve. Below I again have two clips of the same performance, this time at Lindy Shock 2010 which was in Budapest, Hungry. I think this showcase really shows off their background as Boogie-Woogie dancers and their zany side.
This clip of the performance is HD, which is nice. What I also really like about it is you can see the reactions of the crowd to the flashy/zany stuff they do and an excellent view of the floor slide William does at 1:29 under Maéva.
Again like the first clip from the Swinging in the Rain performance, the reason I like this clip is you are right behind the instructors of the event and feel like you are part of the crowd. In addition you get the full gambit of facial expressions both of them throw at you.
William and Maéva at least for myself bring something very different to the table then I am used to, its why lately they have kind of garnered my interest. If any of you readers have opinions or views on their dancing, feel free to post, I am interested in hearing them.
It's The Way That You Do It 