SwingDJs

Kalman, if you're definitely coming, save $14 per ticket and take advantage of our special "Early Bird Discount"

And everyone check out the site, www.basie100.com; It's quite impressive...yay Manu!

Woo hoo!!! This is my kind of thread! I'm pretty sure The Harlem Blues and Jazz Band has two recordings. I have the one you linked to above. It's pretty cool, with plenty of danceable tempos. The sound quality is a little off, though, so I only play it at places with really good sound systems. Both ...

Blues Plus Four is a pretty killer tune. I hear Dawn Hampton's crazy about it, but I haven't yet played it at a dance she's been at...that will have to change soon...

Talking about Al Casey - I consider myself VERY fortunate to have watched him live about 4 or 5 years ago. He was part of a touring group of Harlem original musicians. Yeah, that's the Harlem Blues & Jazz Band you're talking about. They still play - they've played at three dances here in NYC in...

It is possible that he was the last person alive to have recorded jazz prior to 1930. BTW, I think this comment is incorrect. Guitarist Larry Lucie at 95 is still alive. He recorded with Jelly Roll Morton, and I'm sure he played before 1930. I thought maybe Al Casey, too, although Allmusic says he ...

April 26, 2004. - Legendary jazz violinist Claude "Fiddler" Williams died at 4:00 a.m. Sunday, April 25, 2004, at Research Medical Center in Kansas City after a prolonged bout with pneumonia. Williams, age 96, was known for his Kansas City-style violin improvisations, as well as for his vo...

Clip 7 - VERY nice little traditional jazz thing. Love the harmony of the cornet and the clarinet. VERY nice cornet work and interplay with the clarinet. Reminds me a lot of the style that Kenny Davern and Bob Wilber have done with the Soprano Summit recordings. This is another one I have to hear A...

Swingin' Live is still my personal favorite, too. Three of his four cds are live cds, and I definitely feel that's when he's in his element (although rumor has it he's soon doing a studio recording with Frank Foster or led by Frank Foster or something about Frank Foster that will have an all-star li...

Ha ha...slight digression here, but one thing I never got: people online and in person *always* refer to them as "Chronological". Isn't it "Chronogical"? Or is that simply the French/Spanish/something word for "Chronological" and that's why people call it that... (I'm t...

The Concord 'best of'ish disc for him is especially nice, though, the songs are on the long side, and since they're small groups, not so really condusive to, eh, post-production. (to be euphemistic about editing) Amen! I love that Concord CD and dug a ton of tunes for dancing but remember all of th...

Cool! Any cool clips of Oscar?

LONELY AVENUE!! i have a nice LP (inherited from my grandfather) called "Sweet & Sour Tears"... it's all songs that reference crying in the title. a few songs are danceable: 'Teardrops From My Eyes' f'rinstance Yeah, I have that CD. I have never thought about playing anything off it b...

We were told that while many of the "Swing Era" bands have no surviving members, the current Count Basie Orchestra has five who backed the Count at one time or another while he was alive. Wow, that's pretty cool! I don't know much about the band, and I had always thought it was primarily ...

I was at this event last October, The Count Basie Orchestra is alive and well (at least the surviving members) While the Count Basie Orchestra may be alive and well, it doesn't have any surviving members from when Basie was around except for its leader, Bill Hughes, and maybe one other person (drum...

on a tangent: Oscar Brown Jr is still alive and performing in Chicago. He plays Hothouse a couple times a year. I wouldn't go to dance, but he definitely puts on a good show. That's awesome! I wonder how much of his Hothouse sets are swingin' as he spans a number of genres. I've been in touch with ...