SwingDJs

Night Train: great song. My favorite version is a Lionel Hampton Orchestra version that I downloaded; I don't know what album it's off. (This is rare for me.) I really like this version as well. I got it on a compilation CD from a friend of mine a while back. I did find this on a Hampton Orchestra ...

I have to agree w/the Sands version.

If you don't already have it, the one that's probably most familiar to you is going to be off Atomic Basie, but IMO the Sands' and Breakfast Dance versions are a lot more interesting.

All-Star Swing Groups: Pete Johnson, Cozy Cole: The Savoy Sessions I was visiting my brother in Lawrence, KS this weekend and in a used record shop came across this 2-LP set released in 1977 from sessions in 1944 and '46. Featured players are Ben Webster, Hot Lips Page, J.C. Heard, Budd Johnson, Co...

Vic Dickenson? A Basie player from the 30s...highly recommend the Jazz Archives compilation of his. Also another great album he is featured on is The Jazz Giants with Lester Young. (I believe the personnel is Jo Jones, Teddy Wilson, Vic, Lester, Sweets, and a couple others that are escaping me at th...

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The song we used for the routine at Showdown and CH was 7th Avenue Express by Count Basie. which can be found on Wicked Swing I was listening to this last weekend for the first time and I'm like "oh, that's the RCRC competition song". And this album has a bunch of fast songs (guess that's...

Vic Dickenson played with Basie in the 40s and did a lot of small-combo stuff as well. I highly recommend the Jazz Archives' volume of Vic Dickenson tunes. Dickey Wells played with Basie in the 30s and is also quite good, but I don't know about any of collections featuring him as a solo artist or in...

I do not subscirbe to the theory that newbies will dance to anything. I have seen this to not be true. True. They also tend to need a stronger, more prominent beat in order to really get in the flow. However, first, what they find danceable somewhat depends on what the teachers play in classes. Yea...

What drives me nuts is when DJs spin neo, etc. because of the perception that it is what the newbies want, as if it is the only thing newbies will dance to, when really as long as they can hear the rhythm will probably dance to pretty much anything. From my experience, for every request for "Z...

I once thought a DJ (or two) could make or break a scene. But there are too many other contributing factors. And, when it comes down to it, there are only a handful of people in each scene who truly appreciates the quality of music. Nobody pays attention to the music as much as we do when we are ou...

I find it hard to distinguish OP from Monty Alexander sometimes (yeah, I know, you're horrified). Lester Young sounds distinctive, but I don't know if I'd be able to pick him out of his clones. If I get around to listening to my Verve box set of him, I would probably be able to pick him out. Agreed...

"Wonderful Thing" Count Basie. No lyrics, just a romantic little melody.

The best I ever got was when I was in Nashville about a year and a half ago at an after-hours dance. Some girl from Atlanta came up and asked: "Do you have any Kim Cattrall?" Atlanta, eh? Now I'm intriguiged (trying to remember which Atlanta ladies attended last year's MC2....) It was at ...

I think part of the art of taking or refusing requests is to hear past what the requester is saying and to divine what they actually MEAN. Of course in some cases that's impossible. But in the case of the 'not big band' request it pretty clearly meant 'something not so old and mono', at least I thi...

A couple: The best I ever got was when I was in Nashville about a year and a half ago at an after-hours dance. Some girl from Atlanta came up and asked: "Do you have any Kim Cattrall?" --- I was at Tapestry in Minneapolis a couple of weeks ago, about four tunes into my set when this middle...