Dance songs with classical music in them
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Dance songs with classical music in them
I really like hearing and dancing with songs that have classical music in them. For example, Basie's "Ebony Rhapsody" uses the theme from Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody. What songs that you know of have substantial bits of classical (sounding) music in them? Of course, Ellington did a ton of stuff like that, but not all of it is great for DJing. I'm looking for stuff that dancers and classical-music buffs would enjoy. Another one that I know of is "Bach Goes to Town" by Benny Goodman. Also, there's that Nina Simone tune that has a big section with classical piano, but I can never remember what it is.
- Jerry_Jelinek
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Hi Mathew,
It's been a while, but about 3 or so years ago, I did an entire 2 hour swing radio show featuring classical music done in a swing style.
I'll have to dig up the play list from that.
But think - John Kirby. He had several things with his late 30s and early 40s group.
There is a CD out called 'Beethoven wrote it, but it swings'. I don't have the CD in front of me. This had about 20 or so tracks in this genre. I recall some of the tracks recording quality wasn't all that great.
Probably the most famous classical music turned to swing is Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker. Obviously the Ellington suite. Also Shorty Rogers has an entire LP (also on CD) of the Nutcracker.
My personal favorite version of Nutcracker is the Les Brown version. I can't recall the arranger off hand. That is not for dancing, but a fantastic arrangement for listening. It runs about 7 mins and is a true gem.
Also Claude Thornhill in the early 40s had Gil Evans as arranger and they produced some fine swing things from classical music.
During the early 60s, several L.A. staff writers did a entire LP of powerful big band arrangements. 'Brass Menagerie' is the name of the LP and also the CD. I seem to recall the CD is out of print. There is some classical turned hard swing on that recording.
In thinking more aloud, I have a new recording that came across my way recently by Chuck Sagle (sp?). This is a mid 60s studio band of top notch musicians. I seem to recall there is some classical to swing stuff on that. Chuck is not a household name, but was a great arranger in the L.A. area in the 50s and 60s.
If you do some research of studio bands in the 50s and into the 60s, there is a lot of great hard swinging things done to classical music. I now recall Billy May has a killer arrangement of March of the Toy Soldiers from The Nutcracker. Billy has an entire LP called 'Naughty Operetta' that has other classical to swing things in it. The CD has 2 LPs on it 'Naughty Operetta / Playsfor Fancy Dancing'.
I'll try to remember to pull my playlist from my radio shows and post the tracks I used.
It's been a while, but about 3 or so years ago, I did an entire 2 hour swing radio show featuring classical music done in a swing style.
I'll have to dig up the play list from that.
But think - John Kirby. He had several things with his late 30s and early 40s group.
There is a CD out called 'Beethoven wrote it, but it swings'. I don't have the CD in front of me. This had about 20 or so tracks in this genre. I recall some of the tracks recording quality wasn't all that great.
Probably the most famous classical music turned to swing is Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker. Obviously the Ellington suite. Also Shorty Rogers has an entire LP (also on CD) of the Nutcracker.
My personal favorite version of Nutcracker is the Les Brown version. I can't recall the arranger off hand. That is not for dancing, but a fantastic arrangement for listening. It runs about 7 mins and is a true gem.
Also Claude Thornhill in the early 40s had Gil Evans as arranger and they produced some fine swing things from classical music.
During the early 60s, several L.A. staff writers did a entire LP of powerful big band arrangements. 'Brass Menagerie' is the name of the LP and also the CD. I seem to recall the CD is out of print. There is some classical turned hard swing on that recording.
In thinking more aloud, I have a new recording that came across my way recently by Chuck Sagle (sp?). This is a mid 60s studio band of top notch musicians. I seem to recall there is some classical to swing stuff on that. Chuck is not a household name, but was a great arranger in the L.A. area in the 50s and 60s.
If you do some research of studio bands in the 50s and into the 60s, there is a lot of great hard swinging things done to classical music. I now recall Billy May has a killer arrangement of March of the Toy Soldiers from The Nutcracker. Billy has an entire LP called 'Naughty Operetta' that has other classical to swing things in it. The CD has 2 LPs on it 'Naughty Operetta / Playsfor Fancy Dancing'.
I'll try to remember to pull my playlist from my radio shows and post the tracks I used.
That is the CD that came to my mind, too. It contains Benny Goodman's Swing version of "Bolero." Mostly novelty stuff, but still interesting. Goodman also did some of that stuff in his later years when he was actually playing classical music, as well.Jerry_Jelinek wrote:There is a CD out called 'Beethoven wrote it, but it swings'. I don't have the CD in front of me. This had about 20 or so tracks in this genre. I recall some of the tracks recording quality wasn't all that great.
- Jerry_Jelinek
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- Joined: Fri Feb 13, 2004 11:33 am
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Here is my play list from a classical to swing show I did in 2001
Beethoven Wrote It, but it Swings Dolly Dawn and her Dawn Patrol
Bublitchki Ziggy Elman
Humoresque Glenn Miller
Full Moon and Empty Arms Maynard Ferguson
The Quintette Plays Carmen Raymond Scott
Let's Dance Benny Goodman
Arab Dance Claude Thornhill
Bazaar Pete Rugolo
O Sole Mio Red Nichols
O Mio Babbino Caro Ralph Marterie
Artistry in Rhythm Stan Kenton
Chopins Prelude No. 7 Jimmie Lunceford
Tha Lamp is Low Eddie Reed
Farandole Xavier Cugat
La Virgen De La Macarena Duke Ellington
Song of India Tommy Dorsey
Sabre Dance Woody Herman
Danny Boy Maynard Ferguson
Full Moon and Empty Arms J. J. Johnson
Bounce of the Sugar Plum Faires Don Byron tribute to Raymond Scott
Procession of the Sardar Les Brown
Carnival of Venice Harry James
Ritual Fire Dance Jerry Fielding Orch
Morning Mood Duke Ellington
Pilgrims Chorus from Tannhaeuser Stan Kenton
Hungarian Dance No. 5 Claude Thornhill
March of the Toys Tommy Dorsey
Malaguena Stan Kenton
Oddly I didn't use any John Kirby. Strange on my part. I must have had a brain freeze when programming this show.
- RaleighRob
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- Joined: Tue Nov 04, 2003 2:43 pm
- RaleighRob
- Posts: 39
- Joined: Tue Nov 04, 2003 2:43 pm
Re: Dance songs with classical music in them
I think you're talking about "Love Me Or Leave Me".Matthew wrote:Also, there's that Nina Simone tune that has a big section with classical piano, but I can never remember what it is.
How about Django Reinhart's "Interprétation Swing du Premier Mouvement du Conceto en Ré Mineur" and "Improvisation Sur le Premier Mouvement du Concerto en Ré Mineur", both based on a J.S. Bach theme?
- Mr Awesomer
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Great album indeed. Duke Ellington: Three SuitesBigCash wrote:I was under the impression that Ellington had a swingin' arrangement of the entire Nutcracker Suite as well as some other additions.
Great for Xmas dances.
Reuben Brown
Southern California
Southern California
- Greg Avakian
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It needs to be edited or faded in/out, but one of the very best is Ray Brown's "classical in G". It's on "3 dimensional" - a sweet album with Gene Harris and Jeff Hamilton.
This also fits into the tempo/dance change catagory: Blues->swing->blues
This also fits into the tempo/dance change catagory: Blues->swing->blues
Hey, my e-mail's changed, here's the new one:
SwingDJ@gmail.com
About me: www.geocities.com/swingboypa
SwingDJ@gmail.com
About me: www.geocities.com/swingboypa
random bits and pieces i didn't see mentioned:
anitra's boogie (carmen cavallaro, who played classicaly for a long time)
bumble boogie (freddy martin)
sabre dance boogie (freddy martin -- don't know whether it's the same as the harry james version mentioned above)
all three can be found on bmg's "boogie woogie hits", which i'm afraid is out of print. freddy martin did a bunch of boogie woogie classical covers. amazon has one or two albums on backorder, but i don't know much about them.
harry james recorded a flight of the bumblebee, too, but it's not as "danceable" as the rest -- lots of big slow passages and tempo changes to drive you mad. i have it on some cheap compilation cd called, imaginatively, "the legendary big bands" (don't have it in front of me, so don't know the label).
finally, there's glenn miller's version of tchaikovsky's piano concerto, which cracks me up every time i hear it. (the jazz collector edition, delta).
anitra's boogie (carmen cavallaro, who played classicaly for a long time)
bumble boogie (freddy martin)
sabre dance boogie (freddy martin -- don't know whether it's the same as the harry james version mentioned above)
all three can be found on bmg's "boogie woogie hits", which i'm afraid is out of print. freddy martin did a bunch of boogie woogie classical covers. amazon has one or two albums on backorder, but i don't know much about them.
harry james recorded a flight of the bumblebee, too, but it's not as "danceable" as the rest -- lots of big slow passages and tempo changes to drive you mad. i have it on some cheap compilation cd called, imaginatively, "the legendary big bands" (don't have it in front of me, so don't know the label).
finally, there's glenn miller's version of tchaikovsky's piano concerto, which cracks me up every time i hear it. (the jazz collector edition, delta).