Haydn wrote:So you're moving between different bands and styles, checking out what the dancers are responding to. But I counted 17 different 'styles' there, so even if you only played one of each, it would take you about 50 minutes to complete the cycle. If you're doing a short set, that would use up most of your time wouldn't it, or have I misunderstood?
Yeah, that's about right - an hour's set. And I noticed when I was writing that list (looking up past sets for reference) that I was using era/style/artist/bpm/'energy' to choose songs. All that and without a bunch of real dancers to watch!
I guess this is why a 2 hour set is nice. Though I find that if that first hour goes badly by the time I get to the end of it I'm 'right, that's it - where's the next DJ?' I did a few sets when I was just starting DJing, though, that were really long and I was the only DJ for a crowd of people who really wanted to dance. In that situation, if I can't get it together I think 'right, let's just start again from the beginning' and pull out a nice, safe hi-fi 50s Basie track that everyone loves. 'Every Day I have the Blues' (Breakfast Dance and BBQ version) was my go-to song for a while there. But that was for a crowd/scene that (at the time especially) favoured hi-fi and weren't so interested in Ye Olden Dayes.
I also noticed that I completely misread the thread title. Sorry.
And, I think that it'd be really interesting to 'visit'
CafeSavoy wrote:Mckinney Cotton Pickers, early Chick Webb, early Fletcher Henderson, and all the early hot bands of the early 30s.
Sure some of them are what I'd think of as 'pre-swing', but these guys are essential figures in 'swing history' so they seem utterly relevant. Also, utterly awesome.
... I keep thinking of those two volumes of Gunther Schuller's books. Reading through 'The Swing Era' made me realise how important the relationship between bands was - who left which band to start up with what band. Who heard such-and-such's band and was totally inspired. Who was taught to play what instrument by who. The role of managers, producers, venues in all this... I think I'd probably really like to sit in on a recording session or two if I had a time machine.
On a side track, Brian in Melbourne has done a couple of sets where he's played just one artist all night. He did a Basie set quite a few years ago that was a couple of hours long and absolutely freakin' awesome. 'One artist, many years' as an alternative theme?
CafeSavoy wrote: it's interesting to see which songs they keep in their book and how they've changed (e.g., old and new testament "Shorty George") and also which songs they didn't seem to repeat (e.g., "shout and feel it"). Ellington did alot of both since some of his songs were designed for specific instrumentalists and he would retire them until he had an instrumentalist who he felt could do it justice. Also Duke was open to ideas from the instrumentalists, so when Ray Nance joined the band he added to violin to C Jam Blues and it has pretty much stuck.
This is something that I find really interesting. Comparing (for example) Basie's later and earlier versions of the same iconic songs has been a really good way of learning not only about how swing music changed over the years, but also how band leadership was important. As a DJ, I like the fact that I can play the same song by the same band recorded in different decades and please two completely different groups of dancers. Kind of like a swing out itself - same step, completely different feel or look, depending on who's doing it with whom.
...all this kind of emphasises (for me) why Reyned's Yehoodi show (based on the Great Day photo) was so awesome. They were a group of people who were just in a photo together. But putting together the set demonstrated a whole series of more interesting connections.