SwingDJs

Dean Mora has just relieced his 5th CD for his "Modern Rhythmists"



Track listings -

California Blues
Cinderalla Blues
Helen Gone
Maple Leaf Rag
Charleston
Deep Elm
Everybody Stomp!
Melancholy Weeps
Shake That Thing
Fight That Thing
Ain't That Too Bad?
Back In Your Own Backyard
Devil's Serenade
He's A Good Man To Have Around
Singin' In The Rain
Low Down Rhythm
'Leven Thirty Saturday Night
Caifornia Swing
Harlem
Siam Blues

More info
here

World Records are currently advertising the CD for $16.

Personnel
(Personnel: Geoff Nudell, Phil Krawzak, Matt Germaine, Chris Tedesco, Jim Ziegler, more)

Details
Label: MR ACE
Number: 5
Itemcode: 59757
Format: CD
Genre: Jazz
Dates: [2006]
Price: $16.00


Brian

Not a single reply to the initial post until now.

What's that say?

It says absolutely nothing.

Unlike the Boilermakers latest CD, it's not like Mr. Mora is here soliciting feedback. No one has even posted about the latest Colin James and the Little Big Band CD which was also just released,

It's a good CD, especially if you're interested in the evolution of hot music before it became "swing." However, it wasn't designed to be played by deejays at swing dances, it was designed to be a historical document.

Jake wrote:It's a good CD, especially if you're interested in the evolution of hot music before it became "swing." However, it wasn't designed to be played by deejays at swing dances, it was designed to be a historical document.

So there is npthing 'danceable' on a MMR CD? This is the band that people keep recommending to other people instead of neo-swing junk.

This is the first I've seen this thread... must have missed it the first go around.

That CD cover is awesome! I need to get this CD bad... especially since it's a recreation of 20's "California" music.

Will I ever play any of it at a dance though? Highly HIGHLY doubtful.

Eyeball wrote:So there is npthing 'danceable' on a MMR CD? This is the band that people keep recommending to other people instead of neo-swing junk.

So far, I've played "Deep Elm," "Fight That Thing," "Shake That Thing," "Charleston," and "Ain't That Too Bad." for dancers in Pittsburgh. But keep in mind that this town covets our Boilermakers, who have trained us well . My point was, the CD is focused entirely on 20's dance music. There's a lot of two-beat stuff on there, and a lot of Charleston tunes. YMMV. Personally, I think "Deep Elm" will make it into my personal frequent rotation. It rocks as hell.

"Recreation"? - that would imply that the solos are note-for-note, and generally that means stale and canned to me.

Just like the other MMR stuff, they are transcribed arrangements but the jazz is real.

Jake wrote: However, it wasn't designed to be played by deejays at swing dances, it was designed to be a historical document.

Slightly off the beam here, but I doubt that it was designed as an "historical document". Dean has too much respect for the music as living, breathing entity to ever relegate it to the status of 'museum music'.

That has been he attitude of so too many people in the field of Jazz - that older styles are relics to be worshipped, revered, but not necessarily enjoyed
It is what has made so much of Jazz radio, such as it is, one of the most boring experiences ever with droning professors talking more than they are playing.

This music is the real deal.

I have not heard the Mora CD and it may not be suitable for 'swing dancers', but people danced and listened to this music when it first came out. It was designed for dancing.

Jake wrote:However, it wasn't designed to be played by deejays at swing dances...

Neither was anything recorded before say...1996 or so.

Eyeball wrote:

Jake wrote: However, it wasn't designed to be played by deejays at swing dances, it was designed to be a historical document.

Slightly off the beam here, but I doubt that it was designed as an "historical document". Dean has too much respect for the music as living, breathing entity to ever relegate it to the status of 'museum music'.

That has been he attitude of so too many people in the field of Jazz - that older styles are relics to be worshipped, revered, but not necessarily enjoyed
It is what has made so much of Jazz radio, such as it is, one of the most boring experiences ever with droning professors talking more than they are playing.

This music is the real deal.

I have not heard the Mora CD and it may not be suitable for 'swing dancers', but people danced and listened to this music when it first came out. It was designed for dancing.

It almost seems like you're arguing that an historical document can't be enjoyed...

Anyway, from the liner notes,

Dean Mora wrote:The "hot" dance band arrangements we have re-created are ordered chronologically from 1923 to 1930 so that one can hear how the dance band arrangement (or "chart") developed as the decade progressed.

My conclusion: it's simultaneously an historical document, highly entertaining, and suitable for dancing.

Campus Five wrote:

Jake wrote:However, it wasn't designed to be played by deejays at swing dances...

Neither was anything recorded before say...1996 or so.

Do you really think that?

Jake wrote:

Campus Five wrote:

Jake wrote:However, it wasn't designed to be played by deejays at swing dances...

Neither was anything recorded before say...1996 or so.

Do you really think that?

Yes. Anyway, most jazz post 1950 wasn't really designed for dancing at all.

I'm just hazarding a guess that the phenomenon of DJ-ed swing dances and bands catering specifically to dancers on CD (like by putting BPM's on the album, etc.) is probably fairly recent, and would only be since neo-swing.

More importantly, I was just pointing out the flawed part of your whole approach. Very little has ever been designed for Dj-ing at swing dances, let alone designed for dancing (at least consciously). Catering so specifcally to dancers happened only in the original era and now. Although they definitely didn't go as far as we do today - Basie or Goodman never consciously though about keeping live song lengths short for dancers (except maybe to raise revunes for house taxi dancers), or played all Lindy-able music. There was always a mix of real swing, and pop tunes, balads etc (of course some bands had less swing than others.) Chick Webb as house band at the Savoy had genuine interaction with dancers, and Basie named a tune after Shorty George, but most bands were more like Shaw who resented dancers after a time.

The dance was created to fit the music. There was very little music that was created to fit the dance.

Jake wrote:
It almost seems like you're arguing that an historical document can't be enjoyed...

No. Not at all. But the term 'doument' in some applications in regards to music might suggest something less than an enlivened music.

But I see your point.

Campus Five wrote: There was very little music that was created to fit the dance.

Which has always been a big stumbling point in the swing dance scene : people came to the music through the dance when they would have been better served coming to the dance through the music.

Using the music and expecting it to be virtually utilitarian to fit their function (ha ha) crippled the music and the dance.

No one needs another "Hooked On Swing" epoch.