SwingDJs

Freddie and I are going to do a DJ battle next week, just a little fun thing to generate some music excitement. We will spin alternate versions of 4 tunes, picked from a master list. The master list includes Joshua..Jericho which is the one track I don't have.

I know of the Bechet version, which is awesome. There are quite a few choices on all music, including one by Pete Seeger, I'm assuming the vocal ones will all be some gospel rendition.

So what versions do y'all like for swing dancing to? Anyone have the Jack Teagarden version? I wouldn't mind tracking that one down if it's good.

Chris played the Ben Webster version (I assume off the proper set) when I was in Seattle the week after SONW. It liked it, quite a different flavor than the Bechet version.

There's a great Cozy Cole one out there as well...

.. which is the same as the Ben Webster one... nevermind.

The Stuff Smith version is decent as well, but the Bechet version is still the best IMO.

Also Kid Ory does a slower version (158) which is great as well.

russell wrote:Also Kid Ory does a slower version (158) which is great as well.

I play that one quite a bit - dancers go nuts for it. I like the roughness of it - more shouting and stampy-clapping.

(details: 'Joshua Fit De Battle Of Jericho' - Kid Ory And His Creole Jazz Band - 1946 - (I have it on an album called Kid Ory and his Creole Jazz Band 1944-46)).

Thanks y'all! I'll have to check out the tracks listed; the one I liked the best listening to the clips on allmusic was by Mahalia Jackson; good danceable vocal version.

Mahalia Jackson! I'll have to listen to that one. Does it actually swing?

sonofvu wrote:Mahalia Jackson! I'll have to listen to that one. Does it actually swing?

The 30 second clip sounds good to me; I have to track it down tonight or tomorrow and listen to the entire thing, but I think it's good, I like the piano section also: http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=am ... fe4j372wa4

texas-eddie wrote:There's a great Cozy Cole one out there as well...

.. which is the same as the Ben Webster one... nevermind.

The Stuff Smith version is decent as well, but the Bechet version is still the best IMO.

The Bechet version from 1949 is the one that gets me going the most as well, being a little "heavier", hitting a little harder, and going slower (around 180 bpm) than the Stuff Smith 1936 version, which is also good, but a little "lighter" and faster (around 210 bpm).

For me, the Mahalia version from 1955 is a little too gospel-y, but of course gospel is what you'd expect from her.

A good slow one (right above 130 bpm) is the Ralph Flanagan version from 1950.

/Jonas

Jonas wrote:For me, the Mahalia version from 1955 is a little too gospel-y, but of course gospel is what you'd expect from her.

yeah, that's what I like about it - the song is a spiritual and Mahalia's version reinforces that; at 2 min. it's a good length to play before or after the Bechet or Kid Ory version.

I started rewatching Ken Burns Jazz last night; Wynton was talking about how great jazz musicians can understand and play both the secular and spiritual side of these songs, the "angel and devil" as he put it. Kind of sums up the Bechet track.

MAHALIA JACKSON Live during European tour late 1960's
oshua Fit The Battle Of Jericho-Mahalia Jackson gospel Queen Mahalia Jackson as she appeared in 1957 singing on the Nat King Cole show.


Joshua Fought The Battle Of Jericho
fredeb68 - 3 min - Jul 31, 2006
Here are "The Old Timers" again with another song during their retirement ceremony.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJorUP6IwJ8

Joshua Fit The Battle Of Jericho - The Harlem Ramblers 1982
vegamitch - 3 min - Dec 14, 2006
The Harlem Ramblers Dixieland Jazzband from Zurich, Switzerland was founded in 1955, and, after various changes, settled down in 1969 to a well knit ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y4IKhwpots

djstarr wrote: I know of the Bechet version, which is awesome.

AHA! That's the Bechet song that I ... well, I really hate dancing to it. The melody seems really, really square the way he plays it. It somehow reminds me of a Jewish wedding (if that's not too un-PC to say).

I always wondered what that song was.

Julius--sometime I'll have to send you the first version I ever heard. I wonder if you'd like it completely not-jazz (in a genre where squareness doesn't sound so funny).

I have a feeling I'm a bit partial to the song because of this good experience hearing my high school choir (one of the best around) perform it--it was creepy, actually, so kind of funny that it was a spiritual.

Anyway...yeah, I imagine I might feel like you if I hadn't already known the tune from outside of jazz before I started swing dancing.

Edit: Whoops. They didn't put that one on CD. Well, maybe someday I'll find the same arrangement on another CD and see what the contributors to this thread think of it.

dogpossum wrote:

russell wrote:Also Kid Ory does a slower version (158) which is great as well.

I play that one quite a bit - dancers go nuts for it. I like the roughness of it - more shouting and stampy-clapping.

(details: 'Joshua Fit De Battle Of Jericho' - Kid Ory And His Creole Jazz Band - 1946 - (I have it on an album called Kid Ory and his Creole Jazz Band 1944-46)).

Just got the Kid Ory Complete Columbia Session 1946 CD, which contains Joshua Fit De Battle Of Jericho. This is definitely a special version. It's got that 'anthem' feel which sweeps you along as you hear it, particularly in a crowd.