SwingDJs

Nice tune, lots of versions around.

My current favourite is this one by Fats Waller, available on this CD. What's yours?

Easy one, for me. Though I have two favorites.

First, the Twin Cities Hot Club, from this CD. You've been to Showdown. 'Nuf said.

Second, and I may be shunned for this, but Eva Cassidy from the CD Live At Blues Alley. This second version is an excellent song for a transition from low energy to high -- it begins nice and mellow, but it builds excitement significantly throughout the course of the song, totally changing the mood of a room.

Brent

I think I've heard about 2 or 3 versions of this song I didn't think swung well enough to spin at a dance.

The song is practically unruinable.

As I said, there are a few exceptions, but other than those, it really seems that "Honeysuckle Rose" swings enough to make you want to swing dance no matter who's playing it.


Anyway, because practically all several hundred takes of it are danceable, rendering them at least "very good" as jazz songs go from the perspective of a swing dance DJ, I'd say there's no way for me to answer this question.

I love the Eva version although to me the strong shuffle rhythm feels more natural to dance FoxTrot than Lindy Hop. I will play it as a cross-over song if there are a lot of ballroom people in the crowd. As Brent said (sort-of), it does a great job of building and releasing tension rather than a steady energy. Something the ballroom dancers could use more of.

For DJ'ing to a Lindy Hop crowd, the two I probably spin the most are the Django recording and a Basie/Ella recording Jesse Miner turned me on to.

I only have the Django recording on one of the Jazz After Hours CDs which have virtually non-existant liner notes. I belive it features Coleman Hawkins when he was overseas. Great tune, lots of jank.

The Basie/Ella recording isn't the usual arrangement which was done by Quincy Jones. It's off a CD titled "A Perfect Match", it has a really laid back groove, not the manic feel of the common version. Also a great tune, more on the groove side.

My all time favorite version is from Goodman's 1938 Carnegie Hall concert. A wee bit too long for DJing though.

maxine sullivan's version on "a tribute to andy razaf" is near the top of my list, as are fats's own recordings (on the proper box, for example).

Toon Town Dave wrote: I only have the Django recording on one of the Jazz After Hours CDs which have virtually non-existant liner notes. I belive it features Coleman Hawkins when he was overseas. Great tune, lots of jank.

that's one of my favourites, too. coleman hawkins and his all-star "jam" band, 1937. it's also on "django reinhardt & his american friends".

The Basie/Ella recording isn't the usual arrangement which was done by Quincy Jones. It's off a CD titled "A Perfect Match", it has a really laid back groove, not the manic feel of the common version. Also a great tune, more on the groove side.

there's also a nice 1964 live ella version ("live atjuan-les-pins").

Easy - the 1941 Goodman version with solos from Benny, Charlie Christian and Cootie, but otherwise it's the Fletcher arrangement.

The Basie and Coleman/Django one's are also great. I also dig the 1944 Cootie Williams version, the live Goodman sextet version in Db, and the later Goodman sextet version on "Slipped Disc" with Barney Kessel on guitar.

Tony Pastor did a good one sometime in the 40s, I think. It was on one of the very first big band anthologies I ever bought on Columbia.

He has just the right sly voice to carry that song like a lot of the stuff he sang with Artie Shaw.

Count Basie's 1937 recording as well as Mora's 2000 cover of said version.

kitkat wrote:I think I've heard about 2 or 3 versions of this song I didn't think swung well enough to spin at a dance.

Was this one of them?

or this one?

kitkat wrote:it really seems that "Honeysuckle Rose" swings enough to make you want to swing dance no matter who's playing it.

So what exactly is it that makes Honeysuckle Rose swing? It might be worth discussing that ...

GuruReuben wrote:Count Basie's 1937 recording as well as Mora's 2000 cover of said version.

Good versions.

Honeysuckle Rose is a really interesting song. It exists at the most tempo ranges of any song i have. You can find it anywhere from under 100 bpm to over 300 bpm. Not that many songs are like that. Most just cluster at a few tempos.

Eyeball wrote:Tony Pastor...has just the right sly voice to carry that song like a lot of the stuff he sang with Artie Shaw.

I'll have to check this out. I looooooooooove Tony Pastor's Artie Shaw stuff (haven't found much stuff with him as bandleader that swung excitingly enough to play at a dance).

I wish there were more "sly-voiced" male singers nowadays. There were a lot who sang w/ Jimmie Lunceford & w/ Lionel Hampton bands, too. Seems instead, everybody male who learns to sing jazz trains to sound like a crooner, like Louis, like Fats, or like a modern-style New Orleans singer.

I really do have to get back to that one guy from Chester Whitmore's Opus One band--I promised I'd send him some tracks of such singing after I told him I thought he had the voice to do it and he wanted to hear more.

Hmmmmm.

The guys who sang with Lunceford most of the time was trombonist Trummy Young. He also did some great vocals on some live cuts with Armstrong's All Stars in the '50's.

One of the things that makes Honeysuckle Rose a great swing/ jazz tune is that the chord progression is set up perfectly for improvization, and also riffing. The melody itself in basically a riff, and it is very easy to come up with other riffs.

Plus, the lyrics are great too- suggestive and fun.

Plus, as was stated before, it is rare to find a tune that can work at a wide variety of tempos. Again, this is due to the chord progression and melody.

Some tunes, we all wonder why they get played so much... with other tunes, like Honeysuckle Rose, you realize that it is popular for a reason.

Fats wrote quite a few of them that are considered classics!

The Maxine Sullivan version can get on my nerves a little bit - "honey honey honey honey", "suckle suckle suckle suckle" is a little bit over the top.

My favorite version is the one from Satch plays Fats, a duet with Louis Armstrong and Velma Middleton; I also like the Ella version on Juan-Les-Pins, and of course the Coleman/Django version.

A nice one not mentioned so far is the one from the Fletcher Henderson Alumni Band on The Big Reunion cd. It's a bit long so you can't play it that often.