SwingDJs

Travis wrote:

SirScratchAlot wrote: Well, it's true, I beleive Seattle is Tad above LA now...and I have other friends from down here that tend to agree.

..don't follow in our scenes steps....we suck.

Since I've only been to LA for CH and the last 2 exchanges I can't agree or disagree with this (though I also appreciate the compliment).

One thing I do know is I am always jealous of all the opportunities you have in SoCal for live music - Seattle can't touch you there.

No no no...You missed my intention, Are events are awesome, atleast the ones Us LA dancers put on as an entity. Seattle events are great as well.

and yes, ofcourse we have Live bands probably the best in the country, aside from the few GREAT ones in other big cities such as NY.

I was reffering to the scene , meaning weekly dances...and the dancers abilites at them. As a whole, are scene has dropped in ability to what it used to be...

You can take the average dancer in Seattle and Have fun dancing at all tempo's without a hitch, in LA the average dancer has dropped a tad below Seattle....

I kinda noticed this at the last exchange and then just recently Tip and Holly made the same comparison...

we simply don't have the DJ's that Push us in tempo's like we used to...and our dancing has started to suffer.

main_stem wrote:

SirScratchAlot wrote:Seattle Rocks because you down have any Juke Box DJ's that play everything under the sun...Thats the great thing about being up there, you can acually dance every song all night, and not get bored.

Oh if only that were true. We have our share of the Jukebox DJs. One imparticular has been getting a lot more "air time" as of late and he spins the same music every week. Literally. Hell you could set you watch to him.

Well, as you know I've only been there for "events" and it's usually the Dynamic dual of Kev & Kev kicking butt with the tunes...along with some of the locals Like Tanya or June...

main_stem wrote: I agree with Kevin S our late night up here have sucked ass as of late. For better or worse Seattle has gotten a reputation for being a fast music city. So when DJ's come in they feel they have something to prove and only play fast music, oblivious to the fact that the crowd ain't with them. Now, I'm not advicating playing "Wade in the F^&k&*g Water" mind you; I would just like to see the DJs connect with their audience. At least make an efort and not come in with an agenda.

well, it is a faster town then most, and it's freakin great! I can tell you of alot of Big City folk that are jealous as hell. and hey, look at what it has done to the dancing ability level??? shit, if the crowd aint with it...it doesn't show.

main_stem wrote: The only thing worse then seeing a DJ bomb; is seeing one who is oblivious to the fact.

Out of town DJ's are alwasy like that, thats why they are brought in, atleast as far as I'm concerned. same thing with the Lindy Groove , well thats what Lance says anyways. He brings in out of towners to bring their flava but they read the name of the place and change their Mix to fit the name "lindy Groove" and more ofetn then not they Bomb....we are lucky to get a few Barn Burners any given night there even though Lance totally welcomes it. The crowd alwasy eats them up and starves for more....only to be dissapointed.

djstarr wrote: Yep; when it's freaking hot at 2 in the morning (and we don't have air conditioning up here), no one wants to dance to fast music, especially after a long night of dancing.

your crazy, thats the best time to crank it out....I certainly can't dance very long unless my heart is shocked a few times through out the night...

it's those barn burners that keep a dancer going all night long....

It's like walking that thorough bred horse around the track over and over, without putting him in the gate and running him....I say get the damn blood pumping , sweat dripping and push the shit out of everyone....they'll thank you in a few years when they are great dancers and they realize it was those reponsible for pushing their limits...! LOL

SirScratchAlot wrote:

CafeSavoy wrote:

SirScratchAlot wrote: if you want to diversify, play more hot jazz or stuff from the 20's.....

as an aside, is 20's jazz lindy hop music?

hell yes, it freakin created it.....You better beleive it! good times!

i know that the roots are in 20's jazz, but the music did change and so did the dance. similar to how you mentioned the changes to the dance in the 40's. was the dance still more charleston-like then? similar to what Shorty George was doing in After Seben?

CafeSavoy wrote:

SirScratchAlot wrote:

CafeSavoy wrote: as an aside, is 20's jazz lindy hop music?

hell yes, it freakin created it.....You better beleive it! good times!

i know that the roots are in 20's jazz, but the music did change and so did the dance. similar to how you mentioned the changes to the dance in the 40's. was the dance still more charleston-like then? similar to what Shorty George was doing in After Seben?

we can all call it more "this or that" but it was Lindy Hop. Obviously , your correct in that it was more closely related to it's Charleston Roots then it's WW2 predecessor "The Lindy" .

The name came about only because of the flight but they had been doing the dance for a few years....not as the Charleston but as The "break away". Shorty's famous clip was in 1927, with that said, the years to follow of 28 and 29 etc...continued the dance on an "up-swing" of popularity and innovation, pushing and driving the music and dance.

although we throw around the term 20's Jazz, simply put they were called (as you already know) Dance bands...

SirScratchAlot wrote:
No no no...You missed my intention.....

I was reffering to the scene , meaning weekly dances...and the dancers abilites at them. As a whole, are scene has dropped in ability to what it used to be...

I think I got your intention - I was just saying that I haven't truly experienced LA's scene because I have only been there for special events. Therefore I can't offer an opinion on a general LA/Seattle comparison.

SirScratchAlot wrote:
Well, as you know I've only been there for "events" and it's usually the Dynamic dual of Kev & Kev kicking butt with the tunes...along with some of the locals Like Tanya or June....

Kevin and I are trying to get the tribute to the Savoy night coming up next time you're in town. Oh it's fun digging through this stuff. I feel like DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist, Numark or Baboo when they go beat digging.

main_stem wrote:I feel like DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist, Numark or Baboo when they go beat digging.

pumpin them phat tuba beats.

Off topic and all but did you see the documentary "Scratch"? They have a piece on dj shadow crate digging and it's crazy. The basement is unbelievable.

coreyj5 wrote:Off topic and all but did you see the documentary "Scratch"? They have a piece on dj shadow crate digging and it's crazy. The basement is unbelievable.

Yeah.. was that at Downhome in SF?

There's a place in portland (Crossroads Music) that took me 3 or 4 trips to make it thru all the different jazz sections, and I had to toally readjust my buying technique from grabbing anything that seems sorta good to stuff that was really top notch.

KevinSchaper wrote:

coreyj5 wrote:Off topic and all but did you see the documentary "Scratch"? They have a piece on dj shadow crate digging and it's crazy. The basement is unbelievable.

Yeah.. was that at Downhome in SF?

There's a place in portland (Crossroads Music) that took me 3 or 4 trips to make it thru all the different jazz sections, and I had to toally readjust my buying technique from grabbing anything that seems sorta good to stuff that was really top notch.

Actually it in Davis, CA

yedancer wrote:Give me a break.

Absolutely not.

I think we all know the basic idea of what "groove" music and dancing is.

Then share. When I challenge people like this they usually can't come up with any kind of reasonable and generally acceptable application. They use the label as a catch all. Like back in the mid nineties everything that wasn't "Hollywood" was immediately labeled Savoy, yet when challenged to define Savoy they couldn't.

If you can't define the term showing what it applies to and doesn't then you really shouldn't be using the term. Especially since there are already well defined and generally accepted terms that describe the music style being discussed.

I guess I'll reiterate my original point: WHO CARES?

It's going to be impossible to have an exact definition that everyone agrees on.

If I had to define it, I would say that groove is slower, modern, bass-laden swinging music that lindy hoppers can dance to. But, again, who cares? Why don't we discuss more meaningful things than the definition of the name of a trend that everyone knows about?

Nate Dogg wrote:I would say that the term "groove" in the current case is not purely about the music. The dancers and the dance itself provide a context for this discussion.

Do they? How so? Are you saying that the music is defined by the style of dance that is done to it and not the other way around? So I can start calling Hip-hop music "freak", and post-bop jazz music "stand around and nod my head and tap my foot" music. So what happens when we have music that has several different dances that are done to it? This is Bal music, no it's shag music, no it's lindy music, no it's charleston music. That is just silly.

If I say that Ernestine Anderson is a groove artist, I say that in the sense that many so-called lindy hoppers will consider most of her recordings to be groove music.

Really? How many is many? What is groove music? What defines it? what qualities does it have that are unique to it, or only exist in this specific mix, therefore seperating it from other forms of music.

In short, lindy hop dancer slang has developed over the past few years that has little relevance in the real world of jazz terminology.

In short lindy hop is fuill of people who are to lazy to understand a thing and would rather lump things in by association rather than actually taking the time to broaden their horizens... I take back what I said before, this dance is going to become extinct.

Sometimes slang sticks around and becomes part of the larger vocabulary,

Only when it has a definition that people understand. Sweet, bad, krunk, bling-bling... all have exact definitions.

I also question that statement about music definitions being time tested.

Really? Is there some confusion about what bop is and how it differs from hard bop? What rock and roll is and how it differs from heavy metal? What Funk is and how it differs from hip-hop? Hmmm... musicologists and musicians seem to be able to deal with these terms just fine... why aren't dancers able to? Oh thats right we are lazy.

D Nice wrote:

yedancer wrote:Give me a break.

Absolutely not.

I think we all know the basic idea of what "groove" music and dancing is.

Then share. When I challenge people like this they usually can't come up with any kind of reasonable and generally acceptable application. They use the label as a catch all.

they can't and they won't because they aren't interested in a discussion. they just want to have the power to re-define others.