SwingDJs

inspired by the depth of knowledge shown on the harlem thread and the frequency of inquiries about good music to get, i think that we could provide a service to dancers and other djs by providing pithy lists of great music in various categories as starter sets. feel free to just add entries to various lists and repaste the new lists. the lists will be subject to revisions and amendments as a result of discussions. a few starter categories:

Essential Swing Era:
Essential Modern:
Essential Early Jazz:

Essential New York:
Essential Chicago:
Essential New Orleans:
Essential West Coast:
Essential Central Avenue:

Essential Male Vocalists:
Essential Female Vocalists:
Essential Vocal Groups:

Essential Big Bands:
Essential Small Groups:
Essential Jazz Me Blues:
Essential Jump:

Essential Piano:
Essential Saxophone:
Essential Trumpet:
Essential Organ:
Essential Clarinet:
Essential Guitar:

Essential Swing DJ Collection:
Essential Swing Dancer Collection:
Essential Jazz Early:
Essential Jazz Bebop:
Essential Jazz Post Bop:

Essential Saxophone: Lester Young, complete studio sessions on Verve, and Proper Records Lester Young box set
Essential Trumpet: Louis Armstrong, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man or the not-out-of-print ... um, that flat one with all the photos. uh, yeah.
Essential Guitar: Charlie Christian, genius of the electric guitar.
Essential Drums: Chick Webb, Standing Tall

Essential Big Band: Complete Decca Count Basie or Proper Records Basie box set.

Essential Jazz Post Bop: Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers (self-titled, on Impulse!)

We talking just danceable or are we talking Essential Jazz?

Nando wrote:We talking just danceable or are we talking Essential Jazz?

i think we should focus on dance, except for the three jazz categories.

CafeSavoy wrote:

Nando wrote:We talking just danceable or are we talking Essential Jazz?

i think we should focus on dance, except for the three jazz categories.

now, i don't know. i'd hate to overlook something essential because it's not danceable. what do you think?

We're swing djs. Presumably we play for swing dancers. I suggest that we restrict ourselves to danceable.

Essential Jump: Roy Milton and His Solid Senders - Specialty Series (Greatest Hits)

CafeSavoy wrote:

CafeSavoy wrote:

Nando wrote:We talking just danceable or are we talking Essential Jazz?

i think we should focus on dance, except for the three jazz categories.

now, i don't know. i'd hate to overlook something essential because it's not danceable. what do you think?

Jazz is dance....silly

Doug wrote:We're swing djs. Presumably we play for swing dancers. I suggest that we restrict ourselves to danceable.

just because there are some dancers that do not have the abiltity , does not mean it's not danceble.

Go ahead and restrict your scene....

SirScratchAlot wrote: just because there are some dancers that do not have the abiltity , does not mean it's not danceble.

Go ahead and restrict your scene....

You presume to know what I mean by danceable????? How do you know that I am helping to restrict my scene?? How do you know what I consider danceable? How do you know the bredth of my interests in jazz? Etc......

This thread came up because a fledgling DJ was asking about essential CDs to have in her collection for DJing purposes. We thought it would be interesting to poll the Swing DJs to see what they thought. Do what you will with it, but that's what I would find most interesting.

Doug wrote: You presume to know what I mean by danceable????? How do you know that I am helping to restrict my scene?? How do you know what I consider danceable? How do you know the bredth of my interests in jazz? Etc......

back peddle back peddle back peddle...

children, children..

Shanabanana wrote:This thread came up because a fledgling DJ was asking about essential CDs to have in her collection for DJing purposes. We thought it would be interesting to poll the Swing DJs to see what they thought. Do what you will with it, but that's what I would find most interesting.

I'm thinking maybe one of the reasons why this thread hasn't gotten a lot of pertinent traffic is that most of the established DJ's already have lists like this - perhaps they should be listed together as a starter set?

I've been using Reuben's as a useful list for things to start collecting: http://www.jivejunction.com/djservices/

I got Anthology of Big Band Swing and it's a very good primer for the swing era bands - it helped me listen and see who else I liked and wanted to start collecting.

I don't know how the gurus on here feel about Ken Burns Jazz Collections - but I got the Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, and Duke Ellington collections and I dj quite a bit from them - good overall chronological selections - most of them danceable.

djstarr wrote:

Shanabanana wrote:This thread came up because a fledgling DJ was asking about essential CDs to have in her collection for DJing purposes. We thought it would be interesting to poll the Swing DJs to see what they thought. Do what you will with it, but that's what I would find most interesting.

I'm thinking maybe one of the reasons why this thread hasn't gotten a lot of pertinent traffic is that most of the established DJ's already have lists like this - perhaps they should be listed together as a starter set?

It always tough to respond to threads like this. Inevitably, your fellow DJs decide to pull out their swords.

It is one thing to say that you like a certain track/album track. Most of the time, you can get away with that, if it phrased properly. However, whenever you start ranking or saying that one track/album/artist is above most others, it ends up getting real argumentative around here.