SwingDJs

French, in particular. I've finally gotten to take up DJing here, but one complaint I've received from the French is that I don't have anything in their language. The guy who runs swing has a few tracks, but a lot of it is stuff like translations of "Hello Dolly" by Petula Clark.

Albums I should order off Amazon? Artists I should be on the lookout for at flea markets? And please don't tell me Edith Piaf unless she made an album that REALLY swings, because something about that woman's voice really rubs me the wrong way.

Personally I prefer classic swing, or stuff that imitates that sound (even if it's newer and hi-fi), but I won't totally reject checking out more modern styles that you guys tell me swing, either.

Or even if you have one or two isolated MP3s (god forbid!) to send me to appease people until I can actually find that CD salesman who was at the market Tuesday but not today, that'd help a lot.

You could just play more instrumentals as an easy solution.

Blossom Dearie has some decent French swinging songs...

The only two suggestions (other than Blossom Dearie) that I have aren't that great:

Pink Martini's Sympathique is one.
There is a guy in France who has a swing band and a website: Christophe Avril: http://www.jazzyaventure.com
It's not GREAT stuff, but the upside is that it IS in French.

Joe Carroll has a French-ish song on his album with Ray Bryant. It makes my French dancing friend laugh, though the french is (intentionally) pretty bad.

There's a band called Paris Combo that's pretty good as I recall. There were a couple songs on this CD that I used to play. No covers, just originals. I'm not sure about their other stuff. The review says they "draw from Gypsy, Italian, and Spanish influences along with the swing of Django Reinhardt and some cool-jazz licks as garnish."

I would also like to echo Paris Combo...I find that alot of their stuff can be played for dancing (and not just swing dancing). It's a far cry from big band, but it's nice jazz. I have their self titled CD, which is pretty good- you can use stuff off it for some latin dances too. The singer's voice is absolutely amazing- very expressive in that 1930's/40's cabaret style using alot of singsongey speech (read: not scary sprechstimme) that can only be pulled off by someone using a foreign language. A couple of my favourites on that album: On n'an pas besoin, Je rêve encore and Je suis un if. Again, it's not all "swingable" stuff...but there's some stuff that can be used for samba, salsa, cha cha, etc.

My list of French songs: (its pretty short)

"I Won't Dance" - Stacey Kent (just a phrase!)
"Sympathique" - Pink Martini
"Qu'est Que C'est" (or however you spell it) - Joe Carroll & Ray Bryant
"Si J'avais Ete" - Paris Combo
"Jukebox" - Sugar Ray (just a phrase)
"C'est Si Bon" - Rebecca Kilgore & Eddie Erickson

there was one Orchestra worth mentioning during WW2 that was awesome and certainly deserves credit. Alix Combelle & his Orchestra....1940 to 1944, They swing hard as hell and it's all french.

I would be hard pressed to find anyone with as good a rhythm section...

I just got back from hearing the Preservation Hall Jazz Band at the Calgary Jazz fest. Oh. My. God. But Don Vappi does some Creole french tunes. One he did tonight was, "Eh, le bas" or is that, "Et le bas"? He didn't spell anything out, but it's the creole expression for "Comment ca vas?" or "How are you?" Very cool tune. What an awesome band. I got to meet the band backstage--there was so much history in that room, it was...insane. I can't sleep.

Well, the CD person was back at the market today; the old stuff I saw turned out to not be nearly as good as I'd hoped. Ballads, cutesy kinds of movie songs, etc. But I did end up buying one CD, and I even got a half-euro discount on it. Ray Ventura & Ses Collegiens...no album title, really, but it's from the "Ciné-Stars" series. Can't find any dates, unfortunately, but someone told me they thought the album was post-war. Heh...most of the tracks are, like the compilation albums the vendor had, sickeningly cute songs you'd want to see Gene Kelly dance to. But this one 5 tracks you could swing to, another one I couldn't quite decide whether it was swingable, and something I wouldn't want to lindy to, but I think, w/ my total lack of experience actually DOING the dance, would make a fine balboa tune.

4. "La musique vient par ici" (240)
7. "Chez moi" (225)
12. "Si le nez de Cleopatre" (188) [quite good]
17. "C'est ce qui fait son charme" (234)
18. "C'est toujours ça d'pris" (248) [undecided]
20. "Tiens, tiens, tiens" (200) [quite good]
21. "Qu'est-ce qu'on attend" (294) [bal?]

She sounded willing to hunt down CDs for me, and the price is right ($4.80 per CD, just under $19 for 5), so I might take her the list of your suggestions.

I definitely need to find a cheap Paris Combo CD. They're starting a US tour in July...go to www.pariscombo.com, I think. Should be a kickass concert...thank goodness they're hitting my college town during the schoolyear, not while I'm here in Paris. My roomie's in the music industry, though, so I might see if she can find out about any unposted Paris concerts before they puddle-jump. Hmmm...too bad she's in the pop side of things. It'd be nice to be able to ask her to help me track down this music, but she still wants me to show her sometime what swing dancing is.

This ought to get you started:

CD Universe - Browse Styles - Jazz - French - All.

Good luck!

Yoko Noge (from Chicago) has several great songs with Japanese lyrics. A Japanese former member of Austin's scene flipped for it every time I played it. www.jazzmebluesmusic.com

Lawrence wrote:Yoko Noge (from Chicago) has several great songs with Japanese lyrics. A Japanese former member of Austin's scene flipped for it every time I played it. www.jazzmebluesmusic.com

If you are referring to Alexis, her last dance as an "Austin Dancer" is Thursday. Guess who is working the 10 PM slot (where the birthday/farewell song goes)?

You are the DJ for that slot, hint, hint...

Lawrence wrote:Yoko Noge (from Chicago) has several great songs with Japanese lyrics. A Japanese former member of Austin's scene flipped for it every time I played it. www.jazzmebluesmusic.com

Oh, how I miss Yoko.