SwingDJs

...ULTRA by Harry James?

Eyeball wrote:...ULTRA by Harry James?

It's often useful to give an audio sample

Haydn wrote:

Eyeball wrote:...ULTRA by Harry James?

It's often useful to give an audio sample

Oh....please forgive me. I simply assumed that a 'swing dj' would know HJ Ultra w/o my having to reference it. HJ stands for Harry James, btw. He was a famous trumpet player and bandleader back in the last century.

Sixty years later and it still sounds great!

Eyeball wrote:
Oh....please forgive me. I simply assumed that a 'swing dj' would know HJ Ultra w/o my having to reference it. HJ stands for Harry James, btw. He was a famous trumpet player and bandleader back in the last century.

I've never heard that song before and, after downloading the 1949 version off emusic, I can't say that it's something I'd be too excited to DJ.

Travis
Swing DJ

(I did like the version of Big John's Special from the same album http://www.emusic.com/album/Harry-James ... 01903.html)

There's lots of tunes we don't like the first time. Try it on your dancers and see what they feel.

James had a good band right till the end and he barely gave up his Swing style and never the roots. Never went through a Bop or Modern Jazz or 'rock' period. Most modern he got was 50s style Basie charts, plus whatever pop crap he was forced to record in the 60s.

Ya - the BJ Special from 49 is excellent.

James may be the only Swing band leader who still *had* a good band in 1949.

Circus Days ain't bad either. Nice find.

There's quite a few good ones on there...very few ballads and/or vocals.

Strong band.

"East Coast Blues" (not on that CD) is a real mid-tempo rocker from around 1947 or 1949, too.

I'm not too keen on Ultra for Lindy Hop. It has more of a floaty, strutting, fox-trot feel to me. I'd probably try it for ballroom dancers although I'm not sure it'd be a hit.

For the most part, very little of James' Orchestra recordings click with me. Much if it reminds be of Billy May's sterile sounding recordings for Arthur Murray with extra trumpet flourishes like Bunny Berigan did, just not as well placed.

I have alot of Harry James, but Ultra didn't ring a bell and regarding the sample, I have to agree with Dave, it didn't move me that much.

Keep listening or try it out on your patrons.

Or, understand your own tastes and preferences and don't continually try to force them on everyone else. Either way.

Swifty wrote:Or, understand your own tastes and preferences and don't continually try to force them on everyone else. Either way.

Who's the one who is judging by his own tastes and won't try it out with a real audience?

Could some be afraid that the audience might enjoy something the DJ never heard of and doesn't like....or approve of ?

Either way.

If I take a chance on a song it is going to be a song that I really like but am unsure how a dance crowd will react. If the dancers don’t like the song then I shrug it off as a difference in tastes and shelve the song for my own listening enjoyment. If I don’t really like the song to begin with then I just won’t play it, period.

The satisfaction I get out of DJing is watching other people dance to the music that suits my tastes – it is our individual tastes that help to differentiate us as DJs.

I don’t think Ultra is a bad song in general but I don’t find it inspiring to dance to and I don’t think it would go over well in Seattle.

I don't think any one is afraid that the audience might enjoy something the DJ hasn't heard before. I'm pretty sure we all play songs that at one point we had never heard of -- that's unavoidable.

[sarcasm] At one point in my life I had never heard Jumpin' at the Woodside (I know, hard to believe), but after a while of people convincing me (against my initial judgment) that the dancers would like it I finally played it, and what do you know they were right! [/sarcasm]

As for being afraid of songs that the DJ might not "like" or "approve of", typically that only happens with requests. If no one is requesting the song, then the DJ gets to decide what they think the dancers will enjoy dancing to.

So far the only one requesting this song is you. So if you think it'll be so great and the dancers will love it, then start DJing for dancers and find out. Otherwise, find a DJ in your area to lobby to.