SwingDJs

lipi wrote:

Albert System wrote:Actually, most scenes in the US use at least half live music. I know that is true for Pittsburgh, PA where I live and maintain my band, and also Washington DC where we play quite often.

really? wow.

that's certainly not true in the sf bay area--by a long shot.

what way is it in the sf bay area, would you say?

Eyeball wrote:

lipi wrote:

Albert System wrote:Actually, most scenes in the US use at least half live music. I know that is true for Pittsburgh, PA where I live and maintain my band, and also Washington DC where we play quite often.

really? wow.

that's certainly not true in the sf bay area--by a long shot.

what way is it in the sf bay area, would you say?

oh--sorry: mostly dj'ed. i estimate less than 15% live music.

Yes- I heard Flo play a few times. Was great! There are MANY famous jazz musicians who got their start in Pittsburgh:

Earl Hines
Roy Eldridge
Billy Strayhorne
Mary Lou Williams
Dodo Marmaroso
Stanley Turrentine
Maxine Sullivan
Erroll Garner
Art Blakey
Dakota Staton
Ahmad Jamal
Slide Hampton
Benny Powell

There's a bunch more... It really was a hot bed of jazz in the early days.

And yes, the bands that play for dancers on the East Coast are actually playing swing music. There are a few cheesy neo- swing types, but there are also quite a few really good actualy swing bands. The scenes where we play the most- Pittsburgh, DC, NYC, Philly, North Carolina, etc are about half the time using live music. It is almost like a regular circuit!

Albert System wrote:Yes- I heard Flo play a few times. Was great!

Flo Cassinelli - No longer living, I guess?

A near totally obscure player who apparently 'never left' Pittsburgh.

When my friend put one of the LPs on, it was swinging from note one!

YEs- he has passed on. But was a reall swinging player in his day. I could list a whole bunch more musicians like Flo who never left, but were every bit as good as those who went on to fame in the bigger cities. But then, you would not recognize their names anyhow....

Albert System wrote:Yes- I heard Flo play a few times. Was great! There are MANY famous jazz musicians who got their start in Pittsburgh:

Earl Hines
Roy Eldridge
Billy Strayhorne
Mary Lou Williams
Dodo Marmaroso
Stanley Turrentine
Maxine Sullivan
Erroll Garner
Art Blakey
Dakota Staton
Ahmad Jamal
Slide Hampton
Benny Powell

There's a bunch more... It really was a hot bed of jazz in the early days.

Dr. Nelson Harrison who played with the Roger Humphries big band at one of the Pittsburgh exchanges did a presentation of jazz in Pittsburgh and it was very enlightening. He noted that one of the characteristics of Pittsburgh artists was that they all had their own sound. There's a list of some of them at http://www.clpgh.org/research/music/pit ... cians.html

Albert System wrote:YEs- he has passed on. But was a reall swinging player in his day. I could list a whole bunch more musicians like Flo who never left, but were every bit as good as those who went on to fame in the bigger cities. But then, you would not recognize their names anyhow....

I imagine so.

I spelled his name wrong.

Corrected spelling : Flo Cassinelli.

CafeSavoy wrote: There's a list of some of them at http://www.clpgh.org/research/music/pit ... cians.html

Link not working.






[fixed--rtw]

Albert System wrote:Yes- he has passed on. But was a real swinging player in his day. I could list a whole bunch more musicians like Flo who never left, but were every bit as good as those who went on to fame in the bigger cities. But then, you would not recognize their names anyhow....

Here's a nice gateway link -

http://www.pittsburghjazz.org/dotnetnuk ... fault.aspx

Maybe the mods can spin these Pittsburgh posts into a separate post?

Eyeball wrote:

CafeSavoy wrote: There's a list of some of them at http://www.clpgh.org/research/music/pit ... cians.html

Link not working.

Link working.

Jesse

Back on the original topic, I think Saskatoon, Edmonton and Calgary scenes are similar to SF, about 80%+ recorded music.

Here, we tend to leech off of other live music opportunities that aren't specifically swing dances, if you accumulate all those, it might be somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 live depending on the scene.

The recorded stuff is mostly swing with some rhythm and blues. The live stuff varies with the band, venue and event.

Eyeball wrote:Does the local Lindy Hop scene in your area use real Swing music from the 30s and 40s and maybe some Jazz from the 20s?

Or does your local LH scene use non-Swing and non-Jazz to keep itself going?

I'd like to know how much real Swing is being used nation-wide.

ps - How much real Swing does your scene seem to use, percentage wise, vs other music?

How much real Swing does your scene use?

Swifty wrote:

Eyeball wrote:Does the local Lindy Hop scene in your area use real Swing music from the 30s and 40s and maybe some Jazz from the 20s?

Or does your local LH scene use non-Swing and non-Jazz to keep itself going?

I'd like to know how much real Swing is being used nation-wide.

ps - How much real Swing does your scene seem to use, percentage wise, vs other music?

How much real Swing does your scene use?

I can't give an accurate statement, but less than I thought; perhaps less than I always thought, but positively less than I remember what with the demise of 2 or 3 of our fine bands cutting the live offerings in half down to Mora and Stout.

The only DJ'ed events that I ever went to on a regular basis were at Reuben's SFS which had a very high quotient of Swing and Jazz and only a small percentage of nonesuch.

I knew from personal experience that Lindy Groove was deeply into non-Swing and it was a look at the web site of another current venue that made me realize that what I thought were 'Swing venues' were really nothing of the kind. In my naivete, I was stunned. I had had no idea (b/c I don't/didn't go to DJ'd venues) that what was being billed as a 'Swing dance' event really wasn't. All it was was a venue where 'swing dancers' could go to dance their swing moves to whatever kind of Swing, non-Swing or swinging music the DJ or the crowd wanted to play or hear to dance to.

And that's what got me thinking about this topic.

Albert System wrote:YEs- he has passed on. But was a reall swinging player in his day. I could list a whole bunch more musicians like Flo who never left, but were every bit as good as those who went on to fame in the bigger cities. But then, you would not recognize their names anyhow....

Lookie here - two of his LPs on eBay, sadly the 2 I have. The seller is in western PA, so those LPs have not traveled far.

http://cgi.ebay.com/FLO-CASSINELLI-Albu ... dZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/FLO-CASSINELLI-Reco ... dZViewItem

Actually, I am right in the middle of this type of debate. I consider myself very traditionalist. 1930 and 1940 swing but of course love to play all the rest 1920s rockbilly, old blues etc. Well here in South Texas we go through trends one moment it is swing, the next it is more groove. I try to play the best that I can to make both sides happy, but I hate groove and feel so out of place. I often question whether swing is really dead being replaced by disco and bad blues (fusion I think they are calling it). Of course then I get on the internet and calm down because I see there are others like me.

Anyways there is a small patch here that love my sets but after DJing a new place the other day and being asked to be more fusion or bluesy. I thought this is it! I can't be something I am not! So I guess I will have to find a venue that likes swing music for swing music's sake.

You know one time I played an event and someone came up and said "Wow you are actually playing swing music!" She praised me and it felt good.