SwingDJs

I was fortunate enough to have a dance on Count Basie's birthday. Since it was the exact day, I decided to do a whole night of Basie. I thought it turned out pretty good.

I did play one song twice. The second time was at the end of the night because Karen Turman wanted to practice a choreography she had to it and since there was only a few people left by then, I did it. (Even then, I felt guilty about doing a rerun!).

Here's the playlist if you are interested:

http://www.tcswing.com/DJ/090821TF-basie.htm

Cool! Did you get any feedback from the dancers? And is it mostly an advanced or a beginner crowd? I did an all-Ellington set in April, and afterward received "it was all a little too much the same" feedback from one person (even though I went through all of the Duke's career, and even played by other bands that he wrote).

Also: August 21st is the date of the Goodman Palomar opening.

I got positive feedback, including I should do it every August for his birthday.

The one thing I noticed when putting this together is that Basie has a lot of extremely good music that is in the upper tempos (210+). The one comment I got was that I played more fast music than what the dancers were used to (but the ones who sat out still enjoyed listening and watching other dancers).

The skill level was mixed. East Coast Swing dancers and Lindy Hoppers. The former enjoyed the brisker tempos more than the latter.