SwingDJs

I did have a look to see if there was a thread discussing this already, but I could have information management-fail. Apologies if I missed an existing thread.


Here are some Australian bands that I DJ regularly, go to see and dance to regularly, or who I just plain like. There are a million more, but this list has exhausted me. I'm sure some of the other Australians can help me out.

Incidentally, $30 is about what you pay for a new CD here in Australia. Anything less is a bit of a bargain.


Melbourne bands:

Red Hot Rhythmakers - super-authentic "‘Hot jazz from the Roaring Twenties’" - based in Melbourne, headed by Michael McQuaid. Their CDs are available by mail via their site.

Michael McQuaid's Late Hour Boys - inspired by Lazy Ade's Late Hour Boys, smaller group hot jazz. Their CD is available from that link, but only in limited numbers.

Sweet Lowdowns - small group, similar line up to the Rhythmakers, but a bit hotter. CDs via their site or Newmarket music.


Cairo Club Orchestra - large, 20s society big band - really fun live. You can get CDs from their site.


Sydney bands:

Puggsly Buzzard - pianist with a gravelly voice - like Fats Waller with Tom Waits' voice. Super fun live, playing a mixture of blues/jump blues/swing/etc. Album via itunes!

Unity Hall Jazz Band are a FABULOUS live band, but I haven't heard any of their recordings.


Carol Ralph. Doesn't have a website, but you can get her album here

The Ozcats are a Bob Crosby tribute band. I haven't been all that impressed with my one CD by them, but they are supergreat live. I'm not sure where to get their CD, but the Sydney Jazz Club always have a zillion billion CDs by Australian bands at their gigs. If you happen to be in Sydney.

Thanks a lot for this list!

They veer a little to far towards the wrong sort of bow-tie/straw boater/wacky waistcoat side of things sometimes, but the New Wolverines Jazz Orchestra have a few albums and I quite like my 'From Bix To Duke' CD, though it's not top shelf.

They don't have a proper website, and that's the only half reliable link I could find. Once again, you can buy their CDs at Sydney Jazz Club gigs, but otherwise...

That Jazz in Australia website could be useful, though its layout is typically a little frightening.

Thank you for the list! I hope that some of these artists become available on Amazon or eMusic USA.

I'd like to mention one more Australian artist, even if his focus is vintage Blues, instead of vintage Jazz, and not all is material is danceable: C.W. Stoneking! I saw him performing in Los Angeles a couple of years ago and I cannot wait to see him back. He sounds really like a 1920-30s black Blues artist and he writes all his material. I think he is touring Europe right now. So if you get the chance to catch him in a city near you, check him out.

Lorenzo

Gong-Oh: some of these guys are available on itunes. Stoneking's band (and recordings) feature(d) a few high profile Melbourne jazz musicians, including some of the blokes from Virus).


The Cope Street Parade are another Sydney band that are a bit popular atm. They've just put clip on youtube and have a CD for sale that I haven't heard.
They're a bit rough and ready, and I haven't heard them be consistently good live, but I did hear most of them in a really fabulous gig with the Unity Hall jazz band a month or so ago. But then, Lin Wallace, the amazing drummer from Virus was holding the band together.

Virus, btw, feature some really good Melbourne musicians (John Scurry, Lin Wallace, Chris Tanner, Eamon Mcnelis, etc).

DP - a fail on the information finding

http://www.swingdjs.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=1168

A few other Sydney bands:

http://www.swingcity.com.au/ - a swing based big band

http://www.danbarnett.com.au/Dan_Barnet ... /Home.html - great singer/trombonist (has a new CD coming out soon)

http://www.howlermusic.org/HowlerMusic.ORg/Home.html - Anthony Howe (has a new CD out which I must get)

A classic Graeme Bell album is available on eMusic:

http://www.emusic.com/album/Graeme-Bell ... 63496.html

Features the track Czechoslovak Journey which Max and Annie used for a routine.

I really wish it was easier to get hold of Michael McQuaid's various works, with the Rhythmakers and the Late Hour Boys as well.

http://www.jazzology.com.au/

has both podcasts containing Australian jazz (mainly traditional) as well as selling some Australian jazz cds (and vinyl from Swaggie).

Suppose to have Michael McQuaid on there but not visible. The RHRMs website says to email them and they take paypal.

ps the Sweet Lowdowns will be playing at National Folk Festival (in Canberra) and Michael McQuaid will be in residence.

@Russell:

@CountBasi: you can buy the McQuaid stuff through their websites



I have just stumbled over this cool (but abbreviated!) clip of the Cope Street Parade (Sydney) with Eamon McNelis (Melbourne): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjJxXMd6r2c& It's really cool.

Australian Jazz? Well. there's my own band, Greg Poppleton & his Bakelite Dance Band.

Tracks from our Phantom Dancer CD are played by Swing Djs around the world according to emails I get. The Phantom Dancer CD is available at CD Baby: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/poppleton

We mainly play for corporates and private events, but every couple of months or so, the quartet play for swing dancers at a club in western Sydney. Here's a couple of our latest YouTube clips...

The first clip is the quartet at Penrith. In the band there's myself singing. Incidentally, I've been Djing swing on my own multi-award winning radio show on Sydney's leading independent radio station, 2SER, since 1985. I post the weekly updates here at SwingDjs on another thread

On guitar, Grahame Conlon, has played in the bands of Ricky May, Billy Field and James Morrison. He has played with international jazz stars, Scott Hamilton, Eugene Wright from the Dave Brubeck Quartet, and Don Lamond of Woody Herman's "Herd". He has also backed USA divas, Barbara Morrison, Ernestine Anderson and Terry Lamond. Grahame has played at nearly every jazz festival in Australia and toured overseas with Australian jazz groups. In fact, he'll be with a few other Bakelite Dance Band musicians at the Bix Beidebecke Festival in davenport, Iowa this August.

On double bass, Darcy Wright was named by Rolling Stone in the world's top ten bassists list. He's famous locally as the first person in Australia to build and play an electric bass. His bass was copied with his permission and went into immediate commercial production. Darcy was a permanent member of many TV Orchestras including Tommy Tycho's Channel 7 Orchestra, Geoff Harvey's Channel 9 Orchestra, the Mike Walsh Show Orchestra, the ABC Radio Showband and Eric Jupp's ABC TV Showband. Darcy has played for world class artists Tony Bennett, Vic Damone, Jack Jones, Mel Torme, John Hendricks, Wayne Newton, O C Smith, Nancy Wilson, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, Diahann Carroll, Dusty Springfield, Billy Eckstine, Billy Daniels, Cab Calloway and many more. Darcy also toured with Jose Feliciano, Cleo Laine and John Dankworth. He's played with international jazz artists Scott Hamilton, Warren Vache, Red Holloway, John Surman, Laurindo Almeida, Carl Fontana and Australian jazz stars James Morrison, Don Burrows, George Golla, Dale Barlow, John Nicol, Bob Barnard, Ricky May and Julian Lee. Stage shows include Singin' in the Rain, Mame, Chicago and numerous others. Darcy was a lecturer/teacher at the Conservatorium University of Adelaide and Edith Cowan University, Perth

On drums, Bob Gillespie, has played in the Glenn Miller Orchestra, deputised for the regular drummer of the BBC Northern Dance Orchestra, the organisation Frank Sinatra famously telegrammed the BBC not to shut down, and was musical director for the legendary Lovelace Watkins. It was a few tours to Australia that Lovelace made that convinced Bob to settle here

Anyway, here's the link of that informal little get together we have at a club in western Sydney, Penrith RSL, and we'll be there next Saturday, 30 April, 2 - 5pm:

Greg Poppleton & his Bakelite Dance Band - Exactly Like You
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGzTLH8m ... ure=relmfu

Here's another clip which I like because the audience spontaneously sang along. It's not swing. In fact it's a waltz. The sound is awful. The Bakelite Dance Band is in the background (unseen) with Peter Locke playing a wonderfully out-of-tune grand piano. Peter Locke will also be in Iowa this August. Grahame's on guitar, though you can't hear him, likewise Dieter Vogt on double bass. Laurie Bennett is on drums. We were the support act in a 500 seat auditorium for a couple of concerts headlining yodeler Mary Schneider

Greg Poppleton & his Bakelite Dance Band - Always
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYI7q997aIU


Dieter Vogt has played double bass all over the world. Dieter was born in Basel, Switzerland, and began his musical career at the age of 12 playing the trumpet. At 17 he took up the double bass and played with the Oscar Klein Quartet. (Oscar Klein played with Lionel Hampton & Joe Zawinul.) He migrated to Sydney and became a foundation member of the Daly-Wilson Big Band. Dieter went to the USA, playing for a year with the Allan Pennay Trio. On his return he joined Winnifred Attwell for eight months touring Australia. Dieter toured China and South East Asia with the Nolan-Buddle Quartet. (Errol Buddle was one of the Australian Jazz Quartet in the US in the '50s). He also toured with Ricky May and Georgie Fame, and again toured Australia with British jazz stars, Humphrey
Lyttleton and Alex Welsh in their Salute to Satchmo. Dieter toured with Graeme Bell's All-Stars around Australia, New Zealand, Holland, Germany, China, Hong Kong, the Phillipines, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and Japan

Drummer Laurie Bennett comes from a musical Sydney family. He has played in the bands of Don Burrows, Johnny Nicol and Judy Bailey to name a few. He was a long time member of Geoff Harvey's TCN Channel 9 Midday Show Band. Laurie has played on many tours throughout Asia, New Zealand, Great Britain, Europe and has performed throughout Australia. He has backed many international Jazz artists such as Richie Cole, The Toshiko Akyoshi Orchestra, Barney Kessel, Herb Ellis, Buddy Tate, Eddie 'Lockjaw Davis, Joe Newman and has played for many local and international cabaret performers including Buddy Greco, Harry Secombe and Liza Minnelli

PS - Do we rehearse? No! Every performance is spontaneous. Two clips on YouTube by Greg Poppleton & his Bakelite Dance Band of Out of Nowhere and I Can't Get Started are of standards the band and I have never played together before until the film was made with a buzzy pocket camera. I made up the updated I Can't Get Started lyrics as we went along. The first line, which I don't think is too clear, is "I've floated 'round the world in a saipan. That's so I could rhyme, "I've settled whaling disputes with Japan." Ah, well

In short, Greg Poppleton & his Bakelite Dance Band is an Australian jazz and swing band where the individual members have a great international jazz history behind them. I feel very privileged that they feel I'm a good enough singer to play for. As for my own singing - the style is authentic to the era because it's the music I've always listened to. I'm also operatically trained with a 4.5 octave range by the same New York maestro who owned the famous Continental Baths in New York (with a performer roster that included Sarah Vaughan, Cab Calloway, Margaret Whiting and others) and who discovered Bette Midler

A recent visit from Andy Schumm and Josh Duffee resulted in the Hot Jazz Alliance, playing the arsehole ends of town, without enough PR to get us all there. Sob.

But the visit did produce some brilliant clips:


http://www.youtube.com/user/jasondownes#p/u

And here's the latest Greg Poppleton & his Bakelite Swing Jazz Band clip from a club west of Sydney, 30 April

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTLPmY8QOUE

The dance floor was full of dancers, but only one or two couples from the Sydney swing clubs - weird!

I've really been enjoying my Mike McQuaid's Late Hour Boys CD. I've just seen a clip of them doing 'Blame It On The Blues' last year which is neat. This band's on at MSF this year - wahoo!

McQuaid keeps a blog as well:http://rhythmoftheday.blogspot.com/ which is nice.

Oh, and I also saw the Ozcats at a dance this past weekend. They were AMAZING! I'm still not excited by their CDs, but if they tour to your city (they're the sort of band who do the European summer jazz festivals), you must catch them. I was just stunned by their awesomeness.

Surely the most laborious ordering system known to humankind... but a lot of Australian (and other) jazz can be ordered through The Victorian Jazz Archive.

I've just gotten a copy of Leigh Barker and the New Sheiks' new album Sales Tax and it's really great.



This Melbourne band features some top shelf Australian musicians: Leigh Barker, Matt Boden, Don Stewart, Alastair McGrath-Kerr, Eamon McNelis, Heather Stewart. Heather Stewart sings and plays violin. Special mention for Eamon McNelis, who's a bloody good trumpeter.

These guys battled the Cope Street Parade here in Sydney a couple of weeks ago.




Leigh Barker is also in the Irwell Street String Band (which includes Andy Baylor, who is a gun).



...and he's in the Hot Jazz Alliance with John Scurry, Jason Downes, Mike McQuaid and various other guns. Hot Jazz Alliance playing Black Snake Blues last year.