SwingDJs

I was just talking to WCS DJ friend of mine. She was asking about Oscar Brown Jr, the track "Somebody Buy Me a Drink" was getting some buzz on another list that we are on.

I recomended the album that song came from, Sin and Soul, and the following tracks, which many you are very familar with.

"Dat Dere"
"Signifyin' Monkey"
"Work Song"




My question, are there any other good Oscar Brown, Jr. dance songs out there (assuming you like Oscar Brown, Jr. to begin with )?

I have "Mr. Oscar Brown Goes to Washington" back from the Verve/eMusic days. But, there is nothing that I really feel compelled to play off it.

Nathan

don't play much of him, but in the right setting:

Opportunity Please Knock [Then and Now] (long intro)
Summer in the City [Mr. Oscar Brown Goes to Washington] (blues)

.. and I think there might be a couple off of the double album Tells It Like It Is!/In a New Mood. But, the first half is just weird.

I play Hazel's Hips from Sin & Soul on the very rare occasion.. but you've already pointed to that album.

on a tangent: Oscar Brown Jr is still alive and performing in Chicago. He plays Hothouse a couple times a year. I wouldn't go to dance, but he definitely puts on a good show.

The Oscar Brown Jr. tracks on both the Verve Remixed and Unmixed 2 are great. I believe the song is "Brother, where are you?"

BryanC wrote:The Oscar Brown Jr. tracks on both the Verve Remixed and Unmixed 2 are great. I believe the song is "Brother, where are you?"

good songs.. not really danceable, though.

i saw a new OB release at a CD store recently, it had several remakes of his hits from S&S

I love Oscar Brown, especially Sin and Soul.

It's hard to find, but "Then and Now" is pretty cool, too. Many many years later, he revists the Sin and Soul cd (and some other old songs of his). New, fun versions of Dat Dere, Work Song, etc (including his son on bass, which is what the words to Dat Dere is about). Yeah, and Opportunity Please Knock is pretty cool, too. Also, Nate, at your "Dot Com" exchange two years ago, I played "Cyberspace is the Place"!

Tell It Like it Is / In a New Mood is also pretty good, but not as good as the above two mentioned cds. I especially like One Foot in the Gutter. I've also played Hey There, but it's kinda cheesy. And I've heard better "Sixteen Tons" elsewhere. The best part about the cd are probably the ballads like One for My Baby.

Would love to know of other good cds of his for DJing!

Addict wrote:on a tangent: Oscar Brown Jr is still alive and performing in Chicago. He plays Hothouse a couple times a year. I wouldn't go to dance, but he definitely puts on a good show.

That's awesome! I wonder how much of his Hothouse sets are swingin' as he spans a number of genres. I've been in touch with his agent (daughter?) and am working to try to get him to NYC for a swing gig sometime. Roy or anyone else in Chicago, you should definitely try to get him for a local gig...that'd be way cool!

The bass man in my band is from Chicago, and used to be Oscar's music director.... just for you're info. His name is Ernest McCarty and he is probably on some of those tracks. Playing piano or bass.

Paul Cosentino
Boilermaker Jazz Band

reason #40521 that THE BOILERMAKERS KICK ASS!

Shorty Dave wrote:That's awesome! I wonder how much of his Hothouse sets are swingin' as he spans a number of genres. I've been in touch with his agent (daughter?) and am working to try to get him to NYC for a swing gig sometime. Roy or anyone else in Chicago, you should definitely try to get him for a local gig...that'd be way cool!

Dave, before you pay to bring him to NYC, I'd suggest coming to Chicago to see him perform. A majority of his work that I've seen live is not dance friendly, at least not LH friendly. Totally worth seeing, yes, but paying him to play a NYC dance gig would be a mistake IMO, from what I've heard him do live.

Dan from Chicago

Don't know is these has been mentioned in the past or not.

Oscar was also the on camera host and I seem to recall the producer of an early 1960s TV program. For the life of me I can't recall the name of the tv show. Does Jazz Scene USA sound right?

Some of these have been reissued on VHS tape and maybe on DVD. I'm trying to do this from memory here at work. Probably getting some things mixed up.

Can anyone help me out in recalling the tv program name?

Addict wrote:

Shorty Dave wrote:That's awesome! I wonder how much of his Hothouse sets are swingin' as he spans a number of genres. I've been in touch with his agent (daughter?) and am working to try to get him to NYC for a swing gig sometime. Roy or anyone else in Chicago, you should definitely try to get him for a local gig...that'd be way cool!

Dave, before you pay to bring him to NYC, I'd suggest coming to Chicago to see him perform. A majority of his work that I've seen live is not dance friendly, at least not LH friendly. Totally worth seeing, yes, but paying him to play a NYC dance gig would be a mistake IMO, from what I've heard him do live.

Dan from Chicago

OK, Oscar has a broad career so I understand where you are coming from. But in this case, we DID hire him for a dance and I couldn't have expected it to turn out so well.

All I can say is that if you're from Chicago and you want an excellent live performer, get Oscar Brown Jr! He was worth the airfare so consider yourself lucky and don't waste another month without him!

Even if you're not from Chicago, I highly recomend him for your next exchange; he's worth it.

He tore it up in Philly! The performance was just amazing, every song was dancable if not downright fun, he played short songs (or maybe I was having too much fun to notice) and he played until 1:30AM- not bad for a 78 year old.

People just stopped dancing and screamed/clapped to show their love in the middle of his sets when he would get animated and walk out among us singing (the band wasn't on a stage). He just grabbed the room and kept us going.

We had our biggest dance ever at one of our weekend events so the night was a success in any way you want to measure it...

what greg said. freaking blast Saturday night. (friday night, too) But I found Oscar Brown, jr. very danceable. Some of the songs definitely leaned towards boppish, but all around I loved dancing... and so did seemingly everyone around me.