SwingDJs

Context: Last night, 3.20, I was playing a "battle of the bands". It was the music of Duke Ellington vs the music of Count Basie. (I'll post the set list later) At the time Duke Ellington's Main Stem was playing. The two previous songs were Midriff, Duke, followed by The Jitters, Basie.

"Do you have any real lindy hop music, like Frank Sinatra"

I had a good laugh with this the rest of the night.

-Kevin

That's funny. Meeshi and I did a Basie vs. Ellington theme a while back and nobody showed up.

Lovin' it. hahahhahaha

God I love the "Lindy Hop" scene. Not.

We had a pre-D-Day only night with guest DJs last year. It was advertised that way.

One local dancer got upset we wouldn't play some modern groovy swinging jazz....

go figure.

-Warren

Theme nights tend to draw out complaints, no matter what the theme. Sure, a lot of people like them. But, some people just notice what is being excluded.

Locally, it has been awhile since we have had a theme night. I guess Christmas or Halloween were the last ones. Even then, there were always a few people around to complain about the seasonal tunes (The "I hate Christmas music always" crowd).

A few years ago, theme nights were much more common, we had 80s nights, Count Basie nights, etc ...

So I was playing Ellingtons version of For Dancer's only, and a woman asked me if I could play some 50's music, "this song is CHEESY!" just thought I would share the laugh

At a college dance, I had just come off a set of Ellington, Basie, etc. A student came up and asked me to play some swing.

At another college dance, I had just played a few songs that had been recorded within the past 5 years and had a student come up and ask me to play something NEW.

Daaaamn... you guys actually REMEMBER the times that this has happened to you? I've lost track.

Seriously, although it is a good inside joke among us, I've stopped feeling surprised or acting offended: can't fault "them" for not being as obsessive as we are. Usually, they just don't know the right words to use to describe what they want or they simply are not paying as much attention to my sets as I do. As much as we want to fool ourselves that we are Swing Professors, they are there to just socialize and dance, not take notes. Also, I sometimes get a sort of vicarious kick out of those sort of newbies: it's good to have them.

I enjoy the newbies too. There's a dance I DJ every few months and the first time I went there there was a full page of requests before I even started playing. I was not sure whether to be pissed or amused.
The same guy in the same suspenders asks me to play "Gal from kalamazoo" everytime. BTW, that's what e-music is for. I've turned him on to "jeep jockey jump" and he loves it.

Simple pleasures.

This reminds me of a couple of weeks ago when I was DJing our weekly Saturday dance. I was right in the middle of Louis Jordan's "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens" (about 150 or so) when this guy came up and asked me if I was going to keep playing west coast music like this all night long. Then he started talking about BBVD and how their stuff is the right tempo for swing. That kept me chuckling the rest of the night.

That guy named "this guy" really gets around. He seems to be the only one asking shockingly misinformed questions or making amazingly naive comments. Besides me, that is...

One of our monthly dances is the "bring your own music" dance DJed by a friend of mine. The night features mostly standards and, often, songs that I might have had some concerns about overplaying. But the night works well. Every song is a wanted song and makes someone happy. And I get to listen to what people are playing for themselves at home. Gives me a monthly reminder about what the crowd enjoys.

3 or 4 months ago I had just finished playing some up-tempo piece by Goodman (can't remember which one, but do remember that it was over 200 BPM) when one of the dancers came up and asked for "something fast". A little conversation revealed that he couldn't feel the beat unless it was inyourface rock like CPD or BBVD. That would be worrisome if it weren't so funny. Oh well.

WarrenWright wrote:We had a pre-D-Day only night with guest DJs last year. It was advertised that way.

One local dancer got upset we wouldn't play some modern groovy swinging jazz....
-Warren

Well how about some Jack Dupree, Alberta Hunter or Bessie Smith for pre-1940 groove ?

Jacques

Hmmm...what about that Goodman small groups CD? Isn't that late 30s groove? Maybe I've got the date wrong...