Ska for Swing (241)

Other music that might interest us

Moderators: Mr Awesomer, JesseMiner, CafeSavoy

Locked
Message
Author
User avatar
caab
Posts: 48
Joined: Sun May 02, 2004 8:40 am
Location: Durham, NC
Contact:

Ska for Swing (241)

#1 Post by caab » Wed Jun 16, 2004 9:27 am

My former life as a ska DJ has me thinking about playing music from my other collection, but I've been apprehensive about mixing ska at a swing dance. Recently I DJ'd in Raleigh and played Millie Small's "My Boy Lollipop," which went over extremely well, so I was wondering what, if any, ska you guys have played at dances. I hate to see dust collect on all my ska CDs... :lol:

User avatar
yedancer
Posts: 417
Joined: Wed Nov 20, 2002 8:08 pm
Location: San Diego
Contact:

#2 Post by yedancer » Wed Jun 16, 2004 9:28 am

I've always wanted to play "She Has a Girlfriend Now" by Reel Big Fish, but I never had. Not truly ska, but still...
-Jeremy

It's easy to sit there and say you'd like to have more money. And I guess that's what I like about it. It's easy. Just sitting there, rocking back and forth, wanting that money.

User avatar
JesseMiner
Posts: 1034
Joined: Mon Nov 18, 2002 5:36 pm
Location: San Francisco, CA
Contact:

#3 Post by JesseMiner » Wed Jun 16, 2004 11:45 am

A fellow ska DJ chiming in. I've considered spinning ska music at swing dances but haven't done so yet. The reason I am apprehensive is because by nature the feel of the ska rhthym is almost completely opposite to that of the swinging rhythm, making a straight-up ska tune quite difficult for swing dancing. If you listen to tracks by The Skatalites, this is quite obvious, and The Articles even called the music they play flip'd jazz. I would need to go through my collection on a song-by-song basis, listening for songs that "swing" more, often borrowing more from the earlier r'n'b, jazz, blues and boogie influences. The obviously starting place for me would be Jump With Joey, as they are the band that first turned me onto swinging rhythms, as they mix ska, swing and latin so well in their music.

Millie's "My Boy Lollipop" would probably work quite well as the rhythm section is leaning more towards a swinging rhythm than a ska one. You can still hear the ska guitar playing on the upbeat [this is the ska term for playing on the "and" of each beat], but the walking bass and drums keep things swinging.

I can't picture swinging to Reel Big Fish's "She's Got A Girlfriend Now". The rhythm is some cross between traditional ska and modern rock, but not quite that driving beat that many modern ska bands use that often makes their songs sound "swinging" - similar to the rhythm used by many neoswing bands. Not to mention the section near the end where the song just flat "rocks out".

I'll try to go through some of my music later when I have a chance and give some suggestions of ska songs I might consider playing for swing dancers.

Jesse

User avatar
GemZombie
Posts: 772
Joined: Wed Nov 20, 2002 2:46 pm
Location: Alpharetta, GA (Formerly SLO, CA)
Contact:

#4 Post by GemZombie » Wed Jun 16, 2004 11:49 am

I like ska music. But please, for the love of God, keep ska out of swing dances ;)

User avatar
Matthew
Posts: 421
Joined: Sat May 17, 2003 7:31 am
Location: St. Petersburg, Florida

#5 Post by Matthew » Wed Jun 16, 2004 12:35 pm

Paul has played "Goodbye" by Save Ferris. The tempo changes are interesting.

User avatar
nightowl
Posts: 17
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2003 3:59 pm

#6 Post by nightowl » Wed Jun 16, 2004 1:16 pm

As a former ska fan, I refrain too.

But if I had to pick, I would play "On my radio" by Selecter, Or "She Sure Can Cook" by Skavoovie.

There's a number of fun tunes on the two-tone collection that might work.

User avatar
Kyle
Posts: 192
Joined: Wed Nov 20, 2002 3:01 pm
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Contact:

#7 Post by Kyle » Wed Jun 16, 2004 1:26 pm

What is up with Ska bads using SKA in their name?

The SKAtellites and SKAvoovie


is common? or am I just making shit up? :)

User avatar
sonofvu
Posts: 246
Joined: Wed Mar 26, 2003 10:15 am
Location: Austin, TX

#8 Post by sonofvu » Wed Jun 16, 2004 3:21 pm

GemZombie wrote:I like ska music. But please, for the love of God, keep ska out of swing dances ;)
I like ska also. But please, leave it out of swing. Never the twain shall meet.

By the way, a friend of mine told me that bananarama was once a ska band. I've not been able to confirm that. I was watching VH1 classic the other day and I saw Banarama with Fun Boy Three do a version of "Aint what you do...". Perfectly horrible.
Yard work sucks. I would much rather dj.

User avatar
yedancer
Posts: 417
Joined: Wed Nov 20, 2002 8:08 pm
Location: San Diego
Contact:

#9 Post by yedancer » Wed Jun 16, 2004 4:07 pm

JesseMiner wrote:
I can't picture swinging to Reel Big Fish's "She's Got A Girlfriend Now". The rhythm is some cross between traditional ska and modern rock, but not quite that driving beat that many modern ska bands use that often makes their songs sound "swinging" - similar to the rhythm used by many neoswing bands. Not to mention the section near the end where the song just flat "rocks out".
Yeah, I was thinking of playing more as a novelty/challenge song. It has some cool breaks in it that I think people could have fun with. Yeah, the rocking part would be kind of weird.
-Jeremy

It's easy to sit there and say you'd like to have more money. And I guess that's what I like about it. It's easy. Just sitting there, rocking back and forth, wanting that money.

Nate Dogg
Posts: 886
Joined: Sat Dec 14, 2002 3:29 pm
Location: Austin, TX

#10 Post by Nate Dogg » Wed Jun 16, 2004 6:13 pm

sonofvu wrote:
GemZombie wrote:I like ska music. But please, for the love of God, keep ska out of swing dances ;)
I like ska also. But please, leave it out of swing. Never the twain shall meet.

By the way, a friend of mine told me that bananarama was once a ska band. I've not been able to confirm that. I was watching VH1 classic the other day and I saw Banarama with Fun Boy Three do a version of "Aint what you do...". Perfectly horrible.
George, Back in the Buffallo Billiards days (an old Austin venue for the non-Austin readers), Jonathan Van Matre used to play Reel Big Fish's version of Duran Duran's Hungry Like The Wolf.

But, neo swing was closer to the norm in those days.

Nathan

Zev
Posts: 19
Joined: Fri Mar 19, 2004 2:24 pm
Location: New York City

#11 Post by Zev » Fri Jun 18, 2004 3:17 pm

Just about everyone I know with an interest in early Jamaican music quickly went and got the great Tougher Than Tough compilation. The second song in is Laurel Aitken's "Boogie In My Bones". You could easily slip it into the mix and no one would notice. But then again it is not a distinctly Jamaican song though it has faint elements of what was to come. Mostly it sounds like a New Orleans tune straight from Cosimo Matassa's.

Anyway, on a related note, the liner notes mention (as does nearly every summary of Jamaican music) that the early Ska scene was heavily influenced by Southern USA music especially what they could hear over the radio coming out of New Orleans or Florida. So what I wonder is if there is music worth hunting down from the precursor era.

The Jamaican musicians were supposedly pretty great and a bunch of Jamaican transplants to London supposedly helped kicked off the whole Ronnie Scott's scene. Does anyone have a handle on what kind of Jazz scene they had in Jamaica? I've heard the names but I have no music. Anyone have any music by Dizzy Reece, Joe Harriott, Ernest Ranglin, Wizard Simmons, Eric Allandale?

BTW Coxsone Dodd just recently passed away.

User avatar
caab
Posts: 48
Joined: Sun May 02, 2004 8:40 am
Location: Durham, NC
Contact:

#12 Post by caab » Thu Jun 24, 2004 8:58 am

Zev wrote: Anyway, on a related note, the liner notes mention (as does nearly every summary of Jamaican music) that the early Ska scene was heavily influenced by Southern USA music especially what they could hear over the radio coming out of New Orleans or Florida. So what I wonder is if there is music worth hunting down from the precursor era.
The influence of jazz on early ska is why I really started this thread, to see if anyone else had made the connection and found some danceable music. My ska knowledge is limited when it comes to Jamaican music, but what I understand is that radios in Jamaica could pick up broadcasts out of New Orleans, which exposed Jamaican musicians to jazz. Other influences I've heard of are the British military brass bands and traditional Jamaican music called mento. With this in mind, I thought there may be something worth finding in early ska recordings, as opposed to newer ska.

User avatar
RaleighRob
Posts: 39
Joined: Tue Nov 04, 2003 2:43 pm

#13 Post by RaleighRob » Thu Jun 24, 2004 1:52 pm

caab wrote:... and traditional Jamaican music called mento.
Traditional Jamaican music, the freshmaker!

User avatar
revbones
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Jun 28, 2004 5:31 pm

#14 Post by revbones » Mon Jun 28, 2004 5:31 pm

Kyle wrote:or am I just making shit up? :)
Isn't that normally what happens?

User avatar
Kyle
Posts: 192
Joined: Wed Nov 20, 2002 3:01 pm
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Contact:

#15 Post by Kyle » Tue Jun 29, 2004 8:14 am

this is a family board, lets leave the shit talking to the debol

move on

Locked