Herrang

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Abdel
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#16 Post by Abdel » Tue Jul 13, 2004 9:29 am

I am here hanging out in Herrang, but I don't have my cds yet so I can't dj until I get them. I shipped them to stockholm 2 weeks ago from Tampa and little did I know Stockholm is a bit far from Herrang.
Anyway, I have heard quite a few people djed over the past few days. It's interesting in a way, but not exactly what I expected. I have heard mostly good music here at Herrang. However, I have not been too fond on how some people choose to DJ. I am talking about the arrangement of the songs throughout their sets. Peace Up, all the way from Sweeeeden....yaaa! Abdel

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main_stem
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#17 Post by main_stem » Tue Jul 13, 2004 10:24 am

Abdel wrote:I am here hanging out in Herrang, but I don't have my cds yet so I can't dj until I get them. I shipped them to stockholm 2 weeks ago from Tampa
Why the hell would you ship your CDs in stead of packing them?
"We called it music."
— Eddie Condon

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Lawrence
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#18 Post by Lawrence » Tue Jul 13, 2004 2:55 pm

BryanC wrote:I think I'll sort of play it by ear. I'm planning two weeks, but I may only stay for one (but probably stay for two really).
O.K., Yogi. 8)
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Bob the Builder
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#19 Post by Bob the Builder » Sun Jul 18, 2004 6:42 pm

I'll be in Herrang this Friday. wahoo.
I'm the guy with the orange hair and the Irish acent. :D
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djstarr
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#20 Post by djstarr » Tue Jul 27, 2004 12:24 pm

Bob the Builder wrote:I'll be in Herrang this Friday. wahoo.
I'm the guy with the orange hair and the Irish acent. :D
Brian - it was great seeing you and dancing with you again. It just clicked from reading this post that you are Bob the Builder.... funny.

fyi, I dj'ed quite a bit in Herrang last week. It was a very interesting experience for me. I talked with a lot of my European friends about music - on the whole they seemed to prefer a more modern sound vs. vintage. Anybody who dj's in Europe a lot care to comment? Does pre-war music get played consistently at all?

And kudos to Matt (aka Zot) for playing some great music - I really enjoyed your sets.

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BryanC
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#21 Post by BryanC » Wed Jul 28, 2004 7:23 am

I still cannot believe the jam circle kept going through Chicken Rhythm. Yes yes, Mike, I know now that it was too clever. This grasshopper is still learning.

But I'm still utterly stunned.

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Zot
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#22 Post by Zot » Wed Jul 28, 2004 6:51 pm

DjStarr, it was great to see & dance with you, and to hear your stuff. I appreciate the feedback on my music too. I can't believe how vocal the crowd in Herrang is about their music... I must have had a couple of dozen come up to me during my sets saying they liked stuff. Chester climbed up into the booth 3 times in one set to ask me about stuff. That was funny.

Kitkat -- great to meet you too. Sorry I wasn't around longer to ask you for a dance but I think you arrived on the day I left.
"Take the worst of neo-swing and put it together with Glen Miller. The man thinks the Count is someone from a horror flick. Take pity on him and let him play two or three tunes. But be sure you have some errands to run." -- Bill Borgida

KattenPejst
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#23 Post by KattenPejst » Fri Jul 30, 2004 11:22 pm

It was sooooo great* to be back in Herräng. So much good music; just when I thought "well, maybe I've heard all there is" then I get blown away by fantastic stuff I've never heard before. I really enjoyed Joseph Sewell's (uk) set thursday night (4th week).

*You who saw the cabare with Hanna and Åsa as MCs know what I mean.

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kitkat
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#24 Post by kitkat » Tue Aug 03, 2004 1:37 am

I suppose "Upcoming Events" is the forum for communication between event promoters and DJs, so I have a DJ recommendation to make--I wouldn't ordinarily do this, but this case stood out.

Herrang 2004 Blues Night #4 was phenomenal. Lennart and Mandi did a great job as house DJs, of course, but the one who seemed to come out of nowhere and blow me away was Kevin Buster of Seattle.

The music was old but often oh-so-sexy. When it wasn't sexy, it was oh-so-sad. So sad your body wretched to the music. It wasn't just slow music that gave you the chance to lead and follow body rolls. It tugged you one way and tugged you another, and if that happened to resemble a body roll, so be it.
I have never had slow music take me in so much and make me its dance partner. I have to confess, I felt transported into a world of black and white movies with Bessie Smith ballrooming in a bar...the music was 60% my dance partner, the lead 40%. I turned down two leads I wanted to dance with because I was too busy getting into the groove on my own. Some leads let themselves be carried into that world, too, and we danced the song away together in our own Harlem paradise.

I know this is a ridiculously whimsical description of someone's DJing, but it's how I felt as a dancer, and the recommendation for Kevin as a "roots" blues dance DJ is no less serious.

normalized
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#25 Post by normalized » Wed Aug 18, 2004 4:46 pm

Yep, it was my first time as well. But a question: It was generally said that there was a DJ directive to play faster older music, was this true? Seemed like (at least for week 4) they kept everything vintage and over 150 bpm till about 4:00a. And then Modern Jazz and even "groove" stuff started getting played and one could feel a discernable difference in enthusiasm level. Without getting into the usual debate of musical forms, did this really happen?

I just recalled Mike Faltesek's comments on fast music when he DJed at week 4, something about there being "no such thing as music being too fast" almost felt like there was a line in the sand being drawn, no? Opinions?

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BryanC
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#26 Post by BryanC » Wed Aug 18, 2004 6:06 pm

The organizers of Herrang, as far I could tell, wanted to emphasize the philosophy that Herrang is a dance camp centred around lindy hop (and boogie woogie in weeks 1 and 2) and lindy hop traditions. As far I could tell, I was never told that fast was necessarily better, but that the 'feel' of the camp dances should be "old feeling" (for lack of a better word) in terms of being reminiscent of the time when swing was born and crowned king. That also did not mean that you were restricted to playing the artists from that time, but that that was the feeling you were aiming for.

Quite frankly, I wanted to play faster stuff, but didn't feel the crowd would tolerate it very well when I tested higher tempos out (and also that jam circle hell would have started). But I loved Mike's opener in Week 3 in his DJ battle against Peter (I forget which song). And Mohan playing Chick Webb's Stampeding at the Savoy. But in week 2 and 3, those tempos tended to clear the floor right out. I wasn't there for week 4, so I have no idea whether DJ's were given other instructions.

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kitkat
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#27 Post by kitkat » Thu Aug 19, 2004 3:03 am

We were NOT given any "play fast" directives, especially not with BPM numbers, for the Folkets Hus (main floor).

Week 4, we were told that we could play faster music (i.e. an average of 170-210) on the DansBannan, since that was to be the "balboa / fast lindy" floor.

If an average of 170-210 was the rule of thumb stated at the DJ meeting for the balboa floor, though, I think that implies that Mandi and Mike were certainly not giving us any unspoken directives, either, to keep the "slower" floor above 150.

In fact, by Week 4, we had started to learn. At the DJ meeting, there were some comments with the gist of, "This room is tiring because it's so hot. Remember that ordinarily 'medium' tempos are going to sound 'fast' to many dancers out there." That's good advice, but it can get hard to play a set all between 120 and 160...and every time you broke out and played a trio of 160, 190, 185, someone or several people would come up and ask you not to play such long sets of fast music.

Or people would leave feedback behind your back at the camp, in their blogs later, or on webboards later, about how fast the tempos were.

Herrang was not "all old and fast music until early in the morning." It was mostly old, indeed, but not that fast. Still, I'm aware that it felt fast in the context, and though it was hard to adjust on the fly, I've been going through my collection to make sure I can not only spin "slow old music" but "good slow old music" next time I get there--hopefully, people will come away feeling like there was "good old music at a medium tempo."

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#28 Post by fishnut » Thu Aug 19, 2004 6:40 pm

been-a-lurkin' for a while but now I'm 'on-board'

I reaaaally got a kick out of the tunes at Herrang this year. I've got to say though - I too did feel it was consistently 'old' and 'fast' - not a criticism at all - I loved it! At first I was a bit fired up about the speed and wanting it slowed down. But, by half way through week 4 (my second week) I was diggin the chance to hammer it (albeit with very little room). I think the biggest problem was the volume levels. I know it was nothing to do with the organisers or the DJs, but many early recordings (esp. lo-fi) played with that restriction lost some of the feel. I think the DJs figured this out in week 4 and found better recordings to suit the conditions they had - kudos to ya'll. My DJing is certainly changing - I'm intro'ing a whole lot more 'early' stuff than I usually spin - always had it and listened to it, but rarely played it. Why? - dunno!

Now my question...

Can anyone tell me the version of St. James Infirmary that Steven and Virginie performed to at the opening of Blues night Week 3. Real slow - perfect for sitting around with a cognac at 3am. I've been searching since I got back from Herrang, but no joy.
Never argue with idiots - they'll bring you down to their level and beat you with experience...
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djstarr
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#29 Post by djstarr » Fri Aug 20, 2004 1:01 pm

fishnut wrote:I think the biggest problem was the volume levels. I know it was nothing to do with the organisers or the DJs, but many early recordings (esp. lo-fi) played with that restriction lost some of the feel.
.........
Can anyone tell me the version of St. James Infirmary that Steven and Virginie performed to at the opening of Blues night Week 3. Real slow - perfect for sitting around with a cognac at 3am. I've been searching since I got back from Herrang, but no joy.
Hey Glenn,

Nice to see that you have stopped lurking - I really enjoyed being in class with you! I agree with your point about the volume restrictions, also spinning with equipment you don't know well up in the main room was a challenge, especially since it was tough to get up there and once you were there you couldn't really jump back onto the floor quickly (at least I wasn't going to!). So being able to tell what it really sounded like and being able to adjust the levels was impossible for me. I enjoyed Dj'ing at DansBannan at lot more since I was right on the floor and you could adjust the sound easily.

As far as the verison of St. James Infirmary I don't remember it well enough, but you could try emailing Steven and Virginie and asking them. info@stevenandvirginie.com

Versions I like are on Henry Red Allen's "World on a String" and Roy Eldridge's "Little Jazz and the Jimmy Ryan All-Stars" but I'm pretty sure neither of these are the version they danced to.

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(geek)
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#30 Post by (geek) » Fri Aug 20, 2004 11:40 pm

djstarr wrote:As far as the verison of St. James Infirmary I don't remember it well enough, but you could try emailing Steven and Virginie and asking them. info@stevenandvirginie.com

Versions I like are on Henry Red Allen's "World on a String" and Roy Eldridge's "Little Jazz and the Jimmy Ryan All-Stars" but I'm pretty sure neither of these are the version they danced to.
Hopefully it was Lou Rawls' version ;-) .. "Easy Listening" my ass.

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