SwingDJs

GuruReuben wrote:Leah, I just wanted to take a second to thank you for last night.

Leah, are you cheating on me? I thought I was the only one!!!!

Wow, what a spirited discussion!
Thought I would chime in here. Just so you know, quite a few of the staff members have been watching this thread since we were alerted to this discussion. Including myself since page one. I knew my girl Leah have some things she would want to say! Leah is in charge of our DJ staff and as she said, bringing Rok and Kwik had absolutely nothing to do with us not being able to hire a band. We want live music too! But ya’ll just don’t know our scene… it’s rough! We don’t have bands traveling thru here and we don’t have the ballrooms that other cities have. Bringing in bands has caused us to lose our shirts almost on more than a few occasions that I can remember. We are trying to work the local issue and hire live music. I met with a band today. We try to make the best workshop we can and still only charge $99. We haven’t raised the price in 5 years because we want as many people as possible to be able to afford to come! Pulling off a workshop this size on very little income is damn near impossible, but we manage to do it every year with the help of very dedicated people.

Not that this has anything to do with DJing… but the reasons Rok & Kwik are coming again this year:
1. We do a survey every year and we received MANY requests to bring them back. Not one single complaint about them being there(that is extremely rare)They are such bad asses!

2. We are having a hip hop track in order to bring in dancers who might not be exposed to Lindy Hop. Robin and Jene who are local hip hop instructors are working their butts off trying to get this group of local dancers to attend. We are trying to build our local base of LINDY HOPPERS by drawing on other dance disciplines. I know it can work because I was one of these people. I used to be a club dancer and I taught Hip Hop in my sister’s studio. (many moons ago!). That’s the only kind of dancing I did for years. Until my sister dragged and I do mean DRAGGED my butt to a swing dance at Glen Echo in DC. All the way there, I told her I don’t give a rat’s ass about swing dancing. I was hooked on Lindy from that very night. That’s the power of this dance. Sometimes it takes being exposed to it first.

3. Rok & Kwik along with Frankie and Steven this year will be doing cultural presentations to the kids in our local schools. It is something we do every year with a few Lindyfest instructors and is part of our community outreach. Rok and Kwik have a powerful personal message some kids need to hear.

4. They are BAD ASS.

5. Cause I want them to. Two tears and a bucket. (I spend hundreds and hundreds of hours of my free time planning and directing this event so I can say that, those who don’t know what that means…figure it out)

sonofvu wrote:

GuruReuben wrote:Leah, I just wanted to take a second to thank you for last night.

any time Reuben... you know where to find me

Leah, are you cheating on me? I thought I was the only one!!!!

Never! You are the only one!!! I promise...

falty411 wrote: Kalman, you are right, I should of maybe got it from the angle you mentioned.

TexasToast wrote:3. Rok & Kwik along with Frankie and Steven this year will be doing cultural presentations to the kids in our local schools. It is something we do every year with a few Lindyfest instructors and is part of our community outreach. Rok and Kwik have a powerful personal message some kids need to hear.

Wow, that is awesome.

Houston steady rocks. Especially Mama T and Leah.

Kalman

Quick Question, also being devil's advocate:

Didn't GSWLF had Hip Hop 3 years in a row? And in having expose other dance discipline to Lindy, besides Hip Hop, what about Salsa? Argentine Tango? Whip?

Just curious.

I'm pretty sure that GSWLF has always had at least one track of an alternative but related dance form... if my memory serves me correctly.

I should probably let Tena or Leah answer this, but since I have been to just about every major event they have held since 2000, I can confirm some things.

Hip hop instructors have been part of the faculty for several years, not just last year. They have always had fun, non-Lindy electives mixed in. For example, I hear that Steppin is also on the agenda this year.

There has been a lot of variety among the teachers and DJs present. This is also true for the occasional summer version of Lindyfest that they hold called HTown Swings.

I can't remember if any salsa or tango has ever been taught, however, I have seen those dances at all weekend workshops in Texas before, it all gets to be a big blur at some point. I do recall that Mario Robau Jr. was at a recent H-Town Swing and he taught a variety of classes.

Nathan

Nonya wrote:Quick Question, also being devil's advocate:

Didn't GSWLF had Hip Hop 3 years in a row? And in having expose other dance discipline to Lindy, besides Hip Hop, what about Salsa? Argentine Tango? Whip?

Just curious.

That sounds like a good question for people who are actually involved with the event to answer. I wasn't there and I don't know the answer, but I like to see my name in print.

Has anyone looked into hiring students from the music school at UH?

Here's a clip of their jazz orchestra:
http://www.uh.edu/music/audio/jazz_syeeda.html

The director's name is Noe Marmolejo , and it looks like his email address is noemarm@mac.com (ph: 713 743-3191) (he could probably hook you up with 4 or 5 solid players)

We've been doing more or less monthly dances in eugene with student musicians, and it's been really great. It even turns out that the big band lab classes are required to play a couple times a term outside of class, so we're having a big band this saturday, and in trade we bought them a $150 book of swing arrangements.

The part that really surprised me was that for a reasonable sized room (the one we use is about 40x60 feet), you don't even need a PA System, because the bass & keyboard people have their own amps, and the horns don't need one. which might be perfect for a side room.

TexasToast wrote:Wow, what a spirited discussion!
Thought I would chime in here. Just so you know, quite a few of the staff members have been watching this thread since we were alerted to this discussion. Including myself since page one. I knew my girl Leah have some things she would want to say! Leah is in charge of our DJ staff and as she said, bringing Rok and Kwik had absolutely nothing to do with us not being able to hire a band. We want live music too! But ya’ll just don’t know our scene… it’s rough! We don’t have bands traveling thru here and we don’t have the ballrooms that other cities have. Bringing in bands has caused us to lose our shirts almost on more than a few occasions that I can remember. We are trying to work the local issue and hire live music. I met with a band today. We try to make the best workshop we can and still only charge $99. We haven’t raised the price in 5 years because we want as many people as possible to be able to afford to come! Pulling off a workshop this size on very little income is damn near impossible, but we manage to do it every year with the help of very dedicated people.

Not that this has anything to do with DJing… but the reasons Rok & Kwik are coming again this year:
1. We do a survey every year and we received MANY requests to bring them back. Not one single complaint about them being there(that is extremely rare)They are such bad asses!

2. We are having a hip hop track in order to bring in dancers who might not be exposed to Lindy Hop. Robin and Jene who are local hip hop instructors are working their butts off trying to get this group of local dancers to attend. We are trying to build our local base of LINDY HOPPERS by drawing on other dance disciplines. I know it can work because I was one of these people. I used to be a club dancer and I taught Hip Hop in my sister’s studio. (many moons ago!). That’s the only kind of dancing I did for years. Until my sister dragged and I do mean DRAGGED my butt to a swing dance at Glen Echo in DC. All the way there, I told her I don’t give a rat’s ass about swing dancing. I was hooked on Lindy from that very night. That’s the power of this dance. Sometimes it takes being exposed to it first.

3. Rok & Kwik along with Frankie and Steven this year will be doing cultural presentations to the kids in our local schools. It is something we do every year with a few Lindyfest instructors and is part of our community outreach. Rok and Kwik have a powerful personal message some kids need to hear.

4. They are BAD ASS.

5. Cause I want them to. Two tears and a bucket. (I spend hundreds and hundreds of hours of my free time planning and directing this event so I can say that, those who don’t know what that means…figure it out)

Well said, Tena. Each reason you gave should have sufficed; the third is especially great (and rather refreshing) to hear.

KevinSchaper wrote:Has anyone looked into hiring students from the music school at UH?

Here's a clip of their jazz orchestra:
http://www.uh.edu/music/audio/jazz_syeeda.html

The director's name is Noe Marmolejo , and it looks like his email address is noemarm@mac.com (ph: 713 743-3191) (he could probably hook you up with 4 or 5 solid players)

We've been doing more or less monthly dances in eugene with student musicians, and it's been really great. It even turns out that the big band lab classes are required to play a couple times a term outside of class, so we're having a big band this saturday, and in trade we bought them a $150 book of swing arrangements.

The part that really surprised me was that for a reasonable sized room (the one we use is about 40x60 feet), you don't even need a PA System, because the bass & keyboard people have their own amps, and the horns don't need one. which might be perfect for a side room.

Kevin, it's pretty awesome that you can dig up info from OR. Since I'm not running the show I cannot speak for the organizers. But, we did look into them, the HSPVA (Magnet HS for performance Arts), and Rice's Jazz Band for the Exchange. The teachers are out to make a buck, they are not as forgiving on the pricing even for non-profit. For, that can be a major reason. On top of that, it's easier for us to tell a professional band that we want something medium tempo and not have them break into Bossa Nova or something off base. The repretoire for a professional band is wider than a school band. That would be the case. Of course, as most organizers will only see...$$$.

Actually, I was kinda privately eating my words this saturday - our quartet that did such a nice job of un-modernizing last time was totally confusing the new dancers - and the big band wasn't bad, but the hardest swinging stuff they played was glenn miller tunes.

Live music is one of the most painful part of putting on events. Most people don't truly appreciate the amout of effort that goes into getting a workable band that pleases the dancers. They also don't realize the cost, time involved, etc.... In general, too many dancers don't have a clue, unless they have been an organizer at some point.

When things don't go as well as they could, they gripe, as if the organizers did not try hard enough, ran things cheaply, or something like that.