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mousethief
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#91 Post by mousethief » Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:13 am

julius wrote:It wouldn't have mattered if Frank's band had been the reincarnated undead corpses of the 1939 Basie band...
Maybe it's the sidecar talking, but I don't think you can have reincarnation and undeath at the same time. Just being a nit picky D&D type.

Kalman
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Shorty Dave
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#92 Post by Shorty Dave » Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:15 am

One more thing...
Jerry_Jelinek wrote:He constantly wants to move the music forward. He is probably the biggest reason the current Basie Ghost band is still composing new stuff. When he took over the ghost band, Frank was still trying to infuse new music into the 'Ghost' band genre.
I don't disagree with this comment, but I don't see how this comment and him being an arranger/composer for dancers are mutually exclusive. One can be both. After all, he was leader of the band 30 plus years after he started playin in the band...surely times and tastes can change. He did write many great tunes that have the perfect "swing" for dancers, while at the same time, as leader of the Basie Orchestra in the 1980s he expanded his repetoire, going beyond the tried-and-true standards.

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LindyChef
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#93 Post by LindyChef » Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:37 am

Did anyone else catch a dissonance between Frank's band and Barbara Morrison during her second set of songs on Saturday night? To me they were both on time and within the same structure, but it felt like they weren't doing the same song, hitting the same accents, so in the end it felt like they weren't playing together ...

Just curious.

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Jerry_Jelinek
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#94 Post by Jerry_Jelinek » Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:56 am

Shorty Dave wrote:....Jerry, I have to respectfully disagree with this comment. Off the top of my head I can immediately think of four Basie tunes that Frank wrote and arranged that I DJ at dances all the time: 4,5,6, Down for the Count, Shiny Stockings, and Blues in Hoss' Flat....
I should have been a wee bit more specific. Without putting words into Frank's mouth, I would guess he would say that he writes and arranged music for Basie that was swinging music. If you can dance to the song great, but that wasn't his main objective. I'm guessing this based on the style of music he did for Basie.
Shorty Dave wrote:....Additionally, many (most?) of Frank's early gigs in Basie's orchestra were for dances.....
This would be in the mid 50s I'm guessing. By then the dance gigs for the big bands weren't in the style of the Savoy in the late 30s.

I have some tv video of Basie, Ellington, Goodman from the late 50s and into the mid 60s. There is virtually zero lindy dancing. It is all social dancing in a very subdued style. Funny I just recall that in a Ellington video some people are dancing to some of the Mary Poppins arrangements that Ellington played (guess around 1966).
Shorty Dave wrote:.....That's why you'll hear Splanky's ranging from 110bpm to 160bpm and Jumpin' at the Woodsides from 200 and change all the way up to 300bpm.)
I've noticed the same tempo differences in live recordings of these songs.

The live stuff I've heard are from concert settings. But your right, the tempos vary widely on some things.

Overall I'll stand by my impression that Frank wrote swing music for listening and playing. If dancers liked it, fine. But that wasn't his main goal.

A good discussion to ask Frank sometime.

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djstarr
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#95 Post by djstarr » Wed Oct 13, 2004 2:43 pm

GuruReuben wrote:
julius wrote:I thought HRO did a far better job honoring Basie's spirit Friday night than Frank Foster did Saturday night.
Speaking of HRO, what the hell happened to them? At HJDF last year they were on fire. This past weekend it's like someone put a hose on them. Still technically amazing... just... I dunno, they just weren't the same.
Maybe it was the room? I went out on Monday night at Swing 46 and loved every last minute of them. I liked them on Friday but I thought they were outstanding Monday night -- I heard some amazing solos.

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djstarr
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#96 Post by djstarr » Wed Oct 13, 2004 2:55 pm

I had a great time! I definitely felt Saturday was more about dance history than dancing; I agree in general that the Sat night band was harder to dance to -- the arrangements of very familiar songs were quite a bit different. But seeing Clark Terry and Barbara Morrison live made up for it (and was Bobby McFerrin really there?).

In contrast, HRO's arrangments of familiar songs (Shiny Stockings, Corner Pocket, April in Paris, etc.) were ones I knew hands down.

I also thought the Hellzapoppin' finals were amazing. Also the performance the old-timers from the Savoy Ballroom did was even more amazing --- I'm hoping this night was fully video-taped.

And I really liked the Central Park event -- I loved the band (trombonist/vocalist, acoustic bass, snare kit) --- very minimalist; great voice; nice contrast in music to the big band stuff --- and playing early songs - Fats Waller and James P. Johnson, which made a nice tribute to Basie.

I also enjoyed dancing Sunday evening at Columbia -- all the dancers were finished with competing so I got to dance with some amazing leads who had been preoccupied the rest of the weekend, and there was room to dance.

And just like HJDF I heard Shiny Stockings about 50 times ;-)

Congrats to all the organizers. And my hostess was one of the main organizer/volunteers - as a thank you present she got a 3 CD Basie box set --- what a cool present!

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djstarr
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#97 Post by djstarr » Wed Oct 13, 2004 2:59 pm

oh, and sorry I didn't have a chance to meet everyone who was there -- I think I spied Kalman once but was too chicken to say hi.

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Lawrence
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#98 Post by Lawrence » Wed Oct 13, 2004 6:35 pm

I wish I could have gone, but I was too afraid to run the risk of Falty beating me up after school. :lol:

I heard it was amazing mostly because it drew an amazing crop of veteran dancers who had not collectively gathered for a single event in a LONG time. That's perhaps the biggest compliment to Dave.
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Nate Dogg
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#99 Post by Nate Dogg » Wed Oct 13, 2004 6:59 pm

djstarr wrote:was Bobby McFerrin really there?
...
oh, and sorry I didn't have a chance to meet everyone who was there -- I think I spied Kalman once but was too chicken to say hi.
Yeah, he was there, I think Shorty Dave met him/saw him. Barbara Morrison did a shout out to him. I guess it just goes to show you that he has some taste. Some folks are not a fan of his particular brand of music, but I like it that he bothered to come to the event. There were plenty of other things he could be doing with his free time.

Regarding meeting people, Brenda, I also feel the same way. I would have liked to have met you.

There were so many people at the event, so many that I knew from past events, that it was hard to meet or talk to everybody that I wanted to and still dance. It is too bad that my flight left early on Sunday.

I was able to briefly introduce myself to a few DJs that I knew from this Board and Yehoodi. I especially wanted to meet the ones that I had online debates with in the past (Shana and Swifty, did not get around to Falty or Reuben, but I meant to, they were busy with Hellazapoppin a lot of the time).

Nathan

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