West Coast music

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wheresmygravy · #31 Post by **wheresmygravy** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 10:49 am

At one of the local Westie events, I heard Indigo Swings - "Another Day in LA". You could always pull that out.

Altho they are not the pop/drum machine songs that so many Westies like today, there used to be someone out of Boston (DJ Mez) that put out some compilation CD's (I think five volumes) called "Swingin' the Blues"

and "Sophisticated Swing".

There were several volumes, but it seems like I heard they got shut down due to copyright issues. (Correct me if I am wrong. I don't want to offend anyone.)

There is a kick ass version of "Good Rockin' Tonight" by Solomon Burke on Swingin' the Blues Vol II. But it originally came from the Album "Soul of the Blues"

julius · #32 Post by **julius** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 11:11 am

julius wrote: http://westcoastswingamerica.com/boot1.htm
http://westcoastswingamerica.com/boot2.htm

These articles were written in 1997. The second refers to the ASCAP/BMI issue, but both are worth reading.

http://www.swingdjs.com/phpbb2/viewtopi ... c&start=15

damn i'm good.

wheresmygravy · #33 Post by **wheresmygravy** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 11:22 am

Bingo!

gatorgal · #34 Post by **gatorgal** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 11:35 am

Thank you both. Never knew the story behind that.

Tina

This side up · #35 Post by **This side up** » Sun Feb 06, 2005 8:02 pm

Hi

Recently on tv I saw a PBS special with Bill Moyers on the history of the english language.It was fascinating how the language changes over centuries because of influences by foreign cultures ,of war ,takeover, trade ,commerce and geography and locality and sub cultures like music..Swing dance is the same way.
I'm probably a little older than most of you so I've seen a lot of changes over the years in swing dance music and style.
Just thought I'd offer my 2 cents worth here .For me I agree with something I heard Basie say once that there are just 2 kinds of music "GOOD and "BAD". I was a west coast swing dj before I djd lindy hop. For me they are just slightly different approaches to music that makes you dance. Yes there are west coast djs that play pop that makes a lindy hopper cringe.That's what made me want to become a dj.

Any way back to the question .Many time I have included west coast music at a lindy event and with good comments .Most of you know Moten Swing as a big band classic(written by Count Basie and Eddie Durham not Benny Moten).but there is a version by William Clark that will blow you away,.He was(died a few years ago) a California central valley blues player .He could play blues all day like Charlie Musselwhite .But when He heard Moten Swing he said to himself that a great song and did a version on chromatic harmonica that is sooooooo cooooool.

All of these are from the Bluesier side of west coast swing Anyway for those lindy hop djs that want include some west coast stuff try:

Moten Swing by William Clark

Tanqueray by Johnnie johnson( for whom Chuck Berry wrote Johnnie B Good)

That'l Work By Johnnie Johnson and the Kentucky Headhunters

Two Bones and a Pick by Roomfull of Blues ( awesome band)

Loan a Helping hand by Roomful of Blues

Misdirected by Robben Ford

The Plunge by Robben Ford

How do You Want Your Rollin Done by Zu Zu Bollin

Ability to Swing by Thomas Dolby (smooth ,slow ,pop)

or you can E-mail ,me I'm full of them

bye

Michaelwagner · #36 Post by **Michaelwagner** » Sun May 29, 2005 8:26 am

wheresmygravy wrote:there used to be someone out of Boston (DJ Mez) that put out some compilation CD's (I think five volumes) called "Swingin' the Blues" and "Sophisticated Swing".
There were several volumes, but it seems like I heard they got shut down due to copyright issues. (Correct me if I am wrong. I don't want to offend anyone.)

Just to correct the impression (it's between the lines at the beginning of the second article referenced, but some people might not venture down that far), Mez was legit. He wasn't "shut down" by copyright issues. The person shut down and mentioned in those articles was someone out of the midwest.

Mez 'shut himself down' because of copying issues. That is, the first couple of CDs he released, clubs around the continent would order 20 or 30 copies and sell them to members. Later CDs, they ordered one each and just copied them with CD burners. Some even bragged about it to him.

Michael

WCSDancinJen · #37 Post by **WCSDancinJen** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 10:49 am

I would like some advice....

I will be DJing at a West Coast Swing dance at an ametuer DJ night. I've never really DJed before and I only have a 30 min time spot.

Any tips for a newbie?

Thanks!

Toon Town Dave · #38 Post by **Toon Town Dave** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 4:46 pm

30 minutes is not a lot of time, maybe 6-10 tracks depending on length. I'd try and figure out what stuff the regular DJs play that really gets the crowd dancing, especially stuff that gets the crowd going and isn't played often. Just don't repeat anything played earlier in the evening.

Include maybe two unique to you tracks that you think would go over well, always be prepared to follow them up with a proven hit if they bomb.

Bring lots of different music and be prepared to change gears if the crowd is not really digging your first couple tracks.

Try and stick with shorter songs (3 minutes) and avoid really long (5 minutes) recrodings. That'll give you more chance to show your skills and also buy some flexibility during your short set.

Michaelwagner · #39 Post by **Michaelwagner** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 4:55 am

Gosh, I'd forgotten I'd subscribed to this thread.

It wasn't clear from your post - are you a WCS dancer?

If so, pick a half dozen tracks that you like to dance to. Play them over and put yourself in the shoes of the other dancers. Are they peculiar to you or do they have general appeal? Keep the general ones, maybe keep one of the peculiar ones, and you've got a backbone for half an hour. Research up another half dozen tracks to keep in reserve, in case you get asked for an encore or if the first 6 are too short.

If you're not a WCS dancer, then it's a bit different. Does your target audience prefer the industrial swing style of music? Or are they into good blues and slow swing? Many good medium to slow Lindy songs work well for WCS. Like 100-120BPM. A good album to check out is Sophisticated Swing (mentioned earlier in the thread, IIRC).

A good place to get some inspiration is
http://www.usaswingnet.com/top_dj_tunes.htm
You need to listen to the tracks and see if they match your style and tastes.

Hope this helps.

WCSDancinJen · #40 Post by **WCSDancinJen** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 7:14 am

I am a WCS dancer and have been doing it for about 3 years. Personally, I'm a contemporary kind of gal...so if I had it my way I'd play all contemporary...lol (I wont though.)

Thanks for the tips. If I play again (for a longer set) I'll be back for more info!

Toon Town Dave · #41 Post by **Toon Town Dave** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 4:39 pm

"industrial swing" -- I've never heard that one. A very apropos label. Then again, I like the old-school stuff ... or even better, live blues.

Michaelwagner · #42 Post by **Michaelwagner** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 5:20 pm

Toon Town Dave wrote:I like the old-school stuff ... or even better, live blues.

I like old school R&B from the '50s and '60s. Maybe just because that's what I grew up with. But I think that's so much nicer for WCS.

However, a DJ plays what his audience wants, and there's a quorum of WCS dancers in Toronto who want their industrial swing, so I play it when I'm DJing an event and they are there. I don't mind a few songs of it, but it gets old fast - whereas the old music doesn't. Isn't that amazing?

Toon Town Dave · #43 Post by **Toon Town Dave** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 10:08 pm

There's not much shelf life on the new stuff but I think that's because it's treated like neo-swing was back in the Gap commercial days. The same small set of music is played so frequently for a short period of time that no one wants to hear it anymore. Then maybe again, maybe it's like other manufactured goods these days. Made to be cheap, not long lasting.

I think one of the things we have going in the Lindy Hop community is a open forum to discuss our music. We can find out what's new, what's popular and probably guess from the discussions what every other DJ is playing. Overall, I think it helps us all become better DJs which gives the dancers a better experience. I've looked for the same kind of forum for WCS, supposedly there is/was a forum for registered and approved members only. I think I found it and tried requesting access but never got a response.

Nate Dogg · #44 Post by **Nate Dogg** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 8:20 am

Regarding a West Coast oriented group, there is the all_SwingDJ YahooGroup.

It is not hard to be approved for the group, you do have to submit a list of ten songs each month and need to be a DJ who plays some form of swing music. They have a liberal definition of swing (compared to here). However, they don't have to be West Coast songs, I usually submit lindy friendly songs.

The group is mostly West Coast DJs, I am one of the few lindy DJs on it. Others members from SwingDJs (this site) have been members, but fell behind in their miminum posting requirements.

Try this link, hopefully it will work for non-members
http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/allswing_dj/

or just email Greg (the list owner), if you don't hear back, keep trying, they are not ignorning anybody on purpose.

Group Email Addresses
Subscribe: allswing_dj-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
List owner: allswing_dj-owner@yahoogroups.com