This was a completely impromptu set. I was helping to set up the
going-away dinner for Mats downstairs. I came up to find the DJ and work
out timing on the jam song. The slated DJ wasn't there. My laptop
was. No headphones, so this was almost exclusively songs I knew by heart.
I started slow and ramped up quickly, willing to drive people downstairs.
Many of them were hanging at faster tempos, so I kept ramping the tempo up and
down over the course of the set, and hit 190+ BPM three times, and had at least
that many over 180 BPM. I was playing around quite a bit with the
difference between speed and energy, trying to blur the distinction and get lots
of folks on the floor. It worked pretty well, and I was tres happy.
Jeremey played "Bizet Has His Day" by Les Brown, because I was still getting
set up.
Lou Rawls - Fine Brown Frame
Lisa Ekdahl - Vem Vet?
Jam song for Mats. Since the food surprise was Swedish
food, I figured his jam should be a Swedish song. Mats is probably the
only one of us who knows what the words mean (although I did learn that the
title means "Who knows?")
Dizzy Gillespie - Sunny Side Of The Street
Harry James - Two O'Clock Jump
Starts gentle and builds into really hard-hitting. A
tribute to Basie's "One O'Clock Jump".
Fats Waller - Chant Of The Groove
Starts hard-hitting, but settles into the pocket. A bit
over 180 BPM, this has great energy to get people started and moving back and
forth between a laid-back vs. hard hitting sound.
Jimmie Lunceford - Harlem Shout
Big Band, in a very nice pocket. A bit over 200 BPM, but
feels comfortable. Lots of people were sitting down (although lots were
still dancing). Time to slow things down.
Sy Oliver - Annie Laurie
This is slower, but hits harder. Sy was the master at
taking non-swing songs (Swing Low, Sweet Chariot; Every Time I Feel The Spirit;
etc) and rocking them out. He did most of the Jimmie Lunceford
arrangements.
Gene Harris - Don't Get Around Much Anymore
Louis Jordan - Knock Me A Kiss
A different version, also by Jordan, was a super popular
number in the Swing world 10 years ago. I love the trumpet player's
descending scale (in thirds, I think) in the intro.
Ray Brown - Night Train
Al Grey takes a *very* tasty solo on what for many years I
thought was a muted trumpet - turns out it's a trombone! It's hard to
believe someone can play trombone that fast. Maybe it was a valve
trombone?
King Pleasure - Jumpin' with Symphony Sid
I'm ramping the tempo back up, but I'm on a small combo kick
instead of a Big Band. The song was a vocalese cover of the theme song of
a famous radio DJ, whose handle was Symphany Sid.
Johnny Nocturne - Visegrip
Teddy Wilson - Spreadin' Rhythm Around
Billie Holiday sings, everyone swings. Critics hate
this, dancers love it. *shrug* This is the peak of this tempo curve,
at 190 BPM.
Fats Waller - Pantin' In The Panther Room
The title is a reference to the Panther Room, a jazz club in
Chicago. Still a combo sound, this clocks in right at 180 BPM.
Harry James - Yes, Indeed!
A cover of the Tommy Dorsey song (written by Sy Oliver).
I love the hand-clapping intro, which helps get people dancing who'd sat out the
last couple fast ones.
Shirley Scott - For Dancers Only
Aretha Franklin - Evil Gal Blues
Armstrong & Ellington - Black And Tan Fantasy
I had a request for a "ballroom blues" song.
Ray Charles - Hard Times
David "Fathead" Newman takes one of the best sax solos. Ever.
Benny Goodman - Mahzel Means Good Luck
This is the setup for a quick transition to fast tempos - B&T
is 100BPM, this is about 150BPM. It starts gentle and gets quite intense
at the end, a nice setup for faster music.
Sidney Bechet - Joshua Fit The Battle of Jericho
It's hard not to dance to this.
Chick Webb - Blue Minor
I hadn't made up my mind about playing this. I checked
the floor, and people didn't look too shagged out after Bechet, so I threw it
in.
Wynton Marslis & LCJO - Bli Blip
This was one of my favorite songs many years ago. I can
still scat right along with the singer.
