4beat6 plays Six Appeal

Six Appeal is a great Benny Goodman song that features an electric guitar. In the Benny Goodman small group it was Charlie Christian who played the guitar.

Take a look at this modern version of Six Appeal performed by 4beat6 with Bernard Berkhout at the clarinet.

What do you think of the video clip with 4beat6 from the Netherlands? Tell me.

First time swing djs at Cats Corner

Tonight it's dancing at Cats Corner with some first time djs: Susanne and Mats. Here are some photos from last week when Trina Dobbs and Jonas Pettersson dj:ed.


The photos are taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission. Contact me if you want to license them.

Are you a regular a Cats Corner? What do you like about it? Haven't you been there? Why not? Tell me.

Easter Parade: Fred Astaire drums and tap dances

Since it's easter right now, I find it appropriate to show a video clip from the movie Easter Parade from 1948 starring Fred Astaire, Judy Garland and Ann Miller.

Here is a clip with Fred Astaire drumming and tap dancing in a toy store in the number "Drum Crazy". There are a lot of rhythms both with the drums sticks and his feet.

What do you think of Fred Astaire tapping in the film Easter Parade? Tell me.

Jeff Silvertrust: Who Put The Benzedrine...?"

Since I didn't participate in the game of tagging I want to present something from my pile of randomly swingin' things.

Check out Jeff Silvertrust and his One Man Band performing "Who Put The Benzedrine in Mrs Murphy's Ovaltine?" In his one man band Jeff Silvertrust plays piano, trumpet and drums while he sings.

This song with its drug references got the wacky musician Harry "The Hipster" Gibson blacklisted in the mid 1940s so I guess a "Explicit lyrics" warning is still in place.

Also, check out Harry The Hipster Gibson when he teaches the importance of "Keep the beat".

What do you think of Jeff Silvertrust performing "Who Put The Benzedrine in Mrs Murphy's Ovaltine?"? Tell me.

Tagged

I got tagged by AmberLynn at DancePrimer. If you're tagged you're supposed to present seven random facts about yourself. Well, I'm a little bit flattered but for a number of reasons I choose not to participate. Thank you anyway, AmberLynn.

Swing Fever: Swing dancing

Here is a scene from the movie Swing Fever from 1943. Kay Kyser and his orchestra plays the song "One Girl and Two Boys".

According to the Internet Movie Database it's Jeanne Phelps-Veloz who dances swing together with Don Gallaher and Lennie Smith in a Hollywood style.

If you like the song you can hear a modern version by the Bill Elliott Swing Orchestra on the album Live at the Hollywood Palladium. Bill Elliott has btw also another album called Swing Fever.

What do you think about the dancing in the film Swing Fever? Tell me.

How to recognize a balboa dancer from Uppsala

Tonight it's time again for Cats Corner at Uplands nation in Uppsala. Since it is Veronika, Nils and Gabriela who are organizing this evening, the evening will have a slight focus towards all the balboa dancers in Uppsala.

One of the things they have fixed is small balboa corner so that the balboa dancer will run less risk to be hit by a charleston kick from the wild lindy dancers since the room can be quite crowded.

The balboa corner also makes it easier to find your fellow balboa dancer. Another thing that will help you recognize a balboa dancer from Uppsala is the newly produced balboa buttons. If a person wears this button, she/he would like to dance balboa with you. A great initiative from Jennie!

A couple of Swingkattens balboa teachers, Jonas Pettersson and Trina Dobbs, will dj classic swing tonight. As usual: Time: 20-23, Price: 20 kr.

The photo is taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission. Contact me if you want to license it.

What do you think of the idea with a balboa button to locate other balboa dancers? Tell me.

Swe-dukes at Skarholmen: Concert photos

Two weekends ago the band Swe-dukes play for dancers and listeners at Skarholmen in the south of Uppsala. They play just Duke Ellington songs. Duke Ellington wrote very many songs in very many styles but the great thing about Swe-dukes is that they concentrate on the swinging danceable songs from the 1930s and 1940s.

I liked their versions of Good Queen Bess and Stompy Jones.



There is a good floor for dancing right in front of the band. I encourage more dancers to check out Skarholmen because Swe-dukes are going to play there three more times this spring: April 6th , May 11th and June 1st.

Just dancing costs 50 kr. If you like you can eat your Sunday dinner there as well.

As the spring progresses you can easily go the by bike if you like (but it takes some time though to get there). Another easy way to get there is to take bus 20 which stops right outside Skarholmen. It takes about 25 min by bus. Some places to enter the bus downtown is at Kungsgatan in front of Centralstationen (stop A2) or the bus stop in front of Carolina Rediviva.



Swe-dukes consists of Bosse Broberg (trumpet), Dicken Hedrenius (trombone), Anders Gahnold (saxophone), Ulf Lindsjö (saxophone), Håkan Hedstrand (piano), Curt Andersson (bass), Johan Ståhlgren (drums) and Karin Hallin (song).

The photos are taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission. Contact me if you want to license them.

Have you heard Swe-dukes play? What do you think of them? Tell me.

Banu Gibson - Truckin'

I mentioned the jazz singer Banu Gibson in yesterdays post about Hey Mr Jesse March podcast, so I wanted to show you more of her. Above you have Banu Gibson singing "Truckin'" where she is truckin' and dancing all over the stage.

You can see that she has been inspired by Ina Ray Hutton and her Melodears' amazing version av Truckin' when she waves the conductor stick.

You can find a version of Truckin' on her album You Don't Know My Mind.

What do you think about Banu Gibson singing "Truckin'"? Tell me.

Hey Mr Jesse: March 2008

On the first Monday of each month I'm very much like a child on a roadtrip: "Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" but in my case it's not an amusement park that I'm waiting for, but close: it's the podcast Hey Mr Jesse.

This month I saw that the show was announced and tried the links on the Hey Mr Jesse webpage, but I couldn't get it to work so I reported it to Jesse Miner & Manu Smith. One minute later a email came back from Manu:

My goodness! You are too fast my friend. We are still uploading the file. :-)

Well, 20 minutes later I had downloaded the March edition of Hey Mr Jesse. I'm pretty sure I'm the first listener this time.

Download March edition of Hey Mr Jesse (~50MB, MP3).

If you like to know what's in podcast, check out the show notes for Hey Mr Jesse March 2008. You can't possible comment on everything on the show but here are some my comments about the show.



The first thing you notice is that Manu has a cold and he sounds just like Dan Fitzgerald in The Lost Wandering Blues & Jazz Band. In the January podcast Manu complained that Dan has this rough voice and stills sounds great while he has a normal voice and can't sing. It would have been fun to hear Manu sing now and see if the rough voice makes a difference ;-)

They talked about one of my favorite artist when it comes Trad Jazz: Banu Gibson. Banu Gibson has released many good albums.

The 8-Count Swing featured songs from film soundtracks. A modern classic is "Business Of Love" by Domino from The Mask Soundtrack.

As usual I recommended music to them, this is what I wrote:

"I'd like to share some of my recent finds. First out is the singer Lannie Garrett who lives in Denver, Colorado where she has her own night club.

Lannie's voice has a certain "assertiveness" to it, it's strong and powerful. I'd like to recommend her album "Kick it" where almost every song is great for dancing, you don't find many albums like that.

I get positive comments about the songs whenever I dj them at a dance. Her band has that full big band sound that I really like."

Have you listened to Hey Mr Jesse March edition? What do you think of it? Tell me.

Lars Erstrand 4: Concert Photos

Last Saturday Lars Erstrand Four played at Katalin . The concert was arranged together with Uppsala Jazz Club.



I really liked the concert (how could you not, they are such talented and swingin' jazz musicians) but since I'm a dancing fool, I would have like more uptempo songs instead of jazz ballads.

My favorite song of the concert was "Lady, Be Good" (Or was it Sweet Georgia Brown? I can't remember) that had an exiting arrangement with a boogie beat that I never have heard before. Great stuff.



The band consists of Lars Erstrand (vibraphone), Bertil Fernqvist (guitar), Arne Wilhelmsson (bass) and Björn Sjödin (drums).

The photos are taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission. Contact me if you want to license them.

Did you visit the jazz concert with Lars Erstrand Four. What did you think of the concert? Tell me.

Drum Boogie with Gene Krupa from Ball of Fire

Here is a great video with Gene Krupa playing Drum Boogie from the film Ball of Fire.

Ball of Fire was made in 1941 and features Gary Cooper as Prof. Bertram Potts who is researching slang words for an article in an encyclopedia. He meets the singer Sugarpuss O'Shea played by Barbara Stanwyck who teaches him about slang words while she is hiding from mobsters.

What do you think of this video clip with Barbara Stanwyck and Gene Krupa performing Drum Boogie? Tell me.

Swe-dukes plays at Skarholmen today

Today the band Swedukes will play for dancing and listening at Skarholmen in the south of Uppsala. As you might guess from their name they are fond of playing Duke Ellington songs.

Swe-dukes consists of Bosse Broberg (trumpet), Dicken Hedrenius (trombone), Anders Gahnold (saxophone), Ulf Lindsjö (saxophone), Håkan Hedstrand (piano), Curt Andersson (bass), Johan Ståhlgren (drums) and Karin Hallin (song).



The dance is between 15 and 18 and costs 50 kr. If you like, you can eat you Sunday dinner there as well (Call 018 32 43 30 to book tables).

You can get there anyway you like, by bike, car or the buses 18 or 20. Map to Skarholmen.

The photos are taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission. Contact me if you want to license them.

Will you go dancing today to Swe-dukes? Tell me.

Lars Erstrand Four at Katalin on Saturday

Lars Erstrand Four will play at Katalin on Saturday. The concert is arranged together with Uppsala Jazz Club.

The band consists of Lars Erstrand (vibraphone), Bertil Fernqvist (guitar), Arne Wilhelmsson (bass) and Björn Sjödin (drums).

These guys really swings, I last heard them this summer when the Lars Erstrand Four played at Parksnäckan. If you have the opportunity you should see them. Although there is no real dance floor, I think you can find a space to swing out in.

The concert starts at 14.00. I don't know right now what the price for the concert is. As usual, if you're under 25 years you'll get in for free.

The photo is taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission. Contact me if you want to license it.

Have you heard Lars Erstrand Four? What do you think of them? Tell me.

After Work Jazz at Pipes of Scotland

Tomorrow Friday it's once again time for After Work Jazz at the pub Pipes of Scotland, located at Kungsgatan 27 in Uppsala. Viktoria Colonna sings, Bertil Fernqvist plays guitar, Daniel Lantz is at the piano and Pal Johnson plays the bass.

The concert starts at 17.30 and there is no entrance fee.

The photos is taken by me and may not be used elsewhere without my permission. Contact me if you want to licence the photo.

Will you visit the After Work Jazz concert? Tell me.

Hot Jazz Band: Christopher Columbus

One of my favorite swing tunes is the classic swing song "Christopher Columbus". Here is a great version of "Christopher Columbus" played by the Hot Jazz Band from Hungary.

I really like the lyrics by Andy Razaf. He wrote so many lyrics to jazz standards, some examples are: Ain't Misbehavin', Honeysuckle Rose, The Joint Is Jumpin' and Stompin' at the Savoy.

Hot Jazz Band is a great band, but how I wish that the audience could have clapped their hands in a more swinging way. If you go to a jazz concert please clap your hands on the beats 2 and 4 instead of 1 and 3.

What do you think of the video clip with Hot Jazz Band from Hungary playing Christopher Columbus? Tell me.

Sarah Vaughan - Perdido

Sarah Vaughan is one jazz singer I haven't featured yet on the blog, but now is the time. Here is Sarah Vaughan singing the song Perdido.

I once danced with a girl that said she liked the song but she never could quite remember its name so she called it "that Mexican food song: Burrito".

I don't have that many Sarah Vaughan songs, what swinging tunes with her should I have?

What do you think about Sarah Vaughan singing Perdido? Tell me.