It was 70 years today, 25 swing bands began to play

According to Yehoodi, the following was written in NY Times 70 years ago:

NY TIMES

SWING BANDS PUT 23,400 IN FRENZY; Jitterbugs Cavort at Randalls Island as 25 Orchestras Blare in Carnival Trek Begins at 8 A. M. Excitement Only Starts

May 30, 1938, Monday

For a full five hours and forty-five minutes, 23,400 assorted jitterbugs and alligators-more conservatively known as swing music enthusiasts - cavorted yesterday at Randalls Island Stadium to the musical gymnastics of twenty-five swing bands, vainly bucking the lines of police and park officers who were sworn to protect the swing maestros from destruction by adulation.

Take a look at this video clip from Randall's Island with all the people in the audience. It seems like a great great party! 25 swing bands!

The editorial continues:

"They were of all races, all colors, all walks - or rather all swings and all shags - of life."

[New York Times 5-31-1938: 18 (according to The Rise of a Jazz Art World, page 124)]

Don't you wish you had been there swingin' and dancing? Please comment.

Dance picnic at Kopphagens dansbana tomorrow

Tomorrow, Saturday, there is a dance picnic at Kopphagens dansbana. Our swing dance society Swingkatten joins the celebration of the steam train organisation Lennakatten, which celebrates its 40th anniversary.

Take the steam train from the station Uppsala Östra at 11:20. The dance starts at 12:30 and I will be djing until 16:00. The ride and the dance is free. You are very welcome to dress up in 1920-1940s style clothing.

You can buy pie, cakes and soft drinks there. You can also bring your own picnic basket. The dj enjoys all kinds of tasty food if you decide to bring him some ;-).



Swingkatten's show group MessAround will perform at some point. If you miss them then you can catch them again at night back in Uppsala when MessAround perform at Filurarverkstan at 18:15 (Skolgatan 7).

The weather forecast says: Sun, warmth and everything nice. Come and join us for a dance picnic tomorrow.

The photos are taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission.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 been at a dance picnic at Kopphagens dansbana before? Tell me.

Swinging events this week

Swingkatten's regular event Cats Corner takes a break tonight as there are other things scheduled at Uplands nation but there are several other events this week:

• Tomorrow Wednesday: Swing Time Sextett featuring Margareta Nordlander at Katalin. Show by MessAround. Dance floor available. 20-22. 100 kr.
• Thursday: Uppsala University Jazz Orchestra: Exam concert at Katedralskolans aula. 19:00 - 20:15. Free.
• Friday: After Work Jazz. Concert with Kari Sjöstrand, tenor sax, flute and vocals, Daniel Lantz, Fender Rhodes and Henrik Voldsgaard Christensen, double bass. Where: The pub Pipes of Scotland/Hotel Uppsala (intersection of st. olofsg./kungsgatan) At 17.30. Free.
• Saturday: Outside dance at Kopphagens dansbana in Länna. Celebration of Lennakatten. Show by MessAround. 12:30 - 16:00. Swing dj: Henrik Eriksson (me!). Free. Read more.
• Sunday: Swe-dukes playes at Skarholmen. 15-18. 50 kr.

Wow. What a lineup of great events. Be sure to visit most of them!

I'll write more about them later on.

Which events are you going to? Tell me.

I've got a Gal in Kalamazoo: Orchestra Wives

I've got a Gal in Kalamazoo is a song that I think sometimes come out a little bit flat when I hear it on a recording, but that is not the case here in this scene from the 1942 movie Orchestra Wives.

You actually get two different but equally great versions (in their own way). First out is one with Glenn Miller's band in the background. In the film the name is somewhat modified to Gene Morrison's band, probably good for the budget so you don't have to change all the GM initials on the drums and the other things.

The real focus is however on the singers Tex Beneke and Marion Hutton and the vocal group The Modernaires.

The second version features the fabulous tap dancing Nicholas Brothers. I think their tap dancing influences their singing because I really like how they phrase the words. I think that kind of phrasing is of the same kind as the rhythms they create when they dance.

And, wow, who wouldn't like to be athletic like them? Those splits... :)

I've featured the Nicholas Brothers before on my blog.

What do you think of the two versions of I've got a Gal in Kalamazoo? Tell me.

New swing dance blogs

Some new swing dance blogs has appeared on my radar screen. I've found some exellent stuff there so check out the blogs and send them a comment with encouragement. Every blogger need that.

• Jazz Dance Etc/ jojo jackson
• WestieHoppold
• Gina’s Jazz Dance Blog

What do you think of these swing dance blogs? Tell me.

Hey Mister Jesse! May I have this dance?

As you hopefully already know, the May episode of the podcast Hey Mister Jesse that talks about swinging music is now available. If not, download May 2008 episode of Hey Mister Jesse. (~50 MB, mp3).

Read the show notes for Hey Mister Jesse May 2008 to see all the details.

I wrote to Jesse and Manu (as always) with some tips:

First tip is the album "With Thee I Swing" with New York singer Terry Blaine and pianist Mark Shane and a bunch of other fantastic musicians. It's a live album from a concert in Hamburg, Germany.

It has songs like "Getting Some Fun Out Of Life", "Mama Don´t Allow", "I Never Knew" and my favorite song from the album: "Why Don´t You Do Right".

Terry Blaine is touring with a new show called "Swingin' the Benny Goodman Songbook".

Second tip is the album "Swingin' with Humes". On this album from 1961 the former big band singer Helen Humes fronts a small group that has a light and laidback style. I like her version of "There'll Be Some Changes Made".

Bonus tip: When I listened to the interview with Catherine Russell in last the show she mentioned western swing. Although western swing is not my prefered jazz style, I'd like to recommend a pretty decent 4 cd compilation set called "Western Swing & Country Jazz".

I like the song "Gettin' That Low Down Swing" by the band Modern Mountaineers which has great lyrics.

Manu said that "Gettin' That Low Down Swing" probably was his favorite song ever. What about that! Yehaa! That kind of comments makes a dj happy.

What other things are there in the podcast?

Well, they have a good 8 count countdown of late night blues songs. But the list has a fatal flaw! It doesn't include any Jimmy Witherspoon song. You can't have a list like that without him. It's mandatory. I 've written before about Jimmy Witherspoon and late night blues and his great compilation album Jazz Me Blues in my series of posts called Late Night Music.

Several of the songs on Jazz Me Blues (like "One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer" and "Bad, bad Whiskey") come from his 1963 album "Baby, baby, baby".

The original abum is worth checkin out because it has many good slow late night blueses like "Rocks In My Bed" and "Lonely Boy Blues". Listen to clips from the album below.



What do you think of the May edition of Hey Mister Jesse? Tell me.

Book review: Frankie Manning - Ambassador of Lindy Hop

Book review: Frankie Manning - Ambassador of Lindy Hop

A year ago the legendary lindy hopper Frankie Manning published his autobiography called Frankie Manning - Ambassador of Lindy Hop. Frankie Manning is one of the most influential dancers in the swing dance history and the story about him and his life was highly anticipated.

Frankie Manning's autobiography is important in several ways:

The personal story of an influential dancer
This is the personal story about one of the most influential lindy hop dancers in the history of swing dancing. Frankie was the first lindy hopper to really use airials (air steps, acrobatic steps) in his dancing and performing. He has had a great career as a dancer both as an innovator in the early years of lindy hop but also as an important person in the revival of the lindy hop in the 1980's.

The evolution of the lindy hop
It is the story how lindy hop and swing dancing evolved in the early day. Lindy hop had already gotten its name (by "Shorty" George Snowden, it's said) when Frankie started dancing and the basic structure was there but it was still very much an evolving dance. Frankie Manning tell us about how dance concepts, that now are commonplace, were developed. One of those concepts is the twisting in the swingout by the ladies.

Growing up in the swing era
The book tells about how it was to grow up and live in the swing era. Many dancers today are very curious about what life was like in the swing era and it's great to get a first hand account of the life style of a dancer hanging out in the ballrooms in New York in the 1930's.

You also get to know a little bit more about the other great dancers that lived then. Since most of them didn't participate in the swing revival in the 1980's, they have been partly forgotten about but in this book they get their credit. You get more background information about the dancers you've only seen in movie clips.

A dancer's perspective of the entertainment industry
Most of the books that has been written about entertainment industry in the swing era have focused on the bands, the musicians and the singers. Therefore it's refreshing to have a new perspective, a dancer's perspective, on the entertainment industry during the 1930s-1950s.

You get the insider story about what went on behind the scenes in the filming of Hellzapoppin. You'll get the stories about preparing for the performances on stage and the tours with the dance groups Whitey's Lindy Hoppers and The Congaroos.

Frankie Manning provides some new stories about the big stars and performers of that time, such as Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Billy Holiday.

Dealing with segregation
There is also a theme in the book about segregation and how people (and Frankie in particular) dealt with it. The famous Savoy ballroom where Frankie spent most of his time dancing was integrated but a lot of places weren't. He talks about segregation during his tours in the south of USA and during his time in the army during World War II.

Facts about the dances and the era
Cynthia R. Millman is the co-author of the book and and most of the stories in the book comes from interviews and talks she has had with Frankie. Besides being the person putting the book together she also contributes some texts of her own in the book. She has written fact pages inserted here and there that presents facts about related dances and phenomenons like Charleston, Big Apple, breaks (in the music) or the Cats' Corner.

My thoughts about the book
I think this is an important book for anyone who is interested in lindy hop or the swing era. I've heard Frankie Manning's stories when he have visited the Herräng Dance Camp and it's nice to have them collected in written form. Not much is written about social dancing and I think it is important that Frankie's stories are written down so that they don't get altered when being retold.

I find the book pretty complete but I would have liked more information about his experiences during the swing revival in the 1980's and 1990's.

Anyone who have met Frankie Manning can tell you that his smile and his laugh is infectious. I think his positive attitude really comes across in the book.

If you're a lindy hopper, you should own this book!

Furter reading:
Table of contents of the book
My interview with Cyntia R. Millman
All blog posts about Frankie Manning.
Another review of the book by JazzReview

Have you read "Frankie Manning - Ambassador of Lindy Hop"? What do you think about the autobiography? Tell me.

Thanks to Cynthia R. Millman and Temple University Press for providing me with a copy of the book.

Swing and Jazz MP3s at Amazon.com

Amazon.com doesn't just sell cds they also sell music in the form of mp3s. This is great for people like me and you because it enables you to pick the just the danceable songs of an album. Granted, the other songs on an album may be great to listen to, but if you're on a budget you just want the ones that you can dance to.

Amazon.com has also released a new widget for presenting mp3s, see above. I think this will enable me to give you more tips about swing and jazz song. I can add any song I like to the playlist, so hopefully I'll be posting some playlists later on.

For now, to test this feature, I present the album Kick It by Lannie Garrett that I wrote about in connection to the March Episode of Hey Mister Jesse. The whole album has great danceable songs.

Unfortunatly, right now only people in USA can buy mp3s this way. I hope they'll add support for international customers as well.

What do you think of this mp3 widget from Amazon.com? Tell me.

STORK - Student Orchestra Festival in Uppsala

This weekend Uppsala is filled with student orchestras from Sweden and Scandinavia since it's STORK, the student orchestra festival. The bands and orchestras play in the town squares, at the student nations and at Parksnäckan (the outdoor scene in the city park).

There are all kinds of bands, most of them play jazz, but there are brass bands, bands who play soul and funk and there's even a choir that sings songs from the former Soviet union.



Some of the bands has also their own dance troupe (or has cooperation with one). Patriciabaletten is one of the best dance troupes.

The bands will play in Parksnäckan today between 11 and 17. Free. The weather promises to be sunny and warm so this seems to be a perfect way to spend a Sunday.

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 visited STORK? What is your favorite band? Tell me.

Swe-dukes at Grand Swing Night

The band Swe-dukes will play at Grand tonight. Come and dance lindy hop, balboa or whatever the music tell you to do.

The evening starts at 20 with DJ David and the band enters the stage at 21 and plays until midnight when I will dj a late night set.

Come join us! Grand, Trädgårdsgatan 5, Uppsala. 80 kr.

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

Help me find missing video clips

Do you want to be a detective, spy or a private investigator?

Well, here is your chance. Help me find missing video clips!

In the early days of this blog, I didn't save a copy of the video clips I found on youtube and blogged about. Due to the ever changing nature of internet, some of the clips I blogged about has disappered.

The blog posts are now incomplete without the video clips. I would like to have your help locating the video clips again.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it:
In the following list of blog posts you'll find clues to the missing clips. Follow each lead and bring back a link to the video clip mentioned.

Post the link in the comments of that specific post or in this post or send a mail to me.

Should any team member be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions.

Good hunting!

Missing video clips:

• Crazy Riffin'
• James Session
• A song is born
• In the mood
• Ballin' the jack
• "Dig You Later (A Hubba-Hubba-Hubba)"

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

Phontrattarne Grand Show at Reginateatern

Tonight it's premiere for Grand Show by Phontrattare at Reginateatern. This show has been done for many years and is one of the best signs that the spring has arrived. The show usually contains a lot of good big band music and a lot of comedy. The band and the dancers have a fondness of picking up old gems of music and writing new lyrics to them.



I encourage everybody that have opportunity to see the show and I'm hoping that I can have the chance to photograph one of their shows.

The shows are each day between May 8th and May 15th.



The photos are taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission. Contact me if you want to license them. They are taken about two weeks ago when Phontrattarne did a concert at Stora Torget in Uppsala.

Will you see Grand Show with Phontrattarne? Tell me.

Anything Goes: Show photos

I saw the musical Anything Goes at Grand last night. It's a nice musical about young love, crime and all sorts of complications. It's a lightweight way to spend an evening with song, dance and comedy.



The show even had small parts with charleston and lindy hop.

If you want to see the show, you'll have another chance on Sunday May 11th at 20:00.



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 seen Anything Goes at Grand? What do you think of the musical? Tell me.

Sweet Emma & The Mood Swingers - Chicago boogie

Here is a music video featuring Sweet Emma & The Mood Swingers playing Chicago boogie.

Sweet Emma & The Mood Swingers is a popular rhythm & blues band from Uppsala. The video was shot at Grand with a lot of dancers from Swingkatten. You might want to look at how the video shoot looked like in November last year.

If you want to dance to them, you can do that in Stockholm May 17th at Swedish Swing Society (the dance club, not the band).

What do you think of the music video with Sweet Emma & The Mood Swingers? Tell me.

Dance Movie Blogathon

Ferdi On Film has declared this week a Dance Movie Blogathon where partipants blog about dance on film.

My own small contribution will be a link to my archive of posts about films and movies.

Enjoy!

"Anything goes" at Grand

You can see the musical Anything Goes at Grand tonight and on Sunday. The poster above has all the details.

Anything Goes was first performed in 1934 and the musical has music and lyrics by Cole Porter and is based on a book by P.G. Wodehouse (who also wrote the books about Jeeves and Wooster).

Some famous jazz songs from this musical is played at swing dances now and then: Anything Goes (of course) and I Get A Kick Out Of You. One Broadway version included the song Lets Misbehave.

Have you seen "Anything goes" at Grand? What do you think of it? Tell me.

Hey Mister Jesse! The May episode is here!

I just wanted to tell you that the May episode of the podcast Hey Mister Jesse is now available. Read the show notes for Hey Mister Jesse May 2008 to see what they offer this time. Great stuff!

Download May 2008 episode of Hey Mister Jesse. (~50 MB, mp3)

I'll post more comments about the podcast later on. Happy listening!

Read what I've written before about Hey Mr Jesse.

Freddie Schnickelfritz Fisher - Turkey In The Straw

In my last post about Rockin' in Rhythm I mentioned the song Turkey In The Straw. Since everybody might not know that song I thought I would post this absolutly hilarious video clip of Turkey In The Straw with Freddie Schnickelfritz Fisher.

Freddie Schnickelfritz Fisher led this jug band that has a similar feel like Spike Jones had. I think some of the members of this band also played with Spike Jones.

What do you think of the video clip with Freddie Schnickelfritz Fisher playing Turkey In The Straw? Tell me.

Rockin' in Rhythm: Duke Ellington

One of my favorite Duke Ellington songs is Rockin' in Rhythm. Here is a great version of Rockin' in Rhythm with Duke Ellington himself.

When I hear that riff at 0:20-0:25, I always think of the American folk song "Turkey in the Straw". Do you think the riff might be borrowed from "Turkey in the Straw"?

What do you think of Rockin' in Rhythm? Tell me.