Time Is Essential: UUJO + Frode Kjekstad concert

Tomorrow Friday Oct 31st, Uppsala University Jazz Orchestra (UUJO) will give a concert, "Time is Essential", at the University Hall. The concert will feature the Norwegian guitar player Frode Kjekstad. The orchestra is led by Ulf Johansson Werre.

The concert in the University Hall starts at 19.00. The tickets costs 130 kr (90 kr for students. If you got a UNT card and books at the UNT office (018-470 10 70) the tickets costs 100 kr (70 kr for students).

The photo above is from their Big Band Bouquet concert this spring.

The photo is taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission.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

What do you think of the Uppsala University Jazz Orchestra? Please comment.

Pustoblogsky - James Pustejovsky

There aren't many blogs that focus on swinging jazz and djing, at least I haven't found many.

Therefore I was very happy to discover Pustoblogsky by James Pustejovsky that has the tagline:

"Music-geekery about jazz, swing, and deejaying tunes that your grandpa thought were hip"

Pustoblogsky has three basic types of posts.

First: dj set lists from when he djs. I like the fact that he sometimes comments about why he put on that particular song at that time and what he was trying to achive. Set lists are a great way to find artists that you never heard about before. I would post more set lists myself if I had a laptop to dj from (*hint hint*).

Secondly: Under the label One Track Mind you'll find detailed descriptions about a certain song and why he likes or dislikes it.

Third: Well, all the other stuff: rants, raves and musings.

Go ahead an check out Pustoblogsky, if you like my blog, you'll like his as well.

What do you think of Pustoblogsky? Are there any other blogs that you think I should check out? Please comment.

Let's Do It (Let's Fall In Love) - Can Can

Let's Do It (Let's Fall In Love) is song that I love because of its funny, witty and silly lyrics. The lyrics makes me smile every time I hear them.

Here is a version of Let's Do It (Let's Fall In Love) that is sung by Frank Sinatra and Shirley MacLaine in a scene from the movie Can-Can from 1960.

Check out an other bubbly performance of Let's Do It (Let's Fall In Love) by MaryAnne (ysabellabrave).

What do you think of this video clip with Frank Sinatra and Shirley MacLaine? Please comment.

500 thoughts on swing music and swing dance

Today I celebrate my 500th post about swing music and swing dancing. Can you belive it? It's quite a lot of time and effort behind it, but I hope that you continue to find it entertaining and educating. I want to thank all the people I've come in contact through the blog.

So what are my personal highlights so far?

• All the opportunities that I've gotten to take great jazz photographs.
• The collaboration back and forth with swing dj Jesse Miner and the Hey Mr Jesse podcast.
• Best posts: Book review of Frankie Manning: Ambassador of Lindy Hop and Interview with Cyntia Millman.
• Most infectious swing video clip: Ina Ray Hutton and Her Melodears playing the song "Truckin".

I encourage you to have a look through the archive (found at the right hand side of the blog) and see what has happened over the last one and a half years.

What are your favorite posts? Please share.

If you like this blog there are several things that you can do to support the blog.

What kind of things would you like to read more about? Please comment.

The photo is photographed by Eyesplash.

Emma Larsson: Jazz concert photos

On Sunday, The Emma Larsson Quartet played at Pub 19 at a concert arranged by Uppsala Jazz Club.

The quartet consists of Emma Larsson (vocals), Seppo Kantonen (piano), Tomi Salesvou (drums) and Ville Huolman (bass).

Everybody in the band are very talented, they are very good at what they do. If you like this style of jazz, you should see them or buy their album. But it's not really my preferred style of jazz, so (as I've mentioned before) it spoke more to my brain than my heart.



The next concert arranged by Uppsala Jazz Club will be at November 16th 15.00 with Lill-Bength.

I've heard from the jazz promotor Björn Sjödin that there will be a lot more jazz on Sundays at Pub 19 later on in the autumn, more about that in another blog post.




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

What do you think of Emma Larsson and her quartet? Please comment.

Boogie Woogie Royal: Anke Angel and Ulf Sandström

A week ago I got a mail from the pianist and singer Anke Angel from Holland, so I checked out her work and found this great clip of Anke Angel playing boogie woogie together with Ulf Sandström and the band Jump4Joy.

Such great energy and lots of humour. What is it with boogie woogie rhythm that gets you instantly into a good mood?

I missed Ulf's show "New Orleans T.O.R" at Reginateatern last year but I hope to see him performing live sometime. My bet is that it'll be at least 10 times as good as this clip.

What do you think of Anke Angel and Ulf Sandström? Please comment.

Emma Larsson at Pub 19 today

Today the jazz singer Emma Larsson and her quartet will play at a concert at Pub 19 in Uppsala at 15.00. The concert is arranged by Uppsala Jazz Club and costs 120 kr.

Listen to Emma Larsson at MySpace.

What do you think of Emma Larsson? Please comment.

Swedish HotSynth Quintet

Are you ready for something off the beaten track? Well, all right then: here you go. May I introduce the Swedish HotSynth Quintet.

The Swedish HotSynth Quintet is a group of musicians that play old 1930's style swing jazz on old analog synthesizers. I would describe the the result as "wonderfully weird".

Just listen to songs as Topzy (Topsy by Count Basie: Listen to the original version), Stampede (by Fletcher Henderson) and The Even Newer East St Louis Toodle-ooo (The East St Louis Toodle-oo by Duke Ellington). It would fit perfect as a soundtrack to some cartoon.

What do you think of the Swedish HotSynth Quintet? Please comment.

The Rhythm Club in Natchez burns down

Last Tuesday I djed at Cats Corner. I played a lot of styles of swing music, so hopefully everybody got some songs that they liked. When I dj I almost never leave the dj booth to dance, djing gets my full attention. However, I couldn't resist to dance two songs with the lovely Miss J.

One particular song I played during the night was "That Night" by Swing Session from their selfentitled album.

"That Night" is a slow and groovy song with fictional story based on a real event: the night when the Rhythm Club in Natchez burned down April 23, 1940 killing many people.

I've found a blog post that gives you much more info on what went down that night in Natchez. Check it out.

What do you think of "That Night"? Please comment.

Sweden Balboa Weekend: Photos

Sweden Balboa Weekend was an exhausting experience. There was a lot of work behind the scenes to pull it off. All people in the organizing commitee did great work and we hope that al paricipants enjoyed the weekend.

I just took photos during the dance nights, during the day I concentrated on the classes.







What do you think of Sweden Balboa Weekend 2008? Please comment.

Melody Gardot: Goodnite

I found this video clip with Melody Gardot singing the song Goodnite, what could be more appropriate as late night music?

Found via one of the readers of this blog. Thanks Mr H.

What do you think of Melody Gardot? Please comment.

Nikki Yanofsky's Debut Album: Ella...Of Thee I Swing

Canada's jazz prodigy, Nikki Yanofsky, has just released her debut album: "Ella...Of Thee I Swing" as well as full concert DVD. Take a look at all the songs that are included on "Ella...Of Thee I Swing" and listen to them. You can also buy the cd on iTunes.

As the album title indicates, Nikki Yanofsky sings songs associated with Ella Fitzgerald. I think this is perfect for her first album, especially since Nikki got discovered when she sang Ella songs. It's worth noting that Nikki Yanofsky got discovered at an younger age than Ella Fitzgerald was. Nikki is 14 now, just imagine what her singing will be like in three years.

Nikki's voice has really matured a lot since I first heard her sing Airmail Special. It's still a little bit girlish, naturally, but I can't wait to hear more of her work in the coming years.

In the video clip above you'll find Nikki Yanofsky singing at Montreal Jazz Festival 2008.

What do you think of Nikki Yanofsky and her debut album: Ella...Of Thee I Swing? Please comment.

Hey Mr Jesse October podcast available

The October episode of the podcast Hey Mister Jesse is just released.

Hey Mr Jesse is a great monthly podcast where the swing djs Jesse Miner and Manu 'Spuds' Smith talk about swingin' music that matters to dancers. Take a look at what is in the show: read the show notes for Hey Mister Jesse October 2008.

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

This is what I wrote in response to the August podcast:

Thanks for a great August podcast. I second Morgan Day's recommendation of the Firecracker jazz band, I wish I had their first self-entitled cd where they have a killer version of "Diga-diga-do".

My swing music tip for September is a compilation album from Japan called "The Very Best of Big Band Swingin' Jive".

Although one might be suspicious to a title like that, it's fairly correct. It got lots of good swinging music.

Seasoned swing djs already have some of the tracks, like "Did You Ever See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball" by Count Basie and "Cole Slaw" by Jesse Stone. But if you don't have those tracks the album is worth picking up just for them.

However, I got some other favorite songs from that album:

The first song is "Jazz o' jazz" by Adrian and his Tap Room Gang. I love the vocals by Jeanne Burns and Wingy Manone. (Adrian and his Tap Room Gang : Wingy Manone (tp,vcl) Joe Marsala (cl,as) Adrian Rollini (bassax,vib, xyl) Putney Dandridge (p,vcl) Carmen Mastren (g) Sid Weiss (b) Sam Weiss (d) Jeanne Burns (vcl) New York, June 14, 1935)

They also do a version of "Nagasaki" that's smokin' hot.

The second song is "Shorty's Gotta Go" by Lucky Millinder.
A groovy handclappin' call'n'response song with attitude, what more could you ask for?

"Shorty's Gotta Go" is also done by Cats And The Fiddle available at "Hep Cats Swing: Complete Recordings, Vol. 2 (1941-1946)"

I also reminded them about the amazing jam sesson scene in the movie Paris Blues with Louis Armstrong, Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier.

Take a look at what I've written about the previous Hey Mr Jesse podcasts.

What do you think of the Hey Mr Jesse October podcast? Please comment.

Evolution of Dance

Judson Laipply couldn't possibly have predicted the enormous success that the clip of him presenting some of the fad dances of the last 20 years would have.

His video clip called Evolution of Dance have been watched over 100 million times(!) and is the second most viewed video clip on YouTube all time.

It's great that dance have such a large audience. In the unlikely case that you haven't seen it yet, go ahead and watch it, it's highly entertaining.

What do you think of the video clip? Please comment.

Dorothy Dandridge & Paul White: A Zoot Suit (For My Sunday Gal)

Here is a funny video clip with Dorothy Dandridge & Paul White performing the song A Zoot Suit (For My Sunday Gal). According to the poster on Youtube, it's from a 1942 soundie. Source?

I sometimes dj the Bill Elliott version of this song from the soundtrack of the film Introducing Dorothy Dandridge.

What do you think of the video clip with Dorothy Dandridge? Please comment.