Jazz photography: Swinging Christmas with Uppsala University Jazz Orchestra.

Here are some photographs from the jazz concert Swinging Christmas with Uppsala University Jazz Orchestra.

The photo above shows the beautiful vocalist Ida Widberg.

The photos are taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission.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.

Were you at the concert? What do you think of the photos? Please comment.

Wingy Manone - Ochi Chornya

Here is Wingy Manone and his Orchestra performing "Ochi Chornya" in a recording from 1938.

The YouTube poster, edmundusrex has uploaded a lot of songs with artists from the 1920s and the 1930s. A goldmine to dig into and discover more about early jazz and blues artists.

I don't have time to browse through them all, why don't you take a look at his videos and recommend your favorite clips in the comments below?

You also might want to check out 100 Great Records Of The 1920s.


What do you think of Wingy Manone performing Ochi Chornya? What is your favorite clip?Please comment.

White Christmas: Vera-Ellen

I'm continuing on the Christmas theme: Take a look at this video clip from the movie White Christmas where Vera-Ellen dances with John Brascia.

You'll see jazz steps and even a hand-to-hand charleston move.

Last year I posted another clip from White Christmas: The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing.

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

Merry Christmas, Baby

Frances Butt and Keith Warmington sing the blues Merry Christmas Baby by Charles Brown.

I meant to post this before Christmas but here it comes today. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas.

What do you think of Merry Christmas Baby? Please comment.

Swinging Christmas: Uppsala University Jazz Orchestra

The Uppsala University Jazz Orchestra has a concert tonight called Swinging Christmas.

The jazz concert features Bengt Feldreich and the Lucia of Uppsala: Anette Bodén.

The concert is in Missionskyrkan and starts at 19.00. Tickets cost 130 kr (90 kr for students).

The photo is taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission.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 Uppsala University Jazz Orchestra? Please comment.

Release party: Sweet Emma & The Mood Swingers: Turn it up

Last Saturday the rhythm & blues band Sweet Emma & The Mood Swingers had a release party at Katalin to celebrate their new cd Turn It Up.

They played songs from the album, great jump blues as always. What I really like is the fact that the band has written some new songs.

You can buy Turn It Up from their label: Heptown Records.



I only had time to see their first set since I had to hurry back to prepare for the swing night and the vintage fashion show at Grand.

I also didn't have time to pick up the actual cd, a pity since I was really curious about what the booklet inside looked like. I photographed the pictures that is inside, the photos where taken when Sweet Emma & The Mood Swingers played at Parksnäckan in June.



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

What do you think of Sweet Emma & The Mood Swingers new cd, Turn it up? Please comment.

Photography: Vintage fashion and swing dancing

Last Saturday was packed with events, there was weekend dance workshops, Swingkatten had a fika where people in the the organization introduced themselves and presented what they are doing. Swingkatten is doing so many things these days that it's hard to keep track of it all.

However, the main event was the swing dance later on that evening. On stage we had Hasse Ling and His Syncopators of Swing. They are a great small band that knows what the dancers want. They've played at several of our dances.



In the first band break there was a vintage fashion show with clothes from a shop called Dreamers Vintage in Uppsala. The shoes were from Jigwalk. Marielle Hjalmarsson was the fabulous and charming MC of the event.

I was asked to photograph the fashion show and also to take some portraits afterwards. In order to to able to take the photos I want and to get the quality of the photos as good as I want them to be, I invested in a new flash accessory. Hopefully you will see the difference. I'm still on the mission to become a world class photographer.

You can see a large collection of vintage fashion photos from the night here. Note the arrow below on that page which takes you to more photos with swing dancing as well as the performances that took place in the second band break.

The performers were first a group of tap dancers from Swingkatten, then came Emelie and Rebecka Decavita from the show group MessAround and last but not least The Midnight Rounders, a show dance group from Stockholm (first picture).



As if photographing and doing light design for the fashion show wasn't enough, I also djed the late night shift. It went pretty well and it was fun to see a jam circle erupt. Benny Goodman did it again.

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

What do you think of swing dance at Grand? Please comment.

Love me or leave me: Kevin & Carla or Max & Tommy?

One of my favorite versions of Love Me Or Leave Me was played at Swingkatten's lindy hop practise tonight. This particular version is sung by Sammy Davis Jr. I like the song because it is very dynamic, smooth at some times, other times it's loud, I love those horns.

I, like many lindy hoppers, picked it up when I saw the hilarious video clip of Tommy Blacharz & Max Pitruzella dancing to Love Me Or Leave Me imitating (or making a parody of) the dance style and the dance moves of the dance couple Kevin St. Lauren and Carla LaRue Heiney.

This video clip I think can be considered a modern classic. Almost every lindy hopper has seen it but if you joined the dance scene in the last 2 years you might not have seen it, so, you should see it right away below.

I don't know what's best, to first see the "original" with Kevin and Carla dancing to Love Me Or Leave Me or see the "copy cats" Max and Tommy? You have to decide what works best for you.

First out is Tommy Blacharz & Max Pitruzella :



Now have a look at Kevin St. Lauren and Carla LaRue Heiney



I think both couples does a great dance. I would love to dance like that. I'd love to dance with Carla.

If you have any information about Max and Tommy's version, where it was performed, etc, I'd like hear from you.

What do you think of the different versions of people dancing to Love Me Or Leave Me? Please comment.

Housekeeping

Due to circumstances beyond my control, the computer where I hosted most of my photos is now unavailable.

This means that all blog posts where there are supposed to be photos looks weird. I'm working on updating all the affected pages, but as I've written 500+ pages it might take a while to fix this.

Thanks for your understanding.

In the meantime you can look at my music photography portfolio at floyfloy.se.

What do you think of my photos? Please comment.

Hey Mr Jesse: December podcast

The December 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.

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

Take a look at what more is in the show: read the show notes for Hey Mister Jesse December 2008.

My contribution to the show:

In the spirit of Thankgivin I want to thank you for yet another year of great podcasts. I'm looking forward to next year. Keep them coming!

Here are some swingin' tips for December:

First, I'd like to a recommend a jump blues song called "Where Did You Go, Bettie Page" by the guitarist Rick Vito (who played in Fleetwood Mac).

Bettie Page was a pinup model in the 1950's, who "disappeared" for a long time and then became a pop culture icon. Well, at least for people interested in retro culture, she was not as main stream as for example Marilyn Monroe.

The song is available on the album "Band Box Boogie". You can listen to it at
http://cdbaby.com/cd/rickvito.


My second tip is a book: I'd like to a recommend a great book about swing music: "Swing : The Essential Listening Companion" by Scott Yanow.

The book contains a lot of biographies of swinging jazz musicians, band leaders and vocalists along with detailed recommendations and reviews of some of their albums.

This is a great resource to discover more about swing musicians and swing music.

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


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

Jazz photography: Stockholm Classic Jazz Band

Yesterday The Stockholm Classic Jazz Band played at a concert at Pub 19 in Uppsala.

Pub 19 is a classic stomping ground for jazz listners, a couple of years ago "Katalin and all that jazz" was located here before they moved to the new location right by the central station. The pub really has an intimate feeling. All around the walls there are photos of many musicians that has played there over the years.



Stockholm Classic Jazz Band played good trad jazz and had a really good lineup of musicians. One of them is Bent Persson, the trumpet player. I have one of his cds: Swingin' Straight, when I spoke to him he said that he usually plays other kinds of jazz than what's on that cd. So I guess Bent Persson mostly plays trad jazz.



Jens Lindgren on trumpet and song is another member of the Stockholm Classic Jazz Band. What you might not know is that he and Lennart Westerlund and the dance group The Rhythm Hot Shots started Jesses Jazz Club that was located at Katariahissen (Pryssgränd) where there was dancing every week to live bands. In the early days Jens Lindgren was the MC of the night. One of these days I might go through my old photo albums, I might have some photos from Jesses Jazz Club (or better yet, you send me one!).

When the rent became to high they had to move to another location. The dance night has now transformed into Zackes Jazz Corner which is hosted each Wednesday at the Chicago Dance Studio owned by The Harlem Hot Shots. Chicago Dance Studio is located at Hornsgatan 75 in Stockholm.

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

What do you think of Stockholm Classic Jazz Band? Please comment.