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The photos are taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission.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The photo is taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission.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

Louis Armstrong - I can't give you anything but love

What do you think of Louis Armstrong singing "I can't give you anything but love"? Please comment.

Stockholm Classic Jazz Band: Concert Sun 30 nov at Pub 19

Join me tomorrow, Sunday Nov 30th, at a concert with Stockholm Classic Jazz Band at Pub 19 in Uppsala at 15.00.

Stockholm Classic Jazz Band play trad jazz and has some of the very best musicians in that genre: Bent Persson (trumpet), Jens Lindgren (trombon, song), Göran Eriksson (clarinet, alto saxophone), Holger Gross (banjo, guitar, bandleader), Göran Lind (bass) and Christer Ekhé (drums).

The concert is arranged by Uppsala Jazz Club.

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

Jazz photography: The Great Jazz Party

Last Saturday I attended the concert The Great Jazz Party. The concert hall was almost sold out. It was a really good concert, how could it not be that way with some of Swedens best jazz musicians in the band. I'm especially thinking of Klas Lindquist, Klas Toresson, Karl Olandersson and Andreas Pettersson and of course the maestro himself: Ulf Johansson Werre.



Two vocalist were featured in the concert: Roger Pontare and Vivian Buczek. Roger Pontare is known for his songs with a strong ethnic influence from northern Sweden (which you might have guessed by his clothes in the picture above) but he has also recorded an album with Frank Sinatra songs.

Vivian Buczek comes from the other end of Sweden, from the town Malmö, in the very south of Sweden. I've heard her before when she sang with Claes Crona Trio at Katalin last year.

Both singers sang excellent.



At the concert they played a song that I heard a couple of times but never known what it's called, now I got it: Filthy McNasty written by Horace Silver. (Hear a clip of Filthy McNasty at Youtube).

If you want to see more of my photos from the jazz concert, take a look here: The Great Jazz Party at Uppsala Konsert & Kongress 2008.

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 Great Jazz Party? Please comment.

Ondrej Havelka - Sing, Sing, Sing

I discovered Ondřej Havelka pretty much one year ago when he sang Beat Me Daddy Eight To he Bar and later on with Jingle Bells.

Today I have a clip where Ondřej Havelka performs Sing, Sing, Sing from his show "How jazz was born and reached Bohemia". As I said bfore: who wouldn't like to be multi-talented like him: singer, dancer, comedian, actor and director. Wow.

Apparently there is a DVD where all his short movies are collected: "Ondrej Havelka uvadi Temer kompletni almanach filmovych pisni".

If someone would give me this DVD, I would be so happy. If I have a fan of the blog in the Czech Republic: if you really like this blog, send me a copy, please.

What do you think of Ondřej Havelka and the Melody Makers playing Sing, Sing, Sing? Please comment.

Cats Corner at Grand tonight

The venue for our weekly dance night Cats Corner has changed for the rest of the season due to unforseen problems. Tonight and next week we will be at Grand. What a super location. Tonight's dj is Trina Dobbs.

As usual: 20-23. 20 kr. Lots of fun!

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 Cats Corner this season? Please comment.

Artie Shaw - Lady Be Good

Here is a terrific up-tempo version of Lady Be Good done by Artie Shaw and his orchestra. In the video clip you also see couples dancing collegiate shag (or possibly some other form of shag).

I spot Buddy Rich at the drums, but who are the other musicans in the clip, can you help me identify them?

What do you think of the video clip with Artie Shaw playing Lady Be Good? Please comment.

Great Jazz Party: Roger Pontare + Vivian Buczek

Tonight it's time again for The Great Jazz Party at Uppsala Konsert & Kongress. Ulf Johansson Werre has assembled a big band with professional jazz musicians. The concert features the singers Roger Pontare and Vivian Buczek.

Th concert starts at 19.

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 attend The Great Jazz Party? Please comment.

Charleston dancing in Europe in the 1920's

Charleston became a dance craze in the 1920's and traveled over to Europe as well. Above is a video clip from 1929 with a British band and some dancers dancing Charleston.

If you are interested in old footage from the 1920's and 1930's, you should check out the YouTube profile for jozefsterkens, who posted the clip above. He has posted over 700 other video clips.

You can find out more about dance history at http://dancehistory.org/

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

Swing djing: shaping the floor

To shape the floor is to look at dance floor and see what mood and energy is and deciding in what direction to go. Faster or slower tempo? Big band or small group? Older or modern recording? Vocal or instrumental? Experienced or inexperienced dancers? Crowded floor or lots of space? Which people are dancing together? Theme of the night? Face of the moon?

You as a dj shapes the floor, the dancers respond and you adjust. What would be a good song right now and in what direction will it take us?

It's almost like a dance itself, the dj provides a lead: "Lets try this move (song)" and the crowd follows "Cool, and look at what extra styling I just added to the move". "Yeah! Ok, then you'll probably like this next move"

The photo above is from last night at Cats Corner where Jonas Pettersson djed.

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 last night at Cats Corner? Please comment.

Benjamin Ricard and Geneviève Kérouac swingin' effortless

Take a look at the video clip above where Benjamin Ricard and Geneviève Kérouac dance in the American Lindy Hop Championship (ALHC) 2006 in the open showcase division.

They took 1st place and no nobody needs to wonder why. Their dance routine seems so effortless and relaxed which tells me that it must have taken lots of hard work to make it look that way.

The song is "Swingin' The Blues" but what orchestra plays it? I haven't heard this version before.

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

Takin' it Back with Barack, Jack!

Today is the election for president in the USA, so I got to feature this video with Will Galison and His Orchestra singing a song they call "Takin' it Back with Barack, Jack!" which is a version of Louis Jordan's Choo Choo Ch' Boogie with new lyrics.

[Via the Hey Mr Jesse November podcast and Rich Werden]

What do you think of the song? Please comment.

Hey Mr Jesse: November podcast with Nikki Yanofsky

The November 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.

This episode they got an interview with the Canadian jazz singer Nikki Yanofsky who just released her first album. Take a look at what more is in the show: read the show notes for Hey Mister Jesse November 2008.

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

This is my mail contribution to the November podcast:

Since I celebrate my 10th anniversary as a lindy hopper I'd like to highlight one of the songs that I associate with learning lindy hop.

The song is "Three Cool Cats" with the Swedish band Jump4Joy. The band is led by Ulf Sandström (a great boogie woogie piano player) and "Mighty" Bo Gustavsson (on tenor sax).

Their website can be found at: http://www.jump4joy.se/

I also celebrate my 500th post on my blog. Jeez, that's a lot of posts!

One of the best videos that I've featured on the blog is of Ina Ray Hutton and Her Melodears playing the song "Truckin" where Ina Ray also taps.

If that video don't get you in a good mood, you should probably see a doctor.

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

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

Diga Diga Doo - Paolo Conti & Sebastien Ménière

Diga diga doo is one of my favorite songs. Usually you hear versions by Artie Shaw or Benny Goodman, but you have never heard it like this when it's played by Paolo Conti (on slide steel guitar) & Sebastien Ménière (rhythm guitar) in a gypsy jazz style.

I would say that Diga diga doo is a classic swing song.

What do you think of this version of Diga diga doo? Please comment.

Let me off uptown - Gene Krupa, Anita O'day, Roy Eldridge

Let me off uptown is one of those classic swing songs, maybe it's not considered a jazz standard, but when it comes to swing dancing, you're bound to hear it every now and then.

The most known version of Let me off uptown is the one above with Gene Krupa, Anita O'day, Roy Eldridge. This was also the very first swing music tip I gave on this blog.

In the middle of the video clip there is a dance sequence, does anyone know who the dancers are?

Maybe you are as silly as Miss D and I: whenever we hear the song on the dance floor, we act out the banter between Anita and Roy.

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

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.

Jack 'n' Jill Final: Sweden Balboa Weekend 2008

I have had a great weekend participating in and organizing the Sweden Balboa Weekend 2008. Great classes, great people who came here, fun dancing in the evenings.

I'll post more about the weekend later on but first I want to show you the final in the Jack 'n' Jill balboa competition. Congratulations to Jessica Håll (Stockholm) and Ari Halinen (Finland) who won. Ari also won the SBW Jack & Jill last year.

The very last song was played by the band of the night: The Canal Street Syncopators.



Were you at Sweden Balboa Weekend 2008? What do you think of the weekend? Please comment.

Sweden Balboa Weekend starts today

Sweden Balboa Weekend starts tonight. It'll be three days packed with lots of fun and lots of hard work.

We have a great lineup of teachers: Peter Loggins and Mia Goldsmith; Laura Keat & Jeremy Otth; Kate Hedin & David Rehm and Joana Ekeström and Andreas Olsson. I really looking forward to learn from them.

People are coming in from Denmark, Finland, France and Russia. It's great to see that the camp is becoming more and more international.

It's also really exciting that the weekend is fully booked. But there's still a chance to get into the dances at night if you volunteer during the weekend. If you're interested you should talk to the organizers at the registration desk tonight at Drabanten.

I hope to see you during the weekend.

Will you be attending Sweden Balboa Weekend? Please comment.

The education of organizers

Tuesday night I dj:ed at the weekly dance event Cats Corner that has continued at GH nation this semester. The djing went well I think (please tell me what you thought of it).

A new place always means that things work a little bit different, it also means that things doesn't work in different ways. We've had some technical challenges but I think we have solved them now. This is where experience comes in handy: You know that something almost certainly will happen, but hopefully you have solved the problem before and it can easily be taken care of.

I've been involved in arranging events ever since Swingkatten, our dance organisation, started seven years ago. I'm one of the go-to guys when it comes to technical issues.

I've started to write "brain dumps" so that more people get to know how to do technical stuff. My main goal in Swingkatten in the coming year will be to educate people on technical issues.

I think it's important to have a large group of people that are available to arrange events. It's dangerous to rely on only a few people. What if someone disappears from the scene for one reason or another? You also avoid people getting burned out from doing too much work.



Everybody has their favorite way of doing things. In Swingkatten we've had the principle: "If you make things happen, you get to do it the way you like it".

Obviously, everyone can't completly agree about how things are done. That brings us to the other side of the principle: "If you like things done your way, you got to make things happen". Get involved! More people means more variety.

Over the the last couple of years I've implemented the plan that Swingkatten should have technical equipment to be able to independently arrange events. We have almost reached that goal and that feels great. Only a few things are lacking.

So now the challenge is to make use of all this equipment. The next step is to educate people. Setting up equipment is not that hard that it may seem. We need to set up some form of apprentice program. Have you done anything like that? I'd like to hear how you did it.

The photos in this post are taken by me at an impromtu jam session at Cats Corner. The photos may not be published elsewhere without my permission. Contact me if you want to buy or license them.

Would you like to be an apprentice? Please comment.

Where's the tiger? There's the tiger!

I have a list of videos with video clips that I written about but that has since then disappeared from Youtube.

That list has become a little shorter when I yesterday refound the gem where Firehouse Five Plus Two plays Tiger Rag.

If you have some extra time, please help me hunt down the other missing video clips on my list.

I also want to remind you that if you are a Facebook user, you can become a fan of the Swing, Jazz & Blues blog.

Please comment.