Join us on Facebook

Over the last week or so many people have found their way to the Swing, jazz and blues Facebook page and have become fans of the blog.

It's great to see a little more about who is reading the blog. On Facebook I usually make short announcements and post some videos for you to check out.

Become a fan of the Swing, jazz and blues blog on Facebook!

What do you think of the Facebook page? Please comment.

Validation - Smile!

Lately I've had some great comments about some blog posts, it's so good to hear your views on what I write about. Please keep the comments coming! I'll soon be posting some videos that you readers have sent tips about.

I think it's important to give validation to people, to let them know what they are good at and let them know how much you appreiciate them. That is what the video clip from the short film "Validation" above is about.

You can't but smile when you have seen it. A great film. Love it.

Oh yeah, I just want to remind you that there is a Facebook group for the Swing, jazz and blues blog, join it so I know who you are. You are great!

What do you think of the short film Validation? Please comment.

Best jazz blog out there!

At this time of year many people think about the year that has gone by and the year that lie ahead, so do I.

This will be the third year of this blog, can you belive it? I just want to thank all the people who have supported me and who appreciate the work I'm doing.

In the December 2008 podcast of Hey Mr Jesse, one of hosts, Manu "Spuds" Smith, called my blog:

"Best jazz blog out there!"

Spuds, thank you very much!

I also made the list "Top Ten Jazz and Blues Music Blogs" made by http://www.bestshowticketslasvegas.com/. Thank you so much! Check out their list with other good jazz blogs.

So, what will 2009 bring? Well, I'll continue to mix old and new swinging stuff, both music and dance. I hope I'll be able to post 3 to 4 times a week. Please let me know if there is anything you'd like me to write more about.

Some recent events have made me think about how I should invest my time and energy and what I get back. I suspect there will be some changes made. This blog however gives me great joy and happiness and I hope you feel the joy as well.

What would you like me to write about? 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.

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.

Facebook for Swing, jazz, blues fans

Are you a regular reader of this blog and a user of Facebook? Then I encourage you to join the Facebook fan page for Swing, jazz, blues: Dance to the music.

In this way I hope to connect more with all you readers out there.

Welcome!

Recommendations of swing, jazz and blues books, music and films

To make it easier for you to find my recommendations of swing, jazz and blues books, music and films that I mention in the blog I've set up a bunch of pages where you can browse and buy the things I like.

Check it out :

Swing, Jazz and Blues: Music, books and films for dancers

I will add new products and subcategories as time goes by, so check in every once in a while to see what's new. Be sure to look at the right side of the page to find the subcategories.

I've also added a page with recommendations of Canon DSLR camera gear for those of you who like my photos.

What do you think of my recomendations? Please comment.

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.

How to support this blog

Do you enjoy reading this blog? I hope you do. It fun to write but it takes a quite an effort to research topics. You can help me make blog writing even more enjoying by supporting the blog in various ways.

1) Give feedback
I really want to know what you think about the posts I write, so please write a comment by clicking the comment link that is located in the footer of each post. You can also send me an email to swing@theheartofgold.org.

It doesn't have to be a long or detailed comment, it's just nice to know that someone out there has read the post.

If you are a regular reader, please tell me a few words about yourself.

You can also become a fan of the blog on Facebook, I'd love to get to know more about my readers.

Maybe you have a tip about a swing band or a web site that I should check out? Just tell me.

2) Tell your friends
Do you have friends that like swinging jazz and blues music that makes you want to dance? In that case, send a message to them and tell them. Spread the word!

If you have a website or a blog, please add a link to my blog.

3) Buy cds and books
I often link to Amazon.com where you can buy cds and books. Each time you buy something from Amazon.com I get a small percentage of that sum that I can use to buy cds myself that I can tip you about later.

4) Book me as a swing dj
I've been djing swing, jazz and blues for dancers for a long time. I'd love to provide swinging toe-tappin' and finger-snappin' music for your event. I have every style of swinging jazz music so I can easily adapt the music to fit the mood that you want to create. Laid-back or bouncing, bluesy or 1920's charleston, I have it all.

5) Book me as a photographer
I freelance as a photographer and I specialize in concert and performance photography. I would love to photograph your concert or performance.

6) Send me cd from your local swing jazz band
I like to hear what swing, jazz and blues sounds like in other parts of the world. If you have a cd by your favorite local band, send it to me.

7) Invite me to concerts
I always enjoy going to concerts. If you invite me to your concert I'll most likely write about your band on the blog.

8) Give a gift certificate
If you want me to review more cds and books, I first have to get them and that recuires money. You can support me by giving me a gift certificate at Amazon.com.

Thank you for supporting the Swing, Jazz and Blues blog in any way that you can. It makes blogging more fun. Thanks! /Henrik

Thank you all readers of Swing, Jazz and Blues!

Since it's Thanksgiving in USA today, I thought it might be appropriate to celebrate the day, even though I'm living in Sweden.

Honestly, I wasn't sure, when I started this blog, how long it would last. But now after having done more than 300 posts, I'm pretty sure it will be here for a while.

I've learned so much about swing, jazz and blues that I didn't know in the beginning of the year. I've seen and heard so many amazing jazz and blues musicians. Thank you for sharing your music. I'm truly grateful for being able to experience so many great jazz concerts. Thank you UJC.

I'm thankful for all the people who are reading the blog, about 1000 people are regular readers. Please don't be shy, I would love more comments and I also would like to get to know you better.

At last, I would like to thank all the great people I meet every day.

I hope you have a great Thanksgiving and I hope you like what this blog has become. Thank you!

Floy Floy Photography

Floy Floy Photography is my photography business. I'm a freelance photographer and I specialize in concert and dance photography.

You can have a look at my jazz and blues concert photos here at the blog. I'm also the official photographer for the outdoor summer concerts at Parksnäckan.

If you would like to use the photos, you can licence them from me. Just contact me.

If you like to hire me as a photographer, contact me at floyfloy@theheartofgold.org.

Regular readers: introduce yourself!

I've been running this blog a while now and I know that I have a bunch of regular readers. Thank you very much for reading! I think by now you have a pretty good idea what this blog is about.

However, as much as I like writing and sharing good music that makes you want to dance, I also like to connect with you, yes you! I like to know more about you.

Tell me a little bit about yourself by making a comment to this post or by sending an email to me at swing@theheartofgold.org. I would appreciate that very much!

Swing dance photography by Bryant Gover

If you have been following this blog, you know that I like to do jazz photography and that almost every picture on this blog is made by me. I also like to do dance photography (mostly swing dances like lindy hop and balboa) but so far I haven't shown you much of it. Maybe that'll change later on, anyway, now on to the subject that I wanted to talk about.

Last summer at Herräng Dance Camp I met another swing dance photographer: Bryant Gover. Bryant Gover has been all over the world at dance camps and other dance events taking photos. He has released a book called "A moment in the swing-out" with swing dance photography and if you are going to the Herräng Dance Camp this summer (it starts today!) you can have a look at (and buy) his book. This edition contains just photos but later editions will include the stories behind and around the pictures.

Bryant Gover has also submitted a guest post to the blog Digital Photography School (maintained by Darren Rowse*) called "Dance Photography - Capturing Movement" where he shares how he works when he takes photographs of dancers.

I think the most important thing when it comes to take great dance pictures is timing. Like any other kind of action photography you have to to anticipate the peak moment and that is much easier if you know both how swing and blues music is structured and if you know how to dance. It's about knowing as much as possible about the subject you are shooting.

(*BTW Darren Rowse also has a blog called Problogger, which is a great resource if you're a blogger like me).

Do you have any favorite swing dance picture? Tell me.

Mission statement

This is my mission statement.
This is what I want to achieve.
This is my future.

I WANT:

TO ENTERTAIN: YOU CANT SIT STILL ANYMORE
Swing music is all about joy, you feel like you must move to the music and dance. I want you to smile. I want to entertain you.

TO LEARN AND TO EDUCATE
I want to introduce you to the world of swing, jazz and blues. I want you to discover all the great music that is out there. In the mean time, I'll learn things too.

TO DOCUMENT JAZZ MUSICIANS AND SWING DANCERS
I want to make a record of whats like to be in the world of jazz music and swing dance, right here, right now. For future generations to discover. I want to be a world class photographer.

TO CONNECT WITH PASSIONATE MUSIC LOVERS
I want to connect with people who also love swing, jazz and blues as much as I do.

TO PROMOTE
I want to contribute to making the joy of music more known. I want to make more people active in the dance scene. I want to support the local musicians. I want to connect the world of music and the world of dance.

MAKING IT HAPPEN
Like everything in life, this mission statement is work in progress. Watch the progress. Participate in the progress. Make a difference.

5 Tips: Learn how to get the most out of this blog

Here is some tips about how you can get the most out of this blog. Try them!

1. Search the site

If there is something specific you want to find out about you can search for it in the box to the right side of the page.


2. Browse the archive

There is quite a lot of blog posts in the archive which you can browse.

Notice that you can expand/collapse the monthly archives in the right column by clicking on the arrow next to the month.

If you click on the name of a month you will find a page with all that months post collected at one page.


3. Use the labels

I tag each post with labels that describes the content. If a post for example has the label "Count Basie" you can click that link to go to a page with all the posts about Count Basie.


4. Explore related music and books

Each post has a small Amazon.com advertisement. What is shown is based on a keyword that I have selected manually that fits the topic.

For example: If the post is about Ella Fitzgerald, two of her cds will be featured in the bottom of the post.

Which of her cd that is shown will change each time you reload the page. This is useful if you want to discover cds or books related to the topic in the post.


5. Follow the links

When I write the posts I try to give you as much information as possible. Often I link to products or lists at Amazon.com where you can find out more.

I also frequently link to Wikipedia, The Internet Movie Database and especially YouTube (that's a goldmine!).

Sometimes I link the same phrase to different sources, so be sure to check out each link.

What do you think of these tips? Do you have any other tips that I should mention? How do you use the blog? Tell me.

Welcome Bloggers! Where to start?

Yesterday I started to see a big boost in the numbers of visitors to this blog. A little research revealed that the staff at Blogger has selected "Swing, jazz and blues" as an interesting and noteworthy blog. How cool is that!

Ok. If you're a new visitor, what should you start looking at?

I'd say: start with the blog posts that has video clips. They have music that makes you wanna dance.

Welcome!

What do you think of this blog? Tell me.