According to Wikipedia, the musician Louis Jordan was born on July 8th in 1908. One of his most known songs that he performed was Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby.
Above you see him play and sing it in the movie Follow the Boys from 1944.
"Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby" have been sung by many artists. Do you have a favorite version?
What do you think of the video clip with Louis Jordan? Please comment.
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.
The August episode of the podcast Hey Mister Jesse is just released. Hey Mr Jesse is a great monthly podcast where Jesse Miner and Manu Smith (a.k.a. Spuds) talk about swingin' music that matters to dancers.
I'm listening to the podcast as I write this. You can see what is in the show by looking at the show notes for Hey Mister Jesse August 2008. If I find time I'll post more comments about the podcast later on when I've finished listening to it.
Download the August 2008 episode of Hey Mister Jesse. (~50 MB, mp3)
I'm sending swing music tips each month to the show, but since they have picked up more listeners, they also get more feedback that they want to feature. This means that not every tip I send make it into the podcast because they have to edit the show to squeeze in most of the information. That should tell you that is a jam packed show with lots of swinging music. But I'm totally cool with that.
So, if you like my suggestions on the Hey Mr Jesse podcast, be sure to check out the blog as well, because there might be more...
Here is my tips for the August podcast:
Hi Mr Jesse! Hi Spuds!
First tip:
I'm picking up the thread from July where I mentioned Jimmy Sapienza's Five Guys Named Moe who played some Louis Jordan songs.
An artist who was also inspired by Louis Jordan was his contemporary: Calvin Boze. Calvin Boze's most famous song is Safronia B, which you might know by some of the lyrics: "I surrender! I surrender!"
I'd like to recommend a compilation album with Calvin Boze called "Havin' A Ball". It has some really good jump blues / rhythm & blues songs like Lizzy Lou, Fishtail and my favorite: "Beale Street On A Saturday Night".
The song is obviously inspired by Jordan's "Saturday Night Fish Fry" but it got another kind of vibe.
Second tip:
Continuing on the theme "similar but different" I want to mention the pianist and singer Charles Brown. He played in a small group that sounded similar to the Nat King Cole trio.
On the compilation album "Charles Brown 1947-1948" he does a version of "Moneys Getting Cheaper". I like one of his songs that is called "If You Dont Why Dont Ya!".
Bonus tip:
Now that I have been givin credit to two fairly unknown artists, I came to think of another unknown band called Comfy Chair from Berkeley, California.
Confy Chair do a song called "Givin' Credit" where they honor Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington and the other jazz greats. I dont really know how to classify their music style, progressive rock maybe(?), I think they themself call it "slamswing".
Along with this song from their debut CD in 1997, 'Party on the Titanic', is a song about Thomas "Fats" Waller, which is simply called: "Fats". I also really like the song "Renaissance In Harlem".
The July episode of the podcast Hey Mister Jesse is just released. Hey Mr Jesse is a great monthly podcast where Jesse Miner and Manu Smith talks about swingin' music that matters to dancers.
I haven't listened to it yet but you can see what is in the show by looking at the show notes for Hey Mister Jesse June 2008. I'll post more comments about the podcast later on when I've listened to it. Enjoy!
Download July 2008 episode of Hey Mister Jesse. (~50 MB, mp3)
My monthly tips to the show hosts:
Hi Mr Jesse. Hi Manu!
Wow. The June podcast was stuffed with great swing music. :)
Here are some swinging tunes for July:
It's hard to pick songs that are new to you but I try to find good albums that I haven't seen been mentioned elsewhere and that deserve to be presented to the swing music community.
First out is the yet another female vocal group called "Sister Swing" from Sacramento, CA. They have produced several albums and I can recommend "Riff Raff and Ruffles", "Going Nowhere Fast" and "New Shoes and Old Bags".
You can listen to sound clips on their website http://www.sisterswing.com/ I like their version of Tuxedo Junction.
Second tip: It's time for some jump blues again. I'd like to recommend "Jimmy Sapienza's Five Guys Named Moe" and their album "Jitterbuggin'".
They are a jazzy jump blues band from Pittsburgh, PA. Three of the band members are blind. No sheet music here. As you can guess from their name, they have a lot of Louis Jordan songs on the album: Caldonia, I Want A Roof Over My Head and Choo-Choo Ch' Boogie. On the album there are also songs written by Jimmy Sapienza himself.
If I have to pick a song from the album, I probably choose "Short Brunettes". (Who wouldn't?! ;-))
Bonus tips: I'm a sucker for good vocal stuff. I always smile when I hear Bunny Briggs' scat version of "Rockin' in Rhythm" from the album "Scat Singing - The Art of Vocal Jazz".
Bunny Briggs is also a dancer and was inducted into The Tap Dance Hall of Fame in 2006 by the American Tap Dance Foundation.
The song is recorded in New York, November 30, 1947 by Charlie Barnet and his Orchestra : James Campbell, Joe Graves, Jimmy Nottingham, Doc Severinsen, Clark Terry (tp) Walt Benson, Porky Cohen, Fred Zito (tb) Charlie Barnet (as,sop,ts) Walter Weidler, Wolfgang Weidler (as) Kurt Bloom, Bud Shank (ts) Bob Dawes (bar) Claude Williamson (p) unknown (g) Don Totsi (b) Dick Shanahan (d) Bunny Briggs (vcl) Billy May (arr).
Some more record details: 3198-2D1 Rockin' in rhythm (bb vcl,bm arr) Apollo 1106, Clef MGC165, Verve MGV2007, 2317060, Ajaz 217
It's time for some more more jump blues. Here is a video clip with a song called "Wham, Sam! (Dig Them Gams)" with Louis Jordan. In the clip one woman does some authentic jazz steps (like boogie down) with great stylings.
Learn more about him at the official Louis Jordan website or at Wikipedia.
What do you think of Louis Jordan singing "Wham, Sam!"? Tell me.
One of the things I'd like to do in this blog is to introduce you to great jazz and blues artists; here is one I haven't featured before: Louis Jordan performing the song Caldonia.
Louis Jordan was one of the best artists in the music style that is called jump blues. Jump blues is based on blues and swing but the horn section is more prominent and often an electric guitar is added. Jump blues was a step in the evolution of rock 'n' roll.
Caldonia is a fun song to play at dances, first of all it got great energy. Secondly, most dancers recognize the big break in the music at "What makes your big head so hard" and do something spectacular. Often they make a big jump. On one occasion when I was swing djing, the floor vibrated some from the dancing and I actually had to lift the cd player up when break came, otherwise the cd player would have skipped a beat due to all the jumping dancers.
What do you think of this video clip with Louis Jordan performing Caldonia? Tell me.
