Hey Mr Jesse - July 2009

The July show of the podcast Hey Mister Jesse has just been 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 July 2009 episode of Hey Mister Jesse. (~50 MB, mp3)

I'm sorry that I haven't commented on the last couple of months when Hey Mr Jesse have been released, so if you use my blog to stay updated when the podcasts arrive you might have missed a few. In that case, just look at the Hey Mr Jesse archive and catch up.

This month I had a few tips on songs from some new album releases, first out was Ik Hou Van Je (I Love You) by Candye Kane from the album Superhero (available on AmazonMp3, iTunes Plus and eMusic),

Second tip was the song "Let's Misbehave" by Top Shelf Jazz from the album Fast & Louche.

My bonus tip for July was "Christopher Columbus" by Humphrey Lyttelton from the album Bad Penny Blues 1955-1956 (available on AmazonMp3, iTunes Plus and eMusic)

What do you think of Hey Mr Jesse podcast July 2009? Please comment.

Hey Mr Jesse Feb: Sweet Emma & The Mood Swingers

The February show of the podcast Hey Mister Jesse has just been 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 February 2009 episode of Hey Mister Jesse. (~50 MB, mp3)

As usual I wrote in to the show with some music tips, I wrote:

My favorite local jump blues and rhythm 'n' blues band, Sweet Emma & The Mood Swingers, has just released their second album called "Turn it up".

I like that Sweet Emma & The Mood Swingers have written some more songs of their own, like the title track "Turn it Up". My favorite track is their version of "April in Arkansas".

I just love that call and response between singer Anders Söderberg and the guest artists on that track, the sisters Greta, Stella and Sunniva Bondesson. They have their own group called Baskery.

Mr Jesse played their version of "April in Arkansas" and also talked about their video for the song Chicago Boogie.

My other music tip (that didn't make it to the show):

I'd like to recommend the album "The Jive Is Jumpin': RCA and Bluebird Vocal Groups 1939-1952" (which I got to know about thanks to my friend, the fabulous Miss V.)

This is a great album for anyone who likes vocal groups that swing.

The album has groups as Cats and the Fiddle, The Four Clefs and The Delta Rhythm Boys.

The Four Clefs do a great song called "I Like Pie, I Like Cake" and I like all the Delta Rhythm Boys' songs: One O'clock Jump, I Never Get Out of This World Alive and Take The A-Train.

That version of Take The A-Train was used in a tv documentary about The Herräng Dance Camp called "Swingen anfaller" ("The swing is attacking").

Spuds has for a long time promised to make "theme music" for my contributions to the show, and in this episode it happend. Jesse commented that he thought Spuds must have worn Lederhosen and had a beer in his hand while composing it. I agree with Jesse, this what I call oompa-oompa-music. Thank you Spuds!

Take a look at what else is in the show: read the show notes for Hey Mister Jesse February 2009.

What do you think of the Hey Mr Jesse podcast February 2009? Please comment.

Hey Mr Jesse: Candye Kane

The January show of the podcast Hey Mister Jesse has just been 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 January 2009 episode of Hey Mister Jesse. (~50 MB, mp3)

Take a look at what is in the show: read the show notes for Hey Mister Jesse January 2009.


My contribution to the show:

In the last show you mentioned you never heard a swing band played the tub bass before the California Honeydrops.

Well, you have, you just didn't know it, because the leader of the Lost and Wandering Blues and Jazz Band, Dan Fitzgerald, uses a tub bass. Take a look here.

Speaking of Dan Fitzgerald; While waiting for this podcast I went back and listened to some old episodes and came across the interview with Ron Sunshine. Ron mentions that it was Dan Fitzgerald who got him to pick up singing again. It's all connected!

The December podcast featured a mashup from dj G3RSt. I just wanted to provide some more info about the song "Come To Me" by Koop.

Come To Me has a great music video with some swing dancing by The Harlem Hot Shots. I've featured it on my blog, check it out.

MUSIC TIP
The music tip for January is the artist Candye Kane.

The music that Candye Kane writes and performes is very eclectic, it's based on jump blues, rhythm & blues and blues with boogie rhythm but there is also gospel and soul in there as well.

Some of her songs I recommend:
* "Poetry Cocktail" from the album "Swango"
* "Seven Men A Week" from the album "Home Cookin'"
* "Fine Brown Frame" from the album "Guitar'd and Feathered"
* "(Hey Mister!) She Was My Baby Last Night" from the album "The Toughest Girl Alive"

I'm looking forward to a great new year of Hey Mr Jesse podcasts!

Ps. Last show I recommended "Where did you go, Bettie Page". Well, now she is really gone. Bettie Page passed away in the middle of Dec.

What do you think of the Hey Mr Jesse podcast January 2009? 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.

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.

Hey Mr Jesse: September podcast

The September episode of the podcast Hey Mister Jesse is just released. This time the show recorded live at the lindy hop camp Swing Out New Hampshire.

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 September 2008.

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

I have some things from the podcast I'd like to comment on:

First of all, Jesse was spot on that the source of the my tip about Calvin Boze in the August episode was from the MP3 blog Be Bop Vino.

Just like Jesse I have mixed feelings about MP3 blogs and I wasn't sure if I should name it as a source so I stayed on the safe(?) side and didn't mention it.

But now that the cat is out of the bag, it's only fair that you, my blog readers, should know about it too: Take a look at the Calvin Boze album: "Havin' A Ball" at Be Bop Vino. Be Bop Vino is a great blog that gives you tips about jazz and blues artists.

Secondly, the September podcast features a good interview with swing dj Rayned Wiles about the photograph "A Great Day in Harlem" by Art Kane. Rayned has prepared a 8 hour (!) show on Yehoodi radio featuring all the jazz musicians in the photograph. I just have to say: wow.

I've had the idea of blogging about that photo since I first started blogging but never got around to do it, so this is a perfect time to at least mention some things about it.

In addition to listening to Rayned's radio show you should see the documentary "A Great Day in Harlem" where you get all kinds of stories about the making of the photograph. You can borrow it at the Uppsala City Library if you like or buy the documentary from Amazon.com.

There are much more in the show but at last I want to mention that Bernard Berkhout and his orchestra has made some video clips available on Youtube. Great stuff. The video clip in the beginning of this post is the song House Hop.

What do you think of the September edition of Hey Mr Jesse? Please comment.

Hey Mr Jesse: August podcast

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".

Here is a video clip with Comfy Chair:



Remember, if you like you can become a fan of the Swing, jazz and blues blog on Facebook.

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

Hey Mr Jesse: July edition

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

Read what I've written before about Hey Mr Jesse.

Remember, if you like you can become a fan of the Swing, jazz and blues blog on Facebook.

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

Hey Mr Jesse: June edition

Listening to the Hey Mr Jesse podcast with Jesse Miner and Manu Smith talking about swinging music is like going on a treasure hunt each month and always find a chest full of gold coins. Dig here to download June 2008 episode of Hey Mister Jesse. (~50 MB, mp3)

Look at the show notes for Hey Mister Jesse June 2008 to see what's in the treasure chest of June.

Here are my comments of the month that they featured:

Girls from Mars is phenomenal vocal group that swings like crazy. Their album "Planet Swing" is full of songs that makes you drop everything and get out on the dance floor.

"Jitter Joe" is what I as a dj call a "let's go"-song, a song that you can play after you've played groovier songs for while, signalling that now is the time to bump up the tempo and let loose.

I've been enjoying "Evening" by Count Basie and Jimmy Rushing from Newport 57 for a long time but I think I now have a new favorite version of the song. The version by Girls from Mars is so in the pocket.

You can listen to all the songs from the album on their website http://www.girlsfrommars.com/

Second tip:
Talking about vocal groups, I'd like to recommend the double cd album "The Hottest New Group In Jazz".

The vocal group Lambert, Hendricks and Ross were the group that introduced the concept of vocalese to an wider audience.

Some of the songs are good for dancing: Home Cookin', Cotton Tail (blazing fast with hilarious lyrics) and my favorite: Twist City.

B-B-B-B-Bonus tip:
If you want to hear a swinging song in French, I recommend the song "Désaccord Manouche" by the group Les Primitifs Du Futur from their album World Musette.

It's the only swingin' song on the album which othervise features the musette accordion and waltzes.

What do you think of the June edition of Hey Mr Jesse? Please comment.

Hey Mr Jesse: June podcast available

A quick announcement:

The June episode of the podcast Hey Mister Jesse is now available. Hey Mr Jesse talks about swingin' music that matters to dancers.

I'm downloading it as I write this post, so I haven't listened to it yet (but soon, in a few minutes) but looking at the show notes for Hey Mister Jesse June 2008 it looks very promising.

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

I'll post more comments about the podcast later on when I've listened to it. Enjoy!

Read what I've written before about Hey Mr Jesse.

What do you think of the June podcast of Hey Mister Jesse? Please comment.

Hey Mister Jesse! May I have this dance?

As you hopefully already know, the May episode of the podcast Hey Mister Jesse that talks about swinging music is now available. If not, download May 2008 episode of Hey Mister Jesse. (~50 MB, mp3).

Read the show notes for Hey Mister Jesse May 2008 to see all the details.

I wrote to Jesse and Manu (as always) with some tips:

First tip is the album "With Thee I Swing" with New York singer Terry Blaine and pianist Mark Shane and a bunch of other fantastic musicians. It's a live album from a concert in Hamburg, Germany.

It has songs like "Getting Some Fun Out Of Life", "Mama Don´t Allow", "I Never Knew" and my favorite song from the album: "Why Don´t You Do Right".

Terry Blaine is touring with a new show called "Swingin' the Benny Goodman Songbook".

Second tip is the album "Swingin' with Humes". On this album from 1961 the former big band singer Helen Humes fronts a small group that has a light and laidback style. I like her version of "There'll Be Some Changes Made".

Bonus tip: When I listened to the interview with Catherine Russell in last the show she mentioned western swing. Although western swing is not my prefered jazz style, I'd like to recommend a pretty decent 4 cd compilation set called "Western Swing & Country Jazz".

I like the song "Gettin' That Low Down Swing" by the band Modern Mountaineers which has great lyrics.

Manu said that "Gettin' That Low Down Swing" probably was his favorite song ever. What about that! Yehaa! That kind of comments makes a dj happy.

What other things are there in the podcast?

Well, they have a good 8 count countdown of late night blues songs. But the list has a fatal flaw! It doesn't include any Jimmy Witherspoon song. You can't have a list like that without him. It's mandatory. I 've written before about Jimmy Witherspoon and late night blues and his great compilation album Jazz Me Blues in my series of posts called Late Night Music.

Several of the songs on Jazz Me Blues (like "One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer" and "Bad, bad Whiskey") come from his 1963 album "Baby, baby, baby".

The original abum is worth checkin out because it has many good slow late night blueses like "Rocks In My Bed" and "Lonely Boy Blues". Listen to clips from the album below.



What do you think of the May edition of Hey Mister Jesse? Tell me.

Hey Mr Jesse! It's April!

Hey dear readers! I hope you have caught the latest Hey Mr Jesse podcast, the April edition.

As usual I'm very eager to listen to it, but slow to announce it on the blog. But by now you regular readers should know that the podcast really is worth listening to as fast as possible.

Download Hey Mr Jesse April 2008 podcast (~50 mb, MP3)
Shownotes for Hey Mr Jesse April 2008 podcast.

The podcast features a great interview with singer Catherine Russell. Maureen Bonnefin tipped the dynamic duo about a band I've been thinking about blogging about for while: The Stolen Sweets. I enjoyed one of Jesse Miner's recent finds: a wild jam session version of "Honeysuckle Rose" with Roy Eldridge and Mel Tormé among others.

I wrote to Jesse and Manu with some comments about the March show:

Jesse, during the last show your instinct were completly right about "Kick it", it was first done by Anita O'day and Gene Krupa. I play that version all the time but now I alternate it with the Lannie Garrett version.

Great to hear some music by Banu Gibson on the show, I love her voice.

If you look at her discography on her website there is actually a great album missing. It's called "Jazz Baby" which was first released in 1983 and then rereleased on cd in 1995.

I guess Jazz Baby is kind of hard to find, but if you see it you should get it right away. The album has a great version of Heebie Jeebies (which was made popular by the Boswell Sisters) and also Lets Misbehave. I've loved Lets Misbehave ever since I saw Christopher Walken dancing to it in the movie Pennies from Heaven.

One last tip: If you want to check out some more swingin' trad jazz, take a look at "The Hot Jazz Band" from Hungary. I recommend the album "20. Jubileum" which has "Don't be that way", "Swing That Music" and two killer versions of "I've found a new baby".

What did you think about The Hey Mr Jesse April 2008 podcast? Tell me.

Hey Mr Jesse: March 2008

On the first Monday of each month I'm very much like a child on a roadtrip: "Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" but in my case it's not an amusement park that I'm waiting for, but close: it's the podcast Hey Mr Jesse.

This month I saw that the show was announced and tried the links on the Hey Mr Jesse webpage, but I couldn't get it to work so I reported it to Jesse Miner & Manu Smith. One minute later a email came back from Manu:

My goodness! You are too fast my friend. We are still uploading the file. :-)

Well, 20 minutes later I had downloaded the March edition of Hey Mr Jesse. I'm pretty sure I'm the first listener this time.

Download March edition of Hey Mr Jesse (~50MB, MP3).

If you like to know what's in podcast, check out the show notes for Hey Mr Jesse March 2008. You can't possible comment on everything on the show but here are some my comments about the show.



The first thing you notice is that Manu has a cold and he sounds just like Dan Fitzgerald in The Lost Wandering Blues & Jazz Band. In the January podcast Manu complained that Dan has this rough voice and stills sounds great while he has a normal voice and can't sing. It would have been fun to hear Manu sing now and see if the rough voice makes a difference ;-)

They talked about one of my favorite artist when it comes Trad Jazz: Banu Gibson. Banu Gibson has released many good albums.

The 8-Count Swing featured songs from film soundtracks. A modern classic is "Business Of Love" by Domino from The Mask Soundtrack.

As usual I recommended music to them, this is what I wrote:

"I'd like to share some of my recent finds. First out is the singer Lannie Garrett who lives in Denver, Colorado where she has her own night club.

Lannie's voice has a certain "assertiveness" to it, it's strong and powerful. I'd like to recommend her album "Kick it" where almost every song is great for dancing, you don't find many albums like that.

I get positive comments about the songs whenever I dj them at a dance. Her band has that full big band sound that I really like."

Have you listened to Hey Mr Jesse March edition? What do you think of it? Tell me.

Hey Mr Jesse: June edition

The June edition of the podcast Hey Mr Jesse is now available. [Download (40 MB, mp3)]

While all things they mention are good stuff, I think the best parts of the show are the interviews. They have a clip from the Philadelphia Lindy Exchange 2007 DJ Summit where several swing dj's talk about how they structure a set. Great stuff, I probably will get back to you with more comments about that later on.

Jesse Miner och Manu Smith also does a mini interview with band leader Gordon Webster and play a really good slow blues song from his new cd "Blues Till Dawn".

They give some more info about things already mentioned in this blog like:

• The Frankie Manning book launch
• Buddy DeFranco
• George Gee's new album: If Dreams Come True
• The Puppini Sisters

It nice to have topics covered from a slightly different angle.

Also they feature a comment from my swing dj colleague here in Uppsala: Jonas Pettersson regarding the last shows interview with Jonathan Stout and how he broke down the information about different kinds of swing rythms.

Read the show notes for Hey Mr Jesse - June edition to see everything they talk about in the show.

If you're interested, read what I written before about previous Hey Mr Jesse shows.

What do you think of the June edition of Hey Mr Jesse? Tell me.

Buy Frankie Mannings biography on May 26th

The living Lindy hop legend Frankie Manning has released his biography: "Frankie Manning: Ambassador of Lindy Hop" (co-written with Cynthia Millman). Since Frankie Manning is having his 93rd birthday at May 26th, there is a campaign to give him a great birthday gift, making his book a bestseller at Amazon.com.

The plan is to have as many people as possible to order Frankie Mannings biography at Amazon May 26th, so it will be on the charts and hopefully thereby get many more peoples attention.

Manu Smith has put together a promotion video about the Frankie Manning bestseller campaign.


You can read more about it at the Frankie Mannings website or at the Yehoodi discussion boards.

Will you participate in this campaign and order "Frankie Manning: Ambassador of Lindy hop" on May 26? Tell me.

Hey Mr Jesse: Jonathan Stout and His Campus Five

It's so pleasant to know that in the beginning of each month I know exactly what I'll be blogging about and that is of course the fabulous podcast Hey Mr Jesse. Here is what I wrote about this show earlier.

The thing that makes this podcast great is that Jesse Miner och Manu Smith each episode invites a swing jazz musician and interviews them. This time they interview Jonathan Stout, the band leader of Jonathan Stout and His Campus Five. This might be the best interview so far. If you haven't listened to the podcast before, now is the time to do it.

Besides being a musician, Jonathan Stout is also a swing dancer and he talks about what makes swing music danceable. He gives music examples of different ways to play swing music and how that affects the dancing. One thing he mention is "dancing to the music", which means that if you listen to the music and are interpreting it, the music gives you huge clues about what moves to do.

One of my favorite expressions is: "The music made me do it". That happens when you have this great dance with a great dance partner and you feel absolutely compelled to do a certain movement because it totally fits to the music. Nothing else would have made sense. Both you and partner smile and say: "Yeah, we nailed that one". That's a total connection between you, your partner and the music. It's like the music is standing beside you with a big sledge hammer and say (in the most friendly but firm voice). "Make that move, or else...".

I think the interview is educational both for dancers and musicians.

Jesse Miner mentions a lot of other stuff also, like the upcoming Frankie Manning biography: "Frankie Manning: Ambassador of Lindy Hop" and the new documentary Anita O'day: The Life of a Jazz Singer.

Check out everything in the show notes for episode number 17 of Hey Mr Jesse.

Download the May episode of Hey Mr Jesse. (50 MB, mp3)

What do you think of the Hey Mr Jesse podcast? Tell me.

Hey Mr Jesse Show: April Podcast

It's a new month and that means a new episode of the podcast Hey Mr Jesse where the swing djs Jesse Miner and Manu Smith talks about swinging jazz and blues that matters to dancers (much like intention of this blog).

This time they have a great interview with bandleader Casey MacGill whose cd Jump was a big hit as a part of the swing music revival in the late 1990s. That's a classic album if you ask me, Jump was one of the first albums I reviewed.

We get to know about his musical background and what it was like to work in the Broadway show Swing. If you like Casey MacGill you should check out the cast recording from the Swing show. They also talk about his new band: The Casey MacGill Blue 4 Trio.

See the Hey Mr Jesse April show notes to get all the details about what is in the 72 minute show. Download the Hey Mr Jesse show (mp3, 50 MB).

In the countdown segment, 8 count swing, Jesse and Manu lists 8 kid-friendly fun swing songs.

Hey Mr Jesse just keeps getting better and better. I looking forward to the next episode.

Have you listened to the April episode of Hey Mr Jesse? What do you think? Tell me.