Bright lights late nights - The Speakeasies' Swing Band

I really like my newest discovery: The Speakeasies' Swing Band from Greece.Here they perform their own song Bright lights late nights.

What do you think of The Speakeasies' Swing Band? Please comment.

Black Coffee: Careless Lovers

Do you ever wonder why swing music makes you want to dance? Could it be that infectious rhythm or could it be some else? Something completely different that makes you jitter and do strange moves. Like coffee? Black Coffee? Oh yes.

Check out this wonderful video with the band The Careless Lovers, a band made up of swing dancing musicians from the coffee loving city of Seattle.

The 2011 Swing/Jazz Dance Music Video Contest.

Another great version of Black Coffee is by the band Six Swingers.

What do you think of the video Black Coffee with the Careless Lovers? Please comment.

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"Gentlemen in Squalor" by Top Shelf Jazz

The band Top Shelf Jazz has released a video of their song "Gentlemen in Squalor". The video has a great vintage feel and some swing dancers in it. Check it out.


"Gentlemen in Squalor" Top Shelf Jazz Directed by Alex Sufit from Lexitricity on Vimeo.

What do you think of the video with Top Shelf Jazz? Please comment.

Beyonce vs Duke Ellington

What do you get when you mix Duke Ellington with Beyonce Knowles and all the single ladies? You get this. Brilliant mashup.

(Via Peter Loggins and Miss S)

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

Movits! - Fel del av gården

Lately I've been listening a lot to the Swedish hip hop /jazz group Movits!. I discovered them a couple of months ago but now they have become really popular.

Right now, Movits! album Äppelknyckarjazz is the most popular album on the Amazon.com Top MP3 Albums in Rap & Hip-Hop, before artists like Eminem, Jay-Z and Mos Def, how about that!

Movits! combines rap/hip hop with gypsy jazz and balkan rhythms. In the video clip with the song "Fel del av gården" (The Wrong Part of the Yard) you can also see dancing by the Swedish swing dance troupe The Harlem Hot Shots.

Movits! got a lot of attention when they were interviewed on the tv program The Colbert Report last week where they performed the song "Fel del av gården". In the interview they say that they were inspired to add a swing touch to their music when they heard the swing song "Sing, Sing Sing".

Do you like the music but don't know what the heck Movits! are rapping about? Here is the lyrics for Movits! song "Fel del av gården".

From a swing music point of view I like that one of the songs on the album, "Stick iväg Jack, del II" tells story about what happend after "Hit The Road, Jack".

Regarding the the name of Movits! album, Äppelknyckarjazz; "Äppelknyckare" refers to a certain kind of pants that were popular in the 1930's and 1940's. I would translate "Äppelknyckare" as "apple nickers".

The name comes from the fact that the legs of the trousers ended just below the knee and the legs could be tightened, so if you were a young rascal nicking apples from the neighbour's garden you could put all the apples inside the pants and you could run away with ease if you were discovered. Here is a photo of äppelknyckare.

In Sweden 'äppelknyckare' is very much associated with the swing era.

What do you think of Movits! and the music video for "Fel sida av gården"? Please comment.

Lisa Ekdahl - Now or never

Lisa Ekdahl's version of "Now or never" fit the mood of a Saturday morning with sunny weather and clear breeze that hints that the autumn is soon here.

This version from the album "Back To Earth" where Lisa Ekdahl sings together with the Peter Nordahl trio has a bossanova beat but it still swings, hard, just listen to the part between 2.10 and 2.30. Oh, yeah!

I like the idea in the music video with a dance contest in the school. Fits perfect as most schools start the autumn semester right now.

The trio consists of Ronnie Gardiner (drums), Patrik Boman (bass) and Peter Nordahl (piano).

What are your favorite songs for a Saturday morning?

What do you think of Lisa Ekdahl singing Now or never? Please comment.

Sweet Emma & The Mood Swingers - Chicago boogie

Here is a music video featuring Sweet Emma & The Mood Swingers playing Chicago boogie.

Sweet Emma & The Mood Swingers is a popular rhythm & blues band from Uppsala. The video was shot at Grand with a lot of dancers from Swingkatten. You might want to look at how the video shoot looked like in November last year.

If you want to dance to them, you can do that in Stockholm May 17th at Swedish Swing Society (the dance club, not the band).

What do you think of the music video with Sweet Emma & The Mood Swingers? Tell me.

Emily McEwan - Losing The One You Love

In the last post I talked about the concert with Emily McEvan and Kjell Fernströms Kvartett.

I just wanted to give you an example of her voice with the video for the song "Losing The One You Love". It's not exactly jazz but it's soft and beautyful and it fits perfectly in to my series of posts that are called Late Night Music.

Enjoy!

What do you think about the video with Emily McEwan? Tell me.

Mills Brothers sampled in Bathtime in Clerkenwell

I first heard the song "Bathtime in Clerkenwell" by The Real Tuesday Weld a couple of years ago in a commercial on tv and it was Per Starbäck who identified it for me. I then discovered that the scatting vocals in the song are sampled from the song "Sweeter than sugar" recorded by the Mills Brothers on September 12th 1934.

You can find the song "Sweeter than sugar" on The Mills Brothers Vol 2 from the label Giants of Jazz.

The video clip with Bathtime in Clerkenwell (found on the album "I, Lucifer") is quite surrealistic, but I think it's very nicely done.

What do you think of the music video for "Bathtime in Clerkenwell" by The Real Tuesday Weld? Tell me.

Sweet Emma & The Mood Swingers: Music video shoot

Last Sunday Sweet Emma & The Mood Swingers shot a music video at Grand. Along with the band there were a lot of dancers from Swingkatten dressed up in the style of the 1940's and 1950's.

Sweet Emma & The Mood Swingers is a rhythm & blues band from Uppsala that also plays jump blues. They are collecting material for their second album that hopefully will be out sometime next year.

Sweet Emma & The Mood Swingers will play tonight at Pub 19 in Uppsala at 21 o'clock. If you have the opportunity, you should see them.

The photo is taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission. Contact me if you want to license it.

Have you seen or heard Sweet Emma & The Mood Swingers before? What do you think of them? Tell me.