Hey Mr Jesse October 2009

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

Read the October show notes to see what's in the podcast.

Here is my contribution to the show:

Hi Jesse! Hi Manu!

Here is some swingin' tips for October.

In the ongoing series "1001 ways to find swing music", here is item number 154: "Inspiring video clips from competitions"

In the big dance competions the best performers seek out music that inspire them to create new steps and showcase their musicality. Often those tunes work very well for the social dance floor as well.

Here is two recent examples from International Lindy Hop Championship, ILHC 2009:



1) Skye Humphries & Frida Segerdahl dancing to "Jump Through the Window" with Roy Eldridge.

Frida & Skye really use their musicality to showcase all the accents in the music.

2) Evita Arce and Nathan Bugh dancing to "That's how rhythm was born" by the Boswell Sisters.

This clip instantly gets you in a good mood. How can you avoid being smitten by Evita's bubbly jazz age charm? Impossible!



Last thing: A tip for swing dj's

I know by experience that sometimes it can be hard to ask new people to dance. If you're an experienced dancer you might be busy dancing with the people you already know or if you're a newcomer it's difficult to get the courage to ask the "really good dancers".

If I'm djing a 3 hour set I usally get on the microphone after 2 hours and say "Those of you who would like to, please dance the next song with someone you haven't dance with before". Those who don't want to do it, they simple does whatever they like.

If everybody on the dancefloor does this, well, then 100 people have gotten a new dance acquaintance.

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

Twentyfour Robbers: Skye and Frida at UHLS 2007

Last week at the Friday night dance at Uppsala Winter Camp I djed the late shift which meant: after the band stopped playing and until there were no people left on the dance floor.

I told the dancers that I was happy to take specific requests if they had any. Most times when you ask dancers what they like to hear, they answer: "Good music". Hmm. Then you ask: Ok, what tempo? Answer: "Just right" (In Swedish: Lagom). Not much direction to talk about.

I did get one request: "Twentyfour Robbers" by Fats Waller. Unfortunatly I didn't have it in my cd bag right then. Sorry.

The request was inspired by the video clip with Frida Segerdahl and Skye Humpfries dancing in a contest at the Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown 2008. Take a look at it.



Frida and Skye really makes the most out of this song, they acknowledge all the highlights in the music and their dance matches the dynamics in the song wonderfully. On top of that they also use the floor space very well. No wonder they won the competition.

What do you think about Frida Segerdahl and Skye Humpfries dancing to Twentyfour Robbers by Fats Waller? Tell me.