My Blue Heaven - Jimmie Lunceford

My Blue Heaven - Jimmie Lunceford

Listen at Spotify.

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Kay Kyser: A Zoot Suit

Hi fellow swing music lovers!

I'll be trying a new type of posts here on the blog. I haven't had the time to write so much lately so I thought I'd do a "today's swing song" with a link to a tip without writing much else.

First out is Kay Kyser And His Orchestra with A Zoot Suit.
Listen at Spotify.

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Cats' Corner: Season Premiere

Tonight the regular weekly dancing at Cats' Corner starts again. "At last!" I think many people exclaims because the pause over Christmas and New Year is the longest pause during the whole year.

Tonight the swing dj is Simon Ternsjö. I'll be djing next week.

The photo is taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission.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

What do you think of Cats' Corner? Please comment.

Snowball Dance Camp - Stockholm

Just before New Years Eve I went to dance at the Snowball Dance Camp in Stocholm. The camp is about one week but I was just there for one night, so I had to choose carefully which night to visit.



I choose this night because of the bands that were playing: Jennie Löbel And the Swing Kings and the Gordon Webster sextet. I've danced to Jennie and her band ever since I started dancing. I first saw Gordon Webster this summer at Herräng Dance Camp. I remember him in a 3AM jam in the pub when the set had stopped but the audience kept on clapping, wanting more. Gordon went back to the piano and improvised a song using the clapping audience as a huge rhythm section.

That's why I wanted to see them.



The ballroom was huge and there were people everywhere, in fact I don't think I ever have seen so many swing dancers at one time. I heard somewhere that the ballroom allows for 600-700 people to be there at one time. Lots and lots of people to dance with. It's fun to be part of such a crowd, but it also makes it difficult if you want to find a certain person you want to dance with.

If you follow the Swedish custom to dance two songs with a person you can dance 10 dances in one hour which meant 80 dances through the night if you danced non stop.



If the middle of the night there were a performance by The Harlem Hot Shots. Great stuff as always. I liked their 1920's number best.

The bands traded sets and they played 3 sets each. How about that!

In the end of the night the fatigue and the fact that my shoes are pretty new and not really worn in yet made my dance less good than it normally is (I hope).

Overall, a very nice night. Afterwards, I reflected on how easy it is to take events like this for granted and how much work it must have taken put it together. I know, because I've arranged half a dozen camps myself and more dance nights than I can remember.

If you meet the organizers be sure to thank them.

The next big event will be here in Uppsala in the and of January: The Uppsala Winter Camp. See you there.



The photos are taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission. Contact me if you want to buy or license them.

What do you think of Snowball? Please comment.

Anita O'Day: Ain't Misbehavin'

What do you think of Anita O'Day singing Ain't Misbehavin'? Please comment.

Happy Jazz - Gunhild Carling & Danish Jazz All Stars

Speaking of jazz that makes you happy: Tomorrow night, Friday Nov 13th there will be a concert at Uppsala Konsert & Kongress called Happy jazz with Gunhild Carling Big Band together with the band Danish Jazz All Stars.

"Plays the happy music of Papa Bue, Louis Armstrong, Eddie Condon, Wild Bill Davison "

More information about the concert.

What do you think of Gunhild Carling? Please comment.

Missisippi Seven at Uppsala Jazz Club

Last Sunday the trad jazz band Missisippi Seven had a concert at Pub 19 in Uppsala. The concert was arranged by Uppsala Jazz Club.



From a listeners point of view: This is music that really makes you happy. Good musicians. Nuff said.

Well, almost. What also makes you smile is that talk inbetween the songs by drummer Bertil Ekman. He seems to have a infinite supply of entertaining useless facts.



From a dancers point of view: Missisippi Seven plays trad jazz in a moderate tempo that you could easily do lindy to. The tempo is a little slow for balboa but they could probably throw in a couple of faster tunes if you asked them.

They played two of my favorite songs: "Diga Diga Doo" (also the name of the their new album where my photos is on the album cover) and "Blues My Sweetie Naugthy Gives To Me".

Here's my own useless but entertaining fact: mostly you hear "Blues My Sweetie Naugthy Gives To Me" played instrumently by for instance Sidney Bechet but there is actually lyrics to the song which list all the kinds of blues that you can get.

One of the kinds of blues is "The blues you get from women, when you see them going swimming, and you doesn't have a bathing suit yourself".



The photos are taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission. Contact me if you want to buy or license them.

What do you think of Missisippi Seven? Please comment.