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.

Ondrej Havelka - Sing, Sing, Sing

I discovered Ondřej Havelka pretty much one year ago when he sang Beat Me Daddy Eight To he Bar and later on with Jingle Bells.

Today I have a clip where Ondřej Havelka performs Sing, Sing, Sing from his show "How jazz was born and reached Bohemia". As I said bfore: who wouldn't like to be multi-talented like him: singer, dancer, comedian, actor and director. Wow.

Apparently there is a DVD where all his short movies are collected: "Ondrej Havelka uvadi Temer kompletni almanach filmovych pisni".

If someone would give me this DVD, I would be so happy. If I have a fan of the blog in the Czech Republic: if you really like this blog, send me a copy, please.

What do you think of Ondřej Havelka and the Melody Makers playing Sing, Sing, Sing? Please comment.

The Blue Dolls: Vocal group from Italy

Andrea gave me a tip that if you like the Puppini Sisters you might also like The Blue Dolls which is a vocal group from Italy.

The Blue Dolls consists of Erika Celesti (soprano), Federica Pallante (soprano), Viviana Dragani (alto) and is backed up by Marco Parodi (guitar), Paolo Volante (piano), Riccardo Vigorè (double bass), Luca Rigazio (drums).

You can listen to some songs from their album on their website.

On the album they mix swing jazz standards such as Shoo Shoo Baby, Sing, Sing, Sing and Some Of These Days with Italian songs from the swing era. They also sing a version of Charleston and even the blue grass song, Down In The River To Pray, that you might recognize as the song that the sirens sing in the movie Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?.

If you like retro stuff, you also might want to check out one post from my archive where Christina Aguilera sings "Candy Man".

What do you think of The Blue Dolls? Please comment.

Benny Goodman at Carnegie Hall 70 years ago

Today it's the 70th anniversary of Benny Goodman's concert at Carnegie Hall, a concert that really helped swing to become mainstream music. The climax of the concert was the performance of the song Sing, Sing, Sing.

Here is a video clip of Sing, sing, sing with Benny Goodman's orchestra from the movie Hollywood Hotel from 1937.

You'll notice Gene Krupa on drums and Harry James on trumpet.



This version is very short compared to the Carnegie hall version which is 12 minutes long.

What do you think of the video clip with Benny Goodman playing Sing, Sing, Sing? Tell me.