alain’s dance blog

Here are my top 5 favorite Fats Waller tunes for dancing Lindy Hop and Charleston, or just dancing in general.

1. Favorite slow: “Ain’t Misbehavin’” 96 bpm
2. Favorite midtempo: “Yacht Club Swing” 178 bpm
3. Favorite fast: “12th Street Rag” 244 bpm
4. Favorite faster: “The Minor Drag” 262 bpm
5. Favorite all around: “Honeysuckle Rose” 217 bpm

Actually, I have one more to add. My current favorite is “Twenty Four Robbers” that Skye and Frida used for their routine this year. Let me know what you think of these songs, and which Fats Waller songs or recordings you would have put on this list.

Past Top Song posts: My Top 5 Count Basie songs, My Top 5 Duke Ellington songs, My Top 5 Sidney Bechet songs

When I first looked into buying music to practice to, Dan Amores recommended that I go through the discount jazz section at music stores. At the time, my only reference in picking CDs was the song listings, and so I chose albums that had songs that I recognized. In other words, I looked for jazz standards.

Haydn posted on swingdjs about a great resource for researching the history of these standards: the Jazz Standards website. It gives a history of the standard, as well as a musical and lyrical analysis.

Look up famous songs that we dance to, like Honeysuckle Rose, Oh Lady Be Good, Sweet Georgia Brown.

Our friends from Albany did a great job this weekend with the Albany Chill Lindy Hop exchange. I went down this weekend with a group of Montrealers, and we had a great time. Albany dancers rock!

The Saturday night band was amazing. The lineup featured the fabulous Barbara Morrison and an inspired band led by Gordon Webster on piano, Roland Barber on trombone, Brianna Thomas on vocals, Elias Bailey on bass and George Reed on drums. The energy at the dance was just unbelievable.

Gordon played at SONH a few weeks ago, and he’s a dancer so he knows what we like. This summer he released a CD featuring slow blues danceable songs. And let’s not forget the lovely Barbara Morrison - she’s just amazing. If you’ve never heard her, pick up the 9:20 Special album which is filled with dancer-friendly tracks.

Great job, Albany!!!

Here are my top 5 favorite Sidney Bechet tunes for dancing Lindy Hop and Charleston

1. Favorite slow: “Egyptian Fantasy” 104 bpm
2. Favorite midtempo: “Joshua Fit The Battle of Jericho” 179 bpm
3. Favorite fast: “When The Saints Go Marching” 252 bpm
4. Favorite fast jam: “Shake It And Break It” 218 bpm
5. Favorite all around: “Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives To Me” 143 bpm

Let me know what you think of these songs, and which Sidney Bechet songs you would have put on this list.

Past Top Song posts: My Top 5 Count Basie songs, My Top 5 Duke Ellington songs

The “Old KFC” tag team of DJ Danny-O and superman DJ Karrwright “Ka-El” Lee fought valiantly, but in the end, the youngsters got their revenge from the previous year’s battle. Winners this year: “Nu Skool Musical Stompers” tag team of DJ Carl Nelson and DJ Alain Wong.

Here’s the list of songs played during the DJ battle on Friday September 7th, 2007 at Cat’s Corner. The format was a 4-4-2 trade-off for a total of ten songs per team (starting with the first four by the Nu Skool Stompers and ending with the last two by the Old Skoolers).

Goody Goody - Ella Fitzgerald
Blue Drag - New Orleans Jazz Vipers
Posin’ - Jimmie Lunceford
Monday Night in New Orleans - Kermit Ruffins
Shake Rattle and Roll - Big Joe Turner
Are You All Reet? - Cab Calloway
Red Light - Indigo Swing
Build Me Up - Foundations
Black And Tan Fantasy - Lincoln Center Jazz Orch w/Wynton Marsalis
Tutti Frutti - Slim Gaillard & Slam Stewart
Tuxedo Junction - Ken Johnson
Rehab - Amy Winehouse
Muddy Water - Aretha Franklin
I’ll be satisfied - Ryan Shaw
Shufflin’ And Rollin’ - Buddy Johnson And His Orchestra
Now You Has Jazz - Louis Armstrong
I Want You Back - The Jackson 5
Main Stem - Duke Ellington & His Orchestra
Big Fine Girl - Jimmy Witherspoon
Natural Man - Ron Sunshine

Looking to start DJing yourself? Read this post on how to start a swing music collection. You can also check out my DJ playlists.