By Shawn Hanna on Monday, September 13, 1999 - 02:10 pm: EditCare to see some impressive homework? Take a preview of the new Swingtime San Diego music review section!
Just follow the link from the SwingtimeSD homepage.
| By Shawn Hanna on Monday, September 13, 1999 - 02:10 pm: Edit |
Care to see some impressive homework? Take a preview of the new Swingtime San Diego music review section! Just follow the link from the SwingtimeSD homepage. |
| By Ron on Monday, September 13, 1999 - 07:33 pm: Edit |
And if you already know you don't like my taste in music, you can just mentally reverse every recommendation and rating! |
| By Ron on Tuesday, September 14, 1999 - 03:27 pm: Edit |
I've already started to change my mind on a couple of the things I wrote. Darn. And I found a few typos. This one's funny: I compared "Swing Kids" to Lennon's/Okos "Double Fantasy". Oko? Grrr. |
| By HopMichael on Wednesday, September 15, 1999 - 02:57 pm: Edit |
Ron, Congratulations on your opus [one?]! I was Mighty Mightily [blue king?] impressed with your reviews. It certainly took more than One Hour [mama?]. I'm mostly All Aboard with your opinions. My only question: Do Satin Dolls wear Shiny Stockings? Mirthfully, HopMichael PS You have WAY too much time at work to be doing this! |
| By Ron on Wednesday, September 15, 1999 - 03:45 pm: Edit |
No no, I did it at home. |
| By Reuben Brown on Thursday, September 16, 1999 - 09:33 am: Edit |
I just found it funny that I only own about 10 of the 100+ CD's that you reviewed. :) |
| By Ron on Thursday, September 16, 1999 - 10:09 am: Edit |
You must have very limited tastes. |
| By Lets do something completely selfish on Thursday, September 16, 1999 - 12:31 pm: Edit |
Probably not limited, but definitely different, which makes us human. It's pretty boring to go to a show (band or DJ) and hear the same songs every time from the same CDs. |
| By Reuben Brown on Thursday, September 16, 1999 - 05:41 pm: Edit |
Limited my ass... just better. Hee, hee. |
| By Ron on Thursday, September 16, 1999 - 10:29 pm: Edit |
whatever. I advertised the site around, some sites are linking to it and advertising it: see the news page on NYC's Yehoodi site: http://www.yehoodi.com/ They have a cool site. |
| By Reuben Brown on Thursday, September 16, 1999 - 11:29 pm: Edit |
wait, wait... I just thought of another snappy comment: ...no, my tastes just don't include boring music. Hee, hee... they are all just jokes Ron. Lighten up... please! |
| By Bompyerassoff on Friday, September 17, 1999 - 12:12 am: Edit |
I only have about ten of those too! how funny.... Hey Ron, are my tastes limited too? Oh yeah, I do L.A. style, so I guess my tastes are limited to "L.A." music, huh? Damn, even though the majority of my 200 C.D.s are of bands that played in the Savoy Ballroom up in Harlem during the 30's and 40's, it is labled L.A. music. Now this is just too damn funny... Can someone explain this? Anybody? |
| By Ron on Wednesday, September 22, 1999 - 01:40 am: Edit |
I think the trick is not to play music that only appeals to one crowd, but to mix it up enough to appeal to everyone. Not that I've mastered that trick myself. If you only play fast music from the 30's and 40's, that's pretty limited. I just got back from the swing exchange in Seattle and heard a bunch of different DJs with a bunch of different styles. A couple of the DJs from SF played only jazzy stuff, but it was good stuff. A DJ at the showbox played a lot of neo-swing. My favorite DJ was Hep Jen, a Seattle local, who mixed it up the most. She played good big-band, 40's R&B, etc. Light on the jazzy and the harder-core new neo-stuff. Great variety, everyone seemed to love it. Anyway, I have lots of new CDs to review, and more ideas of CDs to buy from this weekend. All kinds! |
| By Reuben Brown on Wednesday, September 22, 1999 - 01:29 pm: Edit |
Funny you would bring up Seattle's Lindy exchange considering there was NO up tempo to fast material played... Big Band, Neo, Jump Blues or otherwise. Wouldn't it be considered just as limited to play nothing but slow tunes? Your taste in variety seems to come for different styles, mixing blues and R&B with neo and originals. My taste in variety comes from tempos. Just look at the playlist from the battle. Everything from 125 bpm to 398 bpm (my prefered range) was played, as the energy of the room called for it. That's a range of 273... now that's what I call variety. You prefer 120 to 165, a range of 45! Jezz, you don't get bored dancing basicly to the same beat all night long? That's what seems limited to me. If you were to just listen to the beat of the music in your prefered play range, it would be like listening to the same song... over, and over, and over again. Anyway... I'm rambeling, and I'm getting quite bored with this, so thats all for now. But before I go, I must tell you, the "Savoy" crowd up here loved the Big Band night as well. Little Peter, Sheesha, Bernard of Cerritos, and other Savoyers they were all there, dressed up even, and they were jammin' just as hard as the "Hollywood" crowd. Sheesha was even hanging around the booth going threw our materials and pulling out some great stuff. It was fun for everyone. |
| By Ron on Wednesday, September 22, 1999 - 04:24 pm: Edit |
Oh, you were there, too? So you didn't like the music played, tempowise, or whatever? Every night I danced I saw people dancing hard all night long until the wee hours of the morning. I guess they liked the mix. Relative to my tempo mix, you mixed things up. But that doesn't really surprise me. My preferred range is 120 to 165, true, but I'll play, and have played, practically anything good from 75 to 250 BPM.. I guess your Range is bigger than my Range. I'm so sad. But as most women will tell you, size isn't everything. |
| By Lets do something completely selfish on Wednesday, September 22, 1999 - 04:57 pm: Edit |
Yeah Ron, size isn't everything, but it's a very large part! |
| By Andy on Wednesday, September 22, 1999 - 05:22 pm: Edit |
RE: "yeah Ron, ..it's a very large part" are you saying Ron has a very large part? You know this is how rumors start! ~8^) But, to settle the rumor, I guess you could ask Dennis about Ron's parts... since they're buds, and all. ~8^) |
| By Reuben Brown on Wednesday, September 22, 1999 - 05:23 pm: Edit |
Okay... to clarify then: Your preferred range: 120 to 165 My preferred range: 125 to 398 Your PLAY range: 75 to 250 My PLAY range: 125 to 400+ Yes, mine is bigger than yours. Not only is it bigger, but I also know how to use it well. VERY well. Just ask Dennis. :) Sorry, I had to break my 'no dirty sex talk' promise for that one. hee, hee. |
| By The Bitchmaster on Wednesday, September 22, 1999 - 05:31 pm: Edit |
Actually, I don't take man-love. I only give it. Hence, I do not know about the size of Ron's or Reuben's parts. (They DO know about mine, though, being as how they're both my bitches.) |
| By MelissaDC on Wednesday, September 22, 1999 - 05:36 pm: Edit |
Sure Reuben, that's a real crowded dance floor at 400+. BPM? Big Phallic Monster! |
| By Ron on Thursday, September 23, 1999 - 12:41 pm: Edit |
By the way, Reuben, thanks for posting the play list from the Battle of the Big Bands. I want to flesh out my big band collection a little, so I'm using it for ideas. For any big-band, there's always so many choices of albums or compilations, its hard to choose, but I'm thinking its time to choose a few.. |
| By Jewel McGowan on Thursday, September 23, 1999 - 01:18 pm: Edit |
The dance floor at the battle was packed no matter how fast the tempo was! It was sooooooo rad. Keep up the good work Reuben! And as for a rematch, I don't think you need one. I think someone needs to battle Jake dang it!!! |
| By Lets do something completely selfish on Thursday, September 23, 1999 - 05:00 pm: Edit |
Jeez, you don't lindy at 400bpm. You do bal or shag! And I agree with Jewel, the dancefloor was packed all night. Andy: I personally don't know about Rons size, but I've heard you can tell me. : ) |
| By Andy on Thursday, September 23, 1999 - 05:06 pm: Edit |
Touche! (i think you're confusing me with Dennis, though.) |
| By Dennis Hong on Thursday, September 23, 1999 - 05:18 pm: Edit |
You keep me out of this, okay? I've renounced my homosexuality. And besides, if I were to fall off the wagon of merry men (again), it'd only be for Marcus. You should know that by now. |
| By Anonymous on Thursday, September 23, 1999 - 05:25 pm: Edit |
I would have to say that music and dancing lose their soul at that pace. |
| By Reuben Brown on Thursday, September 23, 1999 - 11:22 pm: Edit |
It doesn't lose it's soul... it's soul just lights on fire. Highly technical fast songs have so much energy, passion, and power behind them. I don't understand how anyone can make a comment like that. I'm sure even most fans of slower tunes would even agree with me on this one. What do you think Ron? Oh yeah... your right Ron, there are soooo many choices. I was just on cdnow.com over the past two days and came across so much material I was just drooling over. Stuff from big bands I had never hard of and they were swinging so freakin' hard. Man did I hit the jack pot! |
| By Ron on Friday, September 24, 1999 - 11:56 am: Edit |
Hmmmm. Yes, "lose their soul" would be a bit strong for me. But certainly dancing to the really fast songs becomes less interpretative and more a feat of precision, athleticism and stamina. As to which has more passion, again by horizontal analogy, is it the slow grind or the fast drive? |
| By Anonymous on Sunday, September 26, 1999 - 07:43 pm: Edit |
"I've always heard, that haste makes waste. I believe in taking my time. The highest mountain, can't be raced, something you must slowly climb. I want a slow, and easy man, he better never take the lead. I come from, a longtime plan, and I ain't looking for no speed. I'm a one-hour mama, some no one minute papa, ain't the kind of man for me." -Lavay Smith Sounds like Reuben is a one-minute papa! |
| By Anonymous on Sunday, September 26, 1999 - 11:40 pm: Edit |
I think she was taking about "horizontal balboa" and not dancing... jackass |
| By Reuben Brown on Monday, September 27, 1999 - 12:14 am: Edit |
Who's Lavay Smith? hee, hee |
| By Ron on Wednesday, October 06, 1999 - 11:00 am: Edit |
Just added 26 more CD reviews to my page. Upped the rating of and made the "O'Day/Krupa Meet Me In Uptown" CD the October featured CD. And put it on my essentials list. Its my favorite big-band CD, I'm definitely biased towards vocal songs and remastered recordings... Check it out. http://www.swingtimesd.com/music/ronsrevshome.html No one's said "I can't believe you rated xxx as yyy!!, you are crazy!" yet, which is probably more a sign of apathy than lack of serious disagreement. |
| By swingoutdc on Wednesday, October 06, 1999 - 12:04 pm: Edit |
Ron, you asked. I can't believe these are your essential <b>swing</b> recordings:
Where's the swing? They're mostly jump and neo-jump blues. Doesn't even include one Basie ("The Count for lindy"--FM). No Lunceford, no Goodman, no Chick Webb,..., no no no. How's that? :-) |
| By big band swings on Wednesday, October 06, 1999 - 03:21 pm: Edit |
Ron doesn't actually listen to swing, he prefers the 50's stuff that caused Frankie to stop dancing and join the postal service. |
| By swingoutdc on Wednesday, October 06, 1999 - 10:21 pm: Edit |
big band swings, that was hilarious. Worth quoting. A little tough, but funny. |
| By Anonymous on Thursday, October 07, 1999 - 01:44 am: Edit |
Hahahahahahaha! |
| By Ron on Thursday, October 07, 1999 - 10:47 am: Edit |
Oh, that's easily defensible. Its the essential CD "STARTER" kit. I chose popular CDs that reflect a variety of swing styles, directed towards a newbie. I want new people to really enjoy their first swing CDs. And most people truly love the Mighty Blue Kings, Indigo Swing, and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. And the Oscillatin Rhythm CD, which you must not be familiar with, contains: 1. Apollo Jumps - Glen Gray/Casa Loma Orchestra 2. Fox, The - Ray Anthony & His Orchestra 3. For Dancers Only - Billy May & His Orchestra/Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra 4. Stompin' At The Savoy - Benny Goodman & His Orchestra 5. Leap Frog - Les Brown & His Orchestra 6. I've Heard That Song Before - Harry James & His Orchestra 7. Shorty George - Count Basie & His Orchestra 8. Satin Doll - Duke Ellington & His Orchestra 9. Let's Dance - Benny Goodman & His Orchestra 10. Lean Baby - Billy May & His Orchestra 11. T'Ain't What You Do - Billy May & His Orchestra 12. Broadway - Count Basie & His Orchestra 13. Cotton Pickin' - Harry James & His Orchestra 14. Star Dust - Duke Ellington & His Orchestra 15. Opus No. 1 - Glen Gray/The Casa Loma Orchestra 16. Swingin' The Blues - Count Basie & His Orchestra 17. Uptown Blues - Billy May & His Orchestra 18. Sing, Sing, Sing - Benny Goodman & His Orchestra 19. Smoke Rings - Glen Gray/The Casa Loma Orchestra Note the songs by Basie, Lunceford (a few members of, actually), Goodman, but no Chick Webb. Three out of the four you listed! And all in glorious Hi-fidelity, so a listener won't have low dynamics and noise to distract them from the music. Big band is an acquired taste, I want to ease them into it, not scare them away. If you think that the average beginner is going to listen to an entire CD of Chick Webb and love it, you are delusional. The average swing listener starts with bands they heard on the radio or saw in a concert (Cherry Poppin Daddies, Brian Setzer, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, etc.), buys other modern swing bands that are big or have played in a local club, and then goes from there. What drove Frankie and everyone out of dancing was when jazz turned to bebop. Note that I don't have anything even remotely close to bebop jazz on my essentials list! Thanks for the straight line, swingoutdc! |
| By Ron on Thursday, November 04, 1999 - 03:08 pm: Edit |
For anyone interested, I added a bunch more reviews to my reviews page. I've adjusted some of my ratings recently as an album has more time to sink in. I'm featuring Pete Jacobs this month, I continue to enjoy it and think others would too. My current top 20 are: Ella Fitzgerald - First Lady of Song (1993) Ella Fitzgerald - Ella & Basie (On the Sunny Side of the Street) (1963) Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis - Live In Swing City/Swingin' With Duke (1999) Casey MacGill & the Spirits of Rhythm - Jump (1998) Indigo Swing - All Aboard! (1998) Oscillatin' Rhythm (Great Swing Hits in Hi-Fi) - Various Artists (1997) Johnny Nocturne Band - Wild & Cool (1998) The Lost Continentals - Moonshine & Martinis 1997) Mighty Blue Kings - Meet me in Uptown (1996) Ella Fitzgerald - Ella Swings Lightly (1958) Anita O'Day (w/ Gene Krupa) - Let Me Off Uptown (1999) Bill Elliott Swing Orchestra - Swingin' the Century (1999) Indigo Swing - Indigo Swing (1996) BadaBing BadaBoom - Volume II (1997) Pete Jacobs and his Wartime Radio Review - Would You Like to Dance?(1998) Colin James - And the Little Big Band II (1998) Tommy Dorsey, Artie Shaw - Swingsation (1999) Hipsters, Zoots, & Wingtips, Vol. 3 - Various Artists (1999) Jellyroll - Hep Cat's Holiday (1997) Jimmy Witherspoon - Jazz Me Blues/Best Of (1998) Pretty eclectic, I'd say. |
| By Ron on Monday, December 13, 1999 - 11:59 am: Edit |
I updated my reviews a couple weeks back for anyone who didn't notice and might be interested. Made the new Jellyroll the featured CD, and if you've been to the Marriott or Rocket recently when I've been DJ-ing, you've heard 3 songs off of it. I'm starting to get lots of bands contacting me to send me their CDs to review. So the reviews are getting read by a few people, at least! It sure is a lot of work, though. I have a whole stack of Christmas swing, and other CDs to review for next month. This would be a good time to give me feedback on the site and the reviews, preferably positive. |
| By Reuben Brown on Monday, December 13, 1999 - 12:04 pm: Edit |
Humm... where do I start? Oh wait, you want positive feedback... nevermind, I can't give you that. |
| By Ian Campbell on Monday, December 13, 1999 - 12:12 pm: Edit |
JellyRoll is on Swivel Radio's playlist at http://www.mp3.com/swivelmagazine |
| By HopMichael on Monday, December 13, 1999 - 01:48 pm: Edit |
Hey, Shawn! How about bringing Jellyroll down here to SD on their next SoCal tour? I've heard them in concert and they're a great jump blues band to dance to. I used to hear them up at Broadway Studios in SF after Rob and Diane's lessons... |
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