DJ Ryan Swift

I’ve seen some of these floating around in the past, but a couple of these shots by William Gottlieb featured by How to be a Retronaut from the Library of Congress collection were new to me this time.

Check out the Art Hodes River Boat Jazz Band (Kaiser Marshall, Art Hodes, Sandy Williams, Cecil (Xavier) Scott, and Henry (Clay) Goodwin) as they swing Times Square in a horse-drawn carriage promoting their gig uptown at Columbus Circle (where Jazz @ Lincoln Center would lay down roots 60+ years later).

Click on over and see the full set at How to be a Retronaut.

My good friend and DJ inspiration Mike Thibault adds to the growing pool of original content on Yehoodi with this great piece on the late, great drummer, George Reed. He mentions discovering the great band that we both used to see starting out dancing at the same time in Rochester in the late 90’s.

As a green and eager young Lindy Hopper way back in 1998, I would do just about anything to get to a dance. Those were the magical days when nothing mattered in life beyond my next swingout. Naturally it made perfect sense to drive seven hours round-trip for a three-hour-long dance in Albany. I would get to dance to an actual live band! This was a big deal.

The band we heard when we arrived quickly became, and remains, one of my all-time favorite modern bands: Joe Salzano and the Blue Devils. The band swung hard; they had a grit to them that was palpable. Above all, it was hard to miss the presence of the man behind the drums, George Reed.

I still love that band and miss George Reed’s unforgettable drumming, singing, and personality.

It’s a great read, head on over and check it out.

Over the past three years, the staff at LIFE.com has pored over tens of thousands of extraordinary LIFE pictures — including some of the most celebrated photographs ever made. Here, in an exercise that proved thrilling, humbling, satisfying, and exasperating all at once, each staffer selected five all-time favorites. Could we have expanded the list to 10, or 20, or 50 favorites? In a heartbeat. But for now, these will have to suffice.

Click to find out.

NPR aired an amazing concert on New Year’s Eve with  Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Wynton Marsalis and an all-star lineup paying tribute to two jazz pioneers. I can think of no better way to swing into 2012 than with this 90-minute concert, now available to stream online thanks to WBGO.

[NPR] January 1, 2012 - The trumpeter leads a Jazz at Lincoln Center band in the music of Jelly Roll Morton and King Oliver.

By Patrick Jarenwattananon

By necessity, the early jazz pioneers knew how to make music for revelers. So it made sense that the tunes of Jelly Roll Morton and King Oliver were on the bill for the New Year’s Eve bash of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Morton was an accomplished arranger, Oliver a virtuoso cornetist; both were from New Orleans. Naturally, these things align well with the skill set and interests of JALC artistic director Wynton Marsalis. He called together an ensemble of JALC Orchestra members to swing into 2012 with sweet and heat, live from the Central Park vista of Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola.

Set List

• “Dippermouth Blues”
• “New Orleans Bump”
• “Dead Man Blues”
• “Froggie Moore”
• “The Pearls”
• “Snake Rag”
• “Smokehouse”
• “Tom Cat”
• “Auld Lang Syne”
• “Doin’ Our Thing”
• “Jazzin’ Babies”
• “#8”
• “All The Girls”
• “Black Bottom Stomp”

Personnel

• Wynton Marsalis, trumpet
• Walter Blanding, reeds
• Wess Anderson, reeds
• Victor Goines, reeds
• Marcus Printup, trumpet
• Chris Crenshaw, trombone
• James Chirillo, guitar/banjo
• Dan Nimmer, piano
• Carlos Henriquez, bass
• Ali Jackson, drums
• Ricky “Dirty Red” Gordon, washboard/percussion