DJ Ryan Swift

The Atlantic Cities: The [KC] Jazz District Authenticity Problem

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:11:27 -0500

The Atlantic Cities: The [KC] Jazz District Authenticity Problem:

Very interesting look at the modern state of the historic 18th & Vine Jazz District in Kansas City, Missouri, the launching place for such jazz greats as Bennie Moten, Count Basie, Andy Kirk, Joe Turner, and my personal favorite swinging jazz sound.

Take a walk in the Historic 18th & Vine Jazz District in Kansas City, Missouri, and you’ll see some of the storefronts of that bygone time. Shops, cafes, clubs, all evoking those days of prosperity and depravity that contributed to one of America’s great renaissances.

Now look not even that closely and you’ll see that many of those storefronts are flat: they’re paintings, imaginary doors and awnings and windows. Behind them, boards prop up walls in weedy lots. These aren’t storefronts at all: they’re the backdrops for the 1996 Robert Altman film, Kansas City.

Read the entire piece and see photos at The Atlantic Cities blog!

Watch Jazz Legend Cab Calloway Remembers the Music Clubs of...

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 11:47:39 -0500

Watch Jazz Legend Cab Calloway Remembers the Music Clubs of Harlem on PBS. See more from Metrofocus.

NPR’s A Blog Supreme lets us know about the upcoming PBS documentary on Cab Calloway as part of their wonderful American Masters series. It hasn’t been announced but I’m assuming it will be available to view after it’s Monday (Sunday in NYC) airdate on the awesome PBS app and website.

Bennie Moten Orchestra - “Ya Got Love” from Band Box Shuffle...

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 12:42:00 -0500

Bennie Moten Orchestra - “Ya Got Love” from Band Box Shuffle 1929-1932 (Amazon MP3)

Cootie Williams and his Orchestra filmed in New York, mid June,...

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:00:06 -0500

Cootie Williams and his Orchestra filmed in New York, mid June, 1943 from the Columbia Pictures film “Film Vodvil”

via Terry Teachout:

A rare film clip of Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson singing the blues with Cootie Williams’ band in 1943…

It’s also got the Douglas Brothers tapping, and at 4:40 Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers Leon James & Dottie Mae Johnson and Russell Williams & Connie Hill.

Retronaut: Jazz in Times Square, July 1947

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:08:00 -0500

Retronaut: Jazz in Times Square, July 1947:

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.

Etta James & Dr. John - “I’d Rather Go...

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:00:05 -0500

Etta James & Dr. John - “I’d Rather Go Blind”

Etta James - “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore”...

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:05:04 -0500

Etta James - “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” from At Last, The Very Best of Etta James

RIP Etta James (1938-2012) A legend in every sense of the word.

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:59:17 -0500

RIP Etta James (1938-2012)

A legend in every sense of the word.

Yehoodi: The Musical Legacy of George Reed (Part 1)

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 13:29:48 -0500

Yehoodi: The Musical Legacy of George Reed (Part 1):

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.

Guess What Photo is One Of LIFE Magazine Editors' Faves?

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 10:00:05 -0500

Guess What Photo is One Of LIFE Magazine Editors' Faves?:

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.

NYE2012: Wynton Marsalis Group: Live In Concert

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 10:00:05 -0500

NYE2012: Wynton Marsalis Group: Live In Concert:

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

Wandering & Pondering's Lindy Blogging Highlights of 2011

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 10:00:05 -0500

Wandering & Pondering's Lindy Blogging Highlights of 2011:

As always, W&P redefines the word “thorough” by compiling a great list of the best of folks that wrote, shot, and posted about Lindy Hop online in the past year.

Thanks for the mention, Jerry! For my money, Wandering & Pondering is the most consistently insightful and thought-provoking Lindy blog around.

I’m DJing amongst a boatload of swinging talent at the...

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 10:00:05 -0500

I’m DJing amongst a boatload of swinging talent at the annual Salon New Years’ Eve Eve event this Friday (12/30). Great lineup and fancy good times at the Copa in NYC, including music from The George Gee Swing Orchestra, Queen Esther & the Hot Five, and the Michael Arenella Quintet! Check it out if you haven’t yet!

NYT: Gotta Dance? Swing On Over

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 10:03:07 -0500

NYT: Gotta Dance? Swing On Over:

Today the NYTimes published a great writeup about swing dancing in NYC, and heavily featured Yehoodi.com’s Frim Fram Jam, which you probably know I help run.

THERE are swinging parties in Manhattan nearly ever night. The trick is in knowing where to find them.

Take a recent Thursday: Sandwiched between a Blarney Stone and a liquor shop on Eighth Avenue just south of Penn Station and up four flights of stairs was a scene invisible to most New Yorkers. Wild and sweaty, loud and crowded, it featured scores of smiling, ever-shifting couples energetically executing the kinetic choreography of the Lindy Hop, the Charleston, the jitterbug , the Balboa, the collegiate shag. They danced East Coast and West Coast styles and bluesy New Orleans freestyle.

This party, the Frim Fram Jam, is a weekly event organized by the local chapter of a national swing dance network called Yehoodi, after “Who’s Yehoodi (Yehudi)?,” a song popularized by Cab Calloway. Held at a studio called You Should Be Dancing and drawing more than 150 people a week, the Frim Fram Jam is a popular destination within a throbbing, thriving urban subculture: Manhattan’s swing-dance demimonde.

The article quotes several NYC regulars and also features Swing46, Swing Remix, and the NYSDS and is some good visibility for the scene, even though it states the revival is 3 years old (?) and unfortunately gets Gordon Webster’s name wrong.

Check out the full piece on NYTimes.com, including my crotchety quote about feeling old (that I don’t actually remember saying), right before the description of a “trim and energetic” 63-year-old.

Last minute update: I'm DJing at Fram tonight!

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 09:57:26 -0500

Last minute update: I'm DJing at Fram tonight!:

Fates aligned for a Festivus miracle, and I made it back to NYC a day early! This allows us to return to the originally announced DJ schedule for December, with me DJing tonight at Frim Fram! See you there!

Be sure to “Like” Fram on Facebook and/or follow @FramDJ on Twitter to keep up-to-date on the latest happenings at Fram.

Vine Street Blues - Wingy Manone and His Band

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 09:44:05 -0500

Vine Street Blues - Wingy Manone and His Band

“Blues In The Night” featuring Jimmie Lunceford...

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 10:00:05 -0500

“Blues In The Night” featuring Jimmie Lunceford (1941)

FYI. via nevver: Record Store Locator App

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 15:42:51 -0500

FYI.

via nevver:

Record Store Locator App

Chick Webb, Artie Shaw, & Duke Ellington (via Gunslinger)

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 11:46:20 -0500

Chick Webb, Artie Shaw, & Duke Ellington

(via Gunslinger)

MIT builds camera that can capture at the speed of light (video)

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 10:00:06 -0500

MIT builds camera that can capture at the speed of light (video):

Imaging Science. What.

via Engadget:

A team from the MIT media lab has created a camera with a “shutter speed” of one trillion exposures per second — enabling it to record light itself traveling from one point to another. Using a heavily modified Streak Tube (which is normally used to intensify photons into electron streams), the team could snap a single image of a laser as it passed through a soda bottle. In order to create the slow-motion film in the video we’ve got after the break, the team had to replicate the experiment hundreds of times. The stop-motion footage shows how light bounces through the bottle, collecting inside the opaque cap before dispersing. The revolutionary snapper may have a fast shutter but the long time it takes to process the images have earned it the nickname of the “the world’s slowest fastest camera.”