Swing or Nothing!

Louis Prima (December 7, 1910 – August 24, 1978) was an Italian-American singer, trumpter, actor and bandleader. Along with Louis Armstrong and Louis Jordan, he was one of the three famous trumpeting and singing Louis’ of the swing era. Comparisons have been drawn between Armstrong and Prima, as they were New Orleans contemporaries, and both incorporated a hoarse singing voice, scatting and a sense of humor into their acts. He started out in New Orleans playing with a seven-piece jazz band, and went on to lead a swing combo in the 1930s, a big band in the 1940s and a Vegas lounge act in the 1950s.

One of Louis Prima’s most notable and earliest hits was his original composition “Sing, Sing, Sing” in 1936, which was later covered by Benny Goodman’s orchestra and which became an iconic tune for the entire swing era. In the 1930s, he moved from New Orleans to Los Angeles, where his band played regularly at night clubs and was featured in several films, including Rhythm on the Range with Bing Crosby. In 1940, he formed a conventional big band, and it was with this band that he developed a distinctive shuffle rhythm style that he dubbed “Gleeby Rhythm,” while singing most of the bands vocals.

In the 1949, Prima took on singer Keely Smith who went on to become his fourth wife and a key component of his 1950s Vegas lounge act, along with drummer Sam Butera and his backing band The Witnesses. In addition to Smith’s beautifully deep vocals, the two developed a lively stage act with Keely playing it straight and innocent in contrast to the wild and zany Prima.

One of my earliest CD purchases as a swing dancer (we’re talking about back in 1997) was the Capitol Collector Series: Louis Prima Compilation, which features 25 great songs featuring Prima and Smith’s harmonized vocals. Many of the songs are great for dancing, and some of my favorites are:

• Just a Gigolo / I Ain’t Got Nobody
• Buona sera
• Jump, Jive & Wail
• The Lip
• Whistle Stop
• 5 months, 2 weeks, 2 days
• Banana Split For My Baby
• Baby, Won’t You Please Come Home
• I’ve Got The World On A String

Another fun novelty song that Prima recorded for Disney’s cartoon production of the Jungle Book is:

I Wan’Na Be Like You (The Monkey Song)

Louis Prima passed away from a brain tumor in 1978, but he left behind a great musical legacy that had an impact on many of the swing revival era bands of the 1980s and later, including the Brian Setzer Orchestra and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. San Francisco’s own swing band Stompy Jones, which plays regularly at Club Verdi on Tuesday nights covers Louis Prima songs all the time, and we were even fortunate to have a guest appearance of Keely Smith at the Red Devil Lounge about a year ago, while she was touring along with the London-based Jive Aces.

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Artie Shaw was an American jazz clarinetist, composer and bandleader. He started out playing the saxophone when he was 13, but by age 16 had switched to the clarinet, the instrument for which he became famous. During the 1930s he played as a session musician in New York City, and eventually put together his own big band that rivaled that of contemporary Benny Goodman in popularity. With Benny Goodman already laying claim to the title “King of Swing”, Artie Shaw became known as the “King of Clarinet”, although Shaw argued that the titles should have been reversed.

Artie Shaw was known to be a musical innovator, experimenting with unusual instrumentation, incorporating Afro-Cuban rhythms, and especially breaking away from the patterns of traditional big band dance music. Dancers wanting to express the breaks and accents in a piece of music often latch onto repeated themes and recognizable riffs and patterns. Artie Shaw tried to keep dancers on their toes by mixing up the riffs in less predictable ways…a way to challenge all but the best dancers.

Indeed, I remember that two of my early swing dance instructors, Kevin and Carla, loved performing to music by Artie Shaw as well as playing his music in classes…precisely because the unpredictability and surprise element in his music made it challenging and fun to dance to.

Artie Shaw was quite prolific, so I’m not going to list all my favorite songs, but here are two sets of music that you might like:

Mellower Tunes with a Nice Steady Beat:

1. Begin the Beguine
2. Stardust
3. Moonglow
4. Frensi
5. Softly as a Morning Sunrise

High-Energy & Fast Lindy Tunes

1. Traffic Jam
2. Diga Diga Doo*
3. Carioca*
4. Lady Be Good*
5. Man From Mars*
6. Scuttlebutt
7. All the Cats Join In

* indicates tunes that I’ve performed to at one time or another.

Here’s a great Lindy Hop routine that’s danced to a splice of All the Cats Join in and Traffic Jam.

One2Swing Jitterbugs

And a great Artie Shaw album on Amazon.com to help you jump start your collection:

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LaVerne, Maxene and Patricia Andrews were three sisters from Minnesota who developed a harmonic style of singing and specialized in swing and boogie-woogie styles, and rose to international fame during the WWII era. With Laverne singing contraalto, Maxene singing soprano and Patricia singing mezzo-soprano, and all of them singing at the top of their lungs, the trio modeled themselves after the Boswell sisters, an earlier singing group, and they also originally sought to imitate the sound of a blaring trio of trumpets.

The Andrews Sisters rose to fame through their 1937 radio broadcast, during which time Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen became one of their earliest smash hits. They played with nearly all of the most famous big bands of the era, including those led by Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Buddy Rich, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Gene Krupa, Joe Venuti, Freddie Slack, Eddie Heywood, Bob Crosby (Bing’s brother), Desi Arnaz, Guy Lombardo, Les Brown, Bunny Berigan. They also enjoyed a particularly successful collaboration with singer Bing Crosby — nearly half the songs they recorded with him made the Billboard Charts.

The Sisters were active and generous in helping to entertain America’s Armed Forces during WWII and support the war cause. Along with several other prominent actors and musicians, the Andrews Sisters helped found the Hollywood Canteen, a retreat for American servicemen. Indeed, many of their songs contained war related lyrics and themes. The Andrews Sisters appeared in a handful of films, especially after being snatched up by Universal Pictures. They appeared in three Abbot & Costello comedies, including Buck Privates and Universal eventually had them star in their own B-Musicals, including What’s Cooking, Private Buckaroo, and Give Out, Sisters.

Here’s a good starting compilation of Andrews Sisters tunes for dancing:

as well as some individual tunes from other albums that I really like:

1. Rhumboogie
2. Civilization (Bongo, Bongo, Bongo)
3. Shortnin’ Bread

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Okay, here’s a set of music that is essential to any serious lindy hopper’s music collection: Slim & Slam.

Slim & Slam was a 1930s musical partnership formed by Bulee “Slim” Gaillard (vocals, guitar and piano) and Leroy Elliott “Slam” Stewart (bass). They produced novelty jazz numbers featuring Slim’s distinctive vocal style with vocalese and scats, hipster argot and nonsense words. Their biggest hits were “Flat Fleet Floogie (with a Floy Floy)”, “Cement Mixer (Puti Puti)” and “The Groove Juice Special (Opera in Vout)”. Slim & Slam also provide the musical introduction to that famous clip of Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers in Hellzapoppin…

If you’re out looking for CDs, look for:

…which has most of Slim & Slam’s notable hits…

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Fats Waller (1904-1943) was an American jazz pianist, organist, composer and comedic entertainer. Widely recognized as a master of stride piano — Waller was one of the most popular performers of his era and was also a prolific songwriter. A good number of songs that you’ve been hearing Corner Pocket play each week at Cat’s Corner were originally written or co-written and performed by Fats Waller, including “Honeysuckle Rose”, “Ain’t Misbehavin’”,”‘Tain’t What You Do”, and “Yatch Club Swing.” As usual, the Proper Records label has good compilation that’s worth listening to:

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Ray Charles Robinson (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004), known by his stage name Ray Charles, was an American pianist and singer who shaped the sound of rhythm and blues. He brought a soulful sound to country music, pop standards. Several songs you’ve heard from the Jelly Roll Souls playing at Cat’s Corner were popularized by Ray Charles, including “I Gotta Woman” and “This Little Girl of Mine.” Here are some collections and albums worth checking out:

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Larry Clinton (August 17, 1909 – May 2, 1985) was a trumpeter who became a prominent American bandleader. His practice of rearranging the works of famous composers like Debussy and Tchaikovsky and adding lyrics was known as “swinging the classics”. His version of Debussy’s “Reverie”, with vocalist Bea Wain, was particularly popular. Clinton also provided conventional arrangements for performers like the Dorsey brothers, Glen Gray, Louis Armstrong, and Bunny Berigan.

I recently went on a Larry Clinton buying binge after hearing the song “Chew Your Bubble Gum.” Clinton’s sound reminds me a lot of Benny Goodman, but I like that his rhythm section has a little bit more of a driving drum beat. Here are some fun tracks you can find on emusic.com:

• Chew Your Bubble Gum
• That’s Good Enough For Me
• Zig Zag
• Missouri Gambler

or on Amazon.com:

Larry Clinton at Amazon.com

Enjoy!

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This past Thursday (March 27, 2008) at the 9:20, San Francisco dancers experienced the classy and powerhouse sound of one of the great contemporary big bands: George Gee and His Jump, Jive & Wailers.

It was an interesting contrast to the sound of the 4- and 5-piece swing combos we are used to dancing to here in SF. The Jivin’ Wailers played a number of tunes from their CD “If Dreams Come True”.

I highly recommend grabbing a copy!

or the MP3 Album:

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Lionel Hampton was an American jazz vibraphonist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. “Hamp” ranks among the great names in jazz history, having worked with a who’s who of jazz musicians, from Benny Goodman and Buddy Rich to Charlie Parker and Quincy Jones. Tunes like Lavender Coffin and Flying Home are some of his most recognizable swing dance hits and you’ll find them and more on “the Lionel Hampton Story,” a four disc box set on the Proper label.

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Believe it or not, I was initially unimpressed by Duke Ellington when I first started collecting swing music; since then, I’ve learned the error of my ways. The Duke had such a long music career that spanned decades and many genres of jazz music, that, well, some of his music actually isn’t swing dance music…it’s Hot Jazz, Be-Bop or something else. But the stuff that swings…swings hard.

Edward “Duke” Ellington was an American pianist, composer, arranger and bandleader. He started playing music in Washington, D.C. in 1917. Influences on his piano style included stride pianists like James P. Johnson and Willie “the Lion” Smith. In 1923 he and some of his band mates moved to New York City and started playing as “the Washingtonians,” with Ellington eventually assuming leadership of the band. Although Ellington made several recordings and played clubs around Manhattan, it wasn’t until the Ellington Orchestra took a spot as the house band at the Cotton Club, with regular radio broadcasts of their performances, that the Duke achieved a solid claim to fame and became an American household name. Duke’s band was one of the few that successfully made the transition from the Hot Jazz of the 1920s to the swing of the 1930s, and his band grew in popularity and stature through the 40s and 50s.  Duke Ellington died from cancer in 1974.

Never No Lament

Recommended individual tracks:

• Jack The Bear (1999 Remastered)
• Cotton Tail (1999 Remastered)
• Cotton Tail (1999 Remastered)
• In a Mellotone (1999 Remastered)
• Five O’Clock Whistle (1999 Remastered)
• Five O’Clock Whistle (1999 Remastered)
• Perdido (1999 Remastered – Take 1)
• The
• Main Stem (1999 Remastered)
• Hayfoot, Strawfoot (1999 Remastered – Take 1)

The Duke Box

Recommended individual tracks:

• The Gal From Joe’s
• C Jam Blues

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