The Playlist from July
August 27th, 2010
I’ve been hoping to write a post reflecting on the first two dances but I’ve been swamped with work and just haven’t been able to get around to it. In the meantime, I figured I could at least shoot out a quick post on the music I’ve been playing. I’m hoping people will find it of interest, if not helpful. And if people would like to send feedback about particular songs or the music in general or would like to pass along suggestions and recommendations, I’d love to hear it.
It’s been a challenging experience collecting songs for the dance. While I’ve always been pretty good at identifying a large swathe of popular music from the 80s simply based on the first second and a half of the drum machine intro, I’m still developing an ear for the music of the 30s and 40s, so I often have some difficulty identifying songs or recalling a melody simply based on the title unless it’s something crazy-obvious like Rigamarole or Joshua Fit. The exercise of preparing to DJ the dance has helped a bit — it’s still a struggle right now, but I can already see it getting easier.
Anyway, here’s the list of songs I played at the first Balboa on a Sunday Afternoon in July; I lost track of a few songs and Alex DJ’d the first set so it’s far from a complete list, but it’s a start, y’know? I should mention that as far as choosing songs, I like the idea of throwing unusual tracks from different genres into the mix, but I found myself mostly sticking close to home, except for that Adam Ant song towards the end there. We’ll see how that goes.
I’ll try to post the list for August soon.
| Song Title | Album | Artist | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Breakfast Feud | The Genius Of The Electric Guitar | Charlie Christian | 1941 |
| Back Bay Shuffle | Let’s Go For Shaw! | Artie Shaw | 1996 |
| The Jumpin’ Jive | The Jumpin’ Jive | Cab Calloway & His Orchestra | 2008 |
| 8, 9 And 10 | The Very Best Of | Slam Stewart | 2009 |
| Stampede | The Chronological Classics: 1937-38 | Fletcher Henderson & His Orchestra | 1937 |
| Dig These Blues | Bluebird B-8655-B | The Four Clefs | 1941 |
| Blue Lou | Ella Fitzgerald With Chick Webb | Chick Webb/ella Fitzgerald | 1998 |
| Minor Swing | All-bal 2006 | Django Reinhardt | |
| Hop, Skip And Jump | D5vb1105 RCA-20-1800 | Artie Shaw’s Gramercy 5 | 1945 |
| Joshua Fit The Battle Of Jericho | Home | Sidney Bechet | |
| Jamaica Jam | Ridin’ The Subways | Teddy Powell | 2001 |
| Stealin’ Apples | The Chronological Classics: 1937-38 | Fletcher Henderson & His Orchestra | 1937 |
| When I Get Low I Get High | Ella Fitzgerald With Chick Webb | Chick Webb/ella Fitzgerald | 1998 |
| C Jam Blues | The Masters [disc 1] | Duke Ellington | 1997 |
| Posin’ | The Chronological Classics: 1937-38 | Fletcher Henderson & His Orchestra | 1937 |
| Putting On The Ritz | The Cangelosi Cards | The Cangelosi Cards | |
| Stompy Jones | The Classic Tracks Of The 1920′s & 1930′s | Duke Ellington | 1930 |
| Mary Had A Little Lamb | Willie Bryant Et Son Orchestre: 1935-1936 | Willie Bryant (chant) Et Son Orchestre | 2006 |
| Suits Are Picking Up The Bill | Perennial Favorites | Squirrel Nut Zippers | 1998 |
| The Dipsey Doodle | Call Of The Freaks | Mora’s Modern Rhythmists | 2000 |
| Blues In B | The Genius Of The Electric Guitar | Charlie Christian | 1941 |
| Breakin’ Em Down | All-bal 2006 | Chick Webb | |
| Vote For Mr. Rhythm | Ella Fitzgerald With Chick Webb | Chick Webb/ella Fitzgerald | 1998 |
| Corner Pocket | October Swing Mix | Count Basie | |
| Harlem Shout | Jimmie Lunceford And His Orchestra, Vol. 1 (1934-1939) | Jimmie Lunceford | 2009 |
| Ko-ko | The Masters [disc 1] | Duke Ellington | 1997 |
| Wham! (re-bop-boom-bam) | Lunceford Special | Jimmie Lunceford | 2001 |
| Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives | All-bal 2006 | Sidney Bechet | |
| Everybody Eats When They Come To My House | Cab Calloway | ||
| Candy Shop | Oh! The Grandeur | Andrew Bird’s Bowl Of Fire | 1999 |
| Sweet Adeline | 21425-2 Brunswick-7936 | Artie Shaw & His New Music | 1937 |
| Till Tom Special | The Genius Of The Electric Guitar | Charlie Christian | 1940 |
| Goody Two Shoes | Antics In The Forbidden Zone | Adam Ant | 1990 |
| San Fernando Valley | Decca 18586b | Bing Crosby | 1943 |
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