You’ve just started dancing, you love the music, but just don’t know where to start when it comes to buying your own tunes. Sound familiar?  It’s exactly how I felt when I first started. I remember asking a mate from my Sunday class and he came up with “Louis Jordon, you can’t go wrong with him”.  In retrospect, Louis probably isn’t the most obvious choice, although enjoyable, and if you asked me now I’d probably direct you towards Count Basie, one of the greatest big band leaders.

I’ve recently been discovering a lot of bands playing around the world at the moment. So my choices today are going to be a mix of the old and the new.
So, to the top 5 for January…

1) “Big Fine Daddy” by Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers
This track opens with an awesome blast of brass and sax and then Lavay comes in with her beautifully silky, biting voice and you can’t help but want to groove along.  An American band, blues influenced, they’re based in San Francisco and apparently even Bill Clinton is a fan!  www.lavaysmith.com

2) “Splanky” by Count Basie
What a tune!  The piano tempts us in, the trombones greet us and gently call to the saxophones who playfully answer, building up to a crescendo of brass reminiscent of a cop show of the 1970s.  Your feet will be tapping from the first beat.

3) “Long Gone John” by Gordon Webster
A bouncy, feel good tune with a Caribbean lilt and some great trombone slides.  A Canadian jazz pianist and swing dancer, Gordon Webster (and band) has just released a new album, “Happy When I’m With You,” written especially for swing dancers. (Free song download on his website www.gordonwebsterswings.com)

4) “The Fox” by Ray Anthony
Another bouncy one, that’ll beckon you to the floor – classic 50s big band I’d say.  An American, Ray Anthony cut his teeth with the Glen Miller band in the early 1940s as a trumpeter, and then went on to form his successful dance band, The Ray Anthony Orchestra.  Interesting fact, Ray dabbled with film acting in the 1940s and 50s and even had his own TV show.  As far as I can tell, the man is still alive and well into his late 80s.

5) “Shout Sister Shout” by Sister Rosetta Tharpe
I just love this song with Rosetta’s alluring and gritty voice.  Brought up a gospel singer, Rosetta made waves in the 1930s when she mixed sacred and secular in her first recordings with the Lucky Millinder orchestra. She went on to play with Benny Goodman, Cab Calloway and much later, when she switched to blues, Muddy Waters.

That’s it for now. Happy listening.  And let us know what you think of the tunes!
Hannah (AKA Mistress Groove)

Share

Did you know there is a boat at the southern end of India named Swing Patrol? It all was a result of Swing Patrol dancers raising money for the Asian tsunami. We ran workshops and all the proceeds went to the Tsunami appeal. Dancers walked in with offerings way above what we were asking for. We sold things like DVDs and dancers were happily giving us three times the usual price and saying ” Keep the change as it’s  a great cause.”   We sent the funds to a specific lady named Leena Lavanya (google her). Anyway, we expected nothing in return but a few months later this small photo arrived in the mail. Claudia (who oversees Swing Patrol Australia ) burst in to tears as it was a lovely reminder of what a dance community can do together.  We have an amazing community full of giving and generous people. This photo is an amazing reminder of this.

Share

Psychologist Cliff Arnall has calculated that Monday 18 January – known as ‘Blue Monday’ – will be the most depressed day of 2010. His formula uses six factors to calculate the day of the year on which people are most likely to be depressed: the weather conditions, debt level, the time since Christmas, the time since failing to keep our resolutions, low motivation levels and the pressure to take action.

It may be mid-January, the credit card bills may be hitting the doormat, the days may be are shorter, and maybe you’ve broken all your New Year’s resolutions. But this week Swing Patrol is opening FIVE (yes count them) classes to help you alleviate the gloom. That’s right, check out the class timetable and get yourself down to a swing class this week! And chin up chicken…only 6 more days until the Aerials workshop

Share

So it’s Stokey tonight! Yes, another free lesson and random night of dancing at Jan’s. A great way to start off a weekend of dancing.
Social dancing is always an adventure. So when we stumbled accross this hillarious tip on the internet we thought we’d share it with you, just to help you understand the more subtle points of dance floor ettiquette…in the dark ages

Share

I love swing camps! Interesting people from a plethora of countries come together to celebrate the dance and music we love so much. Life long friendships are made, lasting memories and ..a lot of inspiring dancing. These type of events are such a highlight of your dancing calendar so have a good read of the web site and my advice is to throw yourself in.

Do the learning off these world class teachers, cheer on the competitors in the competition…or even consider competing, and enjoy a lot of dancing with so many new people from all parts of the world. Hosting is part of the magic…you put a foreigner on a couch and then you stay with them when you visit their city!

Registrations now open so lock in your spot! Four nights of dancing, two days of workshops, late night parties and even a tour of London with Scottie and the team. The Bloomsbury Ballroom in the heart of London will play host to the wonderful weekend. This is a stunning ballroom!

We recommend you don’t delay as we have registrations already from dancers in Australia, Germany, Ireland, Russia and the USA.

Share

If were at the recent Swing Pit then chances are you have heard a few tracks from this great compilation. We stumbled across it on Spotify. While not strictly Swing it’s got some amazing tracks on it, although as you probably guessed, they’re mostly a bit rude. Our favourites include Big Long Slidin’ Thing by Dinah Washington (it’s about a trombone…honest) and Walking Blues by Fluffy Hunter. A lot of rhythm, a bit of blues and just a dash (well, maybe a bit more) of sex. Enjoy!
Listen on Spotify

Share

SO, we stumbled accross this great article in the Times online today about the new uptake in dance in Great Britain. Well worth a read, a particluar highlight is the comparison of Swing Dancing to a roast dinner (!)

What do Sunday roasts and Swing dance have in common?

The dance revival: one nation under a groove
Young and old, male and female, accomplished and appalling, the British are putting on their dancing shoes again

We may be only 12 days into a new year but one prediction seems safe to make: 2010 is limbering up to be the Year of the Legwarmer. Five million Britons of every age and class, and both genders, are now shimmying, shaking and strutting their stuff every week at dance classes in gyms, salsa nights in church halls and other styles in other venues. Even dances popular with the wartime generation are enjoying a resurgence among London’s young dance set, with regular swing and lindy hop nights in clubs across the capital. “What worked in the past still works well now,” says Benoit Viellefon, a 36-year-old musician who attracts more than 250 dapper vintage enthusiasts to his midweek Swing Mon Amour nights at the fashionable pub-cum-club Paradise By Way Of Kensal Green, in West London. “It’s like cooking. A Sunday roast still works, just like swing music still works.” Read more…

Share

When Frankie Manning talked about his aerials his eyes would light up with delight. A wonderful part of swing dancing and this is your time to fly. Give it a go… Peta and Scott have both taught aerials extensively and it guarantees to be a fabulous and challenging workshop.

Click here to find out more about this workshop and to register!

Share

Tweet This!

With so many things out East and the fact that our West London classes wound up straight after our “routine” period we want to ensure you start 2010 on a confident footing. This is an intermediate workshop and a great way to start the year. This workshop is targeted at all new intermediate dancers who were doing intermediate classes in 2009. All welcome!

Click here to find out more about this workshop and to book your place.

Tweet This! Share

We were super excited when the well known Swing band the Jive Aces invited Scott and Tanya to work with them on their upcoming music video. Filming started at 8.00am so it was absolutely freezing but a super experience and the crew from the Jive Aces were absolutely brilliant. It was filmed onto of a roof 50 meters from St. Pauls, in a cool London alley way and on the Millennium bridge. Check out the photos  on our Flickr page. Stay tuned for a link to the video when it’s done.

Tweet This! Share