Happy When I'm With You by Gordon Webster

For this month's review, we're staying in Manhattan. For those of you who aren’t NYC regulars or who haven’t heard Gordon Webster since Blues Till Dawn (or his Philly Lindy Love marathon late nights), his second CD release "Happy When I’m With You" is going to knock your socks off. For those of you who are, it's the Gordon "and Friends" you know and love captured live in your very own CD player!

Sure Gordon’s still grooving the piano like the dickens on numbers like “Uptown Sop” and his supporting musicians, like Rob Adkins on bass and Adrian Cunningham on sax and clarinet, are first rate and swinging equally hard. Also, Brianna Thomas is here on vocals, capturing much of the playful energy she packs into live performances on numbers like “All Right, Okay, You Win”, “All of Me”, and particularly “Summertime”, where her vocals and Gordon’s piano work dance together nicely (also listen as Jesse turns in some great muted trumpet work on that track). “September in the Rain”, “Sweet Lorraine”, and “Sometimes I’m happy” are also solid tracks with Brianna on vocals and which have a comfortable, laid back feel.

However, for me, the best work on the album are Gordon’s collaborations with trumpeter/vocalist Jesse Selengut. These 4 numbers brings out a whole new range of piano that those who aren’t familiar with Gordon’s recent work, won’t be aware of. The energetic version of “24 Robbers” packed the dance floor in Richmond with energy last weekend and “Long John” (now available free for a limited time at the link below) and “Bill Bailey” are equally packed with wonderful hard swinging performances by his all star side men. I particularly enjoyed the interplay of Jesse on vocals and Matt on trombone in “I'm Confessin That I Love You”.

There’s truly not a weak cut on this release, which, given the wide range of material, is a testament to Gordon’s abilities as a top notch band leader, above and beyond his great piano work. "Happy When I’m With You" is an appropriate title for this release because it’ll leave you tapping your foot and feeling just that way yourself.

The CD is available for purchase online at:

http://www.gordonwebsterswings.com/

Guerilla Rebellion Underground Blues Supper 3

Each year Virginia Beach puts on a weekend of free Blues at Beach with about a dozen bands on a small outdoor stage sponsored by Budweiser. It’s gone from being a magnet for drunks and the local homeless to a decent event, even if the majority of bands all look and sound the same-- drummer, electric guitar, bass player, and a pudgy 50-something year old guy in a Hawaiian shirt and a big floppy hat. If you’re lucky you’ll get a harmonica player or maybe some boogie woogie piano. It’s definitely a tourist safe, Magaritaville mix of family friendly blues but when the local blues dancers tacked on 2 DJ'ed late nights for $25, the weekend turned into a good excuse to invite dance friends into town for a cheap weekend.

One year dancer Ellen Stantschew from Germany popped in between Herrang Dance Camp and a DJ tour of eastern U.S. cities to DJ the blues late nights and unfortunately was treated less than well by some of the locals. The final straw came with us laughingly walking out of an atrociously bad dinner at Uroma's Restaurant (which, not surprisingly folded soon after) and heading back to our place for Chinese take out over discussions about DJ'ing. Thus was jokingly born the Guerilla Underground Blues Summit (GUBS).

The next year the price of the late night dances jumped to $45 and 8 of my out of town DJ friends came down for the weekend, shared music, danced, enjoyed a lovely dinner prepared by Megan Adair and others, and again got crapped on by the local organizer. So, we jokingly referred to it as "The Son of GUBS" weekend. The following summer, during VBLX we upped the bar for our dinner party by bringing live music and we had 24 guests.

Heading into this year's Blues at the Beach/Dirt Cheap Blues weekend, we were surprised by phone calls and emails from as far away as Boston, Tennessee and Oregon asking if we were throwing another dinner party. I seized on the support to guilt Patty into letting me do another party. Around the same time, Duane Grover suggested GRUBS would be a better acronym for a dinner party and, with that, the even more tongue in cheek, Guerilla Rebellion Underground Blues Supper 3 was conceived.

We spent the month before preparing the menu, inviting guests and cleaning. I have to admit, I had absolutely no idea how many people to expect. We had a solid RSVP for 12 with another 10 probable and 10 more probably nots so I figured 25 and cooked for 40 so there would be leftovers. What I didn't realize was, between my house guests and I, we had 5 of the top Blues DJ's on the east coast lined up playing music for us that night-- even more importantly, everybody else in town knew it.

So, we got the 12, and the 10 probablies, and the other 10 probably nots and then we realized we were going to be looking at a very full house. At 11 o'clock, when the party was supposed to wind down, the dancing was still going full tilt. A group that had just arrived was in the kitchen making deviled eggs and another was starting some baking. Meanwhile, Corey Wright plugged in as DJ to keep the party rolling for those who weren't attending the late night.

Around 1 a.m. Patty and I were sitting on our front steps as Benny Goodman's Vibraphone Blues poured out the windows into the street (and unbeknownst to us, a ukelele jam band playing on the back patio). I smiled at my bemused but overwhelmed wife and said, "Tonight, we're THOSE neighbors, the bad ones. We're going to get the cops called on us for blasting music that was recorded over 60 years ago."

A little later another group we didn't know parked at the end of the long row of cars lining the street and walked to our door. Patty introduced us as the hosts but, to our surprise, they just shrugged and walked in (by our guess as guests 63-65). Patty smiled and said, "they were carrying dancer shoe bags; I guess they're okay."

Around 2 a.m. with the absynthe bottles emptying out things started to wind down and, to our total amazement, by 2:45 a.m. the 20 or so remaining stragglers had finished cleaning up and hauling out the trash and remnants of the previous 8 hours of celebration out before heading over to the late night for closing 2 hours.


It was a magical evening, far exceeding anything Patty and I could have ever imagined (or willingly planned for). We're not sure of everyone who was here or everything that happened. I do know we set a record for the biggest 3 layer cuddle couch of all time. So, incredible amounts of love to everyone who made the evening such a once in a lifetime happening... until next year.

Live at Mona's by Mona's Hot Four

This month’s great find is Live at Mona’s, an album recorded this past winter at NYC’s club of that name on Avenue B between 13th and 14th

Listeners may not recognize the group Mona’s Hot Four by name but dancers will know pianist Gordon Webster, bassist Cassidy Holden, & clarinetist Dennis Lichtman from their solid work with NYC’s Cangelosi Cards. Add Nick Russo on Banjo and guitar and numbers like Temptation Rag are blistering freilachs of musical goodness. Much of the sound here is a more straight forward, fast paced trad jazz that’ll get your bal feet tapping. Most songs are too long for dancing (in the 5-7 minute range), but the performances are musical gems by an assemble that is tight and playing off each other perfectly

Vocalist Tamar Korn adds some of her folksy feel on versions of When You’re Smiling, Puttin’ On the Ritz, and Moonglow. Dan Levinson of the Nighthawks drops in to add clarinet on a few tracks and Jesse Selengut and Rob Adkins of Tin Pan add a great gritty blues feel to Ballin’ the Jack and Tishomingo Blues. You can expect to hear those two cuts when I DJ at upcoming blues gigs.

You can pick up your copy here:
http://losmusicosviajeros.net/mona/purchase.html

Wynton Marsalis's 7 Rungs of Resistance

"There are 7 basic rungs of resistance up the ladder of artistic success.
I will start from the lowest rung to the highest.

1. Ignorance
Not your fault. Generally the result of a polluted environment. No one knows, so you don’t know. Example: You think funk is jazz.

2. Miseducation
Your teachers are well meaning, but just don’t know. It’s no one’s fault. Example: someone tells you, you have to study classical music to become a jazz musician. Bad advice.

3. Personal difficulties
You just have some major personal problems to overcome. extremely dysfunctional family life or some time of physical or mental disability. Once again, no one’s fault, but an obstacle to overcome.

4. Laziness
You just would rather waste time and achieve through talking what hard work would have ensured. Example: You spend a lot of time talking about what you are going to do and what other people are not doing.

5. Opinion of family and peers
They think you should do what they think you should do. They don’t study music or art, have undeveloped tastes and should be helping develop yours by encouraging you to seek professional teaching. Instead, they offer you a steady stream of uninformed, well meaning, but ultimately bad advice. Example: The advice of your friends in the midst of a nasty breakup. Let them be friends. seek professional help.

6. The opinion of a failed artist
They didn’t make it, so neither will you. Encouragement comes very difficult to them and a strong undercurrent of pure cynicism and negativity can destroy the optimism and faith required to get your artistic aspirations off the ground. Beware, because they also have a lot of very valuable information. but, if their career failures have not been put in perspective, that information can come at too high a price.

7. Uninformed criticism and the court of public opinion
The critics of your time are not fans of the art form that you practice. There’s nothing you can do to make them fans. They have been given unearned positions of authority. Don’t be depressed over this type of criticism. Consider it a compliment. With public opinion, be very careful. If you feel that you are above public opinion, your work can suffer from the type of myopic arrogance that destroys the humility central to artistic development. Part of artistry is submitting your work to be accepted or rejected by non “experts”. It’s like cooking a meal. If you don’t care whether people like it or not, why not just cook for yourself. However, if you follow whatever the trend is, you might end up cooking a Big Mac. Good luck and do your thing."

- Wynton Marsalis, Apr 11, 2009

Jungle Blues by C.W. Stoneking

It took me about 6 months to finally locate a source in the U.S. who was selling Aussie bluesman C.W. Stoneking’s 2nd CD, Jungle Blues, on King Hokum Records.

In fact, the first time I tried to contact the musician in Australia I was told he only released his albums on vinyl because of his disdain for the digital medium. That statement should give you an idea of what to expect from this concept album that chronicles the performer’s mythical boat trip that starts with him getting dragged to Africa by 4 scientists who admired his tales of old-time blues and working as a root doctor’s assistant in New Orleans. His character gets shipwrecked, washes up on the shores of the Dark Continent, defeats a talking lion who tries to eat him, and returns with a CD full of wondrous stories and songs.

Musically, there’s yodeling, carnival barking, a Moroccan influenced lullaby, tango, a jail house blues lament, a crying baby, sousaphones, electric banjo, washboard, violas and violins in addition to the traditional brass, drum and acoustic guitar. Additionally, C.W. Stoneking himself sounds like he’s trying to sing without losing any of his chaw.

The end result is a brilliant CD that produces the amazing I Heard the Marching of the Drums that Sharon Davis choreographed here…. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR1jvBPtEWQ . Housebound Blues is another new favorite in my DJ tool bag.

Also check out C.W.’s CD King Hokum to hear the bawdy “You Took My Thing and Put It In Your Place” I played @ Emerald City Blues. It’s a shame about that poor ant eater. Additionally, his original song Don't Go Dancin' Down the Darktown Strutter's Ball is a nice contrast to the song you'd be expecting.

June CD Review of the Month: The Solomon Douglas Swingtet - Live at the Legion

Solomon Douglas’s Live at the Legion is an ambitious undertaking full of yummy Basie and Ellington inspiration that flies in the face of those who say Lindy Hop is moving unstoppably back to days of 1920’s Hot Jazz. I had the good fortune to DJ band breaks when Solomon’s Swingtet performed Splanky, Shorty George, Rockin’ in Rhythm and East Saint Louis Toodle-oo (all off his new CD) at BABBLE this year and remember thinking at the time, “he’s not taking the easy way out playing well known numbers that require musicians that can really bring it”.

But bring it, this CD does. Eric Heveron-Smith is as solid as always, as is Peter Petersen, (whose release “Keep Your Hat On” is also tight). Honestly, I was prepared to not like the slower version of “I Needs to Bee’d With” as the Basie version from Live at the Sands is a favorite of mine. But the arrangement was quite good, even if markedly different in feel. I also appreciated that the liner notes told us which recordings Solomon based his arrangements off so I could listen side by side for comparison. I particularly enjoyed the tracks mentioned above, as well as Centerpiece and the very groovy Funk Junction.

My only complaint, and it’s a small one, is that I felt like the trumpet section was, at times, a bit restrained. They came off sounding a little tentative and unsure in an otherwise driving "One O’clock Jump". In fact, "Saturday Night Function", "Singing the Blues Till Daddy Comes Home" and particularly "Buffalo Blues" were all well measured and technically proficient, but I kept wishing they would cut loose and bask in the energy of the live recording the way the rest of this album does.

Still, Live at the Legion is a very solid release and I imagine you’ll be hearing a fair number of the recordings at events in the future because the sound quality is superb and the arrangements have a great thickness and complexity that give dancers a lot to play with. All in all, a very nice followup release that captures much of the excitement I felt when seeing the ensemble perform live in NYC. Great for DJ'ing, even better to throw on and listen to at home.

http://solomondouglas.com/buy_CD.html

VBLX 2009 - an organizer's view behind the scenes

After several rollercoaster months of preparation, Virginia Beach's most successful lindy exchange went off with barely a hitch this past week. For the first time, registration had to be closed (at 180 paid registrants), roughly three times the usual size. As the Head DJ/musical director and marketing strategist for the team, I’d like to think I had at least some small part in that success.

To add some background, watching our local exchange develop over past years is always like the old Cherokee proverb that says every person contains two wolves -- a good one and an evil one. The one who wins is the one you feed. VBLX 2008 had definitely been a bad (and unprofitable) wolf - attendance was about only about 50 and it had generated a lot of bad publicity for its misleading marketing as a "national battle of the east coast's best lindy and blues DJ's." When those organizers announced they didn’t want the risk of losing more money again this year, local Chris Crawford took on the challenge of organizing the exchange with zero budget, no local headlining bands, a slew of burned bridges with most surrounding scenes and a deeply fragmented and untrusting home scene.

My involvement actually began as a complete surprise to me with what I originally thought were a series of random phone calls from regional friends asking for a reference on Chris and his invitation for them to come DJ for he and I at VBLX? Um, Excuse me? What?

I phoned Chris, who informed me that, yes, I was invited to be his head DJ/music director - he'd just forgotten to actually ask me. Before signing on I demanded that things would be run wholly above board-- no sketchy advertising, no phantom headliners or venues that a last minute announcement cancelled (after registration closed). Also, everyone would be fairly compensated and recognized for their efforts. Additionally, the focus was going to be on the quality of the music; no creepy pajama parties in pitch black rooms or any other themes, just the best DJ's I could recruit playing their best music for an appropriate price. In other words, it was going to be a reputable exchange.

I insisted we have a Lindy room and an alternate/blues room rather than the traditional "swing" and "blues" room that frequently had DJ's playing similar westie music playing at same time.

Within weeks we’d assembled a solid team of known lindy DJ’s head liners: Jam Cellar DJ's Allen Kerr and Lee Tucker, Mike ‘the girl’ Legett, NC's Jeramie Anderson and Laura Windley; plus respected, seasoned regionally known DJs: Valerie Hargis, Victor Celania, Kait Mahar, and Mike Quisao. Our marketing pitch was, “We’ve got these solid DJ’s, who've headlined these events, and a weekend at the beach at the height of tourist scene for only $35; how bad could it suck?”

Once the ball was rolling, local dancer Jeff Miller asked to join the team and run the blues room with himself and other local DJ’s. We said that was fine as long as he understood this was going to be different from events they'd worked in the past - no pajama parties that some found inappropriate, no bait and switch advertising that left registrants disappointed, and no tacky marketing stressing low ball pricing or irrelevant gimmicks as the reason to attend.

The response to our honest business strategy and focusing on the music was immediate and unprecedented — 100 new registrants within the opening 2 weeks. Half of those from people who'd never come to a dance event in VB, plus several large blocks of people who had attended earlier event here but said they'd never come back.

Ultimately, our event was meticulously planned and therefore executed on pretty much on schedule with even the weather cooperating (no nearby wildfires creating unsafe air quality levels or no sudden thunderstorms rolling over the Battleship to cancel afternoon dances).

For the first time since the old days with Wendy Craignhill running the scene in the tiny Huette Center, we actually got complaints our dance venues were too crowded or some locals couldn't get in because they hadn't registered assuming we'd never sell out.

Despite all the planning and preparation, of course, no dance event would be complete without a few glitches and needless distraction. The day before the exchange a local organizer emailed all attendees announcing he was adding themes for the various dance nights, including the ubiquitous creepy pajama party blues room and Hawaiian shirt night. Thankfully, other than a couple pairs of joking bunny slippers, his ideas were wholly disregarded and the exchange carried on.

The only serious logistical failure during the weekend happened when that same local, who'd asked to be in charge of food at the late night, announced at the end of the Friday main dance that everyone should head over to the lone, small Denny’s since there wouldn't be food at late night after all. He later told us he independently decided not to waste our budgeted funds on food when attendees could just buy their own. The chaotic result was a majority of the exchange attendees missed the opening 2 hours of the late night and several of Friday's headlining DJ’s.

These two rogue actions should have signaled us to dump this person from the team but no one wanted to make waves at the time; plus he assured Chris we were all now on the same page and there would be food at Saturday's late night venue.

Yet unbelievably, the guy did the same thing on Saturday! This time the restaurant got overwhelmed and turned most people away. Needless to say, there were some rightfully unhappy, extremely hungry dancers who missed our best DJ's and several hours of the dance (as well as pissed off DJ's) and they let people know about it. Also, none of the allocated food budget money that was supposedly "saved" ever turned up or was repaid, so somebody made out okay for themselves at the expense of our local dance community.

While we were all seething about this, we learned yet another ridiculous lesson in human nature - the need to secure the sound system. While organizers Chris, housing coordinator Kristin Fisher and I were out scrounging up some food for ourselves before the announcements and organizer jam, the same rogue local emerged from the blues room to jump on the microphone in the main room during a DJ shift switch and embarrassingly took credit for organizing the event himself. He even threw an "organizer's" jam for he and his buddies!

After the organizing committee returned and learned what happened, we decided most people knew who’d put together the event and saw his stunt as just dishonest self promotion. To avoid the dance losing focus to someone's need for ego, we agreed to cancel our announcements and the organizer jam and just keep the music going in the main room. In fact, it seemed like our DJ's took the disruption as a personal challenge to make sure dancers were swinging so hard for the rest of the night that nobody went to check out the blues room. Ultimately, we publicly gave the volunteers their formal thanks in the local online forum and with a jam at the weekly dance the following week, which was run by the cad who'd tried taking credit for everyone's work. A fitting reward indeed!

In the end, one person's misbehavior was ultimately trivial in light of everyone else's hard work and it would have only been a needless distraction from our plan if we'd acknowledged it. Be keeping things rolling and maintaining the focus on the music and the excitement that a crowd of 180 dancers, instead of 60, brought, we think we generated a lot more positive energy and definitely fed the good wolf.

The benefits were a lot of new friendships, repaired relationships with surrounding dance scenes and organizers, locals who got to dance with solid dancers from the outside dance world for the first time, the return of many faces who'd left the scene long before I arrived, and our local scene getting on other people’s radar in a positive way.

It just goes to show you-- Good music, honest marketing, and respect for your guests can still take you far in this world.

As a final note, Patty and I did another Tex Mex vegan dinner party at our house between the Saturday afternoon and main dance, with music provided by local Gina Dalmas, Chris on bass and Victor on drums. It was the only live music of the weekend and was a lot of fun, as well as a great chance for people to eat and power nap on comfy chairs between the official dances.