Help the newbies train! Music info request

[angelos]

Hey peeps, Angelos here (newbie on the class, the slightly overweight yet extremely cool dude trying to do the "alley kicks" without falling down)

First of all, I'll keep my postings in English given our multinational aspect 

I've already talked to Ben about this at the end of today's uber-beginner class (and he very kindly said he can prep a cd for us - yes please!) but what I'm after is some guidance on which tunes to downl....erm purchase to help with beginners training.

My (quite extensive thank you) jazz library contains lots of swing tunes (mostly upbeat Benny Goodman and big band numbers from the Duke) but if I tried dancing to them I'd probably dislocate quite a few of my joints so what I'm really after are some average-beats-per-minute swing tunes that we can train with.

All pointers greatly appreciated!

Be well,
A

[Kitty Von Paw]

Hey dude 

both me and Ben are fans of the retro swing sound, so we do have a few recommendations for you:

Ella Fitzgerald, the early years (songs such as 'sing-song-swing' and the 'hello mam I did it again')
Glenn Miller (ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING!)
Tommey Dorsey (boogie woogie)
Red Norvo
Charlie Parker
Bud Powell
Gene Krupa
Harry James

However, there are some bands from the 1990s-present that do play OK-ish swing, such as:
Squirrel Nut Zippers
Big Bad Voodoo Daddie
Mitch Woods
Steve Lucky (although he's more into 1950s rock 'n roll sound)

Hope you'll enjoy!

Thanx again for the amazing lesson today! 

Xxxxx Kitty
 

[Julie]

Very good idea Angelos, we can all benefit from tips like that.

By the way, Kitty, you mentioned twinning and stuff with France. Any contacts with Strasbourg by any chance? Just that I'm there every month.

[Ben]

Hi Angelos,

It's great to see you here on the forum, thanks for signing up and posting, and welcome to our growing community.

I think Kitty Von Paw has put forward a some good suggestions (Ella Fitzgerald being one of my favorites for slow and mellow yet danceable tunes). I will try my best to have a list of songs ready for you next lesson, as we discussed after class last Saturday.

Also, if you have some of your own recommendations for songs that you would like to dance to in class, we are always open to suggestions. As you said, slower tempos might be best until our newest beginners have had a bit more practice and experience.

Cheers,

Ben.

[orlock]

check this out:
http://www.rossmernyk.com/swing.html#cds
among other things, there are comments for particular selections