Shopping Tips

If you live in Philadelphia, I strongly suggest shopping at:

Jazz Sounds
15 S. 11th Street
Phila, PA 19107
Phone: 215-925-3150
If you go, you will see a cheesy looking audio store; go in and go up the stairs in the back. When you get upstairs, turn left and walk past the cash registers; on the left you will see another set of stairs going up to the next level (or just ask someone). Go upstairs and enjoy.

Advice on buying music anywhere:
Here's some simple advice, but feel free to write me if you have questions or just want to discuss this more. I want you to be a fantastic DJ so I can enjoy dancing to your music.

In general: what's popular in the swing scene is usually also pretty good music. That's a nice place to start your "education". Ask your favorite DJs what songs they are playing when you hear something you like. As DJs, we often rate songs by how many people took the time to notice that they liked it and asked what it was. By participating in this process you improve the national music scene! I believe it is incumbent on DJs to bring fresh music to dancers (fresh as in from the 1920s and on) -so look around! With this in mind, I'd like to offer 2 simple suggestions for music shopping:

1. Buying CDs versus downloading songs.
Both are fine, and while I certainly download music legally, I have to say that owning a CD is a richer experience.When you do buy a CD, I'd like to humbly suggest you read the liner notes. These notes provide a history and an education in jazz and blues. They tell you stories about the sessions, musicians and the music itself in a way that a book just can't do: album by album, you'll learn about the evolution of jazz and some of its luminaries.
Liner notes not only give you insight into what you are listening to, they often point to other purchases by bringing your attention to particular music or musicians. Often liner notes will point to other albums that are similar to what you are listening to.

2). Prepare to shop by REALLY listening.
By listening to the music and paying attention to the soloists, you will gain a richer understanding of how the music is put together and how musicians contribute as individuals to the sound of any band. As you start to have your own "favorite musicians", you can start to track these musicians through their careers. Using the internet, you can find out whether they have recorded on their own or with others.

A classic example of this would be getting to know Johnny Hodges through the music of Duke Ellington. When Hodges joins the Ellington band in 1928, he stands out as a talented young musician, but under Ellington's influence and tutelage, Hodges develops a unique sound that makes him immediately identifiable - so that by the time he records on his own in the late 1930s, he is bringing "Ellington's sound" into almost every album he plays on right up to his final recordings in the 1960s. Don't just take my word for it; listening to the music will confirm my opinion, but reading the liner notes and seeing who else plays in these bands will broaden your experience and understanding.

Getting started is easier than ever. In the age of cable and DSL, you can quickly sample lots of music to get a basic sense of the different flavors of jazz, blues and the music that makes you want to dance. Your first job is to relax and spend lots of time enjoying the process of listening to music. In fact, unless you are DJing a dance next week, I would suggest that you think less about 'collecting' music and instead spend that energy listening and dancing to music.

It is important to understand that the evolution of jazz is not a linear progression; it is more like the branches of a tree with many offshoots and changes in direction. Before the introduction of modern jazz in the late 1950s, "swing music" (and consequently "dance music") was probably jazz's greatest single influence and identifying feature. ...but the definition of what "swings" evolved -and also changed the music and pressed its evolution.

A note for dancers: as much as the music can determine how you move, the converse is also true: how you like to move will probably influence your taste in music.

OK, so beyond using other people's lists, how do you "collect" music...?
In my humble opinion there are three swingin' giants of jazz who survived the changes in recorded jazz from its beginnings in the 1920s to the late 1950s (and beyond). These three artists are Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and Count Basie. Yet, if you compared their earlier recordings to their later recordings, there is a huge difference in their music and tastes. What makes them special is that they were able to adapt to - and even direct - the changes in jazz music and popular tastes in jazz music.
For this reason, I believe that these artists and the musicians who played with them are a great way to start your collection of jazz music for swing dancers. That means don't just listen to them, check out their sidemen and singers too!

You can begin by listening to and buying collections of their music (...and reading the liner notes on the CDs!). When you notice which style of their music attracts you, you can then branch out and find other artists and songs you will enjoy as well. If you pick some songs you like, you can go online to listen to other versions of the same songs or other songs that the same musicians played on. For example, listening to Basie's different versions of "Oh, Lady be Good" from the "1939 Classics Collection" CD (with an orchestra) and contrasting it to his 1974 version on "For the First Time" (an album made with a trio) might help you to determine whether you like the jaunty, on-the-beat feel of Artie Shaw's version from the "1939-40 Classics Collection" CD or the stretched out, laid-back version by Ray Brown on his 1983 "Red Hot Ray Brown" CD.

Doing searches through online music services like itunes and emusic will help you to find lots of different versions of songs. BTW, emusic is great to start with because it works with a monthly subscription. As long as you are downloading all the songs you can during each month, it is really cheap. After a while, you will have a huge collection and probably won't download as many songs each month -that's when you should quit emusic.

When you find a new version of a song that you like, ask yourself "why?" If the answer is "'cause no one else has it and it will be cool if I play it" then you should move on. On the other hand, if you have to get up and move to it, then it might be a good choice. :) A lot of DJs play songs because they are "new" versions... well, that *can* be great -but- *maybe* there is a reason other DJs haven't discovered it yet.

If you find that you are enjoying a certain soloist (that's the "REALLY listening" part above), then look him/her up on "www.allmusic.com" You'll find their bio, a discography and some idea of who influenced them and who they influenced. That is an incredible tool! This is probably the best way to begin to broaden your understanding of the evolution of jazz from a *musical* (not chronological or historical) perspective. Go check out some other albums they are on. You'll find that the influence of different musicians or settings can have interesting (good or bad) results on a soloist that you like -not to mention finding a slew of more sidemen to explore!

That should keep you busy for a couple of years. Good luck and have fun!


I'd like to keep my advice positive, but I do have one negative thing to say: *Please don't trade hard drives with other DJs*

This sucks and is kinda pathetic. Buy some music. If it's not worth it to buy music, then you don't love this enough. Back before the days of burnt CDs and laptop DJing, we HAD to buy music. I often bought CDs just to get one good song. I knew poor, broke, college students who would spend their food money on buying CDs *because it was worth it to them*. If you skip an exchange to buy 100 songs on itunes instead: I will respect you. It's not like I haven't given and received musical gifts, but to *rely on that* is to weaken your ability as a DJ -and to weaken our music scene as a whole.

Everyone will tell you that there are enough crappy DJs who don't know or understand their music. Please, please don't be one of those.

Similarly: Lists are great, but if everybody buys from the same list and goes no further, we will all have the same music - and given the tastes and trends in dancing, we will all start to play the same "favorites".

OK, I'm done being mean!