Boog It & Swing It!

MOG Post: 08/24/2007
Artist: Duke Ellington
Album: Braggin' in Brass: The Immortal 1938 Year
Track: "Braggin' in Brass"
1938 (1989) Columbia B0013GQUT0

My last post was complete happenstance. I came across something new that just turned my crank and made me dance; I just had to share those cool sounds Mocean Worker is putting together (and he's already been quite prolific while I was sleeping). Golden oldies dance club remix fun? Naaaw, you player purist ... that's heretical! Well, I ask you: what is at all bad about experimenting with great old music to expose to an audience that would otherwise not give it a chance? Exactly. This is especially true if the new mix is done by a quality ear that knows the repertoire he's culling from. I've been particularly fond of the European trip-hop mixing (like James Braddell et al.). There are some real tasty soundscapes in that milieu if you like jazz and experimental beat musing. In this ever-present electronic age, I sometimes need that sweet floaty, mind-bending sound to help lull my day into bearable moments (and technical harmony always helps to woo the technology when you work on it..really). I'm a little like Herbie Hancock that way I guess. Moreover, it's just intelligent sound and good ear food on occasion.
There, now let's step back (forward?). I need to keep my old Music 340 class going ... I've been happily sussing out old tunes that sounded like/felt like that fresh "Shake Ya Boogie" tune. I have a pretty modest library so far in my days, so many things played well to the boogie idea (I could post at least 10 great original tunes/at least handy). Ahh time...
Early Duke Ellington was particularly great, and so was early Count Basie - so here are my humble offerings for your counterpoint listening pleasure.
Edward Kennedy Ellington (April 29, 1899–May 24, 1974), and William Basie (August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984), are quite frankly, outside of perhaps Louis Armstrong or Miles Dewey Davis III , quintessential American Jazz History 101. I don't think you can find me a more prolific or influential group of men; the prodigious, combined library is indelible to all genres of music and cultures. Court was truly in order for the decades they held the floor - just as they all are timeless and royal. Pure - yes (and you can swing a little with your boogie too). Duke-mix-a-lot and DJ-Count (blasphemous)! (So please click HERE for some righteous reading).
*Please note. In this < binary playback > , all of the instrumentation in the original 1938 recording is powered by unfeathered bipeds with analog devices. If I may..it's a big band..remember people mixing? It's a digital age (no kiddin' nano?) ... may you sample well and may the muse be with you. ;-P (And may you always keep a hep in your step)!