playlist - 1/14/2010

first set of the year for me... and also following up what was probably my biggest gap in dancing since i started. (most of a month!)

Ya Gotta See Baby Tonight - Louis Prima 146
Do The Hucklebuck - Gunhild Carling And Her Swing Band 150
Mahzel (Means Good Luck) - Benny Goodman 153
Jazz O' Jazz - Adrian Rollini 173
Hallelujah Joe Ain't Preachin' No More - Harlem Hamfats 166
Who Threw The Whiskey In The Well - Lucky Millinder 160
Touch And Go - Wynona Carr 162
Bogg’s Boogie - Spade Cooley 188
Back to Tennessee - Christabel and the Jons 131
Saint James Infirmary - Gérard Messonnier And The Hot Kings 94
Don't Be That Way - Lionel Hampton 140
Bearcat Shuffle - Andy Kirk And His Twelve Clouds Of Joy, Mary Lou Williams 158
East St. Louis Toodle-O - Hot Owls 162
Celery Stalks No. 2 - Will Bradley/Ray McKinley 170
Are You Hep To The Jive? - Cab Calloway 158
In The Mood - Oscar Aleman 175
Sing An Old Fashioned Song (To A Young Sophisticated Lady) - Fats Waller 163
See No Evil Hear No Evil Speak No Evil - Don Redman All Stars 186
Balti Nights In Birmingham - Bob Hunt's Duke Ellington Orchestra 193

i kept the tempos fairly mellow and stuck to a bigger-than-usual of proportion of familiar over unfamiliar. honestly, that was the dancing mood i was in... trying to feel my way back into my feet, not up for any huge challenges... and with exception of a few folks who'd been to lindy focus or glen echo over the holidays, i figured a lot of the group might've been in the same boat. i got one request for "a balboa" towards the end, but mostly the floor seemed pretty down with comfortable.

while i was in tennessee, i borrowed my dad's car to go see a few friends. for whatever reason, when you plug my mp3 player into my dad's car sound system, it plays files in the order they were put on the player. (it took me a while to find all the recently loaded podcasts first-go-round while driving to knoxville.) rollini's "jazz o' jazz" happened to be the track that came up first all the time... and thus got listened to pretty much EVERY time i made a short enough drive not to mess with it. it's been tending to get stuck in my head at random ever since.

last night's set

at the attucks. lee DJed the first half hour, then i took over, then jeff. it's suddenly gotten to be a very different crowd -- lots of college kids. some of them are ODU, some are home from the summer from other places. they all seem to like the neo/rockabilly/jump blues/otherwise-rock-influenced stuff more than i do. as i realized that, my set got a lot more r&b/crunchy/kansas city than i'd really prepped for. still, got to try out some fun stuff, and the floor was relatively unkillable.

Oh Babe - Lucky Millinder 170
Bearcat Shuffle - Andy Kirk And His Twelve Clouds Of Joy, Mary Lou Williams 158
Fiddle Diddle - Lionel Hampton 142
'Tain't No Use - Benny Goodman 155
8, 9 And 10 - Slim Gaillard 181
Up Above My Head I Hear Music In The Air - Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Ostrich Walk - Kenny Ball and His Jazzmen 174
All That Meat And No Potatoes - Will Bradley/Ray McKinley 137 (this one was prob'ly the roughest going of the evening... pretty likely to just stick to the fats version from here on out.)
Drop Me Off In Harlem - Mills Blue Rhythm Band 143
Ta-Hu-Wa-Hu-Wai (Hawaiian War Chant) - Andrew Aiona 186
Why Do Hawaiians Sing Aloha? - Fats Waller 147
Sing Me A Swing Song - Benny Goodman 188
Go Down Moses - Louis Armstrong 107
Come On Over To My House - Jay McShann 141
Teardrops from my eyes - Ruth Brown 145
Rag Mop - Joe Liggins And The Honeydrippers 154
Swing, Brother, Swing - Billie Holiday 151
Moten Swing - Kansas City Soundtrack 156 (why didn't i remember that i have the KC band's "king porter stomp" instead?)
Sweet Sue,Just You - Jimmie Lunceford 158
Southland Shuffle - Ella Fitzgerald 192 (listening to this one again now... and wow, i love the piano player! whole album, as recommended by allen kerr on lindybloggers, is awesome.)

setlist - attucks, 05/21/09

after i got off work yesterday, i had a bit of a migraine.

first dental checkup in six years hadn't helped. (no cavities, but some of my teeth are looking unusually worn... the dentist wanted to know if i grind them at night. i don't know, but later internet research reveals that this and the headaches MIGHT just be linked!)

so anyway, i napped in jesse's car (which i'd borrowed because of aforementioned dentist appointment) outside the dance through about the first hour of the dance... and then went in and almost decided that i really was feeling a bit too sick to stay. jeff was willing to keep spinning.

but. i hadn't djed in a while and felt like i needed to do a bit before VBLX. plus, i've been flakey enough because of transportation issues, and those weren't in the way for once. the floor was dying when i took over (no fault of DJ... it was a slow night for what's a small crowd anyway), and it didn't get better... so the last few on here are just things i really wanted to hear on the big speakers more than things i expected anyone there to dance to!

Mahzel (Means Good Luck) - Benny Goodman 153 (on the personal overplayed list...)
Blitzkrieg Baby (You Can't Bomb Me) - Count Basie Sidemen 130
Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall - Charlie Barnet and His Orchestra 149
T'Ain't What You Do (It's The Way That You Do It) - Jimmie Lunceford 159 (there were a couple kids from va tech in who wanted a shim sham. i pause when the lyrics start! nobody else here does!)
The Hatchet Man (Chop, Chop) - Casey Macgill's Blue 4 Trio 165
Potato Chips - Slim Gaillard & his Shintoists 144
Froggy Bottom - Andy Kirk and His Clouds Of Joy 153
Let's Do It - Billie Holiday With Lester Young 152
Celery Stalks No. 2 - Will Bradley/Ray McKinley 170
The Gal From Joe's - Duke Ellington 164
Savoy - Lucky Millinder 170
Isle Of Capri - The Firehouse Five Plus Two 168
Walkin' The Dog - Bunny Berigan 182
C Jam Blues - Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra 142 (desperate last-ditch attempt to get life on floor again... i think there were 2 followers left by then, so not-so-successful.)
I'm Feeling Alright - Big Mama Thornton 106 (it's a blues scene, right?!?)
Salty Dog - Lizzie Miles with Sharkey & His Kings Of Dixieland 194
Fry Me A Cookie With A Can Of Lard - Will Bradley/Ray McKinley 153 (LOVE the title. song, i'd like to play it for a really creative crowd of advanced dancers sometime... it alternates fun groove passages and kinda-dissonant not-really-swing. but not for an average local dance night! i wouldn't have a clue what to lead to it.)
Everybody Rock - Ella Fitzgerald 188

music from 11/20 in Williamsburg

this one was from the once-every-six-weeks graduation dance in williamsburg; wendy runs 6-week courses in three levels of basic lindy hop, and this is the party at the end. while she's got some regulars who are comfortable social dancing, and several folks from the wider scene usually show, the dance is beginner-heavy. i try to keep the music easy. this time i got first half, which meant keeping it even easier. as often as not, this leads to playing lots of stuff that was "top 40" in the knoxville scene back when i was starting out...

Shout Sister Shout - Lucky Millinder 140
Potato Chips - Slim Gaillard & his Shintoists 140
Swingin' On Nothin - Jo Stafford 125
Solid as a Rock - Count Basie 136
Ja-Da - The Famous Castle Jazz Band 152
My Baby Likes To Bebop - Ella Fitzgerald 140
Everybody Eats When They Come To My House - Cab Calloway 154
South Of The Border - Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra 146
Let's Do It - Billie Holiday With Lester Young 152
Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop - Lionel Hampton & His Orchestra 136
Winter Weather - Benny Goodman 156
I Got The Sun In The Morning - Artie Shaw 138
Baldhead - The Fabulous Treniers 139
Yes Indeed - Dick Haymes With Harry James & His Orchestra 159
Now You Has Jazz - Louis Armstrong 172

rumba, november 17

jesse and i djed last monday night. it was a small crowd to start, and i had second set, so a lot of it was just struggling to get anyone to dance. this week, the crowd was a little bigger, and beth and i traded 4s... that format's a little less frustrating for the venue, i think.


Rag Mop - Joe Liggins And The Honeydrippers 154
Save The Bones For Henry Jones - Nat King Cole & Johnny Mercer 145
Ragtime Cowboy Joe - Pied Pipers 138
Love, Nuts And Noodles - Rosemary Clooney 217 (this one officially doesn't swing. won't play it again!)
Solid as a Rock - Count Basie 136
Gotta Pebble In My Shoe - Chick Webb 159
Hellzapoppin' - Louis Armstrong And The All Stars 170
Ja-Da - The Famous Castle Jazz Band 152
Jump for Joy - Duke Ellington with Ray Nance 188
All That Meat And No Potatoes - Fats Waller 146
Sixty minute man - Billy Ward and his Dominoes 130
Let's Do It - Billie Holiday With Lester Young 152
All of Me - Lizzie Miles with Sharkey 160
The Gal From Joe's - Duke Ellington 164
The Walkin' Blues (Walk Right In, Walk Right Out) - Jesse Powell Orchestra 166
For The First Time - Kay Starr 168
We'll Meet Again - Paul Barbarin's New Orleans Band 163
Bei Mir Bist Du Schon (Album) - The Andrews Sisters with Vic Schoen and His Orchestra 167
The Preacher - Quincy Jones 155
Chief - The Dutch Jazz Orchestra 125
Froggy Bottom - Andy Kirk and His Clouds Of Joy 153
Doin' What Comes Natur'lly - Pied Pipers 146
John The Revelator - The Dirty Dozen Brass Band 122
Chicago - Dutch Swing College Band 206
Don't Get Around Much Anymore - Bob Crosby 146
Chloe - The Dorsey Brothers 160
Why Don't You Do Right? (Album) - Benny Goodman and His Orchestra 125
Nature Boy - Johnny Hartman 145
They All Laughed - Gunhild Carling And Her Swing Band 131

klx saturday late night setlist

from 11/15, the 3-5 a.m. shift, shared with mike marcotte. approximate reconstruction, because i still hadn't gotten the hang of actually having to manually save them.

Drunk (Album) - Jimmy Liggins 165
Take It and Git - Andy Kirk & His Clouds of Joy 161
The Donkey Serenade (Album) - Artie Shaw 147
Sunday - Kay Starr 155
Sugarfoot Stomp - Harry James 165
Swing, Brother, Swing - Billie Holiday 151
Midnight In Moscow - The Firehouse Five Plus Two 180
Diga Diga Do - Joe Venuti & Zoot Sims 225
Hellzapoppin' - Louis Armstrong And The All Stars 170
April In Portugal - Oscar Aleman 182
The Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives To Me - Glenn Miller 174
A Study In Brown - Bunny Berigan 198
Swingin' On Nothing - Bob Crosby 129
Tap Room Swing - Adrian Rollini 179
Hallelujah Joe Ain't Preachin' No More - Harlem Hamfats 166
'Tain't No Use - Benny Goodman 155
Salty Dog - Lizzie Miles with Sharkey & His Kings Of Dixieland 194
Drop Me Off In Harlem - Mills Blue Rhythm Band 143
It Dont Mean A Thing' - Duke Ellington 178
Dinah - Lino Patruno & His Blue Four 224
Ta-Hu-Wa-Hu-Wai (Hawaiian War Chant) - Andrew Aiona 186
Why Do Hawaiians Sing Aloha? - Fats Waller 147

last thursday at the attucks

not a bit in the right order (didn't realize the program i saved the playlist from was likely to scramble it!), but here goes:

We'll Meet Again - Paul Barbarin's New Orleans Band 163
Madame Dynamite - Eddie Condon 184
The New Call Of The Freaks - Luis Russell 138
The Hot Canary - Paul Nero 151
Comes Love - Billie Holiday 107
Sunday - Bunny Berigan & His Orchestra 192
Celery Stalks at Midnight - Will Bradley 156
Twenty-Four Robbers - Jimmie Lunceford 144
The Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives To Me - Glenn Miller 174
For The First Time - Kay Starr 168
Coquette - Bob Crosby & The Bob Cats 186
Chloe - The Dorsey Brothers 160
I Like Pie, I Like Cake - The Four Clefs 160
Ubangi Stomp - Warren Smith 162
Bassology - Slim Gaillard & his Flat Floogie Boys 159
Hit That Jive, Jack - Four Vagabonds 190
Ta-Hu-Wa-Hu-Wai (Hawaiian War Chant) - Andrew Aiona 186
Why Do Hawaiians Sing Aloha? - Fats Waller 147
Yam Brown - Bob Hunt's Duke Ellington Orchestra 241
This Little Light of Mine - The Boilermaker Jazz Band 168
Sugarfoot Stomp - Harry James 165
I Want A Roof Over My Head - Helen Humes 154
Dinah - Lino Patruno & His Blue Four 224
Doin The Voom Voom - Duke Ellington 196

DJing, linux, whistling, ice skating, beer

tonight will make four DJ sets in eight days (attucks, klx, rumba, williamsburg)... that's a lot for me, even when i'm NOT trying to adjust to a new software setup. at least it's keeping the cost of dancing low. and it's not exactly like i mind having an excuse to go around with at least one earbud hooked to my mp3 player most of the time in hopes of finding more gems i didn't know i had.

overall, the transition to linux has been pretty smooth. i still haven't figured out use of two sound cards simultaneously, but i have enough clues that a long morning hanging out in pjs ought to help. (can you tell i'm looking forward to doing not-so-much this weekend?!?) i just saw a bug log claiming that my biggest complaint about amarok, the program i've been using to replace itunes, is fixed in the version that's in beta. (generating smart playlists by "label does not contain" doesn't work so well right now. and itunes smart playlists were kinda a cornerstone of my organizational system.) plus, john and brooks in atl have been big helps -- judging from swingdjs.com, atlanta must be the linux lindy hop DJ capital of the world.

other thing to do while flannel-pajama-clad this weekend: figure out how to make netflix's instant play movies work with linux. or if not, there's always jesse's desktop windows machine, i guess.
~~~
random downtown norfolk coolness... there's this one guy who's incredible at whistling. like, if i were going to record a song that featured a lot of it, i'd probably seek him out. i first noticed several weeks back... another guy was banging on the side of one of the bus shelters, being a little obnoxious... the next thing i knew, it'd developed into a regular rhythm, which then became this strange little duet with the whistling guy. gorgeous, one of those spontaneous moments you just don't look for when you're standing around at the bus stop. ever since then, when i hear a particularly catchy tune floating in the air (as i did on lunch break -- that's what prompted this), i look around; he's usually in range.
~~~
they're putting the final touches on a seasonal outdoor ice skating rink a couple blocks from my office. hurrah. oh, and parade stands. i didn't know about it, but apparently the grand illumination of the christmas lights is a big deal around here. williamsburg has one in a couple weeks. i think we're dancing in their parade, and for some kind of event in the mall here.
~~~
current beer obsession: legend chocolate porter. it's seasonal, brewed down the road in richmond. thus far i've only seen it at cogan's, the pizza place where everyone usually winds up after the wednesday nights at the fred. then again, i don't get out to beer-drinking locales all that often. but yummy.

wednesday night hop

more because posting a playlist forces me to do the cleanup work like checking to see that the tempos i have in the tags are accurate than because this one actually made anybody dance... wednesday night was a dark and stormy night, the dance didn't get advertised like usual, and the few people who DID show up were more interested in talking about dance and teaching each other than in social dancing. after a while, i gave up and played what i wanted to hear instead of trying to create a dance... so, um, here's what i felt like hearing wednesday night.

Ragtime Cowboy Joe - Pied Pipers 138
Flying Home No. 2 - Lionel Hampton & His Orchestra 162
Shout 'Em Aunt Tillie - Chris Barber 166
Functionizin' - Alex Hill 179
Sunday - Bob Wilber And The Tuxedo Big Band Of Toulouse France 153
I Swung The Election - Jack Teagarden & His Orchestra 199
Boy In The Boat - Steven Bernstein 161
This Little Light of Mine - The Boilermaker Jazz Band 168
Take It And Git - Andy Kirk & His Clouds of Joy 161
T'aint What You Do - Sy Oliver 172
AC/DC Current - Charlie Christiana 204
Drop Me Off In Harlem - Mills Blue Rhythm Band 143
I Hear Music - Billie Holiday 167
Tomorrow - Slam Stewart & Major Holley 152
You Gave Me The Gate - Duke Ellington 171
Come On Over To My House - Julia Lee And Her Boyfriends 146
Whistle While You Work - Bunny Berigan & His Orchestra 150
Good Evenin' Good Lookin' - Benny Goodman with Helen Forrest, vocals 157
Killing Jive - The Cats & The Fiddle 183
My Blue Heaven - Helen Humes 163
The Garbage Man - Harlem Hamfats 210
For The First Time - Kay Starr 168
Shorty's Got To Go - Lucky Millinder 146
Belleville Rendez-Vous (French Version) - The Triplets of Belleville 270
That's a Plenty - Firecracker Jazz Band 320
Egyptian Fantasy - Sidney Bechet 98
I Got The Sun In The Morning - Artie Shaw 138
Yes Indeed - Dick Haymes With Harry James & His Orchestra 158
Massachusetts - Gene Krupa 159
Honeysuckle Rose - WNEW broadcast, NYC, May 31, 1947 198
Our Love Was Meant To Be - Count Basie 163
I Can't Believe That You're In Love With Me - Boyd Raeburn 171
As Long As I Live - Jonathan Stout And His Campus Five 159

treasure hunting

a few weeks back, my friend brad asked about a tune that wasn't quite "flying home". all the local swing DJs knew we'd heard what he was humming, but we didn't know the title.

after a lot of listening to samples (and consequently spending all my emusic downloads for the month on things that weren't it but were cool) because i'm too stubborn to just ask the swing djs discussion board, i've got it.

it's (trumpet fanfare) "flying home no. 2". despite the less-than-thrilling moniker, it's a pretty interesting little story. when lionel hampton put together his band, he wanted arnett cobb to play tenor sax for him. arnett cobb had another good gig going, so he didn't join up. instead, hampton got illinois jacquet -- then just a teenager -- to join up on condition that he switch from alto to tenor and "play like cobb". the way jacquet wailed and honked on his improvised solo when they recorded "flying home" in 1942 was so wildly popular that almost every sax player since has played it like jacquet -- it's become a nearly inherent part of the tune, which is highly unusual for a jazz solo. when arnett cobb DID decide to join the band later in 1942, he learned the jacquet way of playing "flying home"... but he also reworked the solo his way, and the band recorded it as "flying home no. 2" in 1944, shortly after the recording strike ended.

(all info taken from the internet, mostly things that pop up when you search for "flying home no. 2" plus "cobb", so no guarantees! found this in my unfinished draft posts from last weekend...)

DJ!

it's been a good week for dancing... jammin' on the james up in richmond over the weekend, then rumba monday night and the fred on wednesday. wednesday night, i was in the mood to try out some music i hadn't played for a crowd before. there'd just been a beginner bal class, people seemed to be willing to dance faster than usual, and the kind of chunky swing and trad jazz that i'm partial to was working... all in all, it led to the best overlap of DJing for the floor and DJing for me that i've gotten to do in a long time -- none of the clearing the floor with something i wanted to hear and then trying to woo them back with a scene favorite. super fun, and it's been inspiring me to hunt down more interesting tracks for next week. here's the setlist (numbers on the end = tempos in beats per minute):

Swingin' On Nothing - Bob Crosby 128
Sunday - Kay Starr 155
Tap Room Swing - Adrian Rollini 179
It Dont Mean A Thing - Duke Ellington 178
My Blue Heaven - Jimmie Lunceford 172
Take It Easy Greasy No. 2 - Lil Johnson 139
All The Cats Join In - Billy Butterfield And His Orchestra 156
A Study In Brown - Bunny Berigan 198
In The Mood - Oscar Aleman 175
A String Of Pearls - Benny Goodman 180
Are You Jumpin' Jack? - Glenn Miller and his Orchestra 196
Tuxedo Junction - The International Sweethearts Of Rhythm 143
Miser's Serenade - Chris Connor 136
Savoy Blues - The Wolverines Jazz Band Of Bern 138
Nature Boy - Johnny Hartman 145
Sugarfoot Stomp - Harry James 165
The Donkey Serenade - Artie Shaw 147
Solid as a Rock - Count Basie 136
Swing, Brother, Swing - Billie Holiday 151
New Orleans Bump - Jelly Roll Morton 120
Salty Dog - Lizzie Miles with Sharkey & His Kings Of Dixieland 194
Stealin' Apples - Fletcher Henderson 174
All Of Me - Della Reese 160
Hard Hearted Hannah - Ray McKinley 110
Cajun Romp - Wingy Manone And Dixieland Jazztette 139
It Had To Be You - Adrian Rollini 175
Hallelujah Joe Ain't Preachin' No More - Harlem Hamfats 166
Ball Of Fire - Gene Krupa 189
Big John's Special - Mills Blue Rhythm Band 202
The Mooche - Johnny Otis 122
Carioca - Artie Shaw 220
Riff Staccato - Duke Ellington 140
My Buddy - Lionel Hampton 186
Them There Eyes - Roy Milton 146
Douce Ambiance - Robert Bell 170
Let's Misbehave - Boilermaker Jazz Band 198

flashback to may 2007

once upon a time, jesse took me to the five loaves cafe in charleston to see a really fun little band called the v tones. it was one of his last nights in town before he moved to albany, and we had a blast.

today, biffle over at baxter sez put up a post about a band he's playing with that sounds like my sort of thing. i took it as an opportunity to check and see if other towns uphold the knoxville rule that most of the super-fun bands in town overlap by at least one player. (it was always entertaining to watch, for example, jon whitlock, christabel's drummer, on local music fest nights... i can remember one where he had three different gigs with three different bands.) as a matter of fact, biffle's violinist IS listed as one of the frequent guest v tones. certainly no proof, but the evidence continues to mount. and i'm sending word to the charleston dancers that they may want to check these guys out.

the real shock, though, was to find myself on the v tones' myspace page! quite possibly the only video in existence of me dancing bal, and the first i've seen of jesse and me dancing together where we're clearly visible. good times, and i can remember being totally terrified that we were going to kick one of the little kids who were roaming around -- later that evening, i danced with a couple of the little girls, too. so much fun.

Find more videos like this on The V Tones

not even raining yet

now that i'm in hurricane territory, my mom sends me news stories any time anything's remotely possibly heading for virginia. which is probably good, since mom alert does tend to come in via channels (e-mail and phone) that get my attention a lot faster than anything in the media.

the current threat, though, tropical storm cristobal... every single time, never fails, the shape of the word is close enough that my head trips on it and gets a little disappointed when the context makes it clear that it's not a story about local knoxville dancer favorites christabel and the jons. i miss them. however, checking the calendar, they'll be in richmond for a show august 15!

local public radio rocks

ok, so weekday evenings aren't really to my taste... but they have pretty fine programming, both local and national, all day while jesse's at work.

the real gem, though, we discovered this weekend. the saturday night fish fry was doing a show on v-discs, cranking out the bob crosby and red norvo. it took a while to pry us out of the car when we got to the dance we were headed to. if you're into that sort of thing, check the webpage -- archives available for listening.

winamp remote

i don't use winamp a lot. it's mostly my previewing-while-DJing software.

still, i updated it the other day. and while updating, it mentioned a little innovation: as long as your home computer is internet-connected, you can get password-protected streaming access to your music library from the interwebs at large. left my laptop on at home today, and i'm trying it out.

thus far it's pretty sweet. fewer interruptions than most web radio i've tried (um, make that "none" so far), and you can even dictate a streaming speed. (i told it to stick to 125 Kb/s so as not to get too spikey on the internet hogging charts here.) my only big issue thus far is that i don't see a "play something random" button and i forgot to port over any long randomized playlists, so i'm having to actually pick what i want to hear -- less awesome for background soundtracking, but easily remedied.

'k, back to being overwhelmed by all the stuff that didn't magically get done while i was out sick yesterday.

sing, sing, sing!

thanks to swingdjs, i know that it's the 70th anniversary of benny goodman's famous 1938 carnegie hall concert.

i happen to be DJing our swing dance tonight.

i'm currently trying to decide whether playing the full 12-minute version of "sing, sing, sing" will get me murdered.

(i have to pack for a crazy early flight to L.A. tomorrow, so i wasn't planning to drag out the end of the dance, but this one might be worth sticking around a little into the "off-duty" time after 10 p.m...)

Die Moritat von Mackie Messer

since finding out that mack the knife started life in german as part of the threepenny opera, i've been looking for a version with the original lyrics that swings hard enough to want to play it on a dance floor.

i just listened to samples from the 20 or so songs on emusic that have "mackie messer" in the title. many lovely things, but while i ran across a few that i might want to polka to, not so much in the lindy hop appropriate category. a version by hildegard knef is probably the closest. anybody out there heard anything?