The King

4:58 pm. Text message from my best friend. Wake up, wake up!

5:00 pm. Alarm sounds. Don’t want to wake up

5:20 pm Grumble grumble. Fine I’ll get up

5:30 pm Take a shower, get dressed, make sure ticket is in bag, get hat and sunglasses. Good, I’m ready to leave.

6:00 pm Get downstairs, walk half a block. Realize I don’t have my water bottle. It’s quite hot. I go into heat exhaustion very easily.

Sigh

Back to my flat.

Can’t find the water bottle. Whatever, I take my sippy cup instead. Leave again.

I’m hungry. Walk on the other direction towards the grocery store to get some food.

The hot section is closing and there’s nothing left. Fine. I’ll get some of the overpriced food at the festival.

Walk out of the store. The bus is already at bus stop. I sprint. Get to the stop. Realize I don’t have my wallet. No bus tickets. No money.

Sigh

Back to my flat. AGAIN

A kiss To Build The Dream On

Today, the Louis Armstrong Facebook page posted a link for one of my favourite Satchmo ballads.

It is not a secret that I love Louis Armstrong. Why, even one of my cats is named after him. As a Swing DJ, I have an extensive Armstrong collection. There’s an Armstrong song for pretty much about every situation in life. Happy songs, sad songs, playful songs, heartbreak songs, love songs, silly songs. Songs about food (his other passion), songs about the weather, songs about his home town.  You name it.

Beautiful Satchmo with his contagious smile.

Beautiful song too.

Who hasn’t dreamed of a kiss? Who hasn’t weaved romances when alone with their fancies? Louis knew the human condition very well.

In case you didn’t know…

DANCING MAKES ME VERY HAPPY

The picture was taken by a friend of mine earlier this afternoon at the Ottawa Jazz Festival.  Swing Dynamite taught a beginner Swing lesson and then did a show to live music.  The band was the Jivewires.

KaBOOM

Christmas in June II

But!

I didn’t end up there.

I also got a few DJing gadgets.

My DJ headphones broke last year and I spent lots of time looking for a suitable replacement that would not leave me broke too. I finally did, and even at store here in town so I decided to give myself an early birthday present.

My super cool headphones

And this USB/AUDIO Interface was not a present to myself (it is from the school) but I still got it today

Now, all I need is to transfer all my music to the new laptop and I’ll be all set for DJing again :)

Never a dull moment at Casa Colombiana

So, I woke up to the sounds of a violin.

I went to the living room and this is what I found:

 

Now, she’s going through Youtube violin tutorials to keep her busy while she start taking classes.

My daughter is awesome!

And now there a violin in our household.  Sweet!

 

Wordless Day

I don’t have much to say today so I’m just gonna share one of my favourite songs ever.

JazzCat’s Privateers

Never before did Canada see such a patriotic cat.  Not only he’s an authority in Vintage Jazz but he’s also into Canadian Folk music and more specifically into Stan Rogers.

JazzCat Jay loves Stan Rogers

He’s SO into Stan Rogers that he decided to write his own version of Barret’s Privateers.

And here it is, JazzCat’s Privateers (How I wish I was outside right meow!)

http://jazzcatjay.blogspot.ca/2012/04/jazzcats-privateers.html

 

 

Now, it’s like this, little Britches

This past Saturday marked my return to Saturday Night Swing.  After a long hiatus from Swing Dynamite’s dances due to -mainly, my injured ankle, I was back both as the manager for the night and as a DJ in the Vintage room.

I Deejay-ed from 9:30 to midnight at which point Jean Francois Harbour took over the turntables.  My ankle felt strong enough and I was feeling rather adventurous so I decided to take a chance at some dancing.  I asked my friend and frequent aerials partner Dave Anderson to dance with me.  And much to my delight – and to the surprise of the other dancers when they heard me squee, The Bare Necessities started to pour out of the speakers.  Dave didn’t understand what was going on.  I told him my excitement came from the song being played and he asked what was the name of the song and why was it so exciting.  Apparently he has never watched The Jungle Book.  I let it go.  Trying to explain why the movie is so amazing – for starters, and why this old favourite of mine has come to have an added, even more wonderful meaning was too much at the moment. There will be some other time for explanations.

Besides, the song was being played in all its playful goodness.  Why waste any time talking when we could be dancing?

And danced we did!

Needless to say, I had the most wonderful time.  

As soon as it was over I ran (I know, rather irresponsible of me considering how accident-prone I am) to the DJ booth to thank JF for playing the song.  He told me – and this is awesome, that he got it because he saw that Louis Armstrong video I had posted on FB a few weeks back.  

The circle was completed.

I only wish the Bear would have been there to witness it.  I know he would’ve got a kick out of it.

The clip from the movie

The clip that prompted JF to buy the song and play it last Saturday

Two Sleepy People

I’ve been in love with this song for a while.  I was first introduced to it by Toronto-based Terra Hazelton who did a wonderful rendition of it for her latest album, Give me what you got.

The song has been a staple in my iPod but tonight DJ Byron Alley played a version of if that I had never heard.  I asked him about it and he told me it was by Fats Waller.  Naturally, I youtubed it as soon as I got home and found (not surprisingly) many versions of it.  Ironically, the one I like the least was the one by Hoagy Charmichael who actually wrote the music.

However, I also found this little jewel, which is rapidly becoming my favourite rendition of this beautiful song.

Enjoy!