Since a few (three?) years, All Balboa Weekend (ABW, happening in Cleveland, OH) is running a DJed Battle of the Bands on Sunday night.
How does that work?
DJed Band Battle
Each of three DJs spin an one-hour-set of a single artist of their choice, well at least this time. In fact, last year Laura Windley and I had two options: Django Reinhardt and Artie Shaw, while master Kyle Smith already had chosen Chick Webb.
I was quicker then and took Artie Shaw. The rest is history :D.
With that said, I had to defend my title this year with Artie Shaw against Charlie Barnet (Laura) and Glenn Miller (Kyle).
Several people asked me about the set list (which songs I played in what order). I have to admit that I don’t like sharing my set lists. Not because they are secret but because my sets are created in the moment, with a lot of gut feeling.
My set list doesn’t help you.
Because next time when you’re DJ’ing the venue will be different, the energy in the room will be different and there will be different people.
And even if those three parameters would be the same and the set would be same (means you would play the same songs in the same order), you wouldn’t be able to re-create that specific night.
So, instead of sharing my set list I’m more than happy to share the played songs.
The Artie Shaw Playlist in Alphabetical Order
- Back Bay Shuffle – 192 bpm
- Carioca – 234 bpm
- Copenhagen – 202 bpm
- Diga Diga Doo – 208 bpm
- Free Wheeling – 202 bpm
- It’s A Long Way To Tipperary – 206 bpm
- Leapin’ At The Lincoln – 208 bpm
- Man From Mars – 224 bpm
- Non Stop Flight – 208 bpm
- Oh! Lady Be Good – 212 bpm
- One Night Stand– 201 bpm
- Prosschai (Goodbye, Goodbye) – 204 bpm
- Scuttlebutt – 208 bpm
- Serenade to a Savage – 220 bpm
- Shine On Harvest Moon – 190 bpm
- Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise – 190 bpm
- Special Delivery Stomp – 260 bpm
- Together – 184 bpm
- Traffic Jam – 272 bpm
- What Is This Thing Called Love? – 197 bpm
Of course, I didn’t just have these 20 songs ready. I had prepared two hours of awesome Artie Shaw tracks and chose 20 of them on-the-go.
What Can You Learn From That Playlist?
As you already know from the post title Artie Shaw won the battle again – for the second time. And this is not a coincidence.
Of course you need DJ skills like feeling the floor, creating a certain flow and dramatic composition but the main reason is Artie Shaw’s music itself.
It’s just the perfect match for Balboa dancers and it’s the perfect match for a Swing DJ.
Here are a few reasons why Artie Shaw won
- most of the songs are popular, dancers love tunes they already know
- many of the songs are in the sweet balboa spot around 200 bpm
- the energy of the songs is infectious
- there’s a good mix between instrumental tunes and such with vocals
- there are surprises: use of unusual instruments such as a harpsichord
Any thoughts about this post? Do you see another reason why Artie Shaw won? Please let us know in the comment section below.
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