Bring Standard Music into the 21st Century

08-18-2002, 12:59 AM

Other VW's - Runaway - the Corrs; Fallin - Alicia Keys; waltz #2 - elliot smith (have to cut it off before the bad words); green - alex lloyd (slower); rainy night in soho - the pogues
slow foxtrot - lost in the rain - alex lloyd

08-19-2002, 01:22 PM

just-started

quote:
But why stop with the music? The most dated aspect of standard is the costuming. On what social occation would you ever see men in "white tie and tails?" To me, it seems strange to dance to Aerosmith in tails.

i pray it won't change; it would be so strange NOT to dance in tails

besides, you won't see the 'updated' latin costume in social dance either.

however, the lady's costuming has been updated already from those 'feathers'. is it a style/taste change in recent years? or, i wonder, a response to animal protection? just my wild guess.

08-19-2002, 02:07 PM

90%Attitude

quote:
however, the lady's costuming has been updated already from those 'feathers'. is it a style/taste change in recent years? or, i wonder, a response to animal protection? just my wild guess.

Ballroom always seems to take a couple of vague hints from current street fashion - then promptly and cheerfully takes that hint to the depths of fashion hell and then far, far beyond. Gotta love it. [Big Grin]

If it had anything whatsoever to do with political correctness, I should think we'd all don our 501's and generic tees to better reflect more pedestrian values. We'd drop all those silly elitist fantasies and studiously avoid breaking sexual taboo for fear of offending Those Who Decide. (And what fun would that be?) Personally, I love animals. They taste great.

08-23-2002, 12:32 PM

Yvonne

quote:
Originally posted by Chris Stratton:
Well just don't try catsuits, okay? Way before my (dancing) time but I hear it was a disaster....Personally though I'm looking forward to aquiring a tailsuit - ballroom dancing is one of the most formal and elegant things I'm going to get to do in my life, and I figure I might as well take as much advantage of that as I can.

Oh and as for the music, why not skip to the 24th century with the "Inner Light" waltz from Star Trek ;

I agree! Catsuits were before my dancing time too, but I didn't like that look too much for the latin dancers. As for the music--I love the "Inner Light" waltz!

I'm listening to a cd right now by a group called Bond. There are couple of really nice tracks for Viennese Waltz. Spente le Stelle (Emma Shapplin) could be an interesting Foxtrot, though it may need to be sped up a little. Revancha del Tango (Gotan Project) is being used in Latin comps for Rumba but I think it would be great as an update for Int'l Tango.

08-23-2002, 01:27 PM

Chris Stratton

quote:
Originally posted by LisaL:
Even though I don't dance standard (as you know!), I have to agree with you about the music. As much as I love the song, if I hear Somewhere Beyond the Sea one more time....

Actually I've been doing some hunting of the various web sites that distribute authorized demo mp3's of independent bands, and I've found some good material for almost every dance but the waltzes.

Two hunting techniques: type in the name of a standard liek 'fly me to the moon' and you'll find who has recorded that, then see what else they have.

Just go to the big band/swing band section
and page through it, looking for the groups
that do social dance functions. In addition
to swings, you'll find some quicksteps and the
occasional foxtrot - some of them original.
Tempo changing winamp plugins (pacemaker, etc)
may help you turn a social-tempo recording into what you want for slowfox.

A particular favorite of mine right now is
"Come Out and Play" by the "Imperial Swing Orchestra"... your favorite search engine will probably find it.

08-26-2002, 12:21 PM

Yvonne

Just thought of two more:

From the "Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants" by Stevie Wonder. I have this on vinyl, but it's available on cd:

Waltz - "First Garden"
Slow Fox - "Venus Flytrap & the Bug"

08-30-2002, 09:06 AM

Egoist

Some, 3 or 4, nice modern sounding slow waltzes I found in Adiemus - Best of Adiemus along with a couple of v-waltzes.

08-30-2002, 10:19 AM

Tango2x2

More musics:

1. "You'd be so nice to come home to"-Slow Fox by Nancy Wilson.

2. "Am I blue"-Slow Fox by Linda Ronstadt and Nelson Riddle Orchestra.

3. "Night light"-Slow Fox by Nat King Cole.

4. "Maddest kind of love"-Slow Fox by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.

5. "I could write a book"-Slow Fox by Harry Connick, Jr.

6. "Skyliner"-Quickstep by Bert Kaempfert.

7. "Mr. Pinstripe Suit"-Quickstep by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.

8. "Life goes to a party jumping"-Quickstep by Swing Kids.

9. "Gymnopedie No. 1"-Slow Waltz by Gilbert Dispaux_Eric Satie.

10. "6PT-Dulce Pontes"-Slow Waltz by O. Infante.

11. "It is you(Shrek)"-Slow Waltz by Dana Glover.

08-30-2002, 06:02 PM

90%Attitude

Nice list, Tango. I'll check 'em out, since your last recommendations were so good! I have some new recs, too, and will post them soon.

Here's a thought - this and similar topics come up so often here, that I'm wondering if we shouldn't ask DS if they can provide a database we can use (I mean separate from the search functions they have already). As we've been complaining here, ballroom music doesn't change often so the entries wouldn't become outdated very quickly. Also, knowing who made the danceable recordings would be helpful. Many otherwise good performances don't come within a mile of keeping strict tempo.

Also, I'm really glad I can use p-2-p to sample files I might like before I buy them. We are possibly missing a really good opportunity by not actively sharing amongst ourselves.

What do you guys think about these ideas?

09-01-2002, 01:42 AM

Tango2x2

quote:
Nice list, Tango. I'll check 'em out, since your last recommendations were so good!

Thanks, 90% Attitude.

Here is a short list of more standard musics.

1. "Libertango-YoYoMa"-Tango by Piazzola Astor.

2. "September in the rain"-Slow Foxtrot by Dinah Washington. In CD "Mad about the boy"-track 10.

3. "Keeping out of mischief now"-Slow Foxtrot by Danah Washington, in the same CD above. Track 18 with long introduction to be edited out.

Note: Dinah Washington though not what you would think as 21th century singer but "September in the rain" was used by Luca and Loraine in many of their Foxtrot performances. It is also one of my top choices for Foxtrot. Danah sang many versions of this song only the one in her CD "Mad about the boy" has the correct tempo. [Thumbs Up]