1997 Bigtown Records
I had heard that this band had to remake themselves completely before they could get hired for a swing dance in New York City, but after hearing them at the Roxy in Boston, I couldn't see them as anything except a swing dance band. I got their CD and circulated it around to my friends and fairly soon after that, I found out the band was going to play at the Boston Swing Dance Network's February 1999 dance. Cool.
The band has Nick Palumbo fronting a six-piece band that highlights a lot of brass in their sound without losing that swing beat. Nick does all the singing for the band, and in spite of smoking a cigarette on stage, has enough voice for the band.
I have a complaint, though. They must have spent a lot of money on their instruments and clothes, but they didn't shell out any money to make their CD. I got it from Nick Palumbo himself and the CD came in a plastic sleeve. After walking away, I noticed the recording surface was a two-toned blue, not the normal white. On the front side, there was an inkjet label stuck on the CD. This was a homemade CD! I was pretty disappointed: for $15, I expected a jewel case with front/back covers. Actually, if you think about it, the profit margins for such a CD was lower than for a manufactured CD. I could pay $13 for a CD at an Indigo Swing concert and the case would even be plastic-wrapped.
Luckily, this has nothing to do with the quality of the sound on the CD. This CD is a good mix of music with fast and slower songs and even one cha-cha and a schmoozy song. All the songs are rated well enough to play at a dance, though I don't know why they bothered with Sing Sing Sing (I hate that song, especially when played at 212 bpm). The best song for dancing is track 2, Long Cool Ride, though I personally like the fourth track, Paint It Black. The other songs vary somewhat, depending on the time of day and your mood, but this is a CD to get for your collection...as soon as they get real manufactured CD; otherwise, they should charge less for the homemade CD's.
At this time, the CD was only available through the band at their concert
gigs.
| Track | Title | Length | BPM | suggested dance | BP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Big Beat | 3:26 | 160 | swing | B |
| 2 | Long Cool Ride | 2:34 | 175 | swing | A+ |
| 3 | That Kind of Money | 3:36 | 127 | slow swing | B |
| 4 | Paint It Black | 3:58 | 170 | swing | A+ |
| 5 | It's Alright | 2:19 | 167 | swing | A |
| 6 | Walking In My Sleep | 6:09 | n/a | schmooze | n/a |
| 7 | Oh Yeah | 3:41 | n/a | cha-cha | n/a |
| 8 | Shipapit | 2:39 | 180 | lindy | B+ |
| 9 | Sing Sing Sing | 4:38 | 212 | why? | B- |
| 10 | Big Game Hunter | 3:14 | 167 | swing | B+ |
| 11 | Rock My Blues Away | 2:28 | 184 | lindy hop | A |
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