Austin Lindy Hop
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Austin Lindy Hop
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Charles Brown: Cool Christmas Blues(Rounder Records 1994)(Note: This recommendation came out in December 2002: thus the Holiday theme. Charles Brown's other CDs, though, also contain many phenomenal songs for Lindy Hopping.)
"Cool Christmas Blues" contains several phenomenally-danceable tunes that we would play in July just as readily as in December. The album contains many mid-tempo Lindy Hop songs as well as some slow, sexy, blues-dancin' Christmas Blues music. As such, the CD breaks the mold of campy, novelty Holiday music that gets forced upon dancers every Holiday season. "Long recognized as the perennial top contender when it comes to Yuletide R&B, Brown salutes the holiday season in his own inimitable manner. Naturally, there's the umpteenth remake of his seminal "Merry Christmas Baby," along with several more that he's been crooning every December since before most of us were born. But nobody does 'em better." (from www.Allmusic.com) |
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Charles Brown is a year-round favorite of Austin Lindy Hop for his
smooth-grooving, ever-danceable, Lindy-Blues music. His cool, rhythmic
piano stylings and laid-back, rich, blues-legend style of singing blend into
solid rhythm sections on all his albums. Blues fans will recognize his
hits as archtypical Blues standards. He saw fame as an R&B artist in
the 1940s and 1950s with hits such as "Driftin' Blues,"
"Sunny Road," "So Long," "New Orleans Blues," and
the immortal 1947 Yuletide classic "Merry Christmas Baby," all
recorded with The Blazers. Brown then went solos and had some hits with
"Get Yourself Another Fool," the chart-topping "Trouble
Blues," "Black Night," and "Hard Times." Through
the 1990s up until his unfortunate passing in 1999, he finally received some
recognition as the Blues legend that he is, and released yearly CDs on smaller
labels of more laid-back, comtemporary Blues/Jazz music that reflected his
maturing beyond the R&B Jump Blues of his more popular years. The
sound quality on these albums, alone, helps bring this Blues legend to life.