[Dixielandjazz] Re: Latin & Waltzes for Boat Party

[Henry B. Stinson]

Stephen Barbone wrote:

> Henry Stinson asked about Latin & Waltzes for a mixed music gig

Thanks, Steve and others for your suggestions.

Here are some of the tunes I and others came up with
in some categories I had to add for a boat party:
We actually did very few of these.  Did mostly swing and
Dixieland, which people loved.  I don't think we played a
waltz or latin number all night.

END OF SUMMER SONGS
Summertime/Fever   Ami  V,V,P,H,V
Autumn Leaves    G  (1947 Mercer)
Autumn In New York   Gm (Bb) (1935)
September Song    Bb

WALTZES
Tennessee Waltz      C
I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now G (1909)
I'll Take Romance   F (1937)
Emily      __
Up Jumped Spring   __
Some Day My Prince Will Come __
Waltz For Debbie   __
Moon River     C (1961)
My Favorite Things   G
Shadow Waltz    G (1933)
Carousel     __ (____)

SWING:
Route 66     F        (Harmonica Intro)
Take the A Train    C  Featuring accordion or piano
In the Mood    G & Ab (1939)
Satin Doll     C
The Lady is a Tramp   C (1937 Rogers & Hart)
Tuxedo Junction    Bb (1939)
C Jam Blues    C
Stompin At The Savoy   F
It Don't Mean a Thing       Bb
  (If it Ain’t Got That Swing)
Cute (?)    (C) Instrumental (P+B+D) (Trumpet)
Blue Skies     B b

DUKE ELLINGTON
Take the A Train    C
Stompin At The Savoy   F
Sophisticated Lady   Ab  (1933 - Ellington, Parish, Irving Mills)
Mood Indigo    Ab P+H intro,Vocal, etc...
C Jam Blues    C Instrumental
In a Sentimental Mood   F (1935 Manny Curtis & Irving Mills)

LATIN BEAT
Perdido     C (1942)
*Begin the Beguine   C
All The Things You Are   Ab (1939 - Jkern & Hamerstn) Harmonica tag
Cheek to Cheek    C
Brazil      G (1939)
Caravan     Fmi (1937 - Ellington, Irving Mills)
Invitation     Cmi - Fmi (1952)
Flamingo     F (1941)
  Bossa Nova:
Desafinado     F (1959 - Jobim)
A Day in the Life of a Fool  C
Wave      __
Corcovada (Quiet Nights)  __ (____ - Jobim?)
Girl From Ipanema   F
How Insensitive    __
any ballad (e.g. "Darn That Dream")
Meditation     Bb (1962 - Jobim)
Shadow of Your smile   G (1965)
Blue Bossa     __
  Samba:
It Might As Well Be Spring  __
Satin Doll?      __
Samba d'Oleo    __
One Note Samba   __
  Cha Cha
 Frenesi     __
 Sway      __
 Blue Moon     __
 Tea for Two    __
  Rhumba:
Perfidia?     C (1939)
Jalousie Gada?    __
  Tango:
 ?      __

BLUES:
Stormy Monday    F or Eb?
St. Louis Blues    Gmi - G (1914 - Handy)
Georgia     F (1922 - W. Donaldson)
Am I Blue?        F (1929)
Route 66     F        (Harmonica Intro)
C Jam Blues    C
Tain't Nobody's Business If I Do Bb (1922)
There'll Be Some Changes Made Bb (1921)
Careless Love       C
Blues in the Night   ___ (Fmi for female)

BOAT & WATER SONGS:
Slow Boat to China    Bb (1948 )
Someone's Rocking my Dreamboat  Eb (1941)
I Cover the Waterfront    G (1933)
Beyond The Sea     F (1945)
Red Sails In The Sunset   G (1935)

As you can see, I'm missing a few keys.

Boat party worked out well, except for my sound and
power supply problems.

People generally had only rave comments.
Dave Littlefield played tenor banjo and a small,
old, National, steel top guitar, and Dave Robinson really held
things together with his hot, lovely trumpet.  Thanks Dave & Dave.
Other excellent DC area musicians, including Rick Whitehead
(Guit), Doug Powell (t-bone), Jack Bryce (clarinet & soprano sax)
along with Orpheus Jazz Ensemble  as a core (me, Reinhardt Liebig
on piano, Jim Houck on bass, and Robbie Leebrick on drums),
went tomake up a great nine-piece version of my Blue Heaven
Jazz Band.  They played swing and Dixieland wonderfully for
four hours out on four wooden raft "party barges" tied together
to form a bandstand and dance floor in the middle of a 40 acre
lake in Reston, VA.  No charts, just great musicians.

Perfect, calm weather.  lots of other party barges and pontoon
boats came out and tied up to form a giant floating platform.
Several kids wer running small boats as water taxies running
people, for tips, back and forth on bathroom runs.
I heard later that the water taxi kids loved the adventure.

Lots of fun -- except for the guy (me) trying to keep the inverter
(12 Volts DC to 120 Volts AC) working to supply power for
the sound system, electric guitar, electric piano and lights.
We had two amps, four speakers -- double everything sound
system -wise except inverters.

Also spent a good bit of time early on tracking down the
source of some distortion in the sound system -- which
turned out to be the way I had the settings on the auxilliary
amp had I brought along to drive an extra pair of speakers.
(I'm supposed to know better than that, but having two amps
and having the four speakers spread around the corners of the
two rafts kept me from finding the real source of distortion.

Oh, did I mention that in setting up the sound system or in
tracking down the source of the distortion, I had to climb over
a rope between the two boats.  Each boat had a rope railing
around it.  And then clamboring between the musicians to
get from one end of the rafts to the other end.

Stooping down, I split the crotch of my pants completely wide
open.  I made a trip back to the shore in a water taxi canoe
and found an extra (though small) inverter and a pair of pants
in my car.  Reinhardt, the pianist, went with me and got his
accordion from his car.  (No jokes, please.  It sounded great!)
After I got back, we skipped the lights and only ran
the electric guitar amp on the small inverter.  I connected my
vocal mike to that amp.  Later on, I tried the big inverter again.
It had cooled down and we ran one amp and the two small lights
on it until the end of the very last number, when it conked out again.

Did not get to play or perform very much myself.  But all in all,
I can't complain.  God gave us a perfect night, and the quality of
the musicians -- especially playing acoustically -- made all the
people happy and helped them have a very fun night, from all that
I heard.

Oh, yes, did I tell you?  We had a heck of a time and spent
a lot of extra time trying to steer the band stand (two 10' x
18' band rafts tied together and powered by a single electric
trolling motor) into position to link up with the two dance floor
rafts, and then trying to steer it home.  I finally shined a
flashlight into the water and found that the motor was not turning
with the steering arm.  It was just pointed in whatever direction it
felt like.  I have to apologize to the poor guy who steered the boat
out (I steered it back, which is when I discovered the broken steering
arm to motor connection).  I kept giving him dirty looks because he
kept going in circles around the dance floor rafts, which were already
anchored out in the middle of the lake.  Not sure how we ever
connected to the dance floor rafts so I could tie the boats together.

I and two others also had to load the sound system
onto two rafts in the afternoon sun and heat.  I don't want to
do that again.  After breaking the equpmnt down and loading
all of it into three cars, it was 3:30 before I got home.
I slept ALL the next day (Sat) and didn't even look at email
or answer the phone.

Not sure I want to do this event next year.
However, lots of other folks had a great party, and the
musicians had fun for the most part.  (I haven't heard much different,
except that I'm sure they would have preferred the boat made it
back to shore earlier.  If I DO do this gig next year, I'm going
to purchase a large DC-to-AC inverter of the kind used to
power solar electric homes.  Also, I'm going to PAY someone
to set up the sound system.  I want to have fun, too.

Henry B. Stinson, BSECE, Senior Software Engineer (VB)
  Web Page Design and Quality Software Development
  www.TheVeryBestHomeBusiness.com
  Jazz vocalist (tenor), jazz harmonica, jazz whistling, and "mouth trumpet"
ORPHEUS JAZZ ENSEMBLE and BLUE HEAVEN JAZZ BAND
  http://www.BlueHeavenMusic.com   +
  http://www.blueheavenmusic.com/Artists/Henry_Stinson/HS__HOME.htm
Tel (msgs): 703-742-4670,   Hm: 703-893-8930 (Ring once, then call again)