Begin The Beguine – Greg Poppleton Bakelite Swing Jazz Band

Last Saturday, 30 April, Greg Poppleton & his Bakelite Swing Jazz Band played for dancers in Penrith. Here’s a clip from last Saturday’s show. I’ll be putting up more clips for you over the next few weeks, including a special rendition of “The Carolina Monologues” from the same show…

Greg Poppleton & his Bakelite Swing Jazz Dance Band is a trio to sextet based in Sydney, Australia. We specialise in swing and jazz from the 1920s & 1930s

US Jazz Reviewers have written about the band….

“Poppleton captures the essence of the era with uncanny accuracy. 5 Stars,”
John Gilbert, eJazzNews (US)

“Don’t you just appreciate pleasant surprises? Especially musical ones!
There’s nothing like stumbling across an artist who is fresh, original, filled with musical integrity, and especially one that has a unique perspective on the familiar.
Australian Jazz vocalist extraordinaire Greg Poppleton is such an artist; one whom this reviewer can’t say enough great things about,”
Gerard H Beulah Jnr, JazzReview.com (US)

Greg & the Band are available to play for your wedding, corporate function, house party and event

Please visit the band’s official website at www.bakelitejazz.com to find out more and hear more clips. Or email greg@bakelitejazz.com

And please leave a comment or give the Begin the Beguine clip a big thumbs up on You Tube!

Thank you kindly!
Greg

“I Can’t Get Started but I’ve Been Consulted by Julian Assange…”

Oh, and the first line of the song is “I’ve floated ’round the world in a saipan”. Good thing I didn’t say orange, or I’d have been stuck from the first line. Tee-hee!

The film was taken in the Castle Lounge of Penrith RSL, Saturday 8 January 2011. The audience participation is great there. I’ll be posting more songs from that concert soon. Enjoy!

“…With the Thorpedo (Ian Thorpe) I’ve taken a plunge…”

It was just a spur of the moment thing, made up as I went along. Even singing the song was a spur of the moment thing

While “I Can’t Get Started” is one of my favourite songs, I’ve never sung it before, not even at home

The lyrics, great as they are (in my book) are of its time (1936) and origin (USA). So personally (my problem) I’ve always felt silly even contemplating singing the song – especially in an Australian club in 2011

But I really like the song, with so many wonderful versions (such as Lee Wiley singing it on a Blue Network Eddie Condon Jazz Concert in 1944 or 5) and the mood just hit me. The written key is C, so away we went -with me ad-libbing. Or was I improvising? Did I sing skiddle-ee-dee-knee-bop? Nah, so I must have only just been ad-libbing

Anyway, here is “I Can’t Get Started” by Greg Poppleton & his Bakelite Trio. That’s Grahame Conlon on guitar, Darcy Wright on double bass, and Bob Gillespie on drums. They’re all jazz musicians, so they’re improvising while I ad-lib. My apologies to the copyright owners

I Can’t Give You Anything But Love

I hope you enjoy this latest snippet uploaded from You Tube of Greg Poppleton and his Bakelite Dance Band ‘live and unplugged’ from the glamorous Castle Lounge of Penrith RSL, just a brickbat’s throw from the even more glamorous Dame Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre

Caption: I Can’t Give You Anything But Love by Greg Poppleton and his Bakelite Dance Band (Greg Poppleton (voc) Grahame Conlon (g) Darcy Wright (db) Bob Gillespie (d))

We open with a tribute to Opera. I preface our rendition of the jazz opus in F major, “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” with a peek behind the drama cooking in the aria “Nina” by Pergolesi

OK, I’m not 100% accurate with the word-by-word translation in the clip below or in my rendering of the original Italian that follows, but the point is made – our operatic hero is stuffed ’cause Nina’s a stiff. Our hero also seems to have anosmia – no sense of smell…

Tre giorni son che Nina,
In letto se ne sta.
Pifferi, timpani, cembali!
Svegliate mia Ninetta.
Acciό non dorma più.

It’s been 3 days, Nina
Don’t stay in bed
Whistles, tympanies, cymbals!
Wake up my little Nina
Wake up and smell the coffee

Music lovers, be assured, especially those of you who actually have an acute sense of smell, that as you watch this clip of our little band below, that whiff you might begin to pick up on as you listen – that’s not from something dead under your chair, it’s the singer! Enjoy…