Crazy Rhythm

The Campus Five's second recording! Jonathan Stout and his Campus Five, featuring Hilary Alexander are Los Angeles' finest in small group swing and one of the most danceable swing bands in the world. We have traveled to London, New York, San Francisco, Washington DC, Cleveland, San Diego, Denver to play for Jitterbugs of all stripes, Lindy Hop, Balboa or Shag. Don't dance? That's ok, although you'll probably want to after hearing this record. The band delivers again with a whole new album of rare and unqiue tunes, and always danceable. Starting with the classic small group sounds of the Benny Goodman Sextet's 'Six Appeal' and the Artie Shaw Gramercy Five's 'Hop, Skip and Jump,' the album also features some of the lesser-known small groups of Harlem in the 40's - the Cootie Williams Sextet 'Honeysuckle Rose', Illinois Jacquet's 'Jacquet in the Box' and Hot Lips Page's 'Bloodhound'. Hilary swings Peggy Lee tunes 'Somebody Loves Me' and 'Why Don't You Do Right', and Anita O'Day/Gene Krupa tunes 'Massachusetts', 'Boog It' and 'Drum Boogie', the latter featuring vintage drummer extraordinare Josh Collazo. Jim Ziegler lends his voice to Cootie Williams 'Gotta Do Some War Work'. The Campus Five really rips it out on our versions of 'Crazy Rhythm' (inspired by tap dancer Gregory Hines) and 'Dark Eyes.' The album was recorded by vintage audiophile Dick Hamilton at his studio, the Doing, using vintage RCA 44 microphones to capture the traditional sound of classic small group swing. 'Jammin' the Blues' features Los Angeles' best swing musicians, including Tenor Saxophonist and Clarinetist Albert Alva, Trumpeter and Vocalist Jim Ziegler, Pianist Christopher Dawson, Bassist Jim Garafolo, and drumming phoneme Josh Collazo.