- Michael McQuaid's Red Hot Rhythmakers
- Yvette Johansson Quartet
- Liam O’Connell’s Groove Box (Made for MLX!)
- Make-It-Up Night
- Australia's Best Swing DJs
Michael McQuaid's Red Hot Rhythmakers
From their website:"Hot jazz from the Roaring Twenties" - Michael McQuaid's Red Hot Rhythmakers are an exciting young band from Melbourne, Australia, aiming to bring new life to the hot and sweet sounds of 1920s and 1930s jazz bands such as those led by Duke Ellington, Fletcher Henderson and King Oliver. Formed in January 2004, the band is led by multi-instrumentalist Michael McQuaid, and features a combination of musicians already highly regarded in the jazz world.
We've taken out extra fire insurance, these guys are that good. A completely unscientific poll of the three nearest swing dancers rated RHRM as "the awesomest band in Melbourne, probably the world". However... the same poll rated both meat and pumpkin as "undesirable", so you're better off coming along on Friday night to judge for yourself.
Yvette Johansson Quartet
Lindy hoppers have been swooning over Yvette for years. This is her fifth appearance at MLX, with her last one way back in 2005. She regularly performs at Melbourne's premier jazz clubs, tours internationally and has sell-out audiences at the Melbourne International Jazz Festival.
Even better, she's well known to go for a bit of tripplesteppin' action herself so she sculpts the mood and the dancefloor like a seasoned DJ. The only imaginable reason for missing her show is the feeling of intense inadequacy you might get from realising this beautiful woman with the beautiful voice can also dance your socks off too. But cheer up, we can't all be that good.
Liam O’Connell’s Groove Box
You ain't never heard of the Groove Box.... because it's been created just for MLX9! Don't you feel special? You will after you hear Mark Elton, Eamon McNelis and Lyn Wallis as they join Liam on stage. Unstoppable small-group swing repertoire, low-down blues and cheeky boy vocals. So hip they're square, you will be moving.
Liam O'Connell has been playing guitar (his first instrument) since age 10. He is deeply in love with all the styles and colours of jazz guitar from the late 20s and 30s, such as Eddie Lang, Carl Cress, Oscar Aleman and Django Reinhardt up to the modern day, also drawing inspiration from Martin Taylor and Tchovolo Schmidt. Swing guitar and early jazz have taken him around Australia and keep him busy in Melbourne , playing clubs and festivals with the Sweet Lowdowns, Andy Baylors Dancehall Racketeers, Michael McQuaid's Red hot Rhythmakers, New Wolverine Jazz Orchestra, Ian Smiths' Scallywags, the list goes on and on. He is a multi-instrumentalist, teacher, composer, producer and promoter who loves all styles of music from folk to reggae and hip hop.
Mark Elton is the most wanted double bass player in the Melbourne scene, maybe even Australia. Yes bass players are a shady bunch, but he's equally wanted for his double bass playing skills. Federal police and jazz lovers alike chase Mark every hight around Melbourne's jazz venues - at least, when he's not adding to his list of studio recordings, which are already more numerous than left feet at a corporate Christmas party swing lesson.
Lyn Wallis is a legend drummer in Victoria. You can see him every Saturday (including at MLX9!) at the Laundry as Virus' resident drummer. If you ever want to know how drummers played back in the 1930's Lyn is the one to watch. His solid, no-frills playing makes for some hard swingin jazz.
Eamon McNelis on Trumpet and vocals adds the edge to this jazz ensemble. He has been called the best young trumbeter in Melbourne. Eamon often plays with: The Julien Wilson Quartet, The Mark Fitzgibbon Quintet, TISM, The Pearly Shells, Bobby Valentine, Vada, Various Salsa Bands, Mariachi Los Romanticos, City City City, Old Dez Perez, My Disco, The Ted Vining Trio, The Adam Simmons Toy Band, The Brown Hornet, Chris Tanners 'Virus', The Band Who Knew Too Much, The Hoodangers, The Aaron Choulai Sextet, Eddie Perfect and his own band Flap! which you should check out posthaste.
Make-It-Up Night
"Party tonight! Bring your horn, bring your dance shoes"
Make It Up Night started when a small bunch of jazz musicians and lindy hoppers met up for a house-party-jam-session. The premise was no preparation, no practise, just a night of raw spontaneity. For the first time the twisted love-child of this original concept is coming to MLX9!
Held every few months, jazz musicians and dancers rock up to Make-It-Up Night as equals and dance and play the night away. The music IS rehearsed now but the organic spirit remains - always packing a few surprises, this ain't your average dance night!
Fun aside, it does have a slightly serious goal: reviving the interaction between musos and dancers. Dancing to computers is great but there's potential for so much more! When musicains peel their eyes from their notes and dancers realise that there's a living human playing that tune something beautiful happens: they play off each other! Sure, a lofty goal - but what's a goal if it isn't a challenge?
Featuring familiar faces and other top talent on stage, Make-It-Up Night is a special event not to be missed. It's difficult to explain on paper but rest assured, it's fun like you've never had before!
Make It Up Night is all about bringing together music and dance, and anybody fluent in both arts is encouraged to join in. Indeed, you can expect to see some familiar faces on stage! If you (or someone you know) fit the bill, shoot us an email!
The DJs
Our terribly biased sources tell us that, for DJs in Aus, spinning the decks at MLX is the greatest honour you can find under 40°C. We all know how hard it is to choose DJs - the discussions involve heated debate, squabbles, senate committee hearings and even the odd rugby tackle - but rest assured by the time the dust settles you're left with the top talent the continent has to offer.
DJ Bios presented in the order they were received! More coming soon (hint hint guys!)
Sam Carroll
Sam is a big old jazz nerd. She loves swinging jazz from the 30s and 40s, but won't sneer at a little new testament action from the 50s or the twenty first century. And she keeps a special place in her heart for Duke Ellington and Fats Waller. She'll definitely scratch your itch, but she also has a secret passion for supergroove - but don't tell anyone. Sam has DJed a few fully sick Australian exchanges (Hullabaloo, Devil City Swing, Canberrang, Blues Before Sunrise, MSF, SLX, SSF and MLX6) and is just has happy DJing for moist blooz dancers as hot and sweaty lindy hoppers. She doesn't really understand balboa, but she likes that they like hot jazz too.
Dan Ng
I just wanna give people the most fun they can possibly have swing dancing! So the music I use must always *give* something that dancers can latch onto- such as a driving bass line, a vocal drippin' with attitude, some killer hand-clappin' or a one-two battle between instruments. As a regular Swing DJ in the Melbourne scene for the last 2 years, and in London for as many years before that I'm always ready to make it PARTY TIME for the dancers!
Bex Scouller
Bex started DJing in Hobart in 2001 with some fellow dancers, Scottie and Duncan. Back then they burnt CDs to use at Sunday Afternoon Swing – how times have changed. Since then Bex has had a couple of radio shows, Well Swung, in Hobart (with the boys) and now Down in the Basement in Canberra.
Bex has been seen ‘spinning tunes’ at many of Australia’s swing festivals including her debut at CCB, BOTR, MLX, Sydney Balboa Weekend, SLX and at local events in Canberra. Whether it is a blues, lindy or a bal set Bex loves picking music that will inspire dancers and she also likes to have some fun tracks in her sets too.
Andy Fodor
Andy has been DJing swing music since he started dancing in Canada and loves seeing a whole room swingin' out. Andy's varied collection stretches from 20's charleston to blues to bal to swing and loads in between so there's plenty to keep you on the floor. Favourite artists include the greats (Basie, Ellington, Henderson, Harris, Fitzgerald) and some of the newer kids on the block (Boilermakers, Morrison, Sir Mix A Lot).
Scott Fraser
Scott aims for high-energy, fun swinging stuff like Fats Waller, Slim & Slam, Count Basie, New Orleans hot jazz and Kansas City/party vibe. SEAMLESS transitions into blues and hi-fi groove are not unheard of, either.
He started djing in 2001 while he was living in Hobart, playing regularly for dancers and on radio for a number of years until he left the state. He's played at exchanges in Melbourne, Hobart, Munich and London. In his newly adopted home of Melbourne he has been playing at the Laundry in Fitzroy, Madame Dynamite's, Carnivale and even a few guest spots on ABC radio.
Loz Yee
(Mix-Master) Loz is a pretty new addition to the Melbourne DJ scene, but where she may lack experience, she certainly doesn’t lack exposure. Having done about a year’s worth of DJ sets in the past few months to earn some bucks after months of travel and no income, Loz is totally inspired by the music and bands she heard while travelling and dancing around the world and has loved bringing new music back for the Melbourne dancers to feast on. Right now, Loz is diggin’ the New Orleans’ style clanginess of guitars and clarinets, is quite partial to an old swingin’ standard, and can’t go past some bouncy hand-clap action…..with Loz, it’s always a mixed bag of sugary goodness, sweet AND condensed!!
Sarah Ferrelly
Sarah Farrelly is one of Melbourne’s favourite dancers and DJs. Doing her bit to get women known for not only their swivels, she's been a regular behind the desk at local events for years. She's spun the decks all across Australia and the USA. She likes to play a real mix when she DJs and is conscious of playing tracks that are going to get every dancer up on the floor and staying there! Her favourite artists to spin are Lucky Millinder, Chick Webb, Jimmie Lunceford, Kid Ory, Sidney Bechet, Jimmy Witherspoon, Count Baise and loves to combine these with some great vocalists such as Ella, Carmen McRae, Ernestine Anderson and Diane Schuur.
She’s a little bit crazy, is Sarah – so at times she’ll push the tempos up! What’s more, you can probably catch her dancing along with y’all from behind the DJ booth!
Matt Riddle
Matt has been DJing since 1999, and particularly loves to work the floor with a combination of tunes from swingin’ small bands, riffs straight out of New Orleans and Kansas City, and Savoy big band classics. He has been a DJ at some of the biggest Lindy Hop events around the globe, including Herrang for the last 4 years running, SwingCity 2003 (Harlem) and SwingCity 2004 (Melbourne), Hop in the Spring (Hamburg), Barswingona, The Snowball (Stockholm) and the London Lindy Exchange. He was the first Australian guest DJ on Yehoodi Radio, has won DJ battles from Paris to Perth, and ran his first ever DJ Masterclass earlier this year.