Looking for music to juggle to.

July 14, 2008 2:35 PM

My brother is performing a juggling routine at a convention in a couple of months. What music should he use?

He's already done one 'formal' show (BYJOTY - won the Crawley award if you want to know). The music he used for that was Limehouse Blues -- by Django Reinhardt -- which was perfect. He's slightly retro and the music fitted his act exactly without being the same rock/pop that everyone else played. You can see a music video he filmed at JugglingTV (please ignore the first minute, it's something of an in-joke apparently).

The next show is slightly longer and he's looking for some new music. It should:

- not have vocals.
- not be rock, pop or metal. Distorted guitars = no.
- be fast and have a relatively consistent rhythm, although some sharp changes are also good.
- be 'different'.

Retro is good too. He's looked into some old swing jazz but can't really find anything that suits. Recommendations, please =). Thanks all.

posted by katrielalex to sports, hobbies, & recreation (18 comments total)

Spanish Flea
posted by pwally at 3:12 PM on July 14

Powerhouse.
posted by zoinks at 3:18 PM on July 14

Maple Leaf Rag
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:29 PM on July 14

Misirlou. (Theme from Pulp Fiction).
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 3:42 PM on July 14

Yakety Sax

Naked City's Batman or other covers from the same album

Long intro, but Duelling banjos?
posted by K.P. at 3:43 PM on July 14

A traditional (or not-so-traditonal) bluegrass breakdown might be cool. It has a consistent rythm with wild changes and often a general feeling of wackiness. Check out some of these.
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly at 3:55 PM on July 14

...and here is another slightly less traditional one. I don't know why, but I can see somebody juggling to this.
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly at 3:59 PM on July 14

Vertigogo by Combustible Edison.
posted by phunniemee at 4:29 PM on July 14 [1 favorite]

Popcorn
posted by stenseng at 4:40 PM on July 14

elephant walk?
posted by meeshell at 5:29 PM on July 14

Al Hirt's Green Hornet Theme.
posted by MegoSteve at 6:26 PM on July 14

Boban Markovic Orkestar - Baltic Feast

Definitely different, but in the best way possible. Even if you don't think it will work, you need to hear this song.
posted by sprocket87 at 7:17 PM on July 14

Someone already suggested Powerhouse, but anything by Raymond Scott from this, this, or this would probably work.
posted by staggernation at 8:15 PM on July 14

How long should it be? If he has a specific length in mind, mefi-mail it to me.

The presto from Beethoven's opus 130 string quartet would be fabulous; it's about 2 minutes long. The Emerson Quartet's recording has great impact.

From the same Emerson album, Haydn's "Fifths" quartet finale.

5 minutes: the scherzo from Schubert's Octet in F.

The Tocaccta and Fugue in D minor for organ by J.S. bach is a classic, varying lenghts depending on which repeats are played.

5 minutes: finale from Haydn's trumpet concerto.
posted by neuron at 8:25 PM on July 14

Seconding Powerhouse!
posted by notyou at 9:03 PM on July 14

There are a lot of tracks from Blue Man Group that would be awesome for this. Heck, if he could work around "Time To Start," complete with head bob, fist pump, and jumping, he could do some pretty wild stuff.

/damn, I miss having people to juggle with...
posted by azpenguin at 10:32 PM on July 14

Danny Elfman's Pee Wee's Big Adventure Main Theme!

/way too obvious
posted by muscat at 11:10 AM on July 15

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones

Sinister Minister or any number of tunes. The music has some of the same interesting qualities as Django (intricate jazz), but is playfull, energetic and very unique.
posted by msumbiz at 7:50 AM on July 25