Swinging Projects for Lindy Hop & Balboa Dancers
YouTube is full of surprises. Again and again you can discover new clips and documentaries about Swing dancing. Yesterday, I’ve found (via Facebook) a documentary from 1988 about Lindy Hop, uploaded by “sabinoson”. The Call Of The Jitterbug A film by Jesper Sorensen, Vibeke Winding and Tana Ross. Edited by Rachel Reichman. Featured among others are Frankie Manning, Norma Miller, George Lloyd and Mama Lu Parks.
Some of you who attended Herrang Dance Camp last summer, had the opportunity to watch the documentary “The Unforgettable Hampton Family“, together with Dawn Hampton in person. The interest was appropriately high and the library, where it was shown, fully packed. At the end of September, buddhaboogie, better known as big band leader George Gee, published the documentary on his YouTube channel. The documentary celebrates the Hamptons, a talented African-American family who overcame poverty and prejudice to build successful musical careers. The Unforgettable Hampton Family is a production of BetterThanFiction Productions for WNET. Produced, written and directed by Julie Cohen. [...]
I have the feeling that there is an increasing interest in Collegiate Shag. Do you know how Collegiate Shag looks like? Here are two clips. Arthur Murray’s Collegiate Shag (1937) A compilation with a demonstration of basics of Double Collegiate Shag, a showcase of several dancers and an evening group routine performance. Collegiate Shag by the San Francisco Jitterbugs A mixture of contempary Collegiate Shag dance scenes and some from the clip above. The History of Collegiate Shag Check out this website if you wanna learn more about the history of Collegiate Shag. The front article on the website is [...]
Today, Frankie Manning – the Ambassdor of Lindy Hop – would have turned 97. Happy Birthday Frankie, we all miss you! Are you new to this blog? Then I would like to welcome you and take the chance to spotlight the posts about Frankie Manning I have published so far. One year ago I was running a Frankie Manning week and published five posts in a row, here they are: 24 May 2010: DJ Chrisbe’s Song of the Week #12: Shiny Stockings One of Frankie Manning’s favourite swing songs. Written by Frank Foster, performed by Count Basie Orchestra. 25 May [...]
Two years ago today, Frankie Manning passed away. For all of us, who had the opportunity to meet and learn from Frankie, it bears repeating how inspiring he was. It’s our task to spread Frankie’s love for Lindy Hop and for any people! Here is another video clip I haven’t shared with you so far: Related posts: Frankie Manning: Never Stop Swinging (Documentary) Frankie Manning “The King Of Swing”: Article on FLYP Hellzapoppin, Then and Now Clayzapoppin vs. Hellzapoppin Biographie Frankie “Musclehead” Manning – in German If you enjoyed this post please click LIKE below - or share or retweet [...]
A Present I started DJ‘ing in 2006 with CDs but soon afterwards I switched to laptop DJ’ing. To spin and collect shellac (old 78 rpm) records was never an option to me. A few months ago my quasi father-in-law gave me some 78 rpm jazz discs: “I thought you might be interested.” Of course, I was interested and I gladly took them. Now, how to play the records? I was remembering when I was a kid, we had a portable record player at home which also could spin 78 rpm records. I asked my mother if I could have it [...]
To all swing dancers and jazz historians Please take a minute (actually an hour or so) and check out this amazing source! With a huge effort, Jack the Vampire aka Bobby White compiled a really long index of classic basic clips from, before and after the swing era and released it on his blog Swungover. The index is separated in different styles: Pre-Swing Lindy Hop Balboa and Bal-Swing Collegiate Shag Solo Jazz and Misc. Jazz Choreographies Blues Misc. For each clip, Bobby provides the year of its origin and a short description. Here is the link: >> An Index of [...]
As the Louis Armstrong House Museum tweeted yesterday, their Museum Collections are available for online browsing: The Louis Armstrong House Museum holds the world’s largest archives devoted to a single jazz musician. Its collections encompass more than 5,000 sound recordings, 15,000 photographs, 30 films, 100 scrapbooks, 20 linear feet of letters and papers, and six trumpets. Researchers, record companies, publishers, film producers, public school students, and many others routinely use these materials. Since 1994, more than a dozen books and recordings have been published based on research from the collections, including Terry Teachout’s Pops, a notable book of 2010. Source [...]
Through a post on Yehoodi.com, I came across William P. Gottlieb‘s great photos, made available by the Library of Congress. Although the photos are amazingly beautiful, I sometimes wish to watch them in colour. Just to see what clothes they wore and how the interior decoration looked like. Our imagination of that time is always black and white, isn’t it. Gottlieb was both a notable jazz journalist and a self-taught photographer who captured the personalities of jazz musicians – as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Thelonious Monk, Ella Fitzgerald, and many more – and told their stories with his [...]
While teaching a workshop about jazz and swing music history, I had the idea to post from time to time a song which had a great impact to (early) jazz music. On August 8, 1922, Louis Armstrong moved from New Orleans to Chicago to join King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band. At the Lincoln Gardens, they developed their cornet duet style (“breaks”): Armstrong played a second cornet line while Oliver was playing the first cornet. With Armstrong as a member, the already popular band took Chicago by storm. On April 5, 1923, Oliver and Armstrong travelled by train from Chicago to [...]
