World War II played a significant part in bringing the Swing Era to an end – the draft took away musicians, and the high cost of resources, as well as war time rationing, put a drain on recording as well as touring schedules of the Big Bands. Not many bands survived World War II. Benny Goodman’s band was no exception.
This exerpt from “The Powers Girl” (1942) shows Goodman’s transitional ensemble playing “Roll ‘Em”. It was trashed by critics as one of Goodman’s weakest, though listening to the band now, it still swings pretty hard. The style of dancing here is often referred to as the Hollywood style of Swing – Lindy Hop made for the movies – that was popularised by Dean Collins (1917-1984), who brought the dance from New York to Hollywood. It is a more upright version of the original “get down” version of the “Savoy style” of Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers. Although people were already dancing it in Los Angeles, Collins adapted it to for the movies, and was in fact, a pioneer of Lindy Hop instruction, as he was a technician of the dance who was able to break down what was usually a street dance learnt by watching and through trial and error. In this clip, Collins adds a new dimension to the dance, as he dances with his parter Jewel McGowan using an umbrella, leading her with the handle!
Here’s another clip from the movie, featuring Goodman’s band playing the Basie classic “One O’clock Jump”. It’s a great alternative to the original Basie.
This short clip, exerpted from The Spriti Moves, shows Frankie’s style of dancing – horizontal and close to the ground – both in lindy and in charleston. Compare it with the way Al and Leon do their charleston (on the 12/10/09 clip - albiet a much later clip by an older Al and Leon). Frankie always talked about how he liked to feel like he was flying when he did the swing-out. It made sense that if you were doing it at greater speeds, a lower centre of gravity would help. But physics aside, I think its a whole lot more aesthetically pleasing as well, to see that stretch…
“A Tisket, A Tasket” was originally a nursery rhyme from the 19th century. Iin 1938, Al Feldman and Ella Fitzgerald wrote a song based on that rhyme, and it was that very song that brought Ella wide public acclaim, especially after it was featured in Ride ‘Em Cowboy (1942) presented below.
Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996) was one of the first jazz singers that came to my initial contact with jazz almost two decades ago, and till this day, she’s still my favourite. It is no surprise that Ella’s been dubbed the First Lady of Song, for her vocal prowess are amazing, especially when she starts to scat (listen to her do the “Dont’ Mean a Thing” in the 13/10/08 entry and you’ll know what i mean). And to think that when she first competed at the Amateur Night at the Apollo, she wanted to do a dance act! But after the Edwards Sisters’ dance act closed the main show, Ella decided, at the last minute, to sing – Hoagy Carmichael’s “Judy” – which subsequently brought the house down. The rest, as they say, is history…
