The History of Swing
The Music and the Dance
INTRODUCTION
When you mention "swing," it can refer to a few things :
From the beginning of the 1900's well into the 1920's, some of the more common forms of music included both Dixieland, and Concert bands. The style of these groups was distinguished by 'ensemble' playing. The music we now call "swing" developed out of these earlier ensemble styles, with much help by trumpeter Louis Armstrong. Swing was a dense, rhythm-driven sound almost always using a hard driving 'riff' against which the melody could be played. The Swing style reached it's peak of popularity during the 1940's, and has regained in popularity today.
The band instrumentation also defined the Swing 'sound'. The older tenor reed-based sounds, of the 1920's dance bands and smaller 'hot jazz' ensembles, slowly changed into larger bands often having 16 pieces or more where the Brass, trumpets and trombones, added their brighter, louder sound. The Brass was counter-balanced by a bank of reeds, Saxes and Clarinets. The rhythm was often carried by piano, an expanded drum set, and guitar while a string bass replaced the older Tuba bass.
In the 1920's, a new dance was being developed, different from any dance previous. It would become known as Lindy Hop, and later as the Jitterbug. Lindy Hop (the original form of swing dance) is an 8 count dance based partly on the Breakaway and the Charleston, with influences from Jazz dances, as well as other previous dances. Smooth Lindy would develop soon after the birth of Lindy Hop, and these two styles would give rise to various other dances.
THE BEGINNING OF THE LINDY HOP
Lindy Hop's birthplace was the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. On March 26, 1926, the
Savoy opened its doors, and would soon become the epicenter of the Lindy Hop
world. The Savoy -- the first integrated ballroom -- was an immediate success
with its block-long, 4000 person capacity dance floor, and a raised double
bandstand. Nightly dancing attracted most of the best dancers in the New York
area. Stimulated by the presence of great dancers and the best bands, music at
the Savoy was largely Hot Jazz and Swing Jazz. Lindy Hoppers competed in massive
dance contests every week as two big bands (one on each end of the dance floor)
played. The very best dancers formed a dance troupe called Whitey's Lindy
Hoppers who performed shows until World War II.
On July 4, 1928, the 18th day of a dance marathon at the Marathon Casino, the NYC Board Of Health finally closed down the event. Four of the original 80 couples were left standing. Savoy star "Shorty" George Snowden (number "7") and his partner shared the prize with the other three couples.
Earlier, with the event in full swing, people could post a small cash prize with the MC for a brief mini-contest among the survivors. This was the backdrop for Shorty's spontaneous throw-out breakaway and a flash footwork improv, capturing media attention. "What are you doing with your feet?" asked the Fox Movie Tone News interviewer. "The Lindy Hop," replied Shorty George -- Charles A. Lindbergh (aka "Lindy") had recently "hopped" the Atlantic landing on May 21, 1927. The Lindy Hop was officially given a name.
Lindy Hop, later known as Jitterbug, is the authentic Afro-Euro-American Swing dance. It is an unabashedly joyful dance, with a solid, flowing style that closely reflects its music -- from the late 20's hot Jazz to the early 40's Big Band swing. Just as Jazz combines European and African musical origins, Lindy Hop draws on African and European dance traditions. The embracing hold, and the turns from Europe; the solid, earthy body posture from Africa, with an American-created partner breakaway. The dance evolved along with the new swing music, based on earlier dances such as the Charleston, by black people in Harlem, NY.
Two main styles of Lindy Hop developed during the swing era: Frankie Manning's "Savoy Style" and Dean Collins' "Hollywood Style". During the 40's and 50's and later, other styles of swing dance would evolve out of Lindy Hop, including West Coast Swing, East Coast Swing, Rockabilly Swing, Boogie Woogie, Ballroom Jive, Shag, Bop, Balboa, Imperial, Whip and Push.
THE SWING DANCE ERA
Many of the dancers in 1920's (who were mostly African-Americans) were teaching
many of the "White Folks" how to Lindy, thus, they were making a
"honorable living" in a very racist period of time. This became very
competitive among some of African-American dancers, some would clip papers to
their back with phone numbers or a studio name written on them while they
danced. If you liked the way a dancer danced, you could then get in touch with
them and take lessons. Through this type of competition, the dancers would start
to do more wild and crazy stuff to get the attention of the spectators.
Dance contests became more and more "attention getting". In the 1930's a dancer named Frankie Manning added the first air step (lifts/ flips) into the Lindy. These and other air steps, or Aerials, had been done for years in other dances through many exhibitions by professional club entertainers, but supposedly had not yet been done in the Lindy.
In many interviews Frankie describes how his first aerial took place: Frankie and partner were practicing for a dance contest to try and beat then "King" Shorty George Snowden at the Savoy, Frankie and partner, worked out a back flip they saw and it worked, they did it in the contest and beat George Snowden.
Films such as Hellzapoppin and Day at the Races, as well as Malcolm X and Swing Kids show seemingly reckless aerials, often done at very fast musical tempos. Far from being just acrobatic antics, aerials are in fact smooth, extremly precise, and in synch with the music. They require a superb degree of expertise and are not danced socially, but only for performance, if only inside a protective ring of spectators (called a Jam Circle). Aerials are impressive and spectacular, so that's what you see in the movies.
In a book called "Swing as a Way of Life" (1941) states that "young Dancers like Al Minns, Joe Daniels, Russell Williams, and Pepsi Bethel produced the Back flip, Over Head, and the Snatch!." This started the attention getters on to a new agenda -- aerials.
In the early 1930's, Hubert "Whitey" White was the head bouncer at the Savoy and noticing an opportunity to make some cash decided to form a group called "Whitey's Hopping Maniac's", Later to be known as "Whitey's Lindy Hoppers". It was a pretty open market for him as his only competition was "Shorty George and his dancers" who were doing most of the exhibitions and shows around town in ballrooms and clubs such as the Cotton Club.
Whitey had auditions and picked some dancers to start his group. This was to become the form of Lindy Hop we know today. During the Lindy Hoppers reign, the Lindy was to take on a newer "Sophisticated or cleaned up look." The Hoppers went on to become the main Swing groups of the time and traveled all over the world performing in many exhibitions, movies, and stage shows.
Dean Collins learned to dance the Lindy Hop at the Savoy, and developed his own personal style. His own style was smoother and slower, and he brought that style to Los Angeles in the early 1930's. Dean Collins' style of swing, often called "Smooth Lindy," would be used in many of the movies in Hollywood, thus this style is also referred to as "Hollywood." In San Diego, California, Smooth Lindy later slowed even further, and took on many more 6 beat moves, and a very strict slotted motion for the lady -- this became known as West Coast Swing. West Coast is most often danced to Blues instead of Swing music, and is the official state dance of California.
"Jitterbug" was originally a slang term for those who drank a lot of alcohol (called "Jitter"). However, in the mid 1930's, the Lindy Hop started to be called the Jitterbug when the band leader Cab Calloway introduced a tune in 1934 entitled "Jitterbug" and the pilot whom the Lindy Hop was named after (Charles Lindbergh) became shunned by many Americans for his political views. The term Jitterbug would eventually be applied to all styles of swing over the years and the term Lindy Hop would almost be forgotten about.
The main way to tell if the "old movies" (1930-50's) feature Lindy,
Smooth Lindy, or East Coast Swing is:
1) If they do Sugar pushes its Smooth Lindy (Dean Collins choreography).
2) If no Sugar push its Lindy (Whitey's Group).
3) If however there is no Sugar push, Whip or Lindy Circle then it is East Coast
Swing (later standard movie choreographers).
In 1943, Life magazine featured a cover story on the lindy hop proclaiming it "America’s national dance" and the country’s "only native and original dance form" except for tap dance.
THE EVILS OF THE "SOPHISTICATED"
BALLROOM DANCERS
By the end of 1936, the Lindy was sweeping the United States. As might be
expected, the first reaction of most dancing teachers to the Lindy was a chilly
negative. In 1936 Philip Nutl, president of the American Society of Teachers of
Dancing, expressed the opinion that swing would not last beyond the winter. In
1938 Donald Grant, president of the Dance Teachers' Business Association, said
that swing music "is a degenerated form of jazz, whose devotees are the
unfortunate victims of economic instability." However, in 1942 members of
the New York Society of Teachers of Dancing were told that the
"jitterbug," could no longer be ignored. Its "cavortings"
could be refined to suit a crowded dance floor. The result would be East Coast
Swing, a ballroom instructors invention.
The dance schools such as The New York Society of Teachers and Arthur Murray, did not formally begin documenting or teaching the Lindy Hop, and other forms of Swing until the early 1940's. The ballroom dance community was more interested in teaching the foreign dances such as the Argentine Tango, Spanish Paso Doblé, Brazilian Samba, Puerto Rican Meringue, Cuban Mambo and Cha Cha, English Quickstep, Austrian Waltz, with an occasional American Foxtrot and Peabody.
In the early 1940's the Arthur Murray studios looked at what was being done on the dance floors in each city and directed their teachers to teach what was being danced in their respective cities. As a result, the Arthur Murray Studios taught different styles of undocumented Swing in each city.
From the mid 1940's, the Lindy Hop was stripped down and distilled by the ballroom dance studio teachers in order to adapt what they were teaching to the less nimble-footed and the older general public who paid for dance lessons. They took the very basic moves of the Lindy, chose the easiest of them, and based the footwork not on the Lindy Hop, but on the Foxtrot. Additionally, the ballroom teachers enamored with their formal Latin dances added the Latin hip movements to this new dance. As a result, the ballroom dance studios bred and developed a Ballroom Swing which vaguely resembles swing dancing.
If this was not enough, the ballrooms conspired to decieve their customers. The instructors would go out to a public event and perform the Lindy Hop. When the people asked what they were dancing, they would tell them it was the "Jitterbug" or that it was the "Lindy Hop." This part was true, they do a performance of Lindy, but when these people signed up for the Lindy Hop classes, they would be taught, INSTEAD, this new Ballroom Swing. This ballroom swing is now called East Coast Swing, and is most often the first form of swing that people are taught today because it easiest to learn.
In the 1950's, American Bandstand -- hosted by Dick Clark -- was considered the television show to go to if one wanted to learn the latest "in" dances. Because the music played on the show was too quick for the ballroom triple-steps, and because of censorship issues with "wiggling hips," the street version of East Coast Swing was what teens saw, and emulated. Because American Bandstand was a nationally broadcast show, East Coast Swing also became popular among teens nationally.
SWING MUSIC ERA
Swing was the music that defined a generation, so much so that the 1930s and 40s
are often referred to as the swing era. Swing's smooth, up-tempo, expansive
sound was a simple rejection to earlier jazz styles. In a sense, swing released
any restraints placed on musicians by earlier jazz styles by simply letting the
feeling of the music run its course.
Major changes that marked the introduction of swing included the use of a more freely flowing rhythmic scheme, using four beats to a bar instead of two beats, which was common in New Orleans jazz. Another change was the common use of riffs, or short melodic ideas that were used repetitiously in call-and-response patterns between instrumental sections of a band.
Swing abandoned smaller groups like trios and quartets in favor of much larger groups of fifteen or more members. Though it was nothing more than just a style of jazz, swing broke all the rules: it was loose, free, and completely modern. However, its easy to lump all swing and big band music, but one must understand that within the genre, many different rhythmic and harmonic styles flourished. There were hot bands, with a hard-driving sound, featuring groups such as Benny Goodman, Count Basie, and Duke Ellington's groups. At the same time, there were those that put less emphasis on improvisation, and more emphasis on feeling and emotion. These were called sweet bands. Among these sweet bands were Glenn Miller, Freddy Martin, and Wayne King's groups. One must also realize that not all big bands were swing bands. In fact, many big bands experimented with styles such as bebop and cool jazz.
With the advent of 'swing', the role of the bandleader also changed. Some of the older conductors, men such as Paul Whiteman and Paul Ash who stood in front of a band and waved a baton, were slowly replaced by bandleaders who were great instrumentalist in their own right. Men such as Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Chick Web, and Tommy Dorsey would alternate between leading and soloing on each tune played. Other leaders led by playing piano full time on each song. Among these were Count Basie and Duke Ellington. A few of the in-front bandleaders were still around, one of the most famous being Cab Calloway, who in the 1980's was brought out of retirement, for a time, after his appearance in the movie "The Blues Brothers."
Concurrent with that, the sidemen were given more opportunities to solo during the song. That caused a 'cult' following to begin for the better sidemen in each band. Such musicians as Gene Krupa, Cootie Williams, and many others gained their initial fame in this manner, often going on to become bandleaders in their own right. All of the bandsmen were becoming more visible. Often the entire band would sing or 'scat' an entire chorus (such as Johnny Long's "Shanty in Old Shanty Town"). This was in keeping with the old American Southern tradition of "call and response".
The music varied also. The ballads became much slower, more sentimental, while the faster music, such tunes as "Opus One" and others became almost frantic. The two types were often played alternately in the ballrooms and dance halls. A fast 'jump' tune would be followed by a slow ballad giving the dancers a respite from doing the Lindy Hop. During WW2, the slow ballads were extremely popular. The recording industry became aware of what band leader Kay Kaiser dubbed "G.I. Nostalgia", that special longing for home and the girl he left behind.
Often, music will influences the way a dance evolves, however, with swing music, it was the other way around. The bands playing live to their audience who were often always dancing, would tailor the music for the dancer's benefit. Quickly, the music evolved to fit the dancing, creating a bond between the two so great, they are even referred to by the same name.
Benny Goodman brought swing to the masses. On Hammond's advice, in 1934, Goodman purchased from the struggling bandleader Fletcher Henderson several of the hot big-band arrangements that helped to make his band's reputation. Henderson's material was tepidly received at first, because fans were accustomed to hearing a white band play "sweet" music. In 1935, Goodman was scheduled to play at Los Angeles's Palomar Ballroom. This required Goodman and his band to travel West by road, and to perform at a number of locations on the way. Throughout the trip, Goodman's band was received poorly, and they feared that by the time the trip was over, the band would have to break-up. On August, 21st of that year they finally arrived at the Palomar Ballroom, and began their performance with sweet jazz tunes, the only songs that were positively received at their stops along the way there. The audience sat, stared, and looked un-impressed. Goodman, fed up with the sweet charts, and believing this was the end of the band, called for Henderson's flag-wavers -- hey decided that if he was going to go down in flames, it would be playing the music the band enjoyed playing. The audience went wildly enthusiastic -- it was this music they had been waiting for them to play. They had heard the band's music on the radio from the bands broadcast from the East coast, and had been excited to hear that he was going to play at the Palomar. As much as any single event could have, this performance marked the advent of the Swing Era.
Within a month of the Palomar Ballroom performance, Benny Goodman had secured the number 3, 2, and number 1 spots on the record charts in California. Already, Benny Goodman was being billed as the "King of Swing."
It is very fair to say that Swing truly dominated the Social milieu. Swing music became a corollary to every event from New York's swankiest night clubs to school proms, 'Juke Joints' and even to Young Communist League parties. Every portion of society found found some form of swing suitable for their dancing or listening. Country Club couples fox-trotted to "Moonlight Serenade"; College students did "The Big Apple" as a circle dance; and Harlem ballrooms exploded to the aerial acrobatics of 'the Savoy Swingers' and the Audubon (Ballroom) Lindy-Hoppers. Swing provided the music for the Hollywood movies. By the late 1930's, Big Band Swing accounted for 70% of all music profits in the United States.
Swing music's popularity was very high throughout the late 1930's and the 1940's. America maintained Swing's popularity throughout the WW2 years when both large and small ensembles toured Army and Navy camps both at home and abroad under the aegis of the U.S.O. and the War Manpower Commission Program. Especially on the war fronts, the Servicemen's nostalgia for normality and home, and the effects of wartime stress, were eased by the live performances of the touring bands as well as the special radio shows broadcast to the armed forces. At home, Swing was heard at bond sale rallies and community concerts. The new sub-culture of women workers also adapted boogie-woogie and other novelty and jive styles.
THE MUSIC AND RACISM
Unfortunately, racism and segregation were also present. Just a few bands were
mixed groups. The first of which was Benny Goodman's, and then followed by some
of the men who became famous working with Benny, such as Gene Krupa, Lionel
Hampton and Teddy Wilson. But due to the racism found in many U.S. states,
admission and seating in theaters and clubs throughout the country was often
restricted, and ensembles and audiences often segregated.
Hollywood also handled 'Swing' bands in interesting ways. By interpolating Swing ensembles into country club or night club settings, the interpolated sequences could then be lifted out and presented separately as independent short subject features. Also, performances by Black groups such as Duke Ellington, Louis Jordan and Chick Webb, could easily be edited out of the feature film for distribution in the Southern states.
In the movies, scenes of black swing dancers (such as done by Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, or the Congoroos) would be completely cut out when they were distributed for Southern audiences. Often, these dance scenes would have been incorporated into the story in a way that allowed them to be cut out without disturbing the flow of the story.
THE END OF THE SWING ERA
World War II did its part to kill of the swing era. Bands were robbed of many of
their best musicians by the draft. Fuel rationing caused band tours to be next
to impossible. Glenn Miller broke up his band, and joined the Army Air Corpse
(which later became the Air Force) where he was lost.
In a stroke of bad timing, the Musicians Union went on a recording strike that began on August 1, 1942. No agreement was made until September 1943 when Decca made an agreement. Blue Note made an agreement in November of 1943, and other independent labels signed on later that year. Columbia and Victor, however did not settle until November 1944. Because swing's top performers were signed to either Columbia or Victor, they went at least 27 months (a lifetime in the music industry) without making any recordings. Singers, however, were not part of the union, and thus they could make vocal recordings. Singers increased in popularity and came to overshadow the big bands. While the bands of the labels who agreed with the union early on, most were not swing bands, gained popularity by having new recordings on the market.
A cabaret tax enacted in 1941 caused clubs to pay 30% of their ticket sales in taxes, causing the clubs to hire cheaper, smaller bands. The swing playing big bands often lost out and were doomed.
New Orleans Jazz, Dixieland, was regaining in popularity. A new Jazz was growing, Bebop, which was not easy to dance to, nor did these bands want people dancing to their music. Then there was Rhythm and Blues, whose bands were less expensive to maintain, and had a new sound. These changes in music attracted band members away from swing, and the listeners as well (especially since there were no new swing recordings during the union strike).
Finally, with the end of the war, people did not want to be reminded of it. Swing, so popular when the war started, became a reminder to those war years, and so many angry and heart broken people simply tuned out, shelved their 78's, and found new music to help them forget the war and the depression that preceded it. The swing era was dead.
In the early 1960's, Chubby Checker's "The Twist" killed-off partner, or "touch", dancing. From the 50's up until this time, every American teenager knew how to dance what would later be known as East Coast Swing (which replaced Lindy at the end of the swing-era).
THE NEO-SWING ERA
Not only is Swing popular again, but a new 'Swing Explosion' is taking place on
both coasts. Emerging from a 50 year hiatus, "Swing" is again king,
and the "joints are jumpin' " on the west coast's Los Angeles and San
Francisco dance scene, and they are hopping in New York's. East Coast Swing,
both the original ballroom school version and the looser street version are
being taught to new dancers. West Coast Swing is popular mainly in a number of
clubs in Southern California.
There's even a little rivalry showing. The ballroom East Coast Swingers often find West Coast overly sexual, while West Coast aficionados find New York's traditional Lindy Hop as too wild. Lindy Hop and Smooth Lindy battle it out in the Los Angeles and DC areas. There is some bad blood flowing between the two styles because each fears losing dancers to the other side, not too mention the Lindy Hoppers think the Smooth Lindy dancers are too snooty (only partially true).
As far as the rivalry goes, there shouldn't be any. At its root, all swing dances are the same thing; only how that dance is expressed is different. On the account of those differences, one should follow the slogan from a TV commercial that says "There's no wrong way to eat a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup!" Likewise, there is no wrong way to dance swing!
But, to the current generation, weaned on dancing to a volume so pumped up that all conversation is shut out; and with partners kept at arms's length or farther , the social aspects of swing's upbeat, infectious rhythm and casual physical contact have proved particularly appealing. Many of today's new Swingsters bored with the old formless, free-style dancing of techno and hip-hop clubs like being able to grab on to their real life partners.
They're dancing not only to the music of Benny Goodman and Louis Jordan, but also to the jump-jiving, faster paced retro bands such as Big Bad VooDoo Daddy, the Flying Newtrinos, Squirrel Nut Zippers and the Flipped Fedoras, with their modern, updated, and somewhat faster paced take on big-band-era music. Now there is a mix of Ska or Hip Hop in some of the new music, bringing a new life to that music. Brian Setzer with his rockabilly sound is taking on old classics. Louie Prima, the man who wrote "Sing Sing Sing" (made popular by Benny Goodman) who also continued his career into the 1950's with many comedic tunes, is known by almost any Lindy Hopper you ask.
Clothing also seems to be an item. Many of the older crowd show up in casual dress, but the younger cats look sharp in gabardine suits, shirt and tie, or a full zoot suit. The chicks in lace and dresses, leaping and shimmying to tapes of swing-era classics. Two toned oxfords, called spectators, are on almost every dancer's foot.
Swing offers a joyous alternative to a generation that came of age during the AIDS crisis, and a time when sexuality was hidden under grunge. This is a return to elegance, to touch dancing and to wearing your sexuality on your sleeve. An open rebellion against the grunge music era of the early 1990's, and the tattered mismatched looks of the 1980's. Swing is definitely the thing.
Frankie Manning, the man credited with creating the first aerial in Lindy Hop, had gone on to be perform with Whitey's Lindy Hoppers in several movies, and later with his own dance troupe (the Congoroos). In semi retirement, in the early 1980's, he was approached by a number of people including the Rhythm Hot Shots (a Swedish dance troupe), and dance partners Erin Stevens and Steven Mitchell. They urged him out of retirement and he now teaches people across the nation how to dance the Lindy Hop the way he remembered it from the days of the Savoy Ballroom. Frankie, now a icon of the swing dance community, is still going strong today!
A great many Dance schools are reporting a surge in students learning the classic swing dance and it appears that Swing, the Lindy Hop born in Harlem 70 years ago, is here to stay. At clubs, ballrooms, and school dances, you will find the dance floor filled with twirling, jiving swing dancers showing off their best Lindy Hop steps and having a ball. Most are in their twenties and thirties. Many took their first swing dance lesson just last year!
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