We’ve been getting a lot of cards and e-mails asking for more classic swing and big band. So to fulfill the requests of both our fans – tonight’s excursion will be mostly a look into the vault of Big Bands Past…
The Harlem Explosion - when I say that, what do you think it means? I hope not a literal explosion and tragedy like when Harlem burned due to riots in 1935 or 1943. I am referring to the explosion of talent and creativity that lead to the national love of Swing, Jump and Jive.
If you were in The Big Apple in the late 1920's or early 1930’s there were really only two places to see or be seen – if you were down town you went to the Cotton Club – but if you went uptown, it was the Savoy Ballroom. Both clubs were home to the best bands, the greatest singers and the hottest music.
The Swing Shift Radio Show will pay homage to the musicians and singers that made those venerable and long gone institutions so outstanding and celebrate their music – the music of Chick Webb, Duke Ellington, Louis Jordan, Ella Fitzgerald and more!
Yes, there were other famous ballrooms and music halls in New York and Harlem, such as The Roseland, The Apollo, The Famous Door, The Meridian; but it was in the Cotton Club and The Savoy that legends were born.
We can’t talk about Harlem music and the Birth of Swing without touching on the controversies of the times…while in the 30’s, the Cotton Club did host the best of the African-American musicians and singers, blacks were not allowed as patrons. Over at the Savoy, however, you could find the same performers and a mix of whites and blacks dancing. It was all about the music, and Swing musicians and dancers saw black and white only as keys on the piano or colors of their wing tips. It was more important to let music be the common language and dance the common expression than find those things that divided us. Yes, there were always brewing tensions between the various races. Whether Irish, black, or Puerto Rican, they were all given short shrift and treated very badly. But the men and women who rose above the fray were the great musicians and singers and performers who had a message to give.
Swing bands and swing dancers breached the wall of racism and struck lasting friendships built on respect for talent and skill. And before I get yelled at by the sticklers of historical accuracy, there were bad apples on all sides, but give credit where it was due - if it weren't for the likes of Chick Webb and his infamous "Cuttin' Sessions" that pitted one band against another for audience approval (the original Battle of The Bands), the unmistakable skill of Duke Ellington or Cab Calloway, the pervasive enthusiasm of Louis Jordan and Louis Armstrong, or the courage to brave the rapids by men like Benny Goodman or The Dorsey Brothers - American music would be so much the poorer because their contributions would have been marginalized. Thank God for the Savoy Ballroom and The Cotton Club.
As the bands traveled the country and radio played them for a national audience, their style of music spread and others emulated the New York sound. Chicago, St. Louis and Memphis mixed it with the blues. In the Big Easy, Dixieland merged with Swing. Out west, San Francisco, Hollywood and Los Angeles reinvented the music, created bands, and put out motion pictures that further inscribed Swing, Blues, Jump and Jive into the hearts of Americans, making the music patriotic and further attempting to erase the lines of division between the American people.
With all the amazing talent and great successes growing from the Savoy Ballroom and the Cotton Club, there were also a great number of tragedies – Chick Webb died of his lifelong injuries, aided by his driving performances, Bunny Berigan drank himself under, drugs claimed the life of Billy Holiday, singer Dorothy Dandridge had a child born with severe brain damage – the list goes on…
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Perhaps their music is so impressive, so poignant, and so eternal because of the pains each of the Harlem-produced musicians had to endure. It is in the reflection of the pain that these artists felt that we can only begin to appreciate the great skill and talent they had. These were people driven to perform and they made their immortal mark on the American Jazz and Swing scene…
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| Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie (1947) |
Here is the rundown for this weeks' show:
- Minnie The Moocher – Cab Calloway (from 1931)
- Oh Boy, I’m In The Groove – Louis Jordan and his Tympani five
- Black and White – Bellevue Cadillac
- Harlem Hot Spot – Crescent City Maulers
- Stompin’ At The Savoy –Judy Garland with Benny Goodman’s Orchestra
- A-Tisket, A-Tasket – Ella Fitzgerald with Chick Webb and his Orchestra
- Take The A-Train – Duke Ellington w/ Betty Roche vocals
- Come On With The Come On - Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
- Between the Devil and The Deep Blue Sea – Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers
- Dinah – Benny Carter(clarinet)/Coleman Hawkins(tenor saxophone)/Lionel Hampton (vibraphone)
- High Society - Bunny Berigan
- Your Mother’s Son-in-Law – Benny Goodman w/ Billie Holiday vocals
It's Martini Time for this week comes to us courtesy of the Expert Village Test Kitchen - Bartender Bambi Zarillo is back with a "Blue Dragon Martini"
If you have an "It's Martini Time" drink request, song request or an artist/theme you'd like us to highlight, drop me an e-mail to TommyCage[at]SwingShiftRadio[dot]com.
Well that about wraps it up - See you next week on The Swing Shift Radio Show!
Tommy Cage
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