news and Views '09/'10 #2

[Allen Hall]

News and Views from the Hall LindyJazzMobile
‘09/’10 installment # 2

DRIVE, DANCE, REPEAT (Allen and Rudy’s travelogue)

Table of Contents.
1. Lindy Hopping in St. Louis
2. Lindy Hopping in Dayton Ohio and Surrounds
3. This n’ That
4. More Comments About Jazz
5. Previews of Coming Attractions

LINDY HOPPING IN ST LOUIS

We dipped our dance beaks into a three-day sampling of St. Louis LH—to wit….

We made the regular Thursday LH dance at the Electric Cowboy. The DJed music was mostly traditional LH fare, the tempos were varied, and the sound system was crisp. The floor is old softwood wide-boards and almost all the paint has been worn off by dancer shoes revealing an ugly looking floor with a beautifully danceable surface. Let’s hear it for “beautiful-ugly”. About 30 dancers showed, and about half were experienced LHers. Full bar, no cover, so buy something. Park on the main street of Manchester. Music at 8P.

“Hudson and the HooDoo Cats” played the lobby lounge in the ritzy Ritz Carleton Hotel, and since it has been about 5 years since last we saw them (on a casino boat in Kansas City—go figure?) and they are a favorite of St. Louis LHers, we just had to make their gig. H&tHDC is a trio of leader/drummer/singer Hudson and capable bassist and drummer. The three guys have been a unit for something like 20 years, and they play what the crowd wants, and so, we got a mixed bag of swing, jump, blues, pop, Latin and rock, but all of it at swing dance tempos and delivered with energy. The dance floor was small, but there was enough room to dance until the second-set syndrome kicked-in—that when the timid have taken on enough courage-juice to get up on the floor.

Saturday we attended the regular monthly LH dance at The Monday Club. Nice maple floor in top condition, and a large turnout of St. L LHers, with a good sound system and a nice selection of DJed LH standards. We had a great time, and got press-ganged into a spotlight dance. No one threw any rocks at us, so I guess they must have liked it.

From our perspective, the St. Louis Lindy Scene has taken on a vibrancy we have not seen in the past.

P.S. St. Louis now has the one of the best 24 hour jazz radio stations (FM 88.7) that I have ever heard. They play quality compositons, produced by quality jazz musicians, and they stay away from those forms of jazz which have not, will not and cannot gain a faithful audience of discerning music fans, e.g., “fusion, crossover, third wave, free (atonal), lite, and smooth”. I am so proud for my home town, which not only has a Central Division NL championship baseball team, but now a champion jazz radio station. P. S. I am in mourning as my Cardinals did an end-of-season el-foldo gigantico.


LINDY HOPPING IN DAYTON OHIO AND SURROUNDS

There is a regular Thursday night Dayton dance at “Dance Elegance Studio”. The venue has a gorgeous floor, a small cadre of experienced LHers, good to fair eclectic DJed music, but not enough light to see the hands on an analog wrist-watch.

Each Monday night there are lessons and dances at both Wright State University and the University of Dayton. We attended one WSU Monday, danced a spotlight to assure the students that old folks can do it, and helped out as partners during the lesson.

There is supposed to be a 5-7PM DJed dance on the 2nd and 4th Sundays at “Always Ballroom”, which could be renamed “The Almost Always Ballroom Ballroom”, but we went there and the door was locked and the lights were off—did some one tell them we were coming?

There are two monthly Saturday night dances:
1. One DJed event is put on at Kira’s Oasis, a Latin/Belly Dancing studio, replete with a gorgeous floor, and two poles for practicing pole-dancing techniques—Fortunately for me, I don’t need to practice for my exemplary pole-dancing techniques. We attended this dance.
2. One dance is put on by VoDu Swing, sometimes with a dynamite live big band at a fraternal hall with a great old Maple floor.

We did precious little dancing in Dayton, only twice in 19 days. We could say I were letting my hip joint heal (see below) or letting our dance mojo lay fallow, however, in fact, we have found a continuing and marked absence of energy in the Dayton Lindy scene. it is unclear why that should be so, but then, we are not social psychologists, and we seen this same enigmatic phenomenon other places.

THIS N’ THAT

Rudy and I danced 16 nights in September including 8 of the first 11 nights after we locked up our lake place and took up residence in the LindyJazzMobile. Unfortunately, this sent me limping to an orthopedic surgeon who told me my achy left hip was not bad enough for a new hip, and, otherwise, just a mild case of over-use arthritis, and not something to worry about until continued over-use sends tears streaming down my cheeks. Hurray! Let’s hear it for continued over-use—what in the hell is the sense of saving dance candy when you might you might get run over by a Greyhound bus with some dance candy remaining. Better to eat it all now. Right?

Here is a great short verbal exchange between a pair of extraordinary Genes; jazz author and commentator extraordinaire, Gene Lees, and dancer extraordinaire, Gene Kelly.
After watching a TV documentary about the early Lindy Hoppers in NYC and being amazed, Gene L. remarked to Gene K., “Gene, some of those people were wonderful dancers.” Gene K., with a look of pity, responded, “Nooooo shit!.”

MORE COMMENTS ABOUT JAZZ

Why Jazz Endures. What is there about a music that hasn’t been popular for 50 Years.

1. Dan Morganstern ‘…first and foremost, it is a musical language so challenging, appealing and adaptive…it attracts gifted musicians.
2. Davis Backer “Jazz is…timeless. It brings both musicians and listeners together…(jazz) is the sound of surprise…and jazz is the synomymous with freedom.”
3. Branford Marsalis “…as long as there are musicians who have the courage to play it the way it is meant to be played, it (jazz) will be fine.”

Can Jazz Be Saved?

1. “Warning: The Audience for America’s Great Art Form is withering away.” Gene Lees.
2. “Not only is the audience for jazz shrinking, but it is getting older -- fast.” Terry Teachout
3. In 2002 10.8% of Americans (with an average age of 29) attended at least one jazz performance. In 2008 the percentage attending had fallen to 7.8 (with an average age of 45).
4. “More and more, radio is devoted to the garbage* music of our culture.” Gene Lees (paraphrased)
*”garbage” defined as “mostly worthless residue”, and in the same general classification as “shit which doesn’t qualify as manure”.

Buddy Rich: The greatest drummer who ever lived, or will ever live This from “Jazz on Video”.

“Bernard Rich was born on September 30, 1917 in Brooklyn, NY and began his drum career very early. At the age of two he performed as “Traps, the Drum Wonder” in his parent’s vaudeville act. He continued these performances into his early teens, touring Australia when he was eight years old and appearing in a short film at age eleven. By the time Buddy was fifteen years old he was earning $1,000 a week and was the second highest paid child star behind Jackie Coogan.
Rich was hired by Tommy Dorsey and roomed with Frank Sinatra while on tour with Dorsey’s band until Buddy joined the Marines in 1942. In 1944 Rich was discharged from the Marines and (re)joined Dorsey, becoming the highest paid sideman in the music business.
Buddy Rich performed and toured with his (own) band right up until the time of his death in 1987. His dexterity, speed and execution are considered the ‘holy grail’ of drum technique.”

“’The greatest drummer ever to have drawn breath.’ – Gene Krupa” (This comment from the most popular drummer who ever lived, or will ever live.)

“’Almost everything I've done, I've done through my own creativity. I don't think I ever had to listen to anyone else to learn how to play drums. I wish I could say that for about ten thousand other drummers.’ –Buddy Rich” (Buddy could be painfully honest.)

“’…I don't think any arranger should ever write a drum part for a drummer because if a drummer can't create his own Interpretation of the chart and he plays everything that's written, he becomes mechanical; he has no freedom.’ – Buddy Rich”
(If you want to listen to and watch the best ever, try this http://www.jazzonthetube.com/page/484.html
OR, if you want to read about a complex and supremely talented jazz musician, and one of the most interesting figures ever in jazz, get a copy of “the Torment of Buddy Rich” by John Minahan, who is a professional writer and was Buddy’s friend and confidant. I just finished the book, and it is a one of the best psychological autopsies I have ever read. And, Buddy Rich had a personality begging for an psychological autopsy.

PREVIEWS OF COMING ATTRACTIONS

1. A review of “Rockoberfest” in Columbus Ohio, featuring the instructor pair, Kevin St. Laurent and (nee Emilie) Jo Hoffberg.
2. I’m certain there will be other attractions, but late October weather in the Northeast U.S. will determine what they will be—my driver don’t go in snow, or even the threat of snow. We might go to Boston, but we might not. We might go to the ALHC in Stamford Connecticut, but we might not. We might flee to the south or not. So much for the tyranny of the semi-solid itinerary.

Allen Hall, Lindy Hopper (Even though what I now do bears little resemblance to Lindy Hop, but I jus’ cain’t hep it. See, I’m suffering from CSDD, “Catastrophic Self-Inflicted Dance Drift.”)

October 21, 2009 Somewhere in, near or next to the Poconos, or maybe it’s the Catskills. Anyway, we’re in mountains which certainly have some kind of unusual (Eastern USA/Indian) name.