Chick Webb

Happy Birthday Chick Webb 1905(7,9)-1939...Although he was small of stature with a badly twisted frame due to childhood tuberculosis of the spine, he was a giant behind a drum set. His childhood doctor recommended he take up a musical instrument to "loosen up" his bones. Webb earned money for his drums selling newspapers and by age 11 was playing professionally on pleasure boats in and around his home town of Baltimore. He moved to New York at the age of 17 and began leading bands in various clubs before settling in for long regular runs at the Savoy Ballroom beginning in 1931. He established himself there as one of the best regarded drummers and bandleaders of the Swing style. He couldn't read music but had an amazing capacity to memorize all of the arrangements for his band and conducted from a platform placed in the center. For his drum set he had custom made pedals, goose-neck cymbals, a 28 inch bass drum and a wide variety of other percussion instruments which allowed him to produce his signature complex, thundering solos, sadly not captured in all of their energetic glory by the primitive Decca recordings of the time. Although his band did not become as influential or revered as some of his contemporaries in the long run, it was feared at the time in the Battle of the Bands at the Savoy. A famous encounter with the Benny Goodman band at it's peak (with Gene Krupa on the drums) left Goodman's band drained and defeated. In 1935, Webb hired the teenaged Ella Fitzgerald after she won a talent contest at the Apollo and from that point on, Webb let the music revolve around her prodigious talents. His biggest hit record in 1938, "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" was Fitzgerald's idea based on a childhood rhyme. By November 1938, Webb's health began to decline, although he continued to play and tour in order to keep his band employed during the Great Depression, disregarding his own physical discomfort and fatigue, sometimes passing out between sets from exhaustion. He died after an operation in June 1939. On February 12, 1940, a crowd of over 7,500 people gathered to honor the first "King of Swing". (Like many jazz musicians, Webb's birth year has been disputed. The current accepted date is 1905)

Blanche Calloway

Happy Birthday Blanche Calloway 1902-1978...Singer, composer and bandleader, Blanche Calloway was the first woman to lead an all-male orchestra, the first African-American woman to vote in Florida in 1958! and whose flamboyant, energetic performance style was a major influence on her younger brother Cab. She got her start at 19 in 1921 in Eubie Blakes "Shuffle Along" then went on to make a splash on national tour of "Plantation Days", staying on in Chicago where she would be a popular performer on the scene. She played the popular Ciro Club in New York and continued to tour until she joined Any Kirk's Philadelphia based band in 1931, learning a great deal about band management in the process. By the end of 1931 she had formed her own all-male big band, Blanche Calloway and her Joy Boys, recording and performing until 1938 when she broke up the group, declaring bankruptcy. As a musician she was considered exceptional but she had limited opportunities due to segregation and the expected gender roles of the time. In the mid-40s she became active in local politics in Philadelphia which she would carry through to Florida and back to Baltimore where she grew up. She was a member of the NAACP, The Congress of Racial Equality and served on the board of the National Urban League. She died after a 12 year fight with breast cancer at the age of 76.

Blanche and her Joy Boys singing her signature song "I Need Lovin'"

Eubie Blake

Happy Birthday Eubie Blake 1887-1983...Born in Baltimore, Maryland to former slaves, Blake showed very early musical promise prompting his mother to buy him a $75 pump organ for 25 cents a week. At the age of 7 he was taking music lessons, at 12 he composed the "Charleston Rag" and by the age of 15 he was sneaking out of the house to play piano at a local bordello. His first big break came when world champion boxer Joe Gans hired him to play piano at his Goldfield Hotel, the first "black and tan" club in Baltimore in 1907. Blake soon joined forces with Noble Sissle as a vaudeville act duo and began working on a musical revue which would become the ground breaking "Shuffle Along", the first hit musical on Broadway written by and about African-Americans. Songs from the musical, including "I'm Just Wild About Harry", "Love Will Find a Way" and "Charleston Rag', would become standards and many of the actors, dancers and musicians in the show would go on to greater fame. The duo also made three short films in 1923 now preserved by The Library of Congress. Blake served as a bandleader for the USO during WW2 and as his career began to wind down, went to New York University, earning his degree in 2 1/2 years. The fifties saw a revival in interest in Ragtime music and Blake saw himself launching another career as ragtime artist, music historian and educator. In 1978 his early life and music became the subject of the Broadway hit, "Eubie!". He made numerous television appearances and continued to play and record late into his life up until his death at 96 (Apparently Eubie fudged his birthday to appear even more remarkable than he was . His real birth date has been identified by various documents as four years younger than the 100 he claimed to be at his death. But who really cares)

Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle

Carlton Coon

Happy Birthday Carleton Coon 1894-1932...Band leader, vocalist, drummer and one of the founders of the legendary Coon-Sanders Nighthawk Orchestra, the first Kansas City jazz band to achieve national recognition. Founded in 1919, the band began broadcasting live in 1922 from the Muehlebach Hotel on clear channel radio which reached a nearly national audience. They were called the Nighthawks because of their late night broadcasts from 11:30-1:00am. By 1924, their fan club had reached 37,000 members and fans were encouraged to make requests for songs by letter, telephone or telegraph, a move that proved so popular that Western Union set up a ticker tape between Coon's drums and Sanders' piano so they could be read during the broadcasts. The orchestra moved to Chicago in 1924, first broadcasting from a roadhouse and then from the famous Blackhawk during the winter while they toured during the summer. At their peak, each member of the band had their own Cord automobile in a different color with the name of the owner and the orchestra embossed on the rear. They moved to New York in 1932 for an 11 month engagement but Coon came down with a jaw infection and died. Sanders tried to keep the band going but without Coon, the public lost interest.

Lil Hardin Armstrong

Happy Birthday Lil Hardin Armstrong...Jazz pianist, composer, arranger, singer and band leader, this talented woman was also instrumental in forming the career of her second husband, Louis Armstrong. In 1918, at the age of 25 she was working in a music store playing the latest sheet music for customers when Jelly Roll Morton walked in, sat at the piano and introduced her to the world of jazz. Hardin began to add Morton-like embellishments to the music she was playing to the delight of the customers. The store also functioned as a booking agency for musicians in and visiting Chicago and within three weeks at the job she was invited to join Lawrence Duhe's New Orleans Creole Jazz Band. In 1922 King Oliver's band picked her up next where she would meet the very unpolished but extremely talented Louis Armstrong. She took Armstrong under her wing, grooming his sartorial as well as his musical style, encouraging him to leave his mentor for Fletcher Henderson's band while she lead her own band in Chicago. Always ambitious for herself and her husband, Hardin encouraged Armstrong to return to Chicago after a year with Henderson to form their own band which would become the "Hot Five" and the "Hot Seven". Hardin would continue to record with some of the same musicians under her own name. Louis Armstrong had a wandering eye and their relationship began to cool by the late 20s. In 1931 they were separated (divorcing in 1938) and Hardin went on the form an all woman big band then a mixed gender band which would broadcast nationally on NBC radio. During the latter half of the 30's she was the house pianist at Decca, recording 26 titles as a leader and vocalist including her composition "Just for a Thrill". Although she rarely recorded during the 40s and 50s she remained active in Chicago for the last 30 years of her career. She died of a heart attack at the age of 71 playing piano at a memorial for Louis Armstrong who had passed away 4 weeks earlier.



Just for a Thrill was her composition and has been covered by many artists including Ray Charles and Peggy Lee.

Dance Masters

As an aging but not Over-the-Hill-Yet Lindy Hop dancer, I've watched plenty of dance competitions. In most of them the average age of the competitors was somewhere around 25-35 which is not surprising since Lindy Hop is a very athletic dance and proving your skills and prowess at top speeds is a given. Even though in my fantasies I longed to get out there and dance to "Jumpin' at the Woodside" I knew that I would pay a heavy price, in body if not in ego. Secretly, I wanted some organizer to realize that there are plenty of dancers like me who are still vital and engaged in their dancing and want to celebrate Lindy diversity by showcasing them in a contest and most definitely NOT an intergenerational contest. I've been in several of those and it felt like being an oddity in a zoo (Oh, look at the old people dancing! How cute!) or in a popularity contest when the winner was chosen by applause. I wanted a real contest limited to an older age group with real judges and maybe even prizes because, why not, everyone else gets them. I eventually ran the idea by a few organizers and the response I got was, "We already have an Intergenrational contest" or "I don't think anyone would be interested". Hhhmmmm.
The idea was then put away in some back corner in the attic of my brain.

David Blood runs the Lindy Hop classes at City College here in San Francisco and I have the privilege of teaching with him. The college has been under the gun financially and any extras have been stripped away and that included funding for production classes, help with costuming, etc., for the swing classes. If we wanted to keep those important components alive we were going to have to raise the money ourselves. Since both of our birthdays fall in the month of January we decided to hold a benefit dance and joint birthday party. As I went about putting the event together, I realized this was the perfect opportunity to hold a Masters Jack and Jill myself-but would anyone actually enter it? I asked a few friends and got a positive response so I went about finding judges and asking the different organizers if they would donate prizes. I was thinking if I got five couples I would be very happy and call it a success.

I began to realize that the contest wasn't just a fun idea for Bay Area dancers over 50, but a way to showcase the more "seasoned" dancers, dancers fun to dance with but sometimes overlooked by the younger population. Some of the contestants were also dancers who were instrumental in the return of Lindy Hop to the Bay Area during the resurgence of the dance. There are a whole host of new dancers who don't know who those people are and the role they played in reestablishing the dance they love here. History is important, people. This was a way for those dancers to be seen and celebrated. The night before the event I printed out sheets for the judges and made numbers for the contestants. I had no idea how many dancers would participate but I settled randomly on the number 16 and made sets of 16 numbers for the followers and 16 for the leaders and made a sign up sheet with 16 spots for each.

To my great surprise, exactly 16 leaders and 16 followers signed up! Here they are, filling the dance floor!

Dancers had come from all over the Bay Area to participate-from San Francisco and the East Bay and from as far away as Sacramento and San Jose-and many of them, for all of their years of dancing, had NEVER entered a contest before.

Here is the first song:



You could feel the energy and support from the audience right through to the end of the fourth song. I don't believe in my wildest dreams I thought it would be that magical. Here are the names of the winners:

First Place Ken Watanabe and Cheryl McBride
Second Place Matt Horrigan and Linda Lau
Third Place Jeremy Sutton and Irene Kalwa Nute
Lindy Spirit Award Chuck Dee and Sharon Crocker

It was a very special night for me. I was surrounded by a loving and supportive Lindy Community who not only came to celebrate with David and me but who came to help the swing program at City College and to cheer on those awesome dancers!

I have to give special thanks to Nathan Dias who volunteered his time to DJ the contest, to the judges, Iris Dolowitz Tarou, Kylie Woodard, Kirk Tarou and Gilles Bouvier for also volunteering their talents and to the organizers of Epic Swing, Swingin' at the Savoy, the 9:20 Special and SF Swing Jam for donating the prizes.

The moral of the story? If you want something done, sometimes you have to do it yourself. But more importantly, if you want a thriving dance community it's important to honor not only the young, up and coming dancers on the scene, but to recognize the dancers with a few more miles on the speedometer in a real and meaningful way.

Oh, and this awesomeness happened too. This performance by Mike Daniele (72) and Corie Van Theil (75) had the audience on their feet!




The photograph at the top of the blog is of Frankie Manning and Cynthia Millman

T'ain't What Ya Do, It's the Way that Ya Do it

"How can I make myself look good as a dancer?" It's a question I've been getting from students lately. They have gotten themselves to a level where they feel comfortable on the dance floor as a social dancer but they want to improve the quality of their movement. All of us move in a way that is unique to ourselves but there are some things you can do as a dancer to make your movement smoother and more stylish-and more "you".

When your mother told you to stand up straight she was doing you a favor. As dancers, we can only work with the body we've grown into and if we have created bad habits in posture along the way, we'll need to break those first. Pay attention to how you move as you sit, stand and walk. Ideally we should be creating a straight back by engaging our core (the area around the middle of your body, especially the abdominal muscles) dropping our shoulders and pulling our shoulder blades down toward the floor and stacking our neck and head directly over that. As children we did that naturally.

You can do that sitting there now as you read this. If you consciously practice good posture during the day it will stop feeling awkward and start feeling GOOD. Your body will thank you! Get a buddy to remind you when you head back to your old habits.

Stretch! Once we pass our 30's it's a cruel truth that we start to loose our natural strength and flexibility. Take a yoga class, a Pilates class, a dance strengthening class or a ballet class. All of those classes will work on your core too. And, do sit-ups. Yeah I know, I hate them too.

Work on balance (see classes above) You can also do simple balance exercises at home. Stand on one foot with the other foot slightly raised for 10 seconds, then change feet and do the same. Do it 10 times. Do that but bend the standing knee as well. Do that but raise a bent knee even with your hips. Now, do all of that with your eyes closed. You will find that if you engage your core it will be easier and if you are barefoot you will get a good sense of how you distribute your weight. Knowing where you are shifting your weight as you dance makes your dancing look smoother and allows for more precise leading and following.

Work on endurance. When you are in better aerobic shape you will feel less winded and look more energetic as you dance. You'll also be able to dance more dances.

Have someone take video of you when you are dancing. We all hate watching ourselves dancing but try doing this exercise as you watch the video. Look at yourself as just another dancer on the floor. Find two or three things about that dancer that looks good to you (examples might be: they are engaged with their partner, they added some fun footwork at one point, they have a nice bounce in that Charleston) Now find one or two things that could be better (they are pulling themselves toward their partner in the swing out, they look at the floor too much) Those are your dance goals for now. Wait a while and then ask to be videoed again and check on those goals. Change them as you improve.

As you watch the videos you'll start to recognize a certain style or way of moving that comes naturally to you. Look at dancers on YouTube and try to find people who match your style. Watch them and copy them. All art is derivative. If you go to any major art museum you will find students sketching and, if allowed, painting what the Masters before them have created. Just be aware that to be a carbon copy of someone is not the goal. You are learning from them in order to be a better dancer who dances like you.

Stephan and Bethany dance differently than...



Juan and Sharon, who dance differently than...



Kevin and Jo



Variety is the spice of life! By the way, those dancers didn't just jump onto the dance floor right out of the gate looking like that. They worked hard to develop their style and work hard to keep evolving.

Loosen up! When you go out social dancing people are going to watch you and sometimes they will watch you intently and YOU WON'T EVEN KNOW IT! If that fact freaks you out you might as well go back to dancing to Abba in your bedroom. Dance time=playtime...otherwise why would you add an extra chore to your life? Put yourself in a dance bubble with your partner and make them the only other person in the room. Smile more, laugh if something funny happens, cheer your partner on, encourage play in your dancing and you will discover more about your dancing style. As an exercise, join the Ministry of Silly Walks.



Well, you don't have to be that silly if you don't want to, but when you have a distance to walk try to vary how you walk every block. Dance in slow motion, dance like you are underwater, or on fire or weightless. Think of an animal and dance like it might if it stood on two legs. You might just come up with something awesome. Someone came up with the Camel Walk, right? Do it in front of a mirror and try to repent the moves you like the best. Video yourself doing it.


Above all, to thine own self be true-dance like YOU.