Shuffle Projects

Swinging Projects for Lindy Hop & Balboa Dancers

History/Culture

Index of Basic Classic Dance Clips – Compiled by Bobby White

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To all swing dancers and jazz historians

Whiteys Lindy Hoppers

Please take a minute (actually an hour or so) and check out this amazing source!

With a huge effort, Jack the Vampire aka Bobby White compiled a really long index of classic basic clips from, before and after the swing era and released it on his blog Swungover.

The index is separated in different styles:

  • Pre-Swing
  • Lindy Hop
  • Balboa and Bal-Swing
  • Collegiate Shag
  • Solo Jazz and Misc. Jazz Choreographies
  • Blues
  • Misc.

For each clip, Bobby provides the year of its origin and a short description.

Here is the link:

An Index of Basic Classic Clips

And don't forget to leave a comment on Bobby's website!

Thank you Bobby for your awesome work!

Related posts:
The “Heavy” Follower – Article by Bobby White

Pops like never before! Armstrong Museum Catalog Online

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As the Louis Armstrong House Museum tweeted yesterday, their Museum Collections are available for online browsing:

Louis Armstrong House Museum Online Catalog

The Louis Armstrong House Museum holds the world's largest archives devoted to a single jazz musician. Its collections encompass more than 5,000 sound recordings, 15,000 photographs, 30 films, 100 scrapbooks, 20 linear feet of letters and papers, and six trumpets.

Researchers, record companies, publishers, film producers, public school students, and many others routinely use these materials. Since 1994, more than a dozen books and recordings have been published based on research from the collections, including Terry Teachout's Pops, a notable book of 2010.

New records will be updated and added continuously, by the end of 2011, the Museum's entire catalog will be online. At the moment, the catalog contains the Louis Armstrong Collection, the Jack Bradley Collection and the Louis Armstrong House Collection.

>> Link to the Online Catalog

Gottlieb Jazz Photos on Flickr (Library of Congress Collections)

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Gottlieb Jazz Photos (Library of Congress Collections)Through a post on Yehoodi.com, I came across William P. Gottlieb's great photos, made available by the Library of Congress.

Although the photos are amazingly beautiful, I sometimes wish to watch them in colour. Just to see what clothes they wore and how the interior decoration looked like. Our imagination of that time is always black and white, isn't it.

Gottlieb was both a notable jazz journalist and a self-taught photographer who captured the personalities of jazz musicians – as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Thelonious Monk, Ella Fitzgerald, and many more – and told their stories with his camera and typewriter.

Celebrated jazz artists come to life in photographs by William P. Gottlieb. His images document the jazz scene in New York City and Washington, D.C., from 1938 to 1948, a time recognized by many as the «Golden Age of Jazz».

The first 219 images in the set show the photos published alongside the photographer's personal recollections in his book, The Golden Age of Jazz.

More photos will be added each month until all 1,600 are in Flickr.

The Library of Congress is the national library for the United States, based in Washington, DC. They are also the world's largest library.

>> Link: Gottlieb Jazz Photos

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DJ Chrisbe’s Song of the Week #33: Chimes Blues

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While teaching a workshop about jazz and swing music history, I had the idea to post from time to time a song which had a great impact to (early) jazz music.

On August 8, 1922, Louis Armstrong moved from New Orleans to Chicago to join King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band.

At the Lincoln Gardens, they developed their cornet duet style («breaks»): Armstrong played a second cornet line while Oliver was playing the first cornet.

With Armstrong as a member, the already popular band took Chicago by storm.

On April 5, 1923, Oliver and Armstrong travelled by train from Chicago to Richmond Indiana to make their first recordings at Gennett Records.

One title they recorded was Chimes Blues and this recording is a milestone in history. Armstrong improvised with such a great intensity nobody had ever heard before.

Title: Chimes Blues
Artist: King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band
Recorded: 6.4.1923
Tempo: 161 bpm
Genre: Early Jazz

Click the link to download the song from: Amazon ･ iTunes

You can find the songs of the series also on my Spotify playlist. Official hashtag of the series: #djcsotw

Do you like the «Song of the Week» series? Share your thoughts below.

Now Check Out:

The Savoy King – Feature Documentary in Post-Production

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Facebook might be overwhelming but sometimes I discover interesting things like these rough cut clips from an upcoming feature documentary «THE SAVOY KING: Chick Webb and the Music That Changed America» which seems to be in post-production now.

THE SAVOY KING, produced/directed/written by Jeff Kaufman, is about the Swing-era drummer-bandleader Chick Webb, Ella Fitzgerald and Harlem's Savoy Ballroom.

These clips are from the latest cut of the film, finished on October 6, 2010.

Rough Cut Clip: «Ella Fitzgerald Vignette»

Interviews with Norma Miller, Frankie Manning and Van Alexander, among others!



Rough Cut Clip: “Chick Webb Vignette”

Interviews with Norma Miller, Louis Bellson and Joe Wilder, among others!




I love watching documentaries, especially about the Swing era, and I'm looking forward to the release of The Savoy King.