Midsummer Night Swing, July 9, 2009, Part 2

Midsummer Night Swing, July 9, 2009

from: lincoln center's midsummer night swing site

Reedman Frank Tiberi leads The Woody Herman Orchestra, who's members performed under the esteemed band leader himself. Mixing classic arrangements with new charts to suit the bands hard swinging style, a perfect blend from the first dance to the last.
Midsummer Night Swing, now in its 21st season, heats up Damrosch Park with the rhythms that keep New York dancing. This year brings out the very best of swing, salsa, soul, tango, rockabilly, and much more, showcasing some of the finest musicians and DJs from this country and abroad. For dance fanatics, enthusiastic beginners, and everyone in between, Midsummer Night Swing is the city's hot spot for three weeks in July.

Tiberi's band was excellent, but the video consists of still images from the event combined with the original Woody Herman orchestra featuring the great Rosemary Clooney:
composed by Billy Hill

You've got to give a little, take a little,
And let your poor heart break a little.
That's the story of, that's the glory of love.
You've got to laugh a little, cry a little,
Until the clouds roll by a little.
Thats the story of, thats the glory of love.
As long as theres the two of us,
Weve got the world and all its charms.
And when the world is through with us,
We've got each others arms.
You've got to win a little, lose a little,
Yes, and always have the blues a little.
That's the story of, that's the glory of love.
That's the story of, that's the glory of love.

Frankie Manning 2

from the 95th birthday celebration Minnie's Moocher's performance

Frankie Manning

Frankie died on April 28th, just a few weeks shy of his big 95th birthday celebration in New York that occurred this weekend. Above, arguably the greatest swing dance routine ever filmed. He choreographed the routine and appears in it (he's the dancer in the overalls). I'd love to figure out a way to make him an honorary KVer. Maybe if I turn up an early KVer who was part of the 1930's swing dance craze and met him at the Savoy ? An excerpt from an article about him from the nytimes from this past

Honoring the Man Who Helped Make the Lindy Hop, By GLENN COLLINS
“A-one, a-two, a-you know what to do.”
And they certainly did: they danced the Lindy hop, and danced again. Right there in the sacred aisles of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in Manhattan. They were incited by a series of speakers who repeated this signature catch phrase of the dance legend Frankie Manning during a rollicking three-hour memorial service in his honor Friday, attended by 1,400 Lindy-crazed acolytes who had journeyed there from 33 countries.
Then the celebrants erupted through the church doors onto Fifth Avenue in a New Orleans-style processional — clapping, dancing and sporting umbrellas in the May sun as they were led by a jazz band in singing “Down by the Riverside” and “When the Saints Go Marching In.” They ended up, still sashaying, by the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park for an afternoon of Lindy competitions.
The memorial was the centerpiece of a five-day celebration of the life of Mr. Manning, who died in April at the age of 94. A proselytizer, teacher and choreographer, Mr. Manning was called the Ambassador of the Lindy Hop and the Master of Swing. He went from the Depression-era Savoy Ballroom in Harlem to Hollywood and Broadway, where he shared a Tony Award in 1989 for best choreography in “Black and Blue.”
“Frankie was the living symbol of the Lindy hop,” said Marv Kellerman, 62, a retired teacher from Kenosha, Wis., who arrived Thursday for the events with a clutch of avid Lindy hoppers from America’s Dairyland.
Mr. Manning was nicknamed “Musclehead” for his powerfully quick acrobatic style, as he hurled his swing partners through show-stopping athletic sequences — and sometimes through space, in what was called his “aerial” or “air step.” Mr. Manning appeared in such Hollywood musicals as “Radio City Revels” (1938) and “Hellzapoppin’ ” (1941), before serving in the Army in World War II.....
After the Lindy craze crashed, Mr. Manning found employment as a post office clerk. But by the time he retired in 1986, a new generation of American and European enthusiasts had rediscovered not only the Lindy, but also Mr. Manning.
He soon became a dapper, charismatic Pied Piper of the Lindy, which he described as “a series of three-minute romances,” insisting that it was a social leveler that swept aside ethnic, class and gender traditions. Many said Mr. Manning’s stamina hardly attenuated with age. “The first time you saw him, he appeared to be an old man,” recalled Silvia Palazzolo, 35, an accountant from Genoa, Italy. “Then the music started and he was 18 years old.”
In 1999, Mr. Manning danced with 85 successive partners at the Roseland Ballroom to celebrate his 85th birthday. It was satisfying, said Alan Sugarman, a producer of that event, since in 1935 Mr. Manning had been excluded from the hall because he was black.. “In 1999, Roseland apologized and put Frankie’s dance shoes on their wall of fame,” he said. During the balmy afternoon Lindy hoppers at the bandshell partied on, continuing the five-day celebration, featuring 15 bands and some 70 events.

Taking A Chance On Love: Hazel Scott

Hazel Dorothy Scott (June 11, 1920 – October 2, 1981) was a jazz and classical pianist and singer. She was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago and raised in New York City from the age of four. She performed extensively on piano as a child, then trained at the Juilliard School. She appeared in the production Priorities of 1942 and performed numerous times at the famed Carnegie Hall.
Her motion picture career included the films Something To Shout About, I Dood It, Broadway Rhythm, The Heat's On, and Rhapsody in Blue.
She was known for improvising on classical themes and also played boogie-woogie, blues, and ballads. She was the first woman of color to have her own television show, The Hazel Scott Show, which premiered on the DuMont Television Network on July 3, 1950. However, due to her public opposiiton to McCarthyism and racial segregation, the show was canceled in 1950 when she was accused of being a Communist sympathizer; the final broadcast was September 29, 1950.

Above: Hazel's address in 1930

Her album Relaxed Piano Moodson the Debut Record label with Charles Mingus and Max Roach, is the album most highly regarded by critics today.
She was married to U.S. Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. from 1945 to 1956, by whom she had one child before their divorce, Adam Clayton Powell III.
She died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 61 on October 2, 1981 at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City.

Taking A Chance On Love: Jane Monheit

Jane's from Long Island and now lives in Manhattan

Jane Monheit was raised in Oakdale, New York on Long Island. She began singing professionally while attending Connetquot High School in Bohemia,N.Y. from which she graduated in 1995. As a child, Jane spent her summers as a student at the Usdan Center For the Creative and Performing Arts, and is a recipient of their distinguished alumna award. As a student at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City, she studied voice under Peter Eldridge. Jane graduated with honors from the Manhattan School of Music in 1999, earning a BA in music and receiving the William H.Borden Award for outstanding accomplishment in Jazz. Along with Tierney Sutton and Roberta Gambarini, she was a semi-finalist in the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Vocal Competition in 1998, losing to Teri Thornton. She and her husband, drummer Rick Montalbano, currently reside in New York. They have one child.

Taking A Chance On Love: June Christy

Taking A Chance On Love: Benny Goodman and Helen Forrest

There's a guy from 14 Monroe who I know who's currently taking a chance. Good luck kid
A great rendition of a great song by Vernon Duke and John LaTouche. It's sung here by one of the best of the big band singers Helen Forrest. Hymie Schertzer and Art Rollini are visible at approximately the 38 second mark of the video

Here I go again
I hear those trumpets blow again
All aglow again
Taking a chance on love
Here I slide again
About to take that ride again
Starry eyed again
Taking a chance on love
I thought that cards were a frame-up
I never would try
Now I'm taking that game up
And the ace of hearts is high
Things are mending now
I see a rainbow blending now
We'll have a happy ending now
Taking a chance on love
Here I slip again
About to take that trip again
I got that grip again
Taking a chance on love
Now I prove again
That I can make life move again
I'm in a groove again
Taking a chance on love
I walk around with a horseshoe
In clover I lie
And brother rabbit of course you
Better kiss your foot good-bye
On that ball again
I'm riding for a fall again
I'm gonna give my all again
Taking a chance on love

Life Goes To A Party: Benny Goodman 2

Life Swing

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Life Goes To A Party: Benny Goodman

Many of the images are from Life Magazine's 1937 spread on Benny The tune, named "Life Goes To a Party" gained its inspiration from the article and was a highlight from the historic 1938 Carnegie Hall Concert