Jazz Dance

Jazz Dance Today

Charles Peterson entered the jazz world of New York as a guitarist but made his true contribution documenting an era and its most notable performers. A photographer whose images captured the passion and intensity of his subjects, Peterson took up the camera in the mid-1930s and transformed himself from a performer on stage to a visual recorder and observer of the stage. Creating a photographic style that combines artistic sensibility and technical skill, he became a preeminent New York jazz photographer of the pre-bebop, small combos and Big Band era. A deep love of jazz led Peterson to the legendary clubs of Harlem, 52nd Street, and Greenwich Village; concert halls and ballrooms; jam sessions; recording studios; backstage get-togethers; and private parties. As a jazz scene insider, Peterson had access to all of these formal and informal venues and was often recommended to shoot special events by musicians, record producers, and club owners because, as Eddie Condon once noted, 'he knows how to handle musicians. He won't bother them when he shouldn't bother them and he'll get what you want'. And he did. Among the countless subjects he enshrined on film are Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Zutty Singleton, Fats Waller, Mildred Bailey, Cab Calloway, Pee Wee Russell, Lester Young, and Jack Teagarden. Peterson's photographs expose a startling contrast between integrated bandstands and audiences and the segregated world, and reveal the determination of those who refused to be confined by such oppressive conventions of the time. They depict musicianship and camaraderie, dancing, and technical innovation, as well as the harsh contrast of an all-too-pervasivealcoholism that interrupted the lives of many in that New York scene. Jazz historian and critic W. Royal Stokes provides commentary, historical and biographical information, and lively anecdotes that connect the musicians featured in Peterson's photographs to each other and to the music within the social world of jazz. Don Peterson, the son of Charles Peterson, restored the 229 photographs included here from his father's original negatives. More than half have never been published, while many others have not been seen in print since the 1940s. This striking collection represents a historical document of a city and an era that brought the great jazz and swing musicians of the time to the height of success and solidified their reputations.

In this well-rounded, highly personal account of jazz and its culture, Erenberg shows how a dance subculture forged in New York city in the late 1920s and early 1930s became a music genre of national proportions. 32 halftones.

The swing phenomenon has grabbed the spotlight as a new generation jumps back to discover the pleasures of dancing with partners and dressing in vintage styles. This book documents and evaluates the full range of swing music from the 1920s to today. Over 400 of the best musicians and bands are profiled in capsule biographies. For each artist there are reviews and ratings of notable CDs, as well as information on film appearances, books, and hard-to-find recordings worth a search. Essays, biographies, and reviews cover everything from Classic Swing (Duke Ellington to Glenn Miller) and the post-Swing years, through the Swing/Mainstream jazz movement of the 1980s, to the current Retro Swing craze. This book puts the music in its historical perspective and serves as a perfect introduction to the joys of swing.

From 1925 to 1951--three chaotic decades of depression, war, and social upheaval--Jewish writers brought to the musical stage a powerfully appealing vision of America fashioned through song and dance. It was an optimistic, meritocratic, selectively inclusive America in which Jews could at once lose and find themselves--assimilation enacted onstage and off, as Andrea Most shows. This book examines two interwoven narratives crucial to an understanding of twentieth-century American culture: the stories of Jewish acculturation and of the development of the American musical. Here we delve into the work of the most influential artists of the genre during the years surrounding World War II--Irving Berlin, Eddie Cantor, Dorothy and Herbert Fields, George and Ira Gershwin, Oscar Hammerstein, Lorenz Hart, and Richard Rodgers--and encounter new interpretations of classics such as The Jazz Singer, Whoopee, Girl Crazy, Babes in Arms, Oklahoma!, Annie Get Your Gun, South Pacific, and The King and I. Most's analysis reveals how these brilliant composers, librettists, and perf

Created to introduce Guitarists to the world of Gypsy Jazz Guitar - the course takes you step-by-step through the classic Django tune "Minor Swing". In addition to learning the Tune, Chords and Harmony, you will learn Soloing concepts and Gypsy Rhythm.

Anyone interested in learning about a distinctly American music -- jazz -- will welcome this newest addition to the popular 101 reference series. Jazz may not be America's only original art form, but it is the quintessential American music. Noted anthropologist, critic, and musical scholar John F. Szwed takes readers on a tour of the music's tangled history and explores how it developed from an ethnic music to become America's most popular music and then part of the avant garde in less than fifty years. Jazz 101 presents the key figures, history, theory, and controversies that shaped its development, along with a discussion of some of its most important recordings. It offers insightful commentary on how jazz helped shape twentieth-century American painting, film, poetry, dance, fiction, pop and classical music, and the consciousness of what it means to be American.

Covers American history from 1920 until 1929 with an emphasis on social history. Includes 100 or more black-and-white photographs, fact boxes, box features/sidebars, margin quotations, a glossary, further reading list, and an index. Annotation. The decade nicknamed the Roaring Twenties was a time when the nation was at peace and the standard of living was, for the most part, rising. This time witnessed the birth of jazz and of uninhibited dance crazes such as the Charleston. It was an era of such industrial giants as Henry Ford and of big-city gangsters such as Al Capone. However, in October 1929, the stock market crashed, the economy began to collapse, and the Great Depression of the 1930s began. America in the 1920s describes how a seemingly carefree decade began with dashed hopes for future world peace and ended with dark fears of economic ruin. With the help of more than 100 photographs, interesting box features, and pull-out quotations and facts, this book traces the history of a rapidly changing decade.

Frank Hatchett -- one of the most well-known, influential teachers and choreographers in the world -- shares his unique style of jazz dance -- VOP. Hatchett's hints and 242 movement photos accompany each level and address proper alignment, technique, and common areas for improvement.

If you participate in more than one sport or fitness activity--whether it's golf in the summer and squash in the winter; running on Mondays and tennis on Tuesdays; or a combined daily workout at the gym--then you are cross-training. You may be doing it to achieve more complete fitness; to relieve the boredom of engaging in only one activity; to combat prohibitive weather conditions; or to prevent injuries; but you're doing it, and 'Cross-Training' is the perfect companion. Find out the what, when, why, how, and where of cross-training, and: which muscles are worked by which sports; how to combine your favorite activities into an all-around workout; cross-training to enhance performance in a single sport or event; using cross-training to help avoid injury; working less common activities--like waterskiing, in-line skating, jazz dancing, and boxing--into your cross-training program; and much, much more.

A work of art, whether a painting, a dance, a poem, or a jazz composition, can be admired in its own right. But how does the artist actually create his or her work? What is the source of an artist's inspiration? What is the force that impels the artist to set down a vision that becomes art? In this groundbreaking book, poet and critic Edward Hirsch explores the concept of duende, that mysterious, highly potent power of creativity that results in a work of art. It has been said that Laurence Olivier had it, and so did Ernest Hemingway, but Maurice Evans and John O'Hara did not. Marlon Brando had it but squandered it. Billie Holiday and Bessie Smith had it, and so did Miles Davis. From Federico Garcia Lorca's wrestling with darkness as he discovered the fountain of words within himself to Martha Graham's creation of her most emotional dances, from the canvases of Robert Motherwell to William Blake's celestial visions, Hirsch taps into the artistic imagination and explains, in terms illuminating and emotional, how different artists respond to the power and