Comedy

The great James "Buster" Brown once told me that what he really enjoyed seeing when going to, or performing in, vaudeville/variety shows were the comedy acts. Of course, Buster was a great tap dancer but he also had a flair for comedy. Whether through telling jokes or moving in a physically playful way, many tap dancers know how to get a laugh and engage the audience. Having done clowning and mime, I know what it's like to make the audience have a good time. In fact, when I was on The New York Committee to Celebrate National Tap Dance Day we put on a show at Town Hall in 2000 called, The Elegance of Tap & The Comedy of Tap". Buster was one of the performers and it was hosted by Bill Irwin, not a bad tapper himself! So, here are just a few examples of tap and comedy.

Buster loved telling jokes. One of his favorites was telling the audience he was going to do the "Elevator Dance", then he would just stand there and then say, "No steps". But those of us who knew him always waited for the joke he was best known for. Here he is with The Copasetics in a performance I recorded in 1988, telling his "Light Bulb" joke.

Another member of The Copasetics was Leslie "Bubba" Gaines. Here he is from the same performance as above doing his "Fishing" joke.

One of my best friends is someone I know from the world of clowning and physical comedy, John Towsen. He is a clown, author, educator, and all round good guy with a blog called, "All Fall Down: The Craft & Art of Physical Comedy".  A few years ago, he posted about a performer named, Georges Holmes and even shared it with me, in case I knew more about him, since Holmes was a tap dancer, in addition to his other variety skills. At the time I didn't know of him, and assumed, as did John, that he was French because he briefly speaks it in the clip and it appears to be in France. I recently decided to do some internet investigation and did find something on a "Rubberneck" Holmes. Looking at the few clips of "Rubberneck" from the 1930s and comparing it with John's clip from the 1950s I saw enough similarity to believe they were the same guy. He was not French, and may have been from Boston, but probably moved to Europe like a lot of African American artists of a certain era. Click here to see the 1959 clip of Holmes posted on John's blog and look below to see a younger Holmes in action. The clip is from the 1938 "Duke Is Tops" also known as "Bronze Venus", and Holmes shows up @4:17. By the way, Lena Horne is featured in this film.

Here is a multitalented showman, whom I happened across in my YouTube surfing, named Marcel Peneux.  He was born in South America but studied in the US and has evidently toured extensively in Europe.  I also just discovered that a clown colleague and artist, Karen Gersch, knows of his work and even painted a large portrait of him!

One of my tap friends is Rod Ferrone, who is definitely cut from the vaudeville "cloth". He dances, sings and is known for his relationships with hats...

When I googled "Tap, Comedy", one of the names that came up was George Wallace. Now, I'm of a generation where that name conjures up an image far removed from tap dancing or comedy, to say the least (if you don't know what I'm talking about, talk to an elder). But it turns out this George Wallace had a long career as one of Australia's top comedian's. This is him in 1931. Unfortunately, the film it's from was not indicated on YouTube.

Speaking of comedians, when he was at his peak as a comedian, Steve Martin did a TV special in 1981, with Gregory Hines as one of his guests. The two do their tap version of "Fit As A Fiddle", a tune famous for its use as a dance number with Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor in the film "Singin' In The Rain."

In 1978, I was one of the stage managers on Sesame Street and the show, Eubie, was also on Broadway. One of the Sesame cast members, Alaina Reed, was in Eubie and managed to get Gregory and his brother Maurice, who were also in Eubie, to do some bits on Sesame Street. I happened to be working that day and remember well the shooting of this and some other bits that they did.

This last clip is also from Sesame Street when Shuffleupagus learns to tap dance. I actually helped in some of the staging of this. It was challenging to work with Snuffy on some simple tap, but he got it! You'll see. Also, check out Ruth Buzzi who was a regular on the show at one point. This is from 1996.

OK, have fun and laugh when you can!

Music: Part 3

I remember hearing Brenda Bufalino once say that tap dancers should know a lot of tunes and also know the lyrics to those tunes, the knowledge of which would inform their dance. Tap dancers are inspired musically in many different ways, depending on their culture, influences, individual tastes, and any number of other reasons. There are some standard tunes that traditionally have been used by tap dancers and there are some tunes that have been closely associated with some dancers. Following are just a few examples of music and tap. In the comments section below, or on social media, let me know what tunes you like to use!

"Liza" is a tune that was written by George Gershwin. I've heard it used mostly with a short tap routine called "The BS Chorus", that was often done by The Copasetics. Here is a version of the tune performed by Jimmie Noone and his Orchestra. Click here to see Chuck Green and Ralph Brown dance to this recording. Click here to see The Copasetics do the BS Chorus.

Another vintage standard is "Bye, Bye Blues" by Fred Hamm, Dave Bennett, Bert Lown, and Chauncey Gray. Tap dancers would use it in stop time. Here is a fun rendition of the tune by a group called Blazin' Banjos. At about 2:39 in, they go stop time and you can see how easily tap could work with the whole tune done that way!

Here's another use of stop time on a tune, which became associated with a tap dancer. The dancer was Peg Leg Bates and the tune is "Sleep" by Fred Waring. This is a 1928 recording of Fred Waring & His Pennsylvanians doing it "normally." Click here to see Peg Leg use it in a whole other way!

There are some artists whose music tap dancers find easy to work with. Two such artists are Count Basie and Oscar Peterson. They are liked because when they play, space can be left in the music for dance. In a class I once took with Dianne Walker, she used the tune, "I'm Confessin' (That I Love You)", played by Basie and Peterson. I wound up using it a lot when I taught. Imagine how you'd move to this...

I believe, if you really pay close attention and listen, you can tap to any kind of music. If you've never seen Leon Collins dance to Nikolai Rimski-Korsakow's, "The Flight of the Bumblebee", you will now be in for a treat. The music also segues into "Begin The Beguine" by Cole Porter.

I have an appreciation of many genres of music but, as a Baby Boomer, there is just some stuff from Motown that hits me in a special way. I had a idea to do a tap piece to a Stevie Wonder tune I love and got a chance to do it at the 4th Annual NJ Tap Festival in 2013. 

So, go find "your" music and dance!!!!

YouTube finds: Part 2

Two posts ago I talked about roaming YouTube. One of the things that happens is my discovery of dancers of the past I am unfamiliar with. It's great knowing that there is always something new to learn. Here are some examples of tap dancers I found. If you know more about any of them, let me know!

The first is from the 1938 film, God's Step Children directed by the pioneer black filmmaker, Oscar Micheaux whose career spanned about 30 years. Usually, he found ways to include nightclub dance sequences in his films. This dancer is identified as Sammy Gardiner.

This is Cora La Redd with the Noble Sissle Orchestra from That's The Spirit, a one-reel musical comedy made in 1933. The film also includes the great Mantan Moreland and Flournoy Miller, who collaborated with Sissle and Eubie Blake to create the 1921 stage musical Shuffle Along.

I got really intrigued by this dancer, Lorraine Krueger, because I liked the rhythms and steps she was doing. It had me wondering who influenced her, and I felt pretty sure it had to be a black dancer. Well, in doing research and viewing more clips of her, I found my answer. The first clip, from the short 1940 film, Tickled Pinky, is what I initially saw. The second clip is from the 1944 film, Career Girl, and gives me my answer. Her introduction of her dance in that clip reveals those times and I think it'll be pretty obvious who her influence was!

I'm always fascinated by dance acts, and found this act called The Steiner Brothers from a 1958 television show. What I usually do, when I run across something I don't know much about, is look it up quickly online. In this case, I found an article about these brothers. Turns out they were from Canada and, as of this 2016 article, are still around. Click here to read the article.

This last one is for you Baby Boomers out there. It's not really of someone I never heard of, but is someone I didn't realized tap danced (should have been in my Part 1 "YouTube finds" post!). One of the stars of the 1950s sit com Father Knows Best, was Elinor Donahue, who played the oldest daughter of the characters played by Robert Young and Jane Wyatt. I knew she had been a dancer, but didn't know she tapped. Here she is doing it in an episode of that show.

If the shoe fits...

Reminder: If you want each blog post sent to you, submit your email address at "Follow By Email" on the right column.

Laraine Goodman's shoes

My first pair of tap shoes were shiny, patent leather ones bought at a store called Selva on Broadway. I was about 10 or 11, studying at the Mable Hart Dance Studio in Harlem, and really liked those shoes. I'd put them on in the house whenever I could and, when my parents weren't around, would practice some tap in the living room. When I decided to get back into tap dancing, in my late 20s, I bought some shoes at Capezio and had them for awhile, not using them that much because I wasn't tapping that much. In later years, I've had a number of shoes from different brands and currently favor a pair of wooden soled shoes because I really prefer their sound more than the metallic tap sound. Plus, that's what Bill Robinson wore! I asked some dancers about their relationship with tap shoes and here are their answers. If you have thoughts about shoes, comment below. Thanks.

Sarah Petronio
Me and my shoes...
I have funky feet...funky not in the "bring in the funk" way just sensitive feet with bunions. So, I need wide comfortable shoes. I wore the lovely Capezio leather K360 for 20 years. I have had them in white, black, tan and even painted them brown with little silver music notes. I made the “Capezio stop” to buy tap shoes every time I came to the USA from France where we lived. I started with Capezio Master Taps, tried the Tele tone taps when the Master Taps were impossible to find. I also enjoyed the Duo-Tone heel Taps. I beat my feet to all kinds of music especially Be bop and jazz. When I was invited to teach and perform at the Boston Umbrella Tap Festival, I ended the week teaching 35 excited students and got so excited myself that at the end of the class, I jumped up in the air and landed back down with the most terrible pain in my right foot. I decided to ignore the slight swelling on my foot that night because not even a broken foot would have stopped me to be on that stage the following night where I was scheduled to perform with the most incredible line up of artists - Jimmy Slyde, The Nicholas Brothers, Steve Condos, Brenda Bufalino, Savion Glover, Honi Coles, The Jazz Tap Ensemble, LaVaughn Robinson, Eddie Brown and Dianne Walker. I had requested Bross Townsend to inspire me with his piano playing and Major Holley to walk with me to the sound of “Blues in the Closet” and they did. Except for the agonising shooting pains that seemed to go through my Capezio shoes into my dancing feet all went relatively well. THANK YOU MY TAN CAPEZIO K360’s for supporting me as I danced! After the show my foot was as large as a small pumpkin so when I returned home I spent the next few years rediscovering with the help of orthopaedic soles how to continue walking and dancing with one dislocated toe in my right foot. It was then that I switched to Miller and Ben tap shoes offered to me by Avi Miller and Ofer Ben. They were strong, but a bit stiff so I wore them for a year to break them in without the taps till they were ready and very comfortable for me to “hit” the way I wanted. I still wear them and find that they are well made and offer me a powerful sound on stage and when I teach big tap classes.

Hilary-Marie Michael

I'm loving and currently wearing The GS1 Tap Boots made by Matt at Dancing Fair. I really enjoy the quality of sound, they're extremely comfortable, there are many options to customize the build (sounding board, shank, insole, material, etc.) and I like the cut and style. I also have a pair of leather oxfords by Matt that I use for recordings and soft shoe performances. Dancing Fair is a small business that has a dancer's comfort, sound and style at the forefront of their mind, and for that, I'm very appreciative.

Laraine Goodman

I guess my very first attraction to tap shoes was on the feet of Eleanor Powell in 1964 when I was an apprentice for Summer Stock Theater in West Springfiled, MA. Eleanor was tall and gorgeous and had the lead in a musical bound for Broadway (can’t remember which show it was). My real dive into tap and tap shoes was around 1986, 87 when I stumbled upon a used a used pair of Capezio character shoes with taps at a street fair. They were my size, a perfect 8, and they felt like heaven. As my tap life progressed, I graduated to flat Brenda Bufalino tap shoes (designed by Brenda and Avi Miller and Ofer Ben) They were called Danskys. I wear that brand to this day. I like my taps loose. Also, Thinking about trying out Capezio K360s. During the 90s, Gregory Hines gave me two pairs of his own brand, his design: One a woman’s style, see two tone black and red in photo and a “mens” style, black and dark grey. These days, all shoes should be gender fluid.

Shoes from top to bottom (see photo at top):
Brenda Bufalino's with one screw taps installed by Rob Rowe
Greg Hines two tone red/black “woman's"
Greg Hines two tone black/grey
Avi, Ofer and Brenda’s Danskys (Black and two tone Black/White)
Real Rockette’s red tap shoe from Rockette’s closet circa 1940s
And, last but not least, my first capezio character shoes found on street

Megan Haungs
I could dance just like John Bubbles
Heel drops would be no trouble
I'd tear up that tap mat.
Rhythm time steps would be easy
Syncopation always easy
If I only tapped in flats.

Inspired by Ms. Mable
The feminine enabled
But still keeping it real.
I'd dance like those before us
Who tap danced in the chorus
If I only danced in heels.

There is the saying that Ginger did everything that Fred did, only backwards and in heels. And certainly their ballroom numbers are among the most elegant icons of romance. But the Fred and Ginger numbers I enjoy most are the conversational tap dances--"Isn't a Lovely Day" from Top Hat, "I'll Be Hard to Handle" from Roberta, "Let Yourself Go" from Follow the Fleet. In these dances, they are side by side or face to face but neither is following or leading but playfully conversing, inventing, surprising each other. Ginger is dressed in slacks--very unusual for the 1930's. Which leads me to the subject of shoes. When I started to tap dance in the late 70's, I first got patent leather Mary Janes, then Freeds, then finally Capezio flats (I don't know if they were called K-360's then). Most of the women I studied with or danced with had similar shoes. We wanted the sound, the solid footing, the headliner professionalism of the flat helped shoes that were worn by our teachers and mentors. The shoes were a statement. We were sometimes (or often) asked why we dressed like men, or why we danced like men, or why don't we wear women's shoes, which meant heels. But of course we were wearing women's shoes, because they were shoes being worn by women. We were just redefining what a women's shoe could be. A shoe in which we could dance upfront, center stage, in which we could invent and converse like our teachers and mentors. 

Favorite shoe: Miller and Ben Jazz-Tap Master--love the sound!

Michael "Toes" Tiranoff

One night in the 90s, Traci Mann, Ginger de Paris, and I were in the the East Village where there used to be a block-long informal flea market by Astor Place. At one stand, Ginger spotted these heavy black and white shoes with taps; more suited to the monster in Young Frankenstein. They happened to be my size, so I brought them. They were maybe five or ten dollars. Well, I set them aside till I went on tour in with the Flying Karamazov Brothers and the New Old Time Chautauqua ( a group of Vaudevillians) in the summer of 1998. At our first stop in Homer, Alaska, we were camped out on the playground track by the high school where we were to do our first shows. Doug Weiselman, the musical director of the band, liked my idea of tap dancing in the show to Caravan. He furiously wrote out charts for the entire band. The arrangement not only allowed for stop time, but also a tacit for me. There was no place to rehearse except by the outside bathrooms. The pavement was concrete. Not wanting to mess up my good tap shoes (Capezio K-360s), I used those heavy duty black and white shoes to practice with. For the best acoustics, and also, because of a light rain all the musicians and I took over the Ladies Rest Room to rehearse the number. After a few run throughs, the number really started to come together. Everyone was excited about that number. It was a highlight of the tour, and still is one of my favorite arrangements. I felt limited in what I could do in these much heavier shoes, but Doug said he liked the bassier sound better than what my regular tap shoes gave me. So, I used them in our first show the next night. I felt restricted with my dancing, and went back to my good tap shoes for the rest of the tour. However, I would use those clunkers for our parades through the towns we travelled to, tapping along with the musicians, and other Vaudevillians.

YouTube finds: Part 1

I, like a lot of other people, can wind up wasting a lot of time on YouTube. You probably know the routine.  You just want to quickly look up one thing, and then you notice all the associated clips and it's all over. Hours later you're saying, "Just this one more and then that's it!' But the upside are the discoveries one can make. Recently, after looking at some tap clips, I decided to find clips of famous actors/performers dancing you were not known for doing tap and any related dance forms. Below are some examples. I realize that depending on your age or experience you may not know who some of these folks are, so I'll try and give a brief bio of each person.

First, we have a quintet of an unlikely line up of "tap dancers." Dean Martin was mainly known as a singer, but was a pretty good dancer. Buddy Ebsen became known on TV for his acting, but was a very good dancer and was almost in The Wizard of Oz. Lee J. Cobb was as dramatic an actor as you can get, having originated the role of Willie Loman in Death of a Salesman and not known at all as a dancer. Charles Nelson Reilly acted and also became a popular guest on game shows. Jackie Vernon was a droll comedian and, as you'll see, not a natural dancer. This clip seems to be from the Dean Martin Show from the 1960s

Doris Day (still with us at 95!) started her career as a singer with big bands and then had a movie career as singer and actress. But she was also a really good dancer. Here she is with dancer Gene Nelson from the 1951 film, Lullaby of Broadway.

Old school Hollywood had a roster of actors known for their tough guy/gangster roles. One such actor was Edward G. Robinson. Well, here he is "cuttin' up the rug" with Wendy Barrie in 1938's I Am The Law.

Cary Grant was known as the handsome, suave, sophisticated guy in the Hollywood of yore, an image he developed over the years, although he did have a knack for comedy. Even though not known as a dancer, he was quite agile because in his youth he juggled and did acrobatics with a traveling comedy troupe. Watch him (and Ingrid Bergman) move in a moment from the 1958 film, Indiscreet.

Another handsome, etc., etc., guy was Clark Gable. Well known as Rhett Butler telling Vivian Leigh's Scarlett O'Hara, "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn" at the end of the 1939 film, Gone With The Wind, he is here in a different mood from Idiot's Delight, of the same year.

Jimmy Stewart, who I would call the "Ah, shucks" guy, had quite a film career that spanned a few decades. Just google his name to find out about his films, but to see him in a rare dance moment, check this out from Born To Dance (1936). Others in the clip are Buddy Ebsen, Frances Langford, Eleanor Powell, Sid Silvers and Una Merkel.

The last example is someone who actually is a dancer, having come out of vaudeville, but also known as an actor. His name is Eddie Anderson and became quite famous on the Jack Benny Show as the character "Rochester". He also appeared in many films, including the great 1943 musical Cabin in the Sky, and this clip is from the 1941 Kiss the Boys Goodbye. The singer, Connee Boswell, was inspired by blues singer Mamie Smith and Ella Fitzgerald was inspired by Ms Boswell! Watch Mr. Anderson work the sand...

To follow this blog, submit your email on the right underneath "Search This Blog." Peace...

Birthday time

Spoiler Alert! The answers to the test from my last post are at the bottom, in case you still want to do that test.

February tends to be my least favorite month, tying in place with August. It's short and always seems dark to me, being in the midst of winter. But it does have two things going for it, Valentines Day (I consider all months Black History Months, so that doesn't count for me) and it has a lot of tap dancers with birthdays. Here is a list of those I know about. If I missed any other February tappers, let me know. You can click on any of these names to see a link of them in action (some with other dancers!).

Feb. 2  - Jane Goldberg
Feb. 4  - Michael "Toes" Tiranoff
Feb. 7  - Leon Collins (1922-1985)
Feb. 11 - Charles "Cookie" Cook (1914-1991)                    

Feb. 12 - Megan Haungs

               Leslie "Bubba" Gaines (1917-1997)
Feb. 14 - Gregory Hines (1946 - 2003)
Feb. 19 - John Bubbles (1902-1986)
Feb. 23 - Baby Laurence (1921-1974)
Feb. 24 - Sarah Petronio
Feb. 26 - Bunny Briggs (1922-2014)

As you can see from above, today is the birthday of Leon Collins, but it is also
the birthday of a non tap dancer, Eubie Blake (1887-1983). I want to mention this great composer because there is a connection between him and tap. Two years ago a play all too briefly ran on Broadway about a famous musical that he and others put together. It was called, Shuffle Along, Or the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed, and was created/directed by George C. Wolfe. Savion Glover did the choreography and created some great tap numbers for a chorus of dancers and the other actors in the show. One of Savion's mentors was Gregory Hines, whose birthday is one week away.  Gregory's sort of reentry into performing, after a hiatus when the act with his brother ended, was in the Broadway show, Eubie, from the late 1970s. That show celebrated the music of Mr. Blake and was where Gregory and his Brother Maurice danced together again. Also, there is a short film from 1932 featuring Nina Mae McKinney called, Pie, Pie Blackbird, that has Eubie Blake and his orchestra playing while the Nicholas Brothers dance. So, there're the connections! Below is a 1979 clip from Saturday Night Live with Eubie, at 92, and Gregory. You can also click on that film title above to watch McKinney, a young Eubie and really young Nicholas Brothers. Enjoy!

Answers for the last post test: #1 Lon Chaney, #2 Ayodele Casel, #3 Chuck Green, #4 Brenda Bufalino, #5 Jimmy Slyde, #6 Dianne Walker, #7 Steve Condos

Music: Part 2

As promised, this is a follow up to last week's post. It's often is said that tap dancers are musicians, but I think they are also storytellers. When dancing, there should be something that the dancer wants to say, whether literally or emotionally. The "story" could be short or long, all depending on the context in which the dancing is done.

A number of years ago James "Buster" Brown hosted a weekly tap jam at the Swing 46 Jazz and Supper Club in Manhattan. On occasion, when he couldn't be there, I was one of the folks who would take over the hosting job. Once when I was hosting a tap dancer did her thing, but afterwards seemed rather disturbed. After a little while she asked me if she could go up again. I asked her why and she said she was frustrated because she hadn't "said" what she wanted to say when she danced earlier. We dancers all know that feeling. The audience can like what you do, but you know you didn't just get it right. When I would hang with some of the tap veterans, back in the day, they often were quite critical of a dancer who they felt "wasn't saying anything." One of the things Charles "Cookie" Cook told me about Bill Robinson was that you could listen to his routines and hear how one step went logically into the next one. Most of us tap dancers can also recognize certain familiar steps and routines just by hearing them. I even rehearsed and worked out a tap routine with Cookie once on while the telephone, just by us scatting and vocalizing "steps" back and forth.

I mentioned in the first of these Music posts that I was searching for some clips on Baby Laurence online, but got side tracked. Well, for those of you unfamiliar with Laurence, below is a clip of him for you to watch and listen to. I got to see him live in the 70s when he hosted a semi regular tap event at the Jazz Museum that used to be down the block from the City Center in NYC. There is a good documentary about him called, "Jazz Hoofer" that includes some footage of him at the Museum. This clip is from an episode of the ABC show Hollywood Palace that was hosted by Sammy Davis, Jr.

And now I want you to listen, and take an optional test. Here are audio clips of 7 dancers. Check them out and pay attention to what you hear. The optional test is to see if you can guess who the dancers are. It might be too simple for some of you, but we'll see. If you have answers, please put them in the "Comments" section at the bottom of the blog here but not on Facebook, if you are accessing this blog from there. I'll have the answers in my next posting. Enjoy and keep working on your particular music and stories!

Dancer #1

Dancer #2

Dancer #3

Dancer #4

Dancer #5

Dancer #6

Dancer #7

Music: Part 1

Okay, last year...ONE post! In fact, only one for each of the past two years! I'm not gonna make promises, but I really hope to do more this year. We'll see...

I was watching a Facebook "live" thing (still not quite sure how that works) the other day where Marshall Davis was doing a segment of what he calls "Tap Conversations". He was talking about the importance of the sound of what tap dancers do. Working on steps is good, but just learning more steps, without having an understanding of what you are saying with the feet, can be a tendency for a lot of young tap dancers, as far as he is concerned. It got me into searching the web for some audio examples of tap dancing, but I got side tracked. I wound up coming across an example of a tune I never knew of before that was named after a tap dancer and it had me thinking about other tunes inspired by tap dancers and dancers of associated forms. So, in this post I want to look at some music influenced by dancers, which I'm calling "Part 1.". "Part 2" will focus on audio of the music dancers make with their feet. See, this makes me committed to doing at least 2 posts this year....

I began my YouTube search looking for clips of the tap master Baby Laurence (born Laurence Donald Jackson), hoping to find some from his album "Dancemaster", which I have. But one of the things that popped up was a recording by Count Basie of a tune called, "Baby Lawrence". It was written by him and played by his trio that included Basie on piano, Ray Brown on double bass and Louis Bellson on  drums. I hadn't heard of this tune. In doing some quick refresher research I saw that Laurence he danced with Basie's big band, in addition to others, but I couldn't find out anything about what might have inspired Basie to write the tune. Upon listening to it, I have to admit I found it hard to relate it to Laurence or "see" him dancing to it. It's fast and kind of a stride piano piece and I think of Baby Laurence more in the vein of a different kind of style.  But, so what! It is fast, which could also be said of Baby's feet, and he probably could've danced to it!

Baise has another piece of music, which he and Andy Gibson composed, called."Shorty George." That title refers to a dance step from the Lindy Hop era, but also must be associated with George "Shorty" Snowden, one of the early Lindy Hoppers in Harlem. Now, when I hear that piece of music I can see/hear the relation to Snowden and dance of that time. But that might be the case because of clips I've seen of dancers moving to that music. In previous posts on this blog I've mentioned tunes connected to Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. There's the number from the film "Swing Time" where Fred Astaire (in blackface, which I go into in that post) dances to the tune "Bojangles of Harlem" and there is "Mr. Bojangles", which some people think is about Bill Robinson, but is not. In my last post I talk about Duke Ellington's "Bojangles: A Portrait of Bill Robinson". I was wondering if there were other tunes to consider and then I remembered.

At the end of the 19th century the cakewalk became a popular dance and the husband and wife team of Charles Johnson & Dora Dean, became known for doing it in their act. In 1896, a contemporary of theirs, the great Bert Williams, wrote a song about Dora called, "Dora Dean: The Sweetest Gal You Ever Seen." To find out more about them, the cakewalk and Bert Williams, look it up, you'll be fascinated by what you find. Lastly, speaking of Bert Williams, Duke Ellington also wrote on tune for him. Williams evidently wasn't the greatest dancer, his partner George Walker was, but his moves were unique to his character. The Ellington tune is called, "A Portrait of Bert Williams."

Dora Dean

Bert Williams

Below are examples of four of the tunes I mentioned. Enjoy.

To follow this blog, (I promise to post more!), submit your email in the "Follow By Email" on the right.

Peace...

"Baby Lawrence" - The Count Basie Trio

"Shorty George" - Count Basie Orchestra, with clips of George "Shorty" Snowden

"Dora Dean" - sung by someone called Sheet Music Singer

"A Portrait of Bert Williams" - Duke Ellington Orchestra