Picture Definitions of Swing Terms Pt. 1

July 14, 2011

From Look Magazine, September 27, 1938

Alligators (swing fans) like these girls can’t sit still when the swing (latest type of hot jazz music) band gets whacky (swings its wildest).

She savvies jive (understands the language of swing) and pleases the jitterbug (same as alligators). It’s Ina Ray Hutton – as if you didn’t know.

You never see dancing like this when paper men (musicians who play by note only) are reading the spots (notes) and schmaltzing it (playing sweet, sentimental music). These are shag dancers.

Paul Whiteman, the old man (leader), bends an ear as Jack Teagarden gets hot on the slush pump (trombone). Even ickies (persons who don’t understand swing) can appreciate such a push-pipe player.

Do You Know These Swing Terms?

July 14, 2011

How many do you know? Picture definitions in the following posts.

From Look Magazine, September 27, 1938

ALLIGATORS

BARREL-HOUSE

BELLY FIDDLE

BOGIE MAN

CANARY

CATS

CHIEF RIDEMAN

CORN-ON-THE-COB

DOG HOUSE

EIGHTY-EIGHT (88)

GOBBLE PIPE

GROAN BOX

GRUNT HORN

GUT-BUCKET

HEPCAT

HOT MAN

ICKIES

IN THE GROOVE

IRON HORN

JAM SESSION

JITTERBUGS

JIVE

LICK

LONGHAIR

MONKEY HURDLER

MOTH BOX

OLD MAN

PAPER MEN

PLATTER

PLUMBING

RUG CUTTER

SCHMALTZ IT

SEND

SKIN BEATER

SLIVER SUCKER

SLUSH PUMP

SPOTS

SQUEAKER

SPOOK

SWING

TIN EARS

VOODOO BOILERS

WHACKY

WOODPILE

Give Swing a Chance Says Benny Goodman

July 13, 2011

Benny Goodman, $125,000-a-year “King of Swing”, now 28, chose to play a clarinet when he was 9, because it was so pretty. Conductor Leopold Stokowski calls him one of the world’s best clarinetists.

Give Swing a Chance Says Benny Goodman

by Benny Goodman

There is one thing swing critics cannot combat. That is, that the public approves of swing. So why not give it a chance to prove it is not a flash in the pan, but the only really truly American music we have? Every other form of musical expression portrayed as a dance form originated abroad. Swing, as it is now being written and created, originates solely in the minds of musicians who think in the American way.

Some persons object to modernizing old songs into swing tempo. The answer is that swing is still young and needs nourishment.

To educate the people to enjoy original swing creations, we must feed them something they know of, can understand and enjoy because the melody is familiar.

The present day swing artist is a pioneer, creating something that in the future will become the popular expression of the day. So the next time you hear swing, just figure to yourself that you are in on the birth of something your grandchildren will some day take for granted in the same manner as you take opera today, and you will feel as I always do – awed.

Look Magazine, September 27, 1938

Caprice XXIV – Adapted from Paganini’s Caprice No. 24 in A minor

Look Magazine: Swing Issue, September 27, 1938

July 12, 2011

I’ve gone on a bit of a magazine collecting spree lately, and here is one of the spoils – the Swing Issue of Look Magazine from 1938. I’ll be posting some of the goodies in the days to come – you can learn some new jive-talk and dance moves!

The cuties on the cover are Rita Rio and Bill Furrow. Rita Rio was the bandleader for an all-girl swing band, and went on to have an acting career under the name Dona Drake (Rita Rio is also a stage name, her real name is Eunice Westmoreland!).

Here are a couple of clips of Rita performing – Enjoy!

Rita Rio & Her Orchestra – Feed the Kitty

Rita Rio – My Margarita

6 A.M. Swing Party – Rendezvous Ballroom

April 12, 2011

In honor of last week’s post about the Balboa Rendezvous, I thought I’d share a 1938 Look Magazine article with you about some of the incredible dancing that used to take place there! The Rendezvous Ballroom was huge, roughly 1 city block wide and 1 city block long – but I think 5,000 kids in there would still have been crowded! No wonder they could only dance chest to chest. 🙂

5,000 Young Californians Rise at Dawn for a…

6 A.M. SWING PARTY

On June 18 in Balboa, Cal., the amazing swing music fad in the U.S. hit a new high. On that day some 5,000 “cats” and “alligators” rose at dawn to “cut rugs” and “kick out” at 6 o’clock in the morning. The occasion was a “jam session” or “swingaree” staged by radio station KEHE to celebrate the end of the school year.

The night before the party, “ickies” and “jitterbugs” started arriving. Many came in parties composed of members of local swing clubs. Most of them came by car, some by foot. One young man drove 396 miles from Tonopah, Nev. One came on crutches.

From 6 to 8 in the morning, the ballroom of the Balboa Rendezvous shook with their dancing of the Big Apple, the Varsity, the Suzie-Q while the orchestra and a phonograph “gave out” with “licks” and “solid senders.”