Laura!!! First off great vid. Loved it. When you were mentioning a lot of the key important figures in Black American culture from the baseball players, to the musicians, to the writes and poets and political figures and pride that the residence of Harlem had. All of those factors is what gave birth and rise to the Harlem Renaissance. And it’s important to remember for future discussions of this that the Harlem Renaissance impacted Black communities all over the country during that time period. The way that the musicians would constantly mention and talk about the Savoy, Harlem, Cotton Club, etc to rest of Black Americans outside of Harlem, as the place to be (because it was). It was one of many meccas for Black Americans at the time along with Chicago and St. Louis. Just as you said “Pride”. Black Americans accomplishing and over coming major social, economical, and educational hurdles in time where the majority of the country thought they were less than. Sorry for the long rant, but I just wanted to mentioned that little key piece of social and historical context. Thank you for all of your hard work and I look forward to seeing you on the dance floor soon.
Odysseus! Thank you for your time and insight. I definitely want to learn more about Black culture outside of Harlem and how it affected and was effected by the ideas coming out of the Harlem Renaissance and beyond.
Hands up to you Laura🙌. Very informative and now I can't wait to join my very fast Lindy hopp classes this coming satarday. So so glad I found your Channel. Keep on education us. Be blessed. Love from Germany, Munich.
This is fantastic! Thanks so much, Laura. Clearly lots of time and research went into this, not just the stories, but the visuals too. Love that you have bookends of why this is all so important.
I been grinning so hard watching your videos, my teeth might crack! You are AMAZING! I'm blushing... I'd say keep going, but I don't think you can stop! To all, Be well be strong.
This was SUCH a good video, I was captivated and learned a ton. I've always been interested in the lyrics of the songs I've been dancing too -- this history is so rich and important. I'm going to go read up on more of the slang, and can't wait to see more videos like this!
Laura Thank You so much for this wonderful informative video, I love Jazz and the great contribution the black people and black culture has provided in the evolution of American music and dance . I love the lindy hop and wish I was born a generation ago when I could have visited the clubs in Harlem , Savoy , Cotton Club , and others , This is Timely in honor of Black history month and Dr King Holiday !
Great video Laura, your point about specific places made me think of the Billy Strayhorn composition U.M.M.G., which is named after Upper Manhattan Medical Group. This was Dr Arthur Logan's practice. Dr Logan was Duke Ellington's physician. Billy Strayhorn was friends with Dr Logan and his wife Marion. The three of them were associates and supporters of Dr Martin Luther King.
I don't know about that composition! I'll definitely look it up! I love the connection to MLK. Everyone was so politically active - even if we don't know about it now. I love that.
Thank you, Laura ! Learning about context definitely enriches our dance experience. I recommend everyone take a tour of Harlem, such as the one offered during ILHC 2022 and hopefully 2023, to underscore the point of how close musicians and dancers (Frankie and others) lived to the major clubs and ballrooms. Just a few blocks away ! Minor correction: 'Frigidaire' is the correct spelling. Also, in the interest of historical accuracy, 'Hellzapoppin' and 'Day at the Races' were filmed in black and white and should be presented that way. 🙂
Wow, you really bring Black history to life. You speak about it so passionately and you tell such interesting stories about it. I really learned something. Sometimes I feel embarrassed about how little I know about this. BTW, one thing that threw me was at minute 16:47 when you say, “In addition, Lindy Hop didn’t just appear out of thin air in the 1980s, it has a lineage…” Obviously the heyday of Lindy Hop was in the 30s and 40s. You must mean it made a come-back in the 80s, mainly among White folk. Anyway, I get it now, so great video! Thanks!
Yeah, I can feel embarrassed about how little I know, too. It can be hard to know what questions to ask to get started on research. Just keep your ears open! Yeah, I could have gone into more detail about the 1980s. My understanding is that the 1980s was when non-New Yorkers / non-Black people started dancing Lindy Hop more: the beginning of the swing craze in the 1990s. But Lindy Hop had been danced in Black families and dance halls continuously post the Swing Era.
Looking at a lot of the lyrics, you also start to see the bohemian origins of jazz and blues in New Orleans. This music came out of the vice district of Storyville, where a cosmopolitan mix of sex workers, drug users, queer folk and artists were all rubbing shoulders. The jazz lingo developed was to signal the in-group from the out-group and to hide illegal activity in plain sight (just as gay men in the UK developed Polari). Early jazz songs are a load of sex, drugs and Jelly Roll. This aspect has been largely been forgotten about since the Squares appropriated it from the Hep Cats.
Yeah, this is a complicated origin story indeed. It seems like it both did come from this, but also the salacious red light district history has been augmented, simplified, and romanticized over time. The first chapter of Christi Jay Wells's book, Between Beats, has a wonderful explanation of this where they try to disentangle fact from myth. www.amazon.com/Between-Beats-Tradition-Black-Vernacular/dp/0197559271
Really enjoyed this video. You brought out so many great anecdotes and important pieces of history. I'm curious if knowing the historical context of a song ever makes you reevaluate whether it's appropriate for white dancers to dance to. For instance, I feel like it might be strange to see white dancers doing a routine to "Did You Ever See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball?" and it might feel like that song is not theirs to interpret through dance. Wondering also if any Black artists in the community have weighed in on this question...
Another phenomenon that I find interesting and that doesn't quite have a parallel in contemporary popular music is that many songs began as purely instrumental charts and then later (in the attempt to sell new records and/or new sheet music? or for a variety of other reasons?) had lyrics written for them. Often the lyrics just take the title and use that as a jumping off point but sometimes the addition of lyrics meant completely changing the title (and the overall meaning?), ie. something like Ellington's "Subtle Sough" becoming "Squeeze Me, Don't Tease Me". There's also the transformation of older charts into new ones, like Ellington taking the chord changes of "Rose Room" and writing "In a Mellotone" with it (and you can definitely hear the link to "Rose Room" through the much later, faster, and riff-based tune). That's still possible today, although there are more copyright barriers that complicate such borrowing. Then there's also the phenomenon of quoting little recognizable snippets from other tunes and lyrics, both old and new. That's a technique as old as music, and one that obviously is very much alive today.
Laura!!! First off great vid. Loved it. When you were mentioning a lot of the key important figures in Black American culture from the baseball players, to the musicians, to the writes and poets and political figures and pride that the residence of Harlem had. All of those factors is what gave birth and rise to the Harlem Renaissance. And it’s important to remember for future discussions of this that the Harlem Renaissance impacted Black communities all over the country during that time period.
The way that the musicians would constantly mention and talk about the Savoy, Harlem, Cotton Club, etc to rest of Black Americans outside of Harlem, as the place to be (because it was). It was one of many meccas for Black Americans at the time along with Chicago and St. Louis. Just as you said “Pride”. Black Americans accomplishing and over coming major social, economical, and educational hurdles in time where the majority of the country thought they were less than.
Sorry for the long rant, but I just wanted to mentioned that little key piece of social and historical context. Thank you for all of your hard work and I look forward to seeing you on the dance floor soon.
Hi Odysseus,
Are you a comedian? I saw your clips somewhere.
Odysseus! Thank you for your time and insight. I definitely want to learn more about Black culture outside of Harlem and how it affected and was effected by the ideas coming out of the Harlem Renaissance and beyond.
@@LauraGlaess Absolutely!!! Let’s talk over coffee, lunch, or just video FaceTime chat when we both have time in our schedule. 🙂
Wow! Thank you so much for these history classes. Very interesting, respectful and proudful.
Hands up to you Laura🙌.
Very informative and now I can't wait to join my very fast Lindy hopp classes this coming satarday.
So so glad I found your Channel. Keep on education us.
Be blessed. Love from Germany, Munich.
Wow! I hope the class went well! Keep dancing and maybe we'll meet some day
I love that the Sugar Hill Gang take their name from the Harlem Neighborhood and brought some of those same kinds of references into modern rap.
This is fantastic! Thanks so much, Laura. Clearly lots of time and research went into this, not just the stories, but the visuals too. Love that you have bookends of why this is all so important.
I been grinning so hard watching your videos, my teeth might crack!
You are AMAZING!
I'm blushing...
I'd say keep going, but I don't think you can stop!
To all,
Be well be strong.
Thank you for such an informative and reflective video! Much appreciated!
❤ your work. Thank you
Such a great video, thank you so much for taking the time to spread this much needed knowledge. ❤❤
Inspiration comes from the music. Thank you Laura for the reminder :)
This was SUCH a good video, I was captivated and learned a ton. I've always been interested in the lyrics of the songs I've been dancing too -- this history is so rich and important. I'm going to go read up on more of the slang, and can't wait to see more videos like this!
Great effing video! 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
Laura Thank You so much for this wonderful informative video, I love Jazz and the great contribution the black people and black culture has provided in the evolution of American music and dance . I love the lindy hop and wish I was born a generation ago when I could have visited the clubs in Harlem , Savoy , Cotton Club , and others , This is Timely in honor of Black history month and Dr King Holiday !
Thank You Laura!
Great video Laura, your point about specific places made me think of the Billy Strayhorn composition U.M.M.G., which is named after Upper Manhattan Medical Group. This was Dr Arthur Logan's practice. Dr Logan was Duke Ellington's physician. Billy Strayhorn was friends with Dr Logan and his wife Marion. The three of them were associates and supporters of Dr Martin Luther King.
I don't know about that composition! I'll definitely look it up! I love the connection to MLK. Everyone was so politically active - even if we don't know about it now. I love that.
So freaking good video, loved it! Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us! 🫀✨
Thank you, Laura ! Learning about context definitely enriches our dance experience. I recommend everyone take a tour of Harlem, such as the one offered during ILHC 2022 and hopefully 2023, to underscore the point of how close musicians and dancers (Frankie and others) lived to the major clubs and ballrooms. Just a few blocks away !
Minor correction: 'Frigidaire' is the correct spelling. Also, in the interest of historical accuracy, 'Hellzapoppin' and 'Day at the Races' were filmed in black and white and should be presented that way. 🙂
Thanks for the corrections, and YES to the Harlem tour.
Wow, you really bring Black history to life. You speak about it so passionately and you tell such interesting stories about it. I really learned something. Sometimes I feel embarrassed about how little I know about this.
BTW, one thing that threw me was at minute 16:47 when you say, “In addition, Lindy Hop didn’t just appear out of thin air in the 1980s, it has a lineage…” Obviously the heyday of Lindy Hop was in the 30s and 40s. You must mean it made a come-back in the 80s, mainly among White folk. Anyway, I get it now, so great video! Thanks!
Yeah, I can feel embarrassed about how little I know, too. It can be hard to know what questions to ask to get started on research. Just keep your ears open!
Yeah, I could have gone into more detail about the 1980s. My understanding is that the 1980s was when non-New Yorkers / non-Black people started dancing Lindy Hop more: the beginning of the swing craze in the 1990s. But Lindy Hop had been danced in Black families and dance halls continuously post the Swing Era.
Looking at a lot of the lyrics, you also start to see the bohemian origins of jazz and blues in New Orleans. This music came out of the vice district of Storyville, where a cosmopolitan mix of sex workers, drug users, queer folk and artists were all rubbing shoulders. The jazz lingo developed was to signal the in-group from the out-group and to hide illegal activity in plain sight (just as gay men in the UK developed Polari). Early jazz songs are a load of sex, drugs and Jelly Roll. This aspect has been largely been forgotten about since the Squares appropriated it from the Hep Cats.
Yeah, this is a complicated origin story indeed. It seems like it both did come from this, but also the salacious red light district history has been augmented, simplified, and romanticized over time. The first chapter of Christi Jay Wells's book, Between Beats, has a wonderful explanation of this where they try to disentangle fact from myth.
www.amazon.com/Between-Beats-Tradition-Black-Vernacular/dp/0197559271
Really enjoyed this video. You brought out so many great anecdotes and important pieces of history. I'm curious if knowing the historical context of a song ever makes you reevaluate whether it's appropriate for white dancers to dance to. For instance, I feel like it might be strange to see white dancers doing a routine to "Did You Ever See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball?" and it might feel like that song is not theirs to interpret through dance. Wondering also if any Black artists in the community have weighed in on this question...
👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
Wonderful video, Laura. Well presented. Keep up the good work!
Another phenomenon that I find interesting and that doesn't quite have a parallel in contemporary popular music is that many songs began as purely instrumental charts and then later (in the attempt to sell new records and/or new sheet music? or for a variety of other reasons?) had lyrics written for them. Often the lyrics just take the title and use that as a jumping off point but sometimes the addition of lyrics meant completely changing the title (and the overall meaning?), ie. something like Ellington's "Subtle Sough" becoming "Squeeze Me, Don't Tease Me". There's also the transformation of older charts into new ones, like Ellington taking the chord changes of "Rose Room" and writing "In a Mellotone" with it (and you can definitely hear the link to "Rose Room" through the much later, faster, and riff-based tune). That's still possible today, although there are more copyright barriers that complicate such borrowing. Then there's also the phenomenon of quoting little recognizable snippets from other tunes and lyrics, both old and new. That's a technique as old as music, and one that obviously is very much alive today.
Good points! Thank you.
This was a really well made video and super fascinating stuff!