The Lennerockers - Boogie Woogie Queen ~ M2D Extended Edit ~ FUN video! ~ 432Hz

Retuned to A=432Hz. There is no magic in 432Hz, it just sounds better in my Audio-Technica ATH-M50x headphones.

Swing, Jive, Jitterbug, Lindy, Balboa.... Boogie Woogie! Maybe not quite the same dance but they all have the same parents. I don't like to categorize my own favorite dance moves or restrain them with labels, and Swing Dance is like that too. 1930s 'King of Swing' Benny Goodman said 'Swing is 'free speech in music.' ' Perfect description! Jazz legend Cab Calloway, who may have actually invented Swing Dance, once remarked that the dancers 'look like a bunch of jitterbugs out there on the floor'. And there you have it.

DANCERS:

0:02-0:44: Jean Veloz in 'Swing Fever' (1943) with Lenny Smith and Don Gallagher. She was 19 when the movie was made. Ms Veloz popularized the 'Hollywood Style' (West Coast?) Swing that critics proclaimed was more 'silky smooth' than the original 'East Coast' Jitterbug. In 1963 Jean marred dance partner Frank Veloz. They were together until his death in 1981. Still dancing at age 95, she passed away in 2023, just a few weeks short of her 99th birthday.

0:44-1:09: Dean Collins with Elsie Parrish, Helen Albright and Alice Scott, from the last dance scene in 'Junior Prom' (1946).

1:09-1:17: Peggy Ryan, in 'Miss Annie Rooney' (1942), started her dancing career at age 3 with her parents. She appeared in more than 30 films including the iconic title 'Babes On Swing Street' in 1944. Peggy made several movies with dancing great Donald O'Connor.

1:28-2:20: Jewel McGowen in 'Buck Privates' (1941) with social and film dance partner Dean Collins, AND 'Melody In Moonlight' (1940) stuck in the middle. Jewel was famous for those 'hip swivels' on display here. Contemporaries considered her the best swing dancer of her time. She passed away in 1962 at the too-early age of 41.

2:20-2:26: Another clip from 'Melody in Moonlight' (1940). Can anyone name this couple?

2:26-2:30: Madonna in the Sudsbucket scene from 'A League Of Their Own' (1992) directed by Penny Marshall and Rosie O'Donnell..... a BASEBALL movie. Go figure.

2:30-2:37: 'Swing Kids' (1993) featuring Christian Bale, Robert Sean Leonard, Tushka Bergen and Jayce Bartok as dancers, Frank Whaley as a suggestion of the great Belgian-Gypsy Jazz & Swing guitarist Django Reinhardt, and (uncredited) Kenneth Branagh as Sturmbannführer Knopp. 'Swing Kids' is a great historical movie set in Nazi Germany and there were a handful of Swing scenes. I could have included more from this movie but I chose to go with extended footage from.....

2:38-3:45: 'Malcolm X' (1992) with Denzel Washington and Theresa Randle, one of the greatest Swing/Lindy dance scenes out there. This movie makes a nice comparison between the original Harlem-East Coast Swing and Jean Veloz's West Coast style.

3:46-4:05: Ms. Veloz in 'Swing Fever' again, colorized with DeOldify. Maybe it's because Ms. Veloz was a Pisces like me, but she was so adorable that I wanted to end with more from that movie. Youtuber Black Pepper Swing has the entire 6-minute scene colorized here....
   • Swing Fever in full color | Colorized with...  

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Swing Music and Dance were born out of 1920s Harlem jazz spots such as the Cotton Club and Savoy Ballroom. It is thought to be first inspired by Cab Calloway (1907-1994), whose 'frenzied' movements on stage (perhaps coupled with audience sing-alongs) catalyzed the creation of fiercely energetic Swing Dance. Musicians of the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra also played a part in the development of uniquely Swing style music.

Tying the title of this song to Swing Dance, Boogie-Woogie (originally a Blues genre) also has roots in African-American culture as far back as the 1870s. According to oral histories, Boogie-Woogie music originated in jam sessions in city slums in east Texas, and was spread across America via the railroads that enabled cattle, lumber and oil industries throughout the region.

Boogie-Woogie dance is rumored to be a 1940s European one-off of Swing, though the term 'boogie-woogie' may be decades older.

The universal popularity of Swing Dance also probably owes some small debt to the Charleston of the Roaring '20s. The Charleston brought a dance style that was far more physical, a social performance and spectacle rather than a sweethearts' embrace. The Charleston's high energy was a perfect match for Jazz and Swing Music. This is NOT to say that the origin of Swing Dance was the Charleston, it just helped to usher Swing toward a much broader range of dance and music lovers.

CREDITS:

youtubers Black Pepper Swing, gianfreddi, arnaud waleffe, Mrlaurenceralph, lematt0815, redreef1....
lennebrothersband.de/index.php
wikipedia-dot-org/wiki/Boogie-woogie
blackpast-dot-org/african-american-history/
wikipedia-dot-org/wiki/Django_Reinhardt
wikipedia-dot-org/wiki/Swing_(dance)