Travel Talk
and dances at Denver’s Mercury Café, explains, “Early jazz, rag- time, was kind of like rock ‘n’ roll in that only the ‘bad kids’ did it. The flapper era came out of that music, and the Charleston was the biggest dance craze that ever hit the country.” Finally, legend has it that at a
Harlem dance marathon in 1928, “Shorty” George Snowden invented the “breakaway”—a dance move in which one part- ner flings his partner out and improvises a few solo steps. The watching crowd went wild. When asked what the dance was, Snowden replied “the Lindy” (Charles Lindbergh had flown across the Atlantic solo only a year before.) The Lindy Hop was born. Still, it took several years for
swing and jitterbugging to catch on. The brilliant clarinetist from
Chicago, Benny Goodman, became entranced with the swing sound and put together a band of like-minded musicians who could play it. Using a raft of charts (musical scores) by Henderson, Goodman pegged away despite some audiences’ disdain. Goodman and his men drove in a caravan from New York City to the
West Coast in late July 1935, making appearances along the way. A major stopover was a three-week gig at the top ballroom in Denver—Elitch’s renowned Trocadero. When the hard-charging, vibrant sound hit the patrons, they were
staggered—and off the dance floor they sped. “I hired a dance band!” yelled the venue’s manager. “Can’t you boys play any waltzes?” Goodman biographer Ross Firestone states, “Benny remembered the evening as ‘about the most humiliating experience of my life.’” Goodman salvaged the engagement by sticking to a watered-down
playlist, but it proved to be his trial of fire. A week later at their last gig of the tour, the Palomar, he and his men decided to “go down swinging”— and to their surprise and delight, the curious crowd exploded in a frenzy of appreciation. Suddenly, swing was here to stay. Denver soon caught swing fever. The Troc, the Riviera and the
Rainbow Ballroom were only the most popular of a dozen or more dance clubs that sprang up against the mountain backdrop. From 1935 to 1945, swing was king. The end of World War II brought new fashions in music, and the genre slowly faded from earshot. The last prominent local bandleader,
Dean Bushnell, still leads his Orchestra at the occasional gala, having spent a whopping 60 years in the music business. “The demand has slowed down
the past three or four years,” says Bushnell from his home in Englewood. However, smaller combos such as David Booker and his Swingtet assert that they average 30 playing dates a month. There are plenty of dances to
play for—and even rival schools of swing dance. Some are partial to East Coast Swing, a simplified Lindy Hop that is said to allow for more improvisation, “bounce,” and the memorable kicks and acrobatics that one associates with swing dancing. Others prefer West Coast Swing, a smoother, “cooler” set of moves that is cred- ited with being more amenable to newer forms of music. “It’s a much more diverse
dance, adaptable to all kinds of music,” says Shane McIntyre, who runs Gravity Dance Productions with Keri McLean. The two burn a lot of miles on
12 EnCompass January/February 2012
www.AAA.com
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