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Yehoodi.com
Forgive me if this has already been discussed before, but this really deserves its own thread.
As some of you already know, the music heard in the original theatrical release of the greatest dance sequence ever filmed wasn't really the music that Whitey's Lindy Hoppers danced their routine to.
So I just stumbled onto the Archives of Early Lindy Hop and found this: Quote: : An interesting sidenote: Whitey's Lindy Hoppers' routine in Hellzapoppin' was originally danced and choreographed to different music, namely "Jumping at the Woodside".
Universal Studios had a composer who was on staff write new music for the routine.
Here is a reconstruction of the routine with the original music, thanks to Dmitry Smolin: Here's the link.
It [bleep!] rocks.
Dimtry's this Russian Lindy Hopper dude and apparently the following Quote: from Frankie's book was his motivation behind this long overdue redress of an all too typical past injustice: Quote: : For Hellzapoppin', I started from the beginning of "Jumpin' at the Woodside" and worked with about sixteen bars at a time, choreographing both the solos and the ensemble section as we went along.
(Basie used to stay at the Woodside Hotel on 142nd Street when he played at the Savoy, and some of the jam sessions there inspired the song).
I hate to keep saying I choreographed this and I choreographed that because it makes me seem egotistical, but for Hellzapoppin' I set up a routine for each team" .
. . "By the second day, the musical director at Universal started sitting in on rehearsals to listen to the music and watch us dance.
His job was to create a composition for our number so the studio wouldn't have to get permission to use Count Basie's song.
-- Excerpt from "Frankie Manning: Ambassador of Lindy Hop"
Can you believe it?
We, all of us, have been listening to a studio hack for over 60 [bleep!]' years and denied the true artistry of the dancers and their music!
Thank you again to Count Basie and his Orchestra and Frankie and Whitey's Lindy Hoppers!
And oddly enough, thanks also goes out, over 60 years later, to one certain Russian Lindy Hopper.
What a great dance this is.
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Wow...very interesting.
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I don't think it fits the music any better than the Hellzapoppin' song, but I do think Jumpin' at the Woodside is a much better tune.
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Seriously? I think the Hellzapoppin composer missed out on how some of the aerials fit at ends of measures & phrases and how some of the larger footwork & running vs.
Dancing fit "hits" in the rhythm of the song.
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I guess I don't really find the JatW version to be all that musical.
It seems off. Maybe it's just not coming through synched properly?
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Quote: : I guess I don't really find the JatW version to be all that musical.
It seems off. Maybe it's just not coming through synched properly?
Are you kidding?
You're telling me Al Minns doesn't hit it perfectly when he's held upside down by his partner (name please)?
You disappoint.
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Sure there are some hits on there that are nicely lined up.
But in general? Meh.
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Well how many versions of JatW are there?
In all probability Frankie was going by a version that had some things different that the version used here.
It does basically fit, but little flairs don't match up.
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I agree - the aerials don't hit the breaks in the right way.
One or two do but some of the others don't have the right shape and accent.
I like the movie music better.
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I had to also watch the Lindy With the Stars routine.
The stage does look small but how do they manage to execute those swingouts without moving?
I have never seen an "in place" swingout before.
This must be the Lindy Hop routine for crowded ballrooms.
It also looks like they were doing aerials without prepping.
I had to turn it off half way through the routine.
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Quote: : I agree - the aerials don't hit the breaks in the right way.
One or two do but some of the others don't have the right shape and accent.
I like the movie music better.
the movie's version was created to fit the dance.
Of course, they hit all the breaks.
Those breaks were created to fit the dancers.
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It's a really interesting reconstruction academically, but I don't think we've been "denied" anything about the artistic vision of the dancers or anything like that, nor do I think the guy who rewrote the music was a studio hack.
It doesn't sound like Frankie's upset in any way about the music being rescored.
The budget for a movie like Hellzapoppin was probably really small, so they wouldn't have been able to afford Basie's song anyway.
Similarly, the music to the Maharaja clip with Hal Takier is not the music they danced to.
Hal says they danced to a solo piano.
Heh.
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Quote: : It's a really interesting reconstruction academically, but I don't think we've been "denied" anything about the artistic vision of the dancers or anything like that, nor do I think the guy who rewrote the music was a studio hack.
Alright so getting florid didn't help.
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