[78-L] Jazz as Dance Music - slightly off topic

[Tim Huskisson]

I have always believed that Jazz lost its mass appeal after the Swing Era -
not because of the melodic and harmonic technicalities of the Bop and modern
styles that followed, but because you couldn't dance to it. The best DANCE
music has always had a strong rhythmic pulse - usually played, but sometimes
just felt. At the peak of the Swing era, it was the norm for drummers to
play their bass drum '4 in the bar'. That, synchronised with the same rule
for bass players and guitarists, resulted in a very strong rhythmic pulse -
great to dance to! Many would argue that pioneer Bop drummers such as Kenny
Clarke and Max Roach freed drummers from this constraint; and yes, the
playing may have became more creative, but at a great cost to the popularity
of Jazz. 
In the late 1970s / early-1980s there was a resurgence of dancing to Jazz
that was not simply a revival of an earlier musical style. In the UK it was
known as 'Jazz-Funk'. I can remember seeing masses of people dancing to
music that quite often featured extended Jazz soloing on top of the
contemporary dance 'beat' of the day. Few really listened to or understood
the Jazz content, and most were only too happy to dance to its infectious
beat. But wasn't that also true of those who danced to the music of the
Swing era?

Tim Huskisson




-----Original Message-----
From: 78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com
[mailto:78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com] On Behalf Of Geoffrey Wheeler
Sent: 11 March 2010 15:03
To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
Subject: [78-L] Jazz as Dance Music

We all know that early jazz, like most forms of popular music, was 
intended for dancing. What we don't think about is people dancing in 
the late 1950s to hard bop. I went several times to Small's Paradise to 
hear the Jazz Messengers. Johnny Griffin was on the band at the time, 
and they would be playing loud and fast, and dancers would be out on a 
small dance floor jiving away. IK was really quite amazed people would 
even attempt to keep up with Messenger tempi.
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