Saturday August 20, 2011

Californian Heritage

Wednesday Night Hop is proud to host its second Jazz and Dance History Workshop this time focusing on our own Californian heritage. The swinging beat of jazz music had been tantalizing the creativity of a great many legendary musicians already, but the real swing craze that transformed the nation did not start until the August of 1935 when Benny Goodman's luke warm tour suddenly sparked at the Palomar Ballroom in California!

This workshop "California Swingin' - A Jazz and Dance History Workshop" will fall on August 20th, 2011 just before the anniversary of this historic event when Benny Goodman played at the Palomar Ballroom.

Dean Collins & Jewel McGowan

Our Pacific coast not only launched the swing era, it was also a crucible to its own unique Lindy Hop styling thanks in part to pioneer dancers Dean Collins and Jewel McGowan, and completely new dances done to jazz music such as the Balboa. The roots of Balboa can be found in early Foxtrot and developed fully in Southern California. If you came to the last history workshop, you may remember how some familiar Lindy movement was influenced by Vaudeville dances traveling around the country and the Texas Tommy being done in the brothels of San Francisco.

Join Us!

Join us again for another Saturday event to explore the very start of the swing era, the dances and stylings unique to California, and California influence and impact on jazz music and dancing. Again we are offering two lectures, six classes in three time slots, and one fabulous Evening Ball at the historic Mountain View Masonic Lodge with two bands!

We break from our Cali-theme for a very special lecture by amazing pianist, Carl Sonny Leyland, who will be teaching us about the origins and development of jazz piano.

Evening Ball with Two Bands!

The Carl Sonny Leyland Trio will be one of two bands playing at our Evening Ball. Leyland's playing displays an infectious spontaneity, providing plenty of surprises for the listener. While he possesses the necessary vocabulary to pay tribute to the greats of old, he refuses to limit himself to this & prefers to let each performance be an opportunity to say something new.

If one band wasn't enough, we are proud to also feature Clint Baker's New Orleans Jazz Band. The band is known for hard swinging New Orleans jazz, it should be a night of hard swinging New Orleans jazz standards!

UPDATE: Class & Lecture descriptions are here.