Music · 1895–1930
New Orleans Jazz
New Orleans, Louisiana (USA)
Brass bands, ragtime and blues on the same street
MusicDanceRevivalJourneys & migrationInfluence
Timeline
All eras18201840186018801900192019401960198020002020
Drag the window along the timeline to light up the events of an era and see which scenes were alive at that moment.
The scenes
Twenty-three chapters, from music to dance to today's revival.
Music · 1918–1935
Chicago Jazz
South Side, Chicago (USA)
The soloist takes the stage
Music · 1928–1945
Boogie-woogie (piano)
Chicago → New York (Carnegie Hall)
Eight-to-the-bar bass, then a national craze
Music · 1923–1946
Harlem & New York: the big-band era
Harlem, New York (USA)
House orchestras, radio and band battles
Music · 1923–1942
Kansas City Jazz
18th & Vine, Kansas City (USA)
Riffs, jam sessions and endless nights
Music · 1928–1955
Central Avenue, Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California (USA)
The main street of Black Los Angeles
Music · 1938–1956
Jump Blues & Rhythm and Blues
New York and Los Angeles (USA)
Big bands shrink, the beat gets heavier
Music · 1925–1945
Paris: gypsy jazz and the Zazous
Paris (France)
From Josephine Baker's Charleston to swing as dissent
Music · 1930–1945
London: dance bands and the Blitz
London (United Kingdom)
Dancing on under the bombs
Music · 1935–1945
Germany: Swing Youth and censorship
Hamburg and Berlin (Germany)
Listening to swing as non-conformity
Music · 1935–1960
Italy: from EIAR radio to Carosone
Turin, Milan, Naples (Italy)
The swing that arrived on ocean liners
Music · 1925–1941
Shanghai: jazz in Asia
Shanghai (China)
Luxury ballrooms and the birth of Chinese pop
Music · 1920–1955
Japan: from Osaka to Tokyo Boogie-Woogie
Osaka, Kobe, Tokyo (Japan)
Dance halls closed, records hidden, then the boom
Music · 1925–1960
South Africa: marabi and Sophiatown
Johannesburg (South Africa)
American swing and African harmony under apartheid
Dance · 1923–1930
Charleston
Charleston (South Carolina) → Broadway
The signature dance of the Roaring Twenties
Dance · 1928–1958
Lindy Hop
Savoy Ballroom, Harlem (New York)
Born on Harlem's most famous dance floor
Dance · 1925–1945
Solo Jazz & Shim Sham
TOBA circuit (Chicago) → Harlem stages
The routine danced at swing nights all over the world
Dance · 1929–1945
Collegiate Shag
North and South Carolina (USA)
Bouncy, compact, made for fast tempos
Dance · 1936–1938
Big Apple
Columbia, South Carolina (USA)
One circle, a caller and every step of the era
Dance · 1928–1945
Balboa
Balboa Peninsula, Newport Beach (California)
Chest to chest, on the fastest tempos
Dance · 1948–today
West Coast Swing
Southern California (USA)
Lindy Hop in a slot
Dance · 1940–today
Jive & European Boogie Woogie
Europe (UK, Switzerland, Germany, France, Italy)
The swing the GIs left behind in Europe
Revival · 1982–today
The revival: Herräng and the world
Herräng & Stockholm (Sweden), New York, London
From old films to a community in 70 countries
Chronology
The events that shaped swing, in order.
1810s
- 1817
Roots · New Orleans, Louisiana
Congo Square becomes the dancing ground
A city ordinance restricted the dance gatherings of enslaved people to a single site chosen by the mayor: Congo Square. On Sundays drums and African-model instruments were played and people danced the Calinda, Bamboula and Juba. Many scholars regard that ground as the origin of New Orleans jazz.
Source: 64 Parishes — Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities
1890s
- 1891
Roots · Charleston, South Carolina
The Jenkins Orphanage Band is founded
Rev. Daniel J. Jenkins founded a band of young musicians that toured Northern cities every year, playing in the streets. Local tradition says it helped spread the Charleston's rhythm and steps, but fires in 1936 and 1988 destroyed most records: it cannot be proven.
Source: Charleston County Public Library
- 1895
Roots · New Orleans, Louisiana
Buddy Bolden forms his band
Cornetist Buddy Bolden formed his band and played for dance-hall crowds such as the Funky Butt Hall. In 1907 he was institutionalised and never made a record: his music survives only in accounts.
1910s
- 1910–1970
Migration · From the US South to the North
The Great Migration
More than six million African Americans left the South for Northern cities. New cultural styles emerged in Harlem: the Charleston is one of them.
Source: Charleston County Public Library
- 1912
Roots · Tokyo, Japan
Hatano Jazz Band: jazz in Japan
Graduates of the Tokyo Music School founded the Hatano Jazz Band, often called Japan's first jazz band. In fact it was mainly a dance orchestra, without jazz improvisation. Jazz was arriving on Pacific liners and with Filipino musicians.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1917
Records, radio & venues · New York
"Livery Stable Blues": jazz on record
In February 1917 the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, a white New Orleans group, recorded "Livery Stable Blues" for Victor: over a million copies in six months. The first African American New Orleans bandleader to record would be Kid Ory, in 1921.
1920s
- 1922
Migration · Chicago, Illinois
Armstrong joins King Oliver in Chicago
In summer 1922 Louis Armstrong left New Orleans to join King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band in Chicago. It is one of the emblematic journeys of jazz moving north, which began with tours during World War I.
- 1923
Segregation & society · Harlem, New York
The Cotton Club opens, whites only
Owney Madden took over the venue and renamed it the Cotton Club. African American artists played and danced on stage, but the audience was whites only, with rare exceptions for Black celebrities.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1923
Records, radio & venues · Chicago (OKeh)
Bennie Moten's first recordings
On 23 September 1923 Kansas City's Bennie Moten Orchestra recorded its first eight sides for OKeh, in Chicago.
- 1923
Dance · New Colonial Theater, Manhattan
"Runnin' Wild" launches the Charleston
In October 1923 the musical, with an African American cast and music by James P. Johnson, presented the Charleston dance, song and lyrics together. It ran for over seven months; within two years the Charleston was an international craze.
Source: Charleston County Public Library
- 1925
Records, radio & venues · Chicago, Illinois
Louis Armstrong and the Hot Five
In November 1925 Armstrong began recording with the Hot Five; "Heebie Jeebies" followed in February 1926. The soloist became the centre of the music.
- 1925
Dance · Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris
Josephine Baker dances the Charleston in Paris
On 2 October 1925 "La Revue Nègre" opened: 19-year-old Josephine Baker danced the Charleston and Sidney Bechet played clarinet. It was an instant hit that brought jazz and African American culture to Europe, though it also played to colonial and exotic stereotypes.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1926
Dance · 596 Lenox Avenue, Harlem
The Savoy Ballroom opens
On 12 March 1926 the Savoy opened: a long, narrow floor ("the Track") for 4,000 people and a non-discrimination policy. Frankie Manning recalled that all that mattered was whether you could dance.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1927
Records, radio & venues · Harlem, New York
Duke Ellington at the Cotton Club
From 4 December 1927 Ellington's orchestra was the Cotton Club house band. Live broadcasts, on the NBC network from September 1929, made it known nationwide. Cab Calloway arrived in 1930.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1927
War & censorship · Osaka, Japan
Osaka closes its dance halls
In 1924 Osaka had twenty dance halls. In 1927 municipal ordinances forced them to close and many jazz musicians moved to Tokyo.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1928
Segregation & society · Los Angeles, California
The Dunbar Hotel opens on Central Avenue
Built with African American labour, contractors and money in a segregated city, the hotel became the hub of the Central Avenue jazz scene. With integration in the 1950s it lost its role and closed in 1974.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1928
Dance · Manhattan Casino, Harlem
Shorty Snowden calls it "The Lindy"
During a dance marathon George "Shorty" Snowden rediscovered the breakaway; filmed by Fox Movietone, when asked what he was dancing he answered "The Lindy". The name echoes Lindbergh's 1927 transatlantic flight.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1928
Dance · Balboa Peninsula, Newport Beach
The Rendezvous Ballroom is built
The Rendezvous was built, with a floor of about 12,000 sq ft. It became the home of Balboa: in 1938 Look called it the "Queen of Swing". Fire destroyed it for good in 1966.
Source: Lindy Circle
- 1929
Dance · United States (Arkansas, North Carolina)
The "shag" is the latest craze
An article in the Blytheville Courier News reported the shag as the dance of the moment. In 1936 the "long double" variant was documented in Charlotte; by the end of the decade Arthur Murray had standardised it.
Source: Wikipedia
1930s
- 1933
Records, radio & venues · Yokohama, Japan
Chigusa jazz café opens in Yokohama
Chigusa is the oldest Japanese jazz café still running. After the war jazz kissa, cafés devoted to listening to records, spread across the country: today there are about 600.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1933–35
Migration · Canidrome, Shanghai
Buck Clayton plays Shanghai
Pianist Teddy Weatherford recruited musicians in Los Angeles for the Canidrome, a Shanghai luxury ballroom. Trumpeter Buck Clayton played there nightly until a racist incident with a US Marine led to threats and the band's dismissal; he then moved to the Casa Nova. He returned to the US in 1935.
Source: Sixth Tone
- 1934
Records, radio & venues · Paris
The Quintette du Hot Club de France is born
Out of jam sessions at the Hôtel Claridge came Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli's quintet, pushed by Charles Delaunay and Pierre Nourry of the Hot Club de France. In December the first records under the Quintette's name were cut.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1935
Dance · Harlem, New York
Frankie Manning and the first competition aerial
In a contest against George Snowden and Big Bea, Frankie Manning and Frieda Washington performed an aerial. That year Herbert "Whitey" White gathered the Savoy's best dancers into Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, who took part in the Harvest Moon Ball and left on a seven-month European tour.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1935
Records, radio & venues · Savoy Ballroom, Harlem
Ella Fitzgerald joins Chick Webb
Chick Webb's orchestra had been the Savoy house band since 1931. In 1935 Webb began featuring the young Ella Fitzgerald as his singer. Webb died on 16 June 1939.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1935
Records, radio & venues · Palomar Ballroom, Los Angeles
Benny Goodman at the Palomar: the swing era begins
On 21 August 1935 Benny Goodman began his first run at the Palomar Ballroom: a date often given as the start of the swing era. The ballroom burned down in 1939.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1935
War & censorship · Berlin
Nazi Germany bans jazz from the radio
On 12 October 1935 Eugen Hadamovsky announced a definitive ban on "Negro jazz" across all German radio. The regime called jazz and blues "Negermusik"; in 1930 a Thuringian decree had already attacked "Negro culture".
Source: Wikipedia
- 1936
Records, radio & venues · Turin
Trio Lescano records with the EIAR orchestra
Having arrived in Turin from the Netherlands in 1935, the Lescano sisters cut their first song on 22 February 1936 with Cinico Angelini's EIAR orchestra. From 1937 to 1941 they sang with Pippo Barzizza's Orchestra Cetra.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1937
Migration · Kansas City → Chicago → New York
Count Basie leaves Kansas City
After Bennie Moten's death (1935), Count Basie took his orchestra to Chicago and then New York: the Kansas City style went national and spread across the US in the 1940s.
- 1937
Dance · Savoy Ballroom, Harlem
Battle of the bands: Chick Webb vs Benny Goodman
At the Savoy, Chick Webb's house orchestra took on Benny Goodman's and was declared the winner. In 1938 it also beat Count Basie, though not everyone agreed.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1937
Dance · Columbia, South Carolina → Roxy Theatre, New York
The Big Apple becomes a national craze
Born at Fat Sam's Big Apple Club, the circle dance reached New York's Roxy Theatre in August with student couples and for about a year became a nationwide craze.
Source: South Carolina Encyclopedia — University of South Carolina
- 1937
Dance · Hollywood
Lindy Hop on screen: "A Day at the Races"
Whitey's Lindy Hoppers made their film debut in the Marx Brothers picture; the "All God's Chillun Got Rhythm" number earned choreographer Dave Gould an Oscar nomination. "Hellzapoppin'" followed in 1941.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1938
War & censorship · Düsseldorf
The "Entartete Musik" exhibition
The "degenerate music" exhibition presented jazz as "Negro" music and as a Jewish plot against German culture; its poster showed a caricature of a Black saxophonist wearing the Star of David.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1938
Records, radio & venues · Carnegie Hall, New York
Swing enters Carnegie Hall
On 16 January 1938 Benny Goodman played a jazz concert at Carnegie Hall. The recording is now in the Library of Congress National Recording Registry.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1938
Records, radio & venues · New York
Cab Calloway's jive dictionary
Calloway published the "Hepster's Dictionary", considered the first dictionary written by an African American author. Under "jitterbug": a swing fan. Jive slang would give swing dancing its name in Britain.
Source: Open Culture
- 1938
Segregation & society · Carnegie Hall, New York
From Spirituals to Swing at Carnegie Hall
On 23 December John Hammond brought Count Basie, Big Joe Turner, Pete Johnson, Albert Ammons, Meade Lux Lewis, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Big Bill Broonzy to Carnegie Hall, before an integrated audience. Hammond had struggled to find sponsors for exactly that reason. The concert launched the boogie-woogie craze.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1939
War & censorship · London
War splits the Quintette
The Quintette du Hot Club de France was touring England when war broke out: Django Reinhardt returned to France, Stéphane Grappelli stayed in London.
Source: Wikipedia
1940s
- 1940
War & censorship · Milan
Natalino Otto and wartime radio
In January 1940 Natalino Otto signed with Fonit and recorded "Biriei". He is said to have been boycotted by EIAR for his swing; his daughter plays the legend down: American music was off the air because Italy was at war with the United States.
Source: Avvenire
- 1940s
Dance · United Kingdom and Europe
GIs bring the jitterbug to Europe
American soldiers brought Lindy Hop and jitterbug, which quickly won over young Europeans. In the US the dance was mostly called "swing"; in Britain "jive" took hold.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1940–44
War & censorship · Paris
The Zazous in occupied Paris
Young swing fans in long jackets, narrow trousers and slicked hair defied Vichy and the occupiers. In 1942 came raids on clubs and street attacks; some non-Jews wore the yellow star inscribed "Zazou" or "Swing" in protest.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1941
War & censorship · Coventry Street, London
The bomb on the Café de Paris
On 8 March 1941, during the Blitz, a 50 kg bomb hit the club: at least 34 dead. Bandleader Ken "Snakehips" Johnson, 26, born in British Guiana, was killed along with two musicians of his West Indian Dance Orchestra.
Source: The National Archives (UK)
- 1941
War & censorship · Hamburg
Raid on the Swing Youth
On 18 August 1941 police arrested more than 300 swing kids. Measures ranged from forced haircuts to deporting leaders to concentration camps; for the young there was the Moringen camp.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1941
War & censorship · Rio de Janeiro
Whitey's Lindy Hoppers stranded in Brazil
After "Hellzapoppin'" the group performed in Rio de Janeiro. Pearl Harbor prevented their return: they stayed in Brazil about ten months. In 1942, with the men drafted, the group disbanded.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1944
War & censorship · United States
The tax on dance venues
To fund the war the US imposed a 30% tax on the takings of venues with dancing. Big bands became too expensive, many venues switched to small groups, and "No Dancing Allowed" signs went up.
Source: WRTI — Philadelphia Public Media
- 1944
War & censorship · English Channel
Glenn Miller vanishes over the Channel
On 15 December 1944 the plane carrying Glenn Miller from England to France disappeared. Miller led the US Army Air Forces band entertaining the troops; his orchestra had been the best-selling recording band from 1939 to 1942.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1945
Records, radio & venues · New York
"Caldonia" at No. 1: the jump-blues age
Louis Jordan took "Caldonia" to the top of the R&B chart. In all he scored 18 number ones for 113 weeks: the bridge between swing, R&B and rock'n'roll.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1947
Records, radio & venues · Tokyo
"Tokyo Boogie-Woogie"
Ryōichi Hattori composed, Shizuko Kasagi sang: Hattori wanted to lift a post-war mood full of gloom, and the song became a symbol of Japan's recovery.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1948
Dance · San Bernardino and Riverside, California
"The New West Coast Swing"
In December Arthur Murray studios advertised lessons in the new style. In 1951 Lauré Haile documented it in Los Angeles as "Western Swing" and turned it into a syllabus.
Source: Wikipedia
1950s
- 1940s–50s
Segregation & society · Sophiatown, Johannesburg
The swing bands of Sophiatown
The Merry Blackbirds and Jazz Maniacs played American swing and launched singers such as Dolly Rathebe, Dorothy Masuku and Miriam Makeba. Tsaba-tsaba emerged, blending African melodies with jazz. The destruction of Sophiatown under apartheid struck at its music too.
Source: South African History Online
- 1956
Records, radio & venues · Naples
"Tu vuò fà l'americano"
Renato Carosone and Nisa wrote a swing satire of post-war Americanisation in southern Italy. La Repubblica called it the definitive hit of Carosone's career.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1956
Records, radio & venues · Johannesburg
"Lovely Lies" charts in the US
The English version of the Manhattan Brothers' song, written by Mackay Davashe, reached No. 45 on the Billboard pop chart in March 1956: the first South African song to enter that chart.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1958
Dance · Harlem, New York
The Savoy closes
After 32 years the Savoy Ballroom closed its doors. Lindy Hop lived on among a few dancers until the 1980s revival.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1959
Segregation & society · Lenox Avenue, Harlem
The Savoy is demolished
Despite efforts by Hulan Jack and others, the Savoy Ballroom was torn down in March–April 1959 to make way for the Delano Village housing complex. Its fittings were auctioned off.
Source: Wikipedia
1960s
- late 1950s
Segregation & society · Johannesburg → London, New York
South African jazz musicians go into exile
Between the late 1950s and early 1960s many musicians left South Africa, among them Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela. From the 1960s state radio controlled which songs were broadcast until the late 1980s.
Source: South African History Online
1970s
- 1974
Dance · France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland
First international rock'n'roll and boogie contests
The first international competitions were held between France, Italy, Germany and Switzerland. In 1984 the World Rock'n'Roll Confederation (WRRC) was founded; it still governs Boogie Woogie competition today.
Source: Summer Jamboree
1980s
- 1982
Revival · Herräng, Sweden
Herräng Dance Camp begins
In summer 1982 the camp began with a visit from American teacher John Clancy, driven by passionate Swedish dancers. Today it runs for a month and welcomes dancers and musicians from more than 70 countries.
Source: Herräng Dance Camp
- 1982–85
Revival · New York
The revival starts in New York, Stockholm and London
In New York Al Minns, an original Savoy dancer, taught at the Sandra Cameron Dance Center; in Sweden Herräng began, in Britain the Jiving Lindy Hoppers.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1985
Revival · Stockholm, Sweden
The Rhythm Hot Shots are founded
Six dancers, including Lennart Westerlund, founded the Rhythm Hot Shots in Stockholm. From 1989, with the Swedish Swing Society, they ran the Herräng Dance Camp.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1986
Revival · New York
Frankie Manning returns to teaching
Erin Stevens and Steven Mitchell contacted Manning, then a postal worker, to learn Lindy Hop. At 72 he began teaching again: in 1987 he was in Sweden, from 1989 at Herräng every year; in 1989 he won a Tony Award for choreographing "Black and Blue".
Source: Wikipedia
- 1987
Revival · New York
Live big bands at the Cat Club
The New York Swing Dance Society held live big-band dances at the Cat Club every other Sunday; Savoy dancers by then in their seventies taught at the practice sessions.
Source: The Christian Science Monitor
1990s
- 1993–98
Revival · United States
Swing returns to the mainstream
"Swing Kids" (1993) and "Swingers" (1996) brought swing to cinemas; in 1998 the Brian Setzer Orchestra won a Grammy with "Jump, Jive an' Wail" and Gap's "Khakis Swing" ad used Louis Prima's version.
Source: Wikipedia
2000s
- 2000
Revival · Senigallia, Italy
First Summer Jamboree
An international festival devoted to rock'n'roll and vintage American music began in Senigallia; recent editions have drawn over 400,000 visitors.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2002
Revival · Lenox Avenue, Harlem
A plaque for the Savoy
On 26 May 2002 Frankie Manning and Norma Miller unveiled a memorial plaque on Lenox Avenue, between 140th and 141st Streets, where the Savoy once stood.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2009
Revival · New York
Frankie Manning dies
Frankie Manning died in Manhattan on 27 April 2009, aged 94. In 2012 the village of Herräng named a street after him.
Source: Wikipedia
2020s
- 2024
Revival · Clap House, Brescia
WHAM is founded in Brescia
In August 2024 WHAM ASD APS was founded, a sports and cultural association devoted to swing and jazz dance, based at the Clap House in the Violino district.
Source: WHAM ASD APS
Key records
Recordings to start with. Links open a Spotify search.
| Year | Title | Artist | Place | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1917 | Livery Stable BluesCut in February 1917 by a white New Orleans group: over a million copies in six months, jazz becomes a record-industry product. | Original Dixieland Jass Band | New York · Victor | ▶ |
| 1921 | Carolina ShoutStride piano by the man who two years later wrote the music for "Charleston" in "Runnin' Wild". | James P. Johnson | New York · OKeh | ▶ |
| 1923 | Dippermouth BluesKing Oliver's Chicago band with young Louis Armstrong on second cornet: the New Orleans sound transplanted north. | King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band | Richmond, Indiana · Gennett | ▶ |
| 1926 | Heebie JeebiesFebruary 1926: one of the first Hot Five records, with Armstrong scat-singing. | Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five | Chicago · OKeh | ▶ |
| 1926 | Black Bottom StompAdded to the Library of Congress National Recording Registry in 2006. | Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers | Chicago · Victor | ▶ |
| 1928 | Pine Top's Boogie WoogieBoogie-woogie piano reaches records in Chicago, ten years before the national craze. | Pine Top Smith | Chicago · Vocalion | ▶ |
| 1929 | Ain't Misbehavin'Stride piano and vocals: in the National Recording Registry since 2004. | Fats Waller | New York · Victor | ▶ |
| 1931 | Minnie the MoocherCalloway's "hi-de-ho", the Cotton Club bandleader after Ellington. In the National Recording Registry since 2018. | Cab Calloway and His Orchestra | New York · Brunswick | ▶ |
| 1932 | It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)Ellington puts the word "swing" in the title three years before the swing era took off. | Duke Ellington and His Orchestra | New York · Brunswick | ▶ |
| 1932 | Moten SwingThe manifesto of the Kansas City sound, cut three years before Moten's death. | Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra | Camden, New Jersey · Victor | ▶ |
| 1934 | Stompin' at the SavoyThe anthem of the Harlem ballroom, played by its house orchestra. | Chick Webb and His Orchestra | New York · Columbia | ▶ |
| 1934 | DinahFrom the Quintette's first session (December 1934): strings only, no drums. | Quintette du Hot Club de France | Paris · Ultraphone | ▶ |
| 1936 | Crapa peladaA 1936 hit with music by Kramer: swing speaks Milanese dialect. | Alberto Rabagliati (musica di Gorni Kramer) | Milan | ▶ |
| 1937 | Sing, Sing, SingGene Krupa's tom-toms and one of the most-danced tunes ever at Lindy Hop nights. | Benny Goodman and His Orchestra | Hollywood, Los Angeles · Victor | ▶ |
| 1937 | One O'Clock JumpBuilt on riffs, in pure Kansas City style. In the National Recording Registry since 2005. | Count Basie and His Orchestra | New York · Decca | ▶ |
| 1937 | Minor SwingA gypsy-jazz standard, still played at every jam in the style. | Django Reinhardt & Stéphane Grappelli — Quintette du Hot Club de France | Paris · Swing | ▶ |
| 1938 | A-Tisket, A-TasketWebb and Fitzgerald's big hit, written by Van Alexander at the singer's request. | Chick Webb and His Orchestra feat. Ella Fitzgerald | New York · Decca | ▶ |
| 1938 | Roll 'Em PeteKansas City boogie pianist and blues shouter, the same pair featured at "From Spirituals to Swing". | Pete Johnson & Big Joe Turner | New York · Vocalion | ▶ |
| 1939 | Pippo non lo saOne of the Trio Lescano's best-known songs, written by Kramer. | Trio Lescano (musica di Gorni Kramer) | Turin | ▶ |
| 1939 | 'Tain't What You Do (It's the Way That You Do It)The tune that starts the Shim Sham all over the world. | Jimmie Lunceford and His Orchestra | New York · Vocalion | ▶ |
| 1939 | Tuxedo JunctionMedium tempo and easy riffs: a Harlem ballroom classic. | Erskine Hawkins and His Orchestra | New York · Bluebird | ▶ |
| 1939 | Body and SoulA tenor sax solo that became a landmark. In the National Recording Registry since 2004. | Coleman Hawkins | New York · Bluebird | ▶ |
| 1939 | In the MoodThe best-selling band of 1939–42, later the soundtrack for troops in Europe. In the National Recording Registry since 2004. | Glenn Miller and His Orchestra | New York · Bluebird | ▶ |
| 1940 | BirieiNatalino Otto's first record, after signing with Fonit in January 1940. | Natalino Otto | Milan · Fonit | ▶ |
| 1940 | NuagesRecorded by the new quintet with clarinet and drums during the Occupation: it became a jazz standard. | Django Reinhardt et le Nouveau Quintette du Hot Club de France | Paris · Swing | ▶ |
| 1941 | Take the "A" TrainWritten by Billy Strayhorn, it is the subway line that takes you to Harlem. | Duke Ellington and His Orchestra | Hollywood, Los Angeles · Victor | ▶ |
| 1942 | Flying HomeIllinois Jacquet's tenor solo points ahead to the energy of jump blues and R&B. | Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra | New York · Decca | ▶ |
| 1945 | CaldoniaR&B number one in 1945. In the National Recording Registry since 2013. | Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five | New York · Decca | ▶ |
| 1946 | Choo Choo Ch'BoogieR&B number one in 1946: boogie, swing and humour in three minutes. | Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five | New York · Decca | ▶ |
| 1947 | Tokyo Boogie-Woogie (東京ブギウギ)Music by Ryōichi Hattori, lyrics by Masaru Suzuki: the boogie of Japan's reconstruction. | Shizuko Kasagi | Tokyo · Nippon Columbia | ▶ |
| 1956 | Lovely LiesWritten by Mackay Davashe: the first South African song on the Billboard pop chart (No. 45, 1956). | The Manhattan Brothers | Johannesburg | ▶ |
| 1956 | Jump, Jive an' WailJump blues with an Italian-American flavour; in 1998 a Gap ad brought it back into every home. | Louis Prima | Hollywood, Los Angeles · Capitol | ▶ |
| 1956 | Tu vuò fà l'americanoMusic by Carosone, lyrics by Nisa: a swing satire of post-war Americanisation. | Renato Carosone | Naples | ▶ |
| 1998 | Jump, Jive an' WailThe biggest single of the 1990s revival: No. 23 on the Hot 100 and a Grammy. | The Brian Setzer Orchestra | Los Angeles · Interscope | ▶ |
How this map was made
- Each scene's years mark when it flourished, not its lifespan: the music and the dances carry on well beyond them.
- Points sit on modern borders in approximate positions; where several places coincide (Harlem, for instance) markers are spread apart automatically.
- Every scene, event and record links to a source. We favoured public institutions, archives, encyclopedias and newspapers; where we cite Wikipedia it is because the entry itself relies on academic or archival sources, listed in brackets.
- Where sources disagree or a story cannot be proven (such as the Jenkins Orphanage Band's role in the Charleston) the text says so.
- It is a starting point, not an encyclopedia: corrections are welcome at swing@thewham.it.
Bibliography
- 64 Parishes — Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Congo Square
- Avvenire Natalino Otto, pioniere dello swing (A. Pedrinelli, 2016)
- Charleston County Public Library Tracing the Roots of the Charleston Dance (N. Butler)
- Herräng Dance Camp What is Herräng Dance Camp
- LeMO — Deutsches Historisches Museum Jugendopposition — Swingjugend (B. Struck)
- Lindy Circle Balboa — History
- Open Culture Cab Calloway's "Hepster Dictionary"
- Sixth Tone Ticket to Shanghai: How an American Trumpeter Rocked China's Jazz Scene (Cai Yiwen)
- South African History Online Music and culture forms resistance
- South Carolina Encyclopedia — University of South Carolina Big Apple
- Summer Jamboree Boogie Woogie
- The Christian Science Monitor The dances are simply swell (G. Winkel, 31/03/1987)
- The National Archives (UK) The bombing of the Café de Paris
- The Pendergast Years — Kansas City Public Library The Bennie Moten Orchestra
- U.S. National Park Service — New Orleans Jazz NHP A New Orleans Jazz History, 1895–1927
- U.S. National Park Service — New Orleans Jazz NHP Charles "Buddy" Bolden
- WHAM ASD APS WHAM ASD APS — Chi siamo
- Wikipedia Chick Webb (fonti: Britannica; AllMusic)
- Wikipedia Collegiate shag (fonti: Marsh 1935; A. Murray 1937; stampa d'epoca)
- Wikipedia Cotton Club (fonti: Haskins 1977; NYT)
- Wikipedia Dunbar Hotel (fonti: Central Avenue Sounds, UC Press 1999; LA Times)
- Wikipedia Frankie Manning (fonti: Manning & Millman 2007; NYT 2009)
- Wikipedia From Spirituals to Swing (fonti: Young & Young 2005; Vanguard 1999)
- Wikipedia Glenn Miller
- Wikipedia Gorni Kramer (fonte: Corriere della Sera, 27/10/1995)
- Wikipedia Hot Shots (dance companies) (fonte: Manning & Millman 2007)
- Wikipedia Japanese jazz (fonte: E. Taylor Atkins, Blue Nippon, Duke UP 2001)
- Wikipedia Jive (dance)
- Wikipedia La Revue Nègre (fonti: Blake 1999; Shack 2001; Comœdia 1925)
- Wikipedia Lindy Hop (fonti: Stearns 1968; Monaghan 2004; Manning & Millman 2007)
- Wikipedia Louis Jordan (fonti: Blues Foundation; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; J. Whitburn)
- Wikipedia Manhattan Brothers (fonti: Ballantine, Popular Music 1999; Mail & Guardian)
- Wikipedia National Recording Registry (Library of Congress) — elenco
- Wikipedia Negermusik (fonti: Schröder 1988; Der Spiegel 1988; HMD Trust)
- Wikipedia Palomar Ballroom
- Wikipedia Quintette du Hot Club de France (fonti: Delaunay; AllMusic)
- Wikipedia Savoy Ballroom (fonti: Stearns, Jazz Dance; N. Miller, Swingin' at the Savoy; NYT)
- Wikipedia Shim Sham (fonti: C. V. Hill 2010; Stearns, Jazz Dance)
- Wikipedia Summer Jamboree (fonti: Corriere Adriatico; ANSA)
- Wikipedia Swing revival (fonti: LA Times 1999; RIAA; AP 1999)
- Wikipedia Tokyo Boogie-Woogie (fonti: Japan Times 2023; Yomiuri 2024)
- Wikipedia Trio Lescano
- Wikipedia Tu vuò fà l'americano (fonti: RAI; la Repubblica 2001)
- Wikipedia West Coast Swing (fonti: stampa 1948–1957; Dance Teacher Now 1986)
- Wikipedia Whitey's Lindy Hoppers (fonti: Manning & Millman 2007; Library of Congress; NYT)
- Wikipedia Zazou (fonti: Willett, Popular Music 1989; Halls 1981)
- WRTI — Philadelphia Public Media Did the Cabaret Tax Kill Big Bands? (2015)
Cartography: Natural Earth (public domain).
From the map to the dance floor
Lindy Hop, Balboa, Collegiate Shag, Boogie Woogie, Solo Jazz and R&B: in Brescia you can dance them all.