Friday, October 12, 2018

Happy Feet Friday

Jan Savitt was an emigre from what is now part of Ukraine, trained as a classical violinist, and played in the orchestra of the great Leopold Stokowski. But he left that long-hair jive behind and put together a swing band in the 1930s known as the Top Hatters. They had their own radio show and broadcast from the Philadelphia NBC affiliate four times a week.

Here the boys perform a cover of Jimmy Lunceford's "Blues in the Groove". Johnny Austin provides the trumpet solo in what I can only characterize as a style that is simultaneously laid back and frenetic.

4 comments:

RebeccaH said...

Where do you find these musical clips?

Paco said...

They're all on YouTube, but the majority of them are tunes that I have in one format or another (LPs and CDs, mostly) and am familiar with. I've been a fan of big band swing, post-war R&B, blues, western swing, rock-a-billy, and "proto" rock and roll all my life, and possess literally thousands of these recordings. And I've read a lot about the individual musicians, bands, and genres over the years. The liner notes of the old LPs are an education in themselves.

bruce said...

Great stuff, I was hoping for a violin solo (like Stuff Smith!) but Savitt must have been busy leading and arranging and you can hear great skill in that area too.

I started seriously collecting LPs in the 80s and I agree the liner notes were my first education, along with reading old Down Beats (but that's Jazz not so much swing).

Mike_W said...

Frenetic!
Can you imagine the swing dancers throwing their partners around to that!?