[Answered] Jubilee Stomp, Duke Ellington

[Matthew]

On the "Original Jitterbugs" DVD set that GemZombie's been offering, there is a clip from The Spirit Moves, in which Frankie Manning and partner dance what the title calls "California (Lindy)." The song from that clip is very interesting. Does anybody here know what that song is? (I already asked GemZombie, and he doesn't know.)

[Naomi]

I looked up The Spirit Moves on Judy Pritchett's website Savoy Style. The way it's described, it sounds like "California Lindy" is the name of the dance routine, rather than the music.

http://www.savoystyle.com/spirit_moves.html

I've sent Judy an email, to see if she knows the song.

[Naomi]

Here's Judy's response:

Hi Naomi,
I'll check with Frankie -- when I ask him questions like that he plays the film in his head and listens to the music.

In fairness, I think all of the music on Spirit Moves was dubbed in afterwords.

A bit of history on the name, "California Lindy". This is the routine that WLH did in California to make Hellzlapoppin, that's how it got its name and its geography.

Judy

[Bob the Builder]

Some of the music in "the spirit moves" was music that was added later by the producer, and was not what the dancers where dancing to.
I'm not sure if this is the case in the performance in question.

Yes, the routine is called the "California Routine". It has been copied and is performance by many troupes currently, and many of its sequences are used in a huge amount of general performances.
The California Routine was genearly danced to "Jumpin' at the Woodside".

Brian

[Naomi]

>Naomi,
>My apologies -- Frankie didn't remember what music they used. He will probably check it out sooner or later -- I assume there is no urgency?
>
>Judy

>No urgency indeed. Thanks for asking though. I think you're right about the dubbing. The rest of the board agreed the music was dubbed. One guy in Australia said they that people who learn & perform the routine today usually do it to Jumpin' At The Woodside.
>
>Best wishes, Naomi
>

Funny, I was thinking of mentioning that -- The Hellzapoppin routine (basically same as this) was originally done to Jumpin' at the Woodside but then Universal films had one of their staff composers make new music to it.

I don't know if Mura Dehn dubbed in because of low budget, low technology or a concern about the rights (which connects with low budget I guess.) I sell an incredibly wonderful compilation of American social dance history on film called America Dances that is marred, in my opionion, by having uniform ballroomy piano music dubbed-in instead of using the original varied music that was on the film clips. The reason the producer did that had to do with the problem of the rights to all that music, even though most of the film clips are in the public domain.

By the way, the Woodside was the hotel in Harlem where black musicians stayed when they had gigs in New York, including at the Savoy. There was always jamming going on in the lobby, especially late at night after they finished their gigs. Frankie used to go there after the Savoy closed. White musicians such as Harry James would come up from downtown to join them.

Can you imagine how wonderful that was!

Judy

[Travis]

On the "Original Jitterbugs" DVD set that GemZombie's been offering, there is a clip from The Spirit Moves, in which Frankie Manning and partner dance what the title calls "California (Lindy)." The song from that clip is very interesting. Does anybody here know what that song is? (I already asked GemZombie, and he doesn't know.)

The song from the clip with Frankie is called "Jubilee Stomp" by Duke Ellington.

[Matthew]

Many, many thanks, everybody. I really appreciate the help.