[Tango-L] West Coast Swing

Tue Aug 8 11:54:13 EDT 2006

Steve,
Trying to determine the origin of any particular dance style seems to me
pretty much like chasing a cloud.  Like the popularity or obscurity of most
other creative endeavors that depend on the vagrancies of collective human
taste such as music, art, fashion, etc., the beginnings of movements or
styles are often very ill-defined.  In fact, they generally do not actually
ever “begin,” rather they simply evolve over some period of time,
influenced by many different factors from multiple sources that happen to
converge and then appears as something someone thinks is recognizably
different.  To complicate matters more, the labels that we then decide to
arbitrarily apply to these evolved styles almost never have a definition
that is universally accepted.   

A perfect example is the (endless) discussions we have here on the style(?)
of close embrace tango.  We vainly attempt to define and agree on important
aspects of it.  How close is close?  Does it mean close all the time, or
can it mean most of the time, or what if it is used only when the occasion
calls for it?  What is it if its danced on a stage?  Who were the first
couple to ever dance in a close embrace?  Was the man a young compradito or
an old milonguero?  What was the date and the day of the week?  Did the man
lead it or did the follower merely accept an invitation?  What was the size
of the floor and how many other dancers were there at the time of the first
close embrace?  What milonga in what BsAs neighborhood was it danced at
first?  Or are we absolutely certain that it didn’t actually originate in
Paris, Finland, Houston, Texas or heaven forbid, Uruguay?  Did the working
women of La Boca get paid to dance close embrace with the dockworkers and
fishermen, or was it part of a package price?  When men taught other men
how to tango, did they use close embrace?  Did it induce tango moments for
them as well?

Just as soon as we nail down the answers to these vital questions in
understanding our tango, I’m certain we can solve the origins of West Coast
Swing for you ;).       

W.B. Smith

P.S.  You might want to compare your evolution of WCS to DC Hand Dancing,
another slower version of swing danced mostly to R&B.  

Original Message:
-----------------
From: steve pastor tang0man2005 at yahoo.com
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2006 07:38:27 -0700 (PDT)
To: tango-L at mit.edu
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] West Coast Swing

While investigating the origin of West Coast Swing, and the music it was
originally
  danced to, I ran across a few convergences with tango. I shared that
information with the list.
  This led to some reaction, and a West Coast Swing thread. I replied to
the first post
  privately, since WCS is a bit off topic. The second post in that thread
led me to decide
  to share what I found on this off tango topic - West Coast Swing
(Although WCS
  does share the improvisational nature of Argentine Tango). 

  The roots of West Coast Swing are in the Swing Era. But, "swing" refers
not only to
  Big Band Swing, but more generally how music is played. Most accounts of
how
  WCS came to be go from jazz/blues to R&B to Rock ‘n Roll. I have come to
believe
  that this account leaves something out. On another dance forum the only
person who
  mentioned this other element was from Australia! The unmentioned element
is
  Western Swing.
  Here’s how I arrived at the Western Swing connection. I have endeavored
to list the
  source of all of my information. WCS is the "state dance" of California.
Although it is
  likely that a similar style evolved in other parts of the country,
Southern California has
  the best documented scene, and the most publicity.
  This is from from a personal communication (July 6, 2006 email) from
Sonny Watson 
  "Swing Music was the thing for a good amount of time. However the music
was 
  changing into Rock and Roll about the mid 40's as Blues, Boogie-Woogie,
Western
  Swing Music etc stated above." (Get started on his web site at
http://www.streetswing.com/ to see why I think he has cred )
  from a web site ---
  "Back east they stayed with the big band sound, which you could only do
eastern
  swing to. But here, we didn't have big band places; we had
country-western and blues.
  Dancing in a slot (i.e., West Coast Swing) fit that kind of music
better," Blair says.
  "supplied by Diane Jarmolow of the Ballroom Dance Teachers College
  and reprinted with(out) permission.". (And Skippy Blair was there. She
was born
  3/15/1924 - streetswing - smp)
http://www.firststepdance.com/histories/east_west.php
  And this regarding Tex Williams ---
  The singer and guitarist caught his first big break after moving to Los
Angeles in 1942.
  At that time California was populated by many former Texans and Oklahomans
  working in the defense industry, creating a need for Western swing
entertainment in a
  region not noted for country music.
http://www.cmt.com/artists/az/williams_tex/bio.jhtml
  And... Bob Wills Western Swing
  "Toward the end of the decade (the 30s sp) , big bands were dominating
popular
  music and Wills wanted a band capable of playing complex, jazz-inspired
  arrangements. To help him achieve his sound, he hired arranger and
guitarist Eldon
  Shamblin, who wrote charts that fused country with big band music for the
Texas
  Playboys. By 1940, he had replaced some of the weaker musicians in the
lineup,
  winding up with a full 18-piece band. The Texas Playboys were breaking
concert
  attendance records across the country, filling out venues from Tulsa to
California; and
  they also had their first genuine national hit with "New San Antonio
Rose," which
  climbed to number 11 in 1940. Throughout 1941 and 1942, Bob Wills & His
Texas
  Playboys continued to record and perform and they were one of the most
popular
  bands in the country. ...their singles for Columbia, which were
consistently reaching
  the Top Five between 1945 and 1948; ..."
http://www.cmt.com/artists/az/wills_bob/bio.jhtml
  Well now. It turns out the West Coast Swing was called Western Swing
early on.
  Lauré Haile is credited with the first written description of what the
dancers were doing
  in the Los Angeles area in "the 1940s" (the date is pretty ill defined in
most accounts
  and that would be WCS).
  "In 1951 Lauré Haile first published her dance notes as a syllabus, which
included
  Western Swing for the Santa Monica Arthur Murray Dance Studio." History
of Swing
  Dancing By: Lori Heikkila - many sites use her articles
  http://www.centralhome.com/ballroomcountry/swing.htm
  By the late 1950s the Western thing no doubt wasn’t selling anymore, what
with the
  popularity of the "new" rock ‘n roll. West Coast Swing had been a generic
term for the
  way swing was danced on the West Coast. It started being used
consistently for what
  we think of as WCS.
  Although Western Swing doesn’t fit well with the swing kid image, it
looks to me like it
  was an important part of those early years.
  Meanwhile, I’ve gotten annoyed by the accounts that leave out the young
white guy Western Swing (like Bill Haley and the Saddlemen) and country
(like Elvis Presley) contribution to R&B that yielded the wildy popular
Rock ‘n Roll. But, that’s another off topic.

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