The Savoy Ballroom was a large ballroom for music and public dancing located at 596 Lenox Avenue, between 140th and 141st Streets in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Lenox Avenue was the main thoroughfare through upper Harlem. Poet Langston Hughes calls it the Heartbeat of Harlem in Juke Box Love Song, and he set his work "Lenox Avenue: Midnight" on the legendary street. The Savoy was one of many Harlem hot spots along Lenox, but it was the one to be called the "World's Finest Ballroom". It was in operation from March 12, 1926, to July 10, 1958, and as Barbara Englebrecht writes in her article "Swinging at the Savoy", it was "a building, a geographic place, a ballroom, and the 'soul' of a neighborhood". It was opened and owned by white entrepreneur Jay Faggen and Jewish businessman Moe Gale. It was managed by African-American business man and civic leader Charles Buchanan. Buchanan, who was born in the British West Indies, sought to run a "luxury ballroom to accommodate the many thousands who wished to dance in an atmosphere of tasteful refinement, rather than in the small stuffy halls and the foul smelling, smoke laden cellar nightclubs ..."
William James "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, Basie formed his own jazz orchestra, the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and their first recording. He led the group for almost 50 years, creating innovations like the use of two "split" tenor saxophones, emphasizing the rhythm section, riffing with a big band, using arrangers to broaden their sound, and others. Many musicians came to prominence under his direction, including the tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Herschel Evans, the guitarist Freddie Green, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry "Sweets" Edison and singers Jimmy Rushing, Helen Humes, Thelma Carpenter, and Joe Williams.
The Cotton Club was a New York City nightclub from 1923 to 1940. It was located on 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue, then briefly in midtown Theater District (1935-1940) The club operated during the United States' era of Prohibition and Jim Crow era racial segregation. Black people could not initially patronize the Cotton Club, but the venue featured many of the most popular black entertainers of the era, including musicians Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, Jimmie Lunceford, Chick Webb, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Fats Waller, Willie Bryant; vocalists Adelaide Hall, Ethel Waters, Cab Calloway, Bessie Smith, Aida Ward, Avon Long, the Dandridge Sisters, the Will Vodery Choir, The Mills Brothers, Nina Mae McKinney, Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, and dancers such as Katherine Dunham, Bill Robinson, The Nicholas Brothers, Charles 'Honi' Coles, Leonard Reed, Stepin Fetchit, the Berry Brothers, The Four Step Brothers, Jeni Le Gon and Earl Snakehips Tucker.
Charles "Cholly" Atkins was an American dancer and vaudeville performer, who later became noted as the house choreographer for the various artists on the Motown label.
Joseph Dwight Newman was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and educator, best known for his time with Count Basie.
The history of Lindy Hop begins in the African American communities of Harlem, New York during the late 1920s in conjunction with swing jazz. Lindy Hop is closely related to earlier African American vernacular dances but quickly gained its own fame through dancers in films, performances, competitions, and professional dance troupes. It became especially popular in the 1930s with the upsurge of aerials. The popularity of Lindy Hop declined after World War II, and it converted to other forms of dancing, but it never disappeared during the decades between the 1940s and the 1980s until European and American dancers revived it starting from the beginning of the 1980s.
Joseph Christopher Columbus Morris, better known as Crazy Chris Columbo, was an American jazz drummer. He was sometimes credited as Joe Morris on record, though he is no relation to free jazz guitarist Joe Morris or trumpeter Joe Morris.
Benny Powell was an American jazz trombonist. He played both standard (tenor) trombone and bass trombone.
"Jumpin' at the Woodside" is a song first recorded in 1938 by the Count Basie Orchestra, and considered one of the band's signature tunes. When first released it reached number 11 on the Billboard charts and remained on them for four weeks. Since then it has become a frequently recorded jazz standard.
Henry "Rubberlegs" Williams was an American blues and jazz singer, dancer and occasional female impersonator. A star of Vaudeville, he is probably best remembered for his singing work with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, although it was for his dancing that he was renowned for in New York City and Boston.
Jimmy Mordecai also known as James Mordecai was a Harlem-based jazz tap dancer in the 1920s and 1930s. James Mordecai was born in New York City in 1905. His father was Samuel Mordecai and his mother Sara Cunningham immigrated into these United States from British West Indies in 1901 through Cuba. He was in the cast of a 1924 touring show called "Cotton Land," with music by James P. Johnson. He was a member of a popular dance trio, Wells, Mordecai and Taylor, with whom he performed at the Cotton Club in 1930 with a Duke Ellington revue called "Brown Sugar ." In that revue, he danced with Cora LaRedd, a renowned tap dancer active at the time.
Leonard Harper was a producer, stager, and choreographer in New York City during the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s and 1930s.
Smalls Paradise, was a nightclub in Harlem, New York City. Located in the basement of 2294 Seventh Avenue, it opened in 1925 and was owned by Ed Smalls. At the time of the Harlem Renaissance, Smalls Paradise was the only one of the well-known Harlem night clubs to be owned by an African-American and integrated. Other major Harlem night clubs admitted only white patrons unless the person was an African-American celebrity.
Club Harlem was a nightclub at 32 Kentucky Avenue in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Founded in 1935 by Leroy "Pop" Williams, it was the city's premier club for black jazz performers. Like its Harlem counterpart, the Cotton Club, many of Club Harlem's guests were white, wealthy and eager to experience a night of African-American entertainment.
Kentucky Avenue Renaissance Festival, also known as the Historical Kentucky Avenue Renaissance Festival, is a street fair held each summer in the former black entertainment district of Atlantic City, New Jersey. Founded in 1992, it appeared annually until 2001, and then resumed in 2011. Held on and around the site of the razed Club Harlem, the weekend fair commemorates the R&B and jazz nightspots that once lined Kentucky Avenue and that attracted both black and white clientele in its heyday from the 1940s through 1960s. The festival features live performances by R&B and jazz musicians and bands, dance performances, street performers, arts and crafts for children, and food concessions, and draws hundreds of attendees.
Grace's Little Belmont was a jazz music bar and lounge in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Located at 37 Kentucky Avenue, it was one of the four popular black nightclubs situated on that street between the mid-1930s and mid-1970s; the others were Club Harlem, the Paradise Club, and the Wonder Gardens. The Little Belmont was located across the street from Club Harlem, with which it often shared performers and patrons. Wild Bill Davis and his swing and jazz quartet were featured summer performers from 1950 through the mid-1960s, and Elvera M. "Baby" Sanchez, mother of Sammy Davis, Jr., worked at the bar. The club closed in the mid-1970s and was later demolished.
Wonder Gardens was a jazz and R&B nightclub at 1601 Arctic Avenue in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Established around 1929, it was one of four black-owned nightclubs in the black entertainment district on Kentucky Avenue. Between the Wonder Gardens, Club Harlem, the Paradise Club, and Grace's Little Belmont, the music played all night and into the morning in the district's heyday in the 1940s through 1960s. Presenting both popular jazz musicians and new talent, the Wonder Gardens provided early exposure for Dan Fogel, Harvey Mason, George Benson, and the Commodores. Over the years, the music changed from jazz to rock, soul, and pop music. In 1979 the club was renovated, redecorated and renamed the Latin Wonder Gardens, featuring live Afro-Cuban musical entertainment. In 1991 it underwent a second renovation and name change to the New Wonder Gardens, featuring Latin, jazz, R&B, hiphop, and reggae acts. The club was sold in 2001 and was later demolished.
Wash's Restaurant, later called Wash & Sons' Seafood Restaurant, Wash's Inn, and Wash's Catering, was an African-American family-owned and operated soul food restaurant that was in business for over 70 years, first in Atlantic City and then in Pleasantville, New Jersey. Established by Clifton and Alma Washington at 35 N. Kentucky Avenue, Atlantic City, in 1937, the original 20-seat location attained celebrity status for hosting the performers and patrons of the nightclubs in the Kentucky Avenue black entertainment district. The restaurant was known for its sausage sandwiches and soul food, and also served breakfast to customers leaving the 6 a.m. show at Club Harlem.
The Golden Gate Ballroom, originally named the "State Palace Ballroom", was a luxurious ballroom located at the intersection of Lenox Avenue and 142nd Street in Harlem. It was allegedly the largest public auditorium in Harlem, with 25,000 square feet and a capacity of about 5,000 people on the dance floor in addition to several thousand spectators.
A class act is a performance or personal trait or behavior that is distinctive and of high quality. As a noun phrase, it is typically used to refer to a single person, a team – such as a performing artists working together – or an organization.
