Newport Beach is a coastal city of about 85,000 in southern Orange County, California, United States. Located about 40 miles (64 km) southeast of downtown Los Angeles, Newport Beach is known for its sandy beaches. The city's harbor once supported maritime industries. Today it is used mostly for recreation. Balboa Island draws visitors with a waterfront path and easy access from the ferry to the shops and restaurants.
Swing dance is a group of social dances that developed with the swing style of jazz music in the 1920s–1940s, with the origins of each dance predating the popular "swing era". Hundreds of styles of swing dancing were developed; those that have survived beyond that era include Charleston, Balboa, Lindy Hop, and Collegiate Shag. Today, the best-known of these dances is the Lindy Hop, which originated in Harlem in the early 1930s. While the majority of swing dances began in African-American communities as vernacular African-American dances, some influenced swing-era dances, like Balboa, developed outside of these communities.
The Balboa, also known as "Bal" is a swing dance that originated in Southern California during the 1920s and enjoyed huge popularity during the 1930s and 1940s.
Richard Anthony Monsour, known professionally as Dick Dale, was an American rock guitarist. He was a pioneer of surf music, drawing on Middle Eastern music scales and experimenting with reverb. Dale was known as "The King of the Surf Guitar", which was also the title of his second studio album.
Surf music is a genre of rock music associated with surf culture, particularly as found in Southern California. It was especially popular from 1958 to 1964 in two major forms. The first is instrumental surf, distinguished by reverb-heavy electric guitars played to evoke the sound of crashing waves, largely pioneered by Dick Dale and the Del-Tones. The second is vocal surf, which took elements of the original surf sound and added vocal harmonies, a movement led by the Beach Boys.
Balboa Island is a harborside community in Newport Beach, California, accessible to the public via bridge, ferry and several public docks. The community is surrounded by a paved concrete boardwalk open to pedestrian traffic, designated as a public walking trail by the city.
Stanley Newcomb Kenton was an American popular music and jazz artist. As a pianist, composer, arranger and band leader, he led an innovative and influential jazz orchestra for almost four decades. Though Kenton had several pop hits from the early 1940s into the 1960s, his music was always forward-looking. Kenton was also a pioneer in the field of jazz education, creating the Stan Kenton Jazz Camp in 1959 at Indiana University.
"Let's Go Trippin'" is an instrumental by Dick Dale and The Del-Tones. It is often regarded as the first surf rock instrumental and is credited for launching the surf music craze. First played in public in 1960 at the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa Peninsula, Newport Beach, California, it reached number 4 on the Los Angeles station KFWB, and later peaked at number 60 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Newport Center is a business, shopping, and entertainment district located on a high bluff overlooking Newport Harbor in Newport Beach, California, centered around the Fashion Island regional shopping mall. It was created in the early 1960s as part of William Pereira's master plan for the Irvine Ranch. Newport Center was created as the unofficial "downtown" of the Irvine Ranch, which at the time extended all the way down to Pacific Coast Highway.
The Palomar Ballroom, built in 1925, was a famous ballroom in Los Angeles, California, in the United States. It was destroyed by a fire on October 2, 1939.
The Balboa Pavilion in Newport Beach, Orange County, California, is a California Historical Landmark and a National Historic Place. Established on July 1, 1906, the Balboa Pavilion played a prominent role in the development of Newport Beach by attracting real estate buyers to an area formerly designated as "swamp and overflow" land.
The Balboa Pier is one of two piers in the city of Newport Beach, Orange County, California. The other ocean pier on the Balboa Peninsula is the Newport Pier.
The Balboa Island Car Ferry is a ferry service in Newport Beach, California.
Johnny Richards was an American jazz arranger and composer scoring numerous sound tracks for television and film. He was a pivotal composer/arranger for cutting edge, adventurous performances and recording sessions by Stan Kenton's big band in the 1950s and early 1960s; such as Cuban Fire!, Kenton's West Side Story and Adventures in Time.
The Aragon Ballroom on Lick Pier in the Ocean Park district of Santa Monica, California was a social-dance venue opened under the Aragon name in March 1942 by dance promoter Harry Schooler (1918–2008).
The Ritz Ballroom was a popular cabaret, jazz, and swing nightclub located in the Black Rock neighborhood of Bridgeport, Connecticut near Ash Creek.
Robert Earle Spencer was an American trombonist and leader of a progressive swing big band bearing his name — Earle Spencer and His Orchestra. He formed the band in 1946 and disbanded in 1949. The band recorded for Black & White Records — a label so named by its founder, Les Schreiber, to reflect the races of its recording artists.
Reuben McFall(akaRuben and Rubin and Ruban; born 1 Feb 1931 Los Angeles) is an American trumpeter and jazz arranger who performed as a sideman with Freddie Slack, Vido Musso, Floyd Ray, Roy Porter, Glen Henry, Lalo Guerrero, Stan Kenton, Gerry Mulligan, Woody Herman, Teddi King, and Gerald Wilson.
Dave Myers and The Surftones were a Southern California surf group who are most likely remembered for the few singles they recorded in the 1960s which include their cover of The Revels hit "Church Key" and their time at the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa, California.
Back to Balboa is an album by bandleader and pianist Stan Kenton featuring performances recorded at the Rendezvous Ballroom in 1958 and released on the Capitol label.
