No Jazz Band
Clare Briggs
Clare Briggs is a famous cartoonist who lived from 1875 to 1930. Poems by Wilbur Nesbitt.
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I wonder if the dynamics of the country at the time were such that forming a dancing partnership and touring the country with a jazz band sounded as nutty in 1924 as it does today.Report
I think there has never in all of human history been a time when that wasn’t a nutty idea. (and never in all of human history been a time when young men didn’t dream of it anyway.)Report
When I was around that age it was, “Our garage band is getting a good response at the couple of local clubs we play. My dad will front us the money to cover the initial losses of traveling all over the state to play.”Report
“We’ve got a gig” has, at least!, enough existing positive feedback to feed a fantasy that someone the next town over would want to listen to you too.
But a dancing partnership?Report
Maybe I’m misunderstanding.
Does “dancing partnership” mean like, tour with a band that plays specifically with the intention of the people listening to the music to dance to it?
So, like, sort of like touring with a band, but for dancing rather than for pogoing/mosh pit?Report
I took it to be a band and a couple of hot-shot dancers to (a) entertain some and (b) encourage the crowd to get out on the floor. Maybe @LeeEsq knows some relevant history?Report
One of the local goth events hires dancers to kinda “start the ball rolling” (ha! literally). It’s a common thing where people want to dance, but feel awkward about being the only person dancing. So the dance floor remains empty for like an hour while people get drunk enough to not care. Having some people paid to start first it kinda cool. It works.Report
It’s not uncommon. I had plenty of friends who took their garage band on tour. They’d even end up touring Europe and shit like that. This was in the punk underground, so there was a whole network of people who knew people and could help organize things.Report
Looking up “jazz band” in articles in the NewYork Times in 1924 led me to an article about this guy, who, with his super rich investment banker dad backing him, formed and fronted an orchestra at Age 17 for broadway shows.
Subhead to the article is “youthful leader cares nothing for opera, but does love the moaning saxophone”
(His dad, though, was also apparently gifted musically, but was not of the social class to make a living at that as a young man)
https://www.nytimes.com/1924/02/08/archives/otto-h-kahns-son-to-head-jazz-band-not-yet-17-he-organizes-an.html?searchResultPosition=2Report
Plot twist! His dad yanked support later that month
https://www.nytimes.com/1924/02/27/archives/otto-h-kahns-son-fails-to-play-jazz-respects-his-fathers-opposition.html?searchResultPosition=1Report
This is an awesome story with an even awesomer followup.
Holy crap. Some of his songs survived:
Report
These are the Trust Fund Kids we used to make.Report