Best jazz dancing books according to redditors

We found 11 Reddit comments discussing the best jazz dancing books. We ranked the 5 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.

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Top Reddit comments about Jazz Dancing:

u/ruylopez69 · 26 pointsr/SwingDancing

Great post. Thank you. I'm on mobile, but if someone wants to look up "spirit moves disc 1" and "spirit moves disc 2" you'll find them on YouTube. I also know a dancer who has a comprehensive list of Whiteys Lindy Hoppers videos. I'd also love to see resources compiling all the California dancers' stuff. Plus I just saw a video of John Bedrosian doing St Louis Jitterbug and St Louis Shag pass through Facebook the other day. If someone wants to grab those and put them in one place that'd be wonderful, otherwise I'll update this comment with links (that can hopefully be added to sidebar?)

Edit:
Spirit Moves Disc 1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjguncQiw70

Spirit Moves Disc 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHf4tBmAlpI

Shorty Snowden:

After Seben (1929)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcnpZfsfwDA

Ask Uncle Sol (1937)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Sdk3mqVSRA

Whitey's Lindy Hoppers:

A Day At The Races (1937):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=di-a-jf1c6g&t=3

Radio City Revels (1938)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGAOpTcEyJw

Keep Punchin (1939)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfgKMfexdPQ

Hellzapoppin (1941):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahoJReiCaPk

Hot Chocolate (1941):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_262uUGwzgk

Cootie Williams and Orchestra (1943):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnpcPFnHLUQ


Jitterbug History:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8UkX71MbPY&index=7&list=PLmgkit3LB0tdgRzwPSQE_-YdxqbA1tpg5






Misc. Other Notable Clips:
It Goes To Your Toes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKKO_fYv6JE&feature=youtu.be

Bli-Blip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pthpr7sI9C0&feature=youtu.be

Rip It Up (1956):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLDwMWkp1Iw

Caravan (1946):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14QEoEIvUuk&feature=youtu.be

Swing Fever (1943):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1-LqqPnkf0





Okay I have A LOT more where that came from but I have to step out, going dancing :D

I'll update a second time with more!

Edit 2: I CANNOT emphasize enough how amazing Frankie's autobiography is. It makes so many things make so much more sense. It is an easy read and a FASCINATING one. I highly highly recommend it. I'd make it required reading if I was teaching a class (like, in school) on it. It has so much context. He is such an interesting, charming, warm, genuine guy. With a shocking memory. That book changed my whole perspective on dancing.

Buy it here: https://www.amazon.com/Frankie-Manning-Ambassador-Lindy-Hop/dp/1592135641

Edit 3:
Some context - Shorty Snowden was what they call a "first generation" savoy dancer. He and his group were the people that inspired Frankie Manning and Whitey's Lindy Hoppers. Their style was more upright, and less refined.

Whitey's Lindy Hoppers danced a lot more like Snowden and his group in 1937-8, but as you can see, in 1941 they did more of the Lindy hop we know and love. Around this time and later, Dean Collins and a lot of dancers in LA did some pretty iconic dancing. I am not nearly as tuned in on the LA clips as I'd like to be, but Swing Fever and Groovie Movie feature some of these guys.

Anyway, there's a lot of amazing stuff in those clips - note the prevalence of the California routine in the later Whitey's clips. To identify the California routine, spirit moves 1 goes one by one through a lot of the line dances and group choreographies. I also would love to add more clips of Al Minns and Leon James later, who are heavily featured jn spirit moves.

If you ask me though, spirit moves 2 is the real gem. The only clips we have of social dancing at the Savoy. It also features the al and Leon Shim sham, a contest (to prepare for the harvest moon ball), Mambo night (which I need to study a lot more, an amazing blend of dances), and my personal favorite, the Cats Corner, a part of the dance floor marked out specially for the top dancers to really cut. My favorite social dancing clip is here, featuring Leon James, slick slides and spins.

u/danielnewsome723 · 5 pointsr/SwingDancing

Check out Spirit Moves. You can start here and search from there, though it is copyrighted and therefore gets taken down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcqYQC0_t3I

​

This Book Jazz Dance by Marshall Sterns

https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Dance-Story-American-Vernacular/dp/0306805537

​

Ken Burns Jazz is a good start too
https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Film-Ken-Burns/dp/B000BITUEI/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=ken+burns+jazz&qid=1562692802&s=gateway&sr=8-2

​

Remember no history is definitive, there's always other perspectives, revisions, corrections and new information. And also only about 10% of the documentaries, movies, etc out there ever made it onto the internet, and about 5% or less of the researched history has been converted to digital form, so go to the library too if you're serious about getting accurate info.

u/ngroot · 3 pointsr/SwingDancing

Welcome to the friendliest, awesomest cult^ Wgroup of people on earth! :-) What scene do you dance in? We might be able to come up with more locally-relevant links. That said...

Things that pop to mind:

u/Youarethebigbang · 2 pointsr/Stoicism

The book is here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0789167TH/

The titled looked familiar so I thought it might good, but why would the author of a book on stoicism pay for so many fake reviews?

u/tbp0701 · 1 pointr/Jazz

Welcome!

Jazz is quite varied so it's difficult to pick out an album unless you have some idea of his/her taste. Listeners of traditional jazz, for instance, tend to have a strong dislike of "smooth jazz" (and say things like "it's not jazz at all but instrumental pop"; well, at least I do). Were there any examples? I'm not familiar with the Cheating the Polygraph album. I listened to a couple samples and, while somewhat interesting, didn't wow me.

A couple I'd be interested in are Jack DeJohnette's In Movement found on UK Amazon here and ECM's product page here and Brad Mehldau's Blues and Ballads. I also just saw Mehldau's label, Nonesuch, has 15% off on its store liked here, but I don't know if they have a UK shop.

Again, those would be good ideas for me. This person may be very different or may already have them.

Another route may be some accessories, as there are quite a few related to vinyl. For instance, here are some inner record sleeves. You may want to consider outer sleeves, too. I didn't see the ones I know on the UK site, but there are a few. I think any vinyl collector could always use good sleeves.

There are a few book options, as well. I'd like this Jazz Image book, for instance.