This clip caught my eye (you can find it here on youtube) because I’m fond of the Basie version (I have a 1941 version on a collection called Cutting Butter). But watching it, the race and gender stuff was kind of interesting… note the whiteness of the girls’ skin. The two girls dancing towards the end of the clip aren’t terribly great dancers (I wonder who the blokes are?), but I suspect they were picked for their looks.
And of course the lyrics are kind of interesting (the Basie version I have is an instrumental).
down down down
Louis Jordan is the cat isn’t he. I wish I hadn’t read your bit first. I don’t look or listen at things through dancers eyes / ears. I can’t help it – I’m words and lyrics and clothes, stagecraft etc.
Even despite your writings I still noticed mostly the cat with the trumpet and swivel hips, fingersnappin together and the sly words, “gettin’ to the basement and second floor…” etc and especially the base guy doing the flight safety demo (or the users demo) with the base. It all sounded great. I ‘m assuming it was live?
Anyway I hardly noticed the dancing and the color of the women on the first run through despite reading your description.
I did notice the women and the fact that the guys were better dancers, altho I’m no judge, on the next run through but I was looking hard.
base? bass
Bass.
I just had some reviewers’ comments back for a journal article pointing that out. I always mix them up.
But bass always makes me think of fish. There was a joke going the rounds a couple of years ago referencing a typo on the discussion board – “not all DJs are carp”. That doesn’t help the confusion.