I love to watch people dance, and I get to do a lot of that on my monthly gig at Westwood at the Crossing. Over the past few months, Westwood has hosted weekly, Sunday evening dance lessons. Afterwards, the Westwood features live entertainment for the dance crowd. Once a month, it”s the Rhythm Section Jazz Band. On our night to howl, we get the dancers up and shakin” it to a hefty dose of big band swing and Latin music. That kind of material is eminently danceable: Basie, Ellington, the Dorsey brothers…it”s the stuff swing dance evolved out of. We have fun playing it, and the dancers have fun dancing to it.
Jazz covers a lot of territory, and much of it was created as dance music. I”ve spent considerable time on the side of the bandstand where music is made, and I”ve always enjoyed watching how people respond to the music out on the dance floor. Some folks just shuffle, and that”s fine. Others are truly fabulous dancers, and they are a real treat to watch.
Of course, not all jazz is good to dance to, nor is it intended to be. During my visit with my friend Kathy Bavaar in D.C. last December, we took in a jazz dinner at the Smithsonian. The featured band was an Afro-Cuban bop band. It was a world-class group made up of absolutely monstrous players, but I defy you to dance to their music. It”s too complex. The cross rhythms create all kinds of interest, but they seem to intentionally obscure the downbeat.
This is by no means an objection. I marvel at music of that caliber, music which is at once intricate, challenging, emotional, and beautiful. It has its own sense of swing–but most people”s feet won”t find it. There are exceptions, I”m sure, but they are likely to come in the form of very seasoned dancers who have steeped themselves in the complexities of Latin rhythms.
Some jazz is made for dancing. Some is made for listening. All of it is made for enjoyment and public consumption. Whatever your preference–whether madcap Dixieland, fast-paced bop, tender ballads, or floating fusion–if it puts a smile on your face, it has done its job.
