I spend more time than I’d like to admit on The Satorialist. Maybe it’s too many years as a secret Sex and the City watcher, maybe it’s just the amazing photos, who knows. But as the sunshine dwindles here in London I stumled accross photos from the Jazz-Age Dance Party in New York. If only all picnics were this stylish…

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Take a peek at this amazing video of Mable Lee, the sassy chanteuse and jazz dancer with the million-dollar legs! Mable is often called ‘Queen of the Soundies’ – an early version of  music videos three-minute musical films, produced in New York, Chicago, and Hollywood between 1940 and 1946.  If you’ve never seen a soundies have a hunt for them. There’s some great ones with Fats Waller, my personal favourites !

Anyway, after you’ve seen ‘the legs’ speed through the wooden looking white folks and straight to the jams at the end. There’s some pearlers!

I love clips like this…they remind you that dancing is just fun, done rhythmically

Ain’t Nothing But… Soho, W1B 5PZ

Thanks@Janet - one of our Swing Patrol teachers for forwarding this great post from super London blog agreatlittleplace.com. Knowing where to go and what’s good is always difficult in this massive city so to make it that little bit easier they’ve given us a list of 10 of Londons best Jazz venues. Bless their cotton socks they’ve even broken it down into Central, East, South and the rest, which they describe as North(ish).  See you on the dance floor, or at least at the bar….mine’s a London Pride

If you thought the Shim Sham was hard…try it underwater.  OK, dont, but witness the mildly eccentric London Swing Festival instructor Dax Hock and Doug Silton doing it in Thailand. This is exactly 2 minutes and 36 seconds of madness but it’s really quite funny. Doug, we are just loving your underwater swivels, no really we are.

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To say we’ve emerged ‘fresh’ from the first of the girls only workshops with Sharon Davis last night would be stretching the truth slightly. However, we’ve all certainly emerged very excited about next week! So let us indulge ourselves for a little bit (sorry guys) with this archival clip from Night Music, a mini documentary on some of the female jazz bands of the 30’s and 40’s.

If you liked that you should check out this clip of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm. Chicks and brass are SUCH a winning combination

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I remember the first time I ever saw Ina Ray Hutton I wanted to be her. I mean who wouldn’t want to be an all singing, all tap dancing, female band leader?! What’s NOT to love?

Ina was one of the only only prominent female leaders during the big band era. Ina started dancing when she was just eight years old and in 1934 she started one of the most famous all-girl jazz bands of the 1930’s, the Melodears. She was known for her deadly combination of great band leading and her seductive stage persona. People called her the Blonde Bombshell of Rhythm. she once said “I’m selling the show as a music program, not on a sex-appeal basis . . . But if curves attract an audience, so much the better.”

The Melodears disbanded at the end of the thirties and in 1940 she went on to lead an all-male orchestra….and all without putting a single pin-curl out of place. If you’re not familiar with her work, see her in action in this YouTube clip Doin’ The Suzy Q.

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