This Boogie Woogie!

Grey River Argus, 10 August 1948, Page 6

This Boogie Woogie!

A clarinet and trumpet played together in furious tempo broke the evening quiet of upper Cuba Street. Wellington. Inside a hall the local swing club was enjoying itself peacefully. Swing music appeals to the elementary rhythmic forms of self-ex-pression in man’s character. But the only . demonstration being made by the conservative Wellington temperament was a steady ■ tapping of feet and nodding of heads. The gathering might have been a church social or a Sunday evening concert, with its quiet chatter between itmes and the conventional cup of tea and biscuits at supper time. Most of the audience were young men and women, with here and there a grey head or an ex-serviceman’s badge to be seen. In a corner some young women talked admiringly to, a group of professional musicians who were later to play. The composer of a popular New Zealand song hit walked into the audience for a time. He was dressed in white tie and tails. Then came the climax of the evening. A dozen instrumentalists grouped themselves about a piano. To the steady throb of string bass, drums, and guitar, soloists, as the desire seized them, began to improvise in the modern freestyle. The room vibrated. The players were all technically proficient. Some were well-known dance band players just relaxing for a night. As they warmed to the pace their instruments became alive to 1 a thousand tricks of harmony that were acclaimed greedily by the crowd. But the pace was not enough. The mysterious word “rebob” (the latest technique in swing playing) was muttered from a back seat and a young voice complained that “really the stuff these boys are playing is almost' classical music!” “Let’s have some boogie-woogie!” appealed one of the back-benchers. And boogie-woogie, fast and furious, it was foi' an hour. Then the players relaxed to hear their spontaneous creations played back through a recording machine.