Norma Miller speaking at Savannah Jazz Club 2/10/10
This is pretty rad. 90-year-old Norma Miller (aka “the Queen of Swing”) is a pioneer and creator of the Lindy Hop, by far the most popular form of swing dance today. She was featured in movies such as 1941′s “Hellzapoppin” (proving that “hella” was used, in a more primitive form, 70 years ago), and also worked with a lot of the big names back in the day. You know, like Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson… no big deal.
She used to hang at the Savoy in Harlem during it’s prime, the site of some of the first integrated music/dance events in American history.
Last night local dance promoter Chris Lee showed her around the mission, starting at Amnesia, where traditional jazz outfit Gaucho plays every week, then to Savannah Jazz Club on Mission and 25th, where she did a guest lecture.
My buddy Nathan A. had the scoop:
When they introduced her, she bounced up on the stage with more spring in her step than a woman less than half her age. I couldn’t get over how sharp she was – how animated. She had mind like a steel trap! She had us all on the edge of our seats while recalling the “good old days”. She told us how moved she was to see all these young people carrying on the the original American dance form – and a tradition she helped establish. She was hilarious, crude, and sentimental. She worked with Red Fox, Richard Pryor, and Bill Cosby doing a bit of comedy after her legs started to give out eventually.
Check out this clip of her with Frankie Manning (RIP) tearing it up… WILD!
 is a pioneer and creator of the Lindy Hop, by far the most popular form of swing dance today. She was featured in movies such as 1941′s “Hellzapoppin” (proving that “hella” was used, in a more primitive form, 70 years ago), and also […]</p>
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i just went to the savanna jazz club last night. i liked the place, but i wish more people would go! it could be mid-january blues keeping everyone at home, but that’s just silly when it’s technically not that cold. anyway, me and my bf were half the audience. the number of people working there outnumbered the patrons. i was kind of sad about that. maybe it gets busier on the weekends? from the picture above i see there is hope.
Sadly that youtube video doesn’t work. “The video is no longer available because the uploader has closed their YouTube Account.”