If it ain’t got that swingupdate2
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This document discusses the connections between baseball, music, and black cultural expression in the early-to-mid 20th century. It provides examples of how baseball players and musicians socialized together and influenced each other in cities like Kansas City and Pittsburgh. Musicians would attend baseball games and players would frequent nightclubs to see performances. Figures like Cab Calloway and Satchel Paige straddled both worlds. Lyricists also drew inspiration from the struggle for integration in baseball. The document calls for further research into this intersection of sport and music.
![Memory Sites: Ballparks and Nightclubs, Kansas City as Cradle “Yes, he [Satchel Paige] would go. We would all go as a team. They [jazz musicians] would come out to the ballgame in the afternoon and at night we would go down to the jazz concert. That was a couple of musts. If you lived in Kansas City, it was a must on a Sunday afternoon to go to the Monarchs and see baseball, and it was a must after that to go to the Municipal Auditorium and hear those bands.” Buck O’Neil](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/ifitaintgotthatswingupdate2-100814102348-phpapp02/85/If-it-ain-t-got-that-swingupdate2-12-320.jpg)
![Memory Sites: Ballparks and Nightclubs, Pittsburgh and Renewal Satchel Paige (seated with fans at the Crawford Grill) “became a special favorite of the Mills Brothers, who called him the “Minstrel of the Mound.” Paige also enjoyed them and when they played the Crawford Grille, he often joined the group for impromptu after hours singing sessions. The Mills Brothers so loved baseball and the [Pittsburgh] Crawfords that they had their own uniforms and sometimes traveled with the team working out before games.”](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/ifitaintgotthatswingupdate2-100814102348-phpapp02/85/If-it-ain-t-got-that-swingupdate2-15-320.jpg)
![Memory Sites: Ballparks and Nightclubs, Newark/New York and Denouement “She [Effa Manley] kept the team more or less in its place, she kept us at bay. For example, she would come to the Grand Hotel where the players had congregated after a game, but instead of joining in the camaraderie that usually accompanied a team gathering there, would merely greet those who might be gathered on the front porch, and go on inside for dinner.” Max Manning](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/ifitaintgotthatswingupdate2-100814102348-phpapp02/85/If-it-ain-t-got-that-swingupdate2-17-320.jpg)
If it ain’t got that swingupdate2
- 1. “If It Ain’t Got That Swing”:Baseball, Music, and Black Cultural Expression
- 2. Sport, Music, and the Black Aesthetic “Without the presence of Negro American style our jokes, our tall tales, even our sports would be lacking in the sudden turns, the shocks, the swift changes of pace (all jazz-shaped) that serve to remind us that the world is ever unexplored, and that while a complete mastery of life is mere illusion, the real secret of the game is to make life swing.” Ralph Ellison
- 3. Definition of Swing “Swing is an unmechanical but hard driving and fluid rhythm over which soloists improvise as they play.” Duke Ellington
- 4. Variations on a Theme #1:Cab Calloway“Cab Calloway, nationally famous jazz leader, plays baseball like nobody’s business. His orchestra in off moments is formed into a pretty classy baseball unit. He’s scheduled to play an exhibition benefit game here this week. And the great Hi-de-ho king pitches for his Cotton Club nine. An Interesting fact concerning this orchestra is that it always carries baseball equipment wherever it goes.”Boston Chronicle, 1933
- 5. Variations on a Theme #1:Cab Calloway In July, 1939, the Negro National League paid tribute to its Hall of Famers during a day of recognition at Yankee Stadium. The League asked Cab Calloway for his selections as part of the celebration. Calloway offered several names as part of the League’s response to the opening of Cooperstown.
- 6. Variations on a Theme #2“Jumpin’ Jive” “Cab Calloway gave me a shot of the “jumpin’ jive” and now I’m looking for that dam’ cat! Yep, I’m going way out on the limb to nominate my own “Colored Hall of Fame” candidates…”Dan Burley Amsterdam News, 1939
- 7. Variations on a Theme #2:“Lundy Hopping” “Dick Lundy came into the setup in July and immediately changed the Eagle dance from the “Flat Foot Floogie” to the “Lundy Hop…. The music of curves, hooks, and hope wasn’t all that was needed Maestro Lundy learned before his uniform cooled off in the new job. He needed to have rhythm. Rhythm with the stick.” Lou BlackmonNewark Herald, 1938
- 8. Variation on a Theme #3:Ballpark and Club“Swing music contest among Elk bands between the games”“a la night club style”
- 9. Memory Sites: Ballparks and Nightclubs, Kansas City as Cradle“New Orleans might have been the birthplace of jazz, but Kansas City is where it grew up. And the same goes for Negro League baseball, which started on the East Coast but came of age in KC. In fact , it was right around the corner from 18th and Vine, at the Paseo YMCA, where Rube Foster and some of the other owners of black baseball teams, as well as a few influential sportswriters, met on February 20, 1920 to organize the Negro National League .” Buck O’Neil
- 10. Memory Sites: Ballparks and nightclubs, Kansas City as Cradle “…you couldn't toss a baseball without hitting a musician, and you couldn't whistle a tune without having a ballplayer join in…. We had Satchel Paige and Satchmo Armstrong; Blues Stadium, where we played our ball, and the Blues Room at the Streets, where we had a ball.” Buck O’Neil
- 11. Memory Sites: Ballparks and Nightclubs, Kansas City as Cradle “The Kansas City Monarchs was one of my favorites. I knew a lot of players on the Monarchs. Jackie Robinson, Satchel Paige, all the great players came out of the Monarchs, so I’d make all the games, sit on the bench with them, and then the manager of the team said, “Hamp, you’re around us so much I want to put you to work, make you a third base coach.” My number was 26. I was crazy about baseball.” Lionel Hampton
- 12. Memory Sites: Ballparks and Nightclubs, Kansas City as Cradle “Yes, he [Satchel Paige] would go. We would all go as a team. They [jazz musicians] would come out to the ballgame in the afternoon and at night we would go down to the jazz concert. That was a couple of musts. If you lived in Kansas City, it was a must on a Sunday afternoon to go to the Monarchs and see baseball, and it was a must after that to go to the Municipal Auditorium and hear those bands.” Buck O’Neil
- 13. Memory Sites: Ballparks and Nightclubs, Pittsburgh and Renewal “Pittsburgh in particular was a fun place to be…. Gus Greenlee had built a ballfield there and ran two nightclubs, Greenlee I and Greenlee II. He was a close friend of Oscar Charlton which was how I came to meet him. He also owned the Crawford Grille, which was the place to eat and socialize. We’d mingle with the other athletes there (Crawford Grille) and after we saw the shows we’d go up and introduce ourselves to the musicians and celebrities who were touring those cities at the same time.” Stanley Glenn
- 14. Memory Sites: Ballparks and Nightclubs, Pittsburgh and Renewal“I also liked Lena Horne very much and got to know her pretty well, so well my wife Clara was a little jealous. Lena is a beautiful lady, just striking. And she could sing and dance too. Her daddy, Teddy, was real proud of her. Cool Papa Bell
- 15. Memory Sites: Ballparks and Nightclubs, Pittsburgh and Renewal Satchel Paige (seated with fans at the Crawford Grill) “became a special favorite of the Mills Brothers, who called him the “Minstrel of the Mound.” Paige also enjoyed them and when they played the Crawford Grille, he often joined the group for impromptu after hours singing sessions. The Mills Brothers so loved baseball and the [Pittsburgh] Crawfords that they had their own uniforms and sometimes traveled with the team working out before games.”
- 16. Memory Sites: Ballparks and Nightclubs, Newark/New York and Denouement Poet Amiri Baraka recalled that in Newark’s Grand Hotel “good feelings” filled the atmosphere as ballplayers and jazz players engaged in “light conversation and intense laughter” set against the background of an “organist named Pitts” who performed “in the backup to keep it all moving, blue and thoughtful.”
- 17. Memory Sites: Ballparks and Nightclubs, Newark/New York and Denouement “She [Effa Manley] kept the team more or less in its place, she kept us at bay. For example, she would come to the Grand Hotel where the players had congregated after a game, but instead of joining in the camaraderie that usually accompanied a team gathering there, would merely greet those who might be gathered on the front porch, and go on inside for dinner.” Max Manning
- 18. Memory Sites: Ballparks and Nightclubs, Newark/New York and Denouement “Those closest to the ballplayers in lifestyle were the musicians, and strong friendships developed between the two groups of young, male, black achievers. “Fats Waller used to stay at the ballpark” recalled Jesse Hubbard pointing out that the Lafayette Hotel was not to far from the oldest Negro League Park in New York, Dyckman’s Oval. DonnRogosin “Ive been to the Cotton Club, Connie’s Inn, Small’s Paradise, been to all those places. Not with the gangsters. The musicians always had a table and they’d invite us to come up there with them. Dick Seay
- 19. Dan Burley’s HarlemJazz and BaseballBurley and Gus Greenlee
- 20. Lyricists, Arrangers, Composers and the Collision of Sport and MusicLyricist Andy Razaf, Semi-Pro PitcherRazaf’s Lyrics to Inspire Black Players in the Struggle for Integration
- 21. Andy Razaf and the Continental League, 1921“Hail to the Continental League,The champions of a nobler plan,Whose motto is democracy,Whose aims are true American.For they would save the nation’s gameAnd free it from a selfish few;Who have dishonored it for gainAnd barred the men of darker hue.The baseball park is soon to beA place where players white and tanShall demonstrate pure sportsmanship.”
- 22. Lyricists, Arrangers, Composers and the Collision of Sport and MusicArranger Don RedmanRedman, Ballplayers and a Musical History of the Negro Leagues
- 23. Lyricists, Arrangers, Composers and the Collision of Sport and Music“Satchmo” Armstong’s “Secret 9”Peterson and Basie, “Satch, and Josh”
- 24. Support and SolidarityChick Webb BenefitEffa Manley, Jazz, and Fort Dix
- 25. New Directions in ResearchChick Solomon’s “Jitterbug”The Project“If It Ain’t Got That Swing”Project UpdateNew Directions