78 RPMs 10: Artie Shaw ~ Nightmare

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Artie Shaw ~ Nightmare

78 RPM, side 1 label

photo by Styrous®

On September 27, 1938, Artie Shaw recorded Nightmare, a song totally unlike anything he'd ever recorded before. It is a slow, sinister sounding jazz piece that evokes stealth, spies, criminals and other assorted miscreants.        

In 1953, Shaw and other prominent figures in the music industry were targeted, including Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Lena Horne and Pete Seeger, all of whom were named publicly as suspected Communist sympathizers, in the infamous publication Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio. Some of them were already being denied employment because of their political beliefs, history, or association with suspected subversives. Red Channels effectively placed the rest on a blacklist. 

 

Indeed, it was a nightmare!!!!!               

 

Martin Scorsese used Nightmare in his 2004 film, The Aviator which stared Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes, Cate Blanchett as Katharine Hepburn, and Kate Beckinsale as Ava Gardner.     

 

The video for Nightmare (link below) has a stripper performing a very slow and very sensual fan dance that is PERFECT for the languid tempo of the tune as Shaw oozes and slinks along with his clarinet.   

 

 

Michelle L'amour - 2007 

Miss Exotic World Pageant
photo by Michael Albov 

 

 

 

 

Non-Stop Flight

 

The "B" side of the record is a typical Shaw jazz tune; Non-Stop Flight is a bouncy, happy tune that makes you want to get up and jitterbug your ass off. Shaw wails away nicely with his clarinet and the backup band,        

          

         

Artie Shaw ~  Non-Stop Flight

78 RPM, side 2 label

photo by Styrous®

My copy of the record is a repressing on the Bluebird label. Both Nightmare and Non-Stop Flight songs were written by Artie Shaw.               

    

   

   

Tracklist:

Side 1:

A - Nightmare

Side 2:

B - Non-Stop Flight

Credits:

    Record Company – Radio Corporation Of America
    Written By Artie Shaw

Notes:

Different label from Artie Shaw And His Orchestra - Nightmare / Non-Stop Flight - missing patent information.

Barcode and Other Identifiers

    Matrix / Runout (Side A): B7875A T J5
    Matrix / Runout (Side B): B-7875B |) 3 c

Artie Shaw And His Orchestra – Nightmare / Non-Stop Flight
Label:    Bluebird (3) – B-7875
Format:    Shellac, 10", 78 RPM, Repress
Country: US
Released:   
Genre: Jazz
Style: Big Band

Viewfinder links:       

        

Kate Beckinsale         

Leonard Bernstein          

Cate Blanchett              

Aaron Copland        

Leonardo DiCaprio              

Ava Gardner          

Katharine Hepburn           

Lena Horne          

Howard Hughes    

Jazz        

Michelle L'amour                    

Martin Scorsese        

Pete Seeger       

Artie Shaw       

        

Net links:       

        

DAHR ~ Nightmare personel & info        

Jazz Standards ~ Artie Shaw       

National Endowment for the Arts ~ Artie Shaw       

Artie Shaw                   

        

        

       

YouTube links:       

        

Nightmare       

Non-Stop Flight       

        

        

        

        

"In the world we live in, compulsive perfectionists finish last"  

                        ~ Artie Shaw

        

        

        

        

        

        

Styrous® ~ Wednesday, September 27, 2023       

       

 

 

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Sweets Ballroom ~ Jitterbugging in the Forties Update

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Sweets Ballroom souvenir photo folder - 1945 

photo by Styrous®

     

    

Six years ago this month, actually, I wrote about an adventure I had when I was a kid (link below). I mentioned a photo I had lost track of that had been taken of me during that adventure.   

       

Last year, about this same time actually, I was going through one of the dozens of boxes of unknown photographs I have been storing for decades and found that photograph taken on June 24, 1945.   

     

Sweets Ballroom souvenir photo 

by a Sweets photographer

photos by Styrous®

    
  

    
  

    
  

    
  

Viewfinder link:                  
  
Sweets Ballroom ~ Jitterbugging in the Forties    
    
  
    

And yes, I'm still dancin'!

    
  

Styrous® ~ March 26, 2019   
      

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Music Notes Articles
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Count Basie articles/mentions

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Louis Armstrong ~ Trumpets & scat   

Bill Haley Rocks Around the Clock           Verve Records & Norman Granz    

Oscar Peterson ~  

      Maharaja of the keyboard            

The  Supremes ~ I Hear a Symphony          

Sweets Ballroom ~ 

      Jitterbugging in the Forties       

     

      

     

     

     

     

Count Basie - 1945       

photographer unknown       

Associated Press    

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Music Notes

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Sweets Ballroom ~ Jitterbugging in the Forties

I was writing about another topic, the memories I have of the year 1958 (link below). One of those memories, the ferries that trolled back and forth across the bay in the 1940's and the 1950's, came alive.        

My first recollection is a vague remembrance of my mother and father taking me down to the Ferry Building to catch the ferry to Sweets Ballroom in Oakland, California, late in 1945 just after the war. They were out celebrating it's end and we were all very excited, although at the time, I didn't really understand what we were excited about. All I knew was that we were going DANCING! The clear part of the memory is kneeling on the seat (I was always tiny for my age, whatever age I was) in front of a huge window on the ferry looking out at the city as it slowly slid away; so does the memory . . . 

  San Francisco Ferry building & ferry

1940's

photographer unknown

. . . the recollection fades back in to a jammed crowd of giants dancing madly in front of me. The "mad dancing" was couples doing the jitterbug (coined by Harry Alexander White in 1934) with the couples (including my mother and father) wildly gyrating on the dance floor . . .

 the Jitterbug 1938

photo by Alan Fisher

New York World-Telegram and the Sun staff photographer

. . . as I jumped up and down at the foot of the bandstand in time to the music pounding loudly in my ears there in Sweets Ballroom. What a fantastic adventure for a five year old boy!

 The bandstand at Sweets Ballroom

photographer unknown

Sweets, called "The East Bay Home of the Big Bands," was where people went to enjoy dancing to swing music and Latin jazz. The night time was for the serious stuff but in the afternoons whole families would be there to dance. My folks took me there often and it's were I learned to dance.

There were house photographers who took photos of the dancers, then sold the prints to them. Somewhere (it got lost years ago) there is a photo of a five-year-old me dancing with a girl (she was taller than I was, of course. (However, here is a link to an update to this (Jitterbugging in the Forties photo).   

Sweets Ballroom canopy

photographer unknown

The ballroom was opened by William Sweet sometime in the 1920's at 1933 Broadway in Oakland, California.     

a Sweets ad

The Sweets Ballroom had a house band that played in the afternoon and in the evening when special gigs featuring famous bands were not being presented.

Sweets Ballroom House Band, 1939

left to right, back row: 
Squire Girsback, Gordon "Gramps" Edwards, Bob Scobey, 
Lu Watters, Bill Yeaman & Hiram "Hi" Gates
left to right, front row: 
Russ Bennett, Bob Helm, Henry Abrahamson 
& Ken "Buss" Greene.

photographer unknown

In the 1930s, the music of Mexico, Cuba, and Puerto Rico (the precursor of Afro-Cuban and salsa music) were popular in New York and it spread to the rest of the country, including Oakland; there, Sweets showcased the best of the best.

 Sweets Poster with Count Basie

 

Duke Ellington appeared at Sweets

Xavier Cugat popularized Latin jazz for American audiences. He opened the door for a generation of Mambo Kings including Perez Prado, Tito Puente, Machito, Willy Bobo, and Cal Tjader; all of them played the Sweets at one time or another.

 Xavier Cugat and his orchestra perform at

Oakland's Sweets Ballroom. September 26, 1944

E.F. Joseph, photographer

Gelatin silver print

Collection of Oakland Museum of California

Gift of Charles Hector Carlos






some shots of the wild stuff

The Jitterbug
photographer unknown






Jitterbugging in a Negro juke joint
Saturday evening, Clarksdale, Mississippi
November 1939 
photo by Marion Post Wolcott
for the Farm Security Administration

 really gettin' down
photographer unknown

 Jitterbugging in Harlem - NY (1939)
photo by Sid Grossman

Sweets was abandoned at some point in the 1960's. There was a limp revival with the advent of disco in the late 1970's and some off-the-wall events after that.

 Fright Fest at the Sweets (2010)

                  

              

Viewfinder links:                

      

There are three other related Viewfinder articles: 

20,000 vinyl LPs 22: Van Cliburn & Sputnik

Juanita's Galley

Jitterbugging in the Forties photo Update       

         

Net links:                

      

There are two great blogs about Sweet's Ballroom that are really terrific with some GREAT photos. Check them out:    

  No Pattern Required ~ My Grandmother's Glasses,

Oakland History Murals ~ A Bitter Sweet History

      

YouTube links:                      

    

°    Xavier Cugat on YouTube.

°    Perez Prado on YouTube.

°    Tito Puente on YouTube.
°    Machito on YouTube.
°    Willy Bobo on YouTube.
°    Cal Tjader YouTube.
°    There's a wacky but fun instructional video, Groovie Movie (1944), on YouTube.
°    Ferry boats in operation video on YouTube.
  

I had a terrific time riding those old ferries and dancing at Sweets Ballroom when I was a little kid . . .

. . . and I've been dancing ever since!

Styrous ~ March 2, 2013    

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