[Dixielandjazz] The Businessman's Bounce - was Businessman's Two Step

[Stephen G Barbone]

> Kevin Yeates <kyeates at yahoo.com> wrote
>
> Stephen Barbone,
>
> You mentioned that people have learned to dance to " to that  
> 'businessman's two step'".
> My band has been teaching a few dance steps to the audiences  
> including the two step. Can you enlighten me as to what the  
> Businessman's two step is.
>
> Kevin Yeates
> Vancouver, Canada
> ?
> The society folks around here learned to dance to that  
> "businessman's two step. These songs are still VERY popular with the  
> 40 to 80 year old audience, generally and the 20 to 80 year old  
> society folks.

Hi Kevin:

Perhaps I should have called it the "Businessman's Bounce". Or  
"Businessman's 2 beat". It is where the band plays with a two beat  
feel that is geared to getting everyone onto the dance floor. Lester  
Lanin was, (as were A J Piron, and King Oliver before him, so I've  
read) a master at it. He often used Dixieland Musicians in his  
"Society Bands" and they played a typical 2 beat song to get folks on  
the floor, like Jazz Me Blues.

The Businessman's Bounce as it was called was simply a "Society Band"   
2 beat Fox Trot.

Check out the following articles excerpted from the NY Times (1992) &  
(2007)

Dancing, Maybe, To Lester Lanin
By JOHN S. WILSON
Published: May 04, 1992 NY Times
Mr. Lanin's usual dance programs are built around medleys of familiar  
tunes played at the lively tempo known as "the businessman's bounce."  
To a degree, the 70's band at the Red Blazer Too on Wednesday followed  
the formula. There were Cole Porter medleys, tunes of the 30's and the  
60's, bossa novas and Dixieland.



They're Playing Our Song?
By JAMES BARRON
Published: April 8, 2007 NY Times


She paused. She listened to Cole Porter's ''Anything Goes,'' which  
gave way to ''Cheek to Cheek,'' which gave way to ''The Lady Is a  
Tramp.'' She smiled. ''You can still hear him in the music,'' she  
said. . . .

And so the Lanin band plays on, even though the demographics of the  
music business and the society-party circuit have changed.

Spencer Bruno, who took over as the musical director of the Lester  
Lanin organization, likes to talk about the Lanin ''continuum'' -- how  
Lanin played for the parents of people like Ms. Marrin, and maybe  
their grandparents. ''Young people do know about Lester Lanin,'' he  
said. . .

''That progression had started when Lester was still in front of the  
band,'' said John Burcin, who books the dates and hires the musicians.  
''People associate you with his style of music and he was locked into  
that society two-beat; that's what his clientele wanted.''

end excerpts. . .



My band still does a fair amount of "Society" gigs with Lanin's,  
Prion's amd Oliver's styles as a template.


Cheers,
Steve Barbone

www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband