A review of Dick Jewell’s “THE JAZZ ROOM“.

The Jazz Room is an obscure 45 minute documentation by filmmaker Dick Jewell, that captures the Jazzifunk sessions at the Electric Ballroom from 1984. This film was said to not exist and has become a myth among the upper echelons of ‘LOST DANCE’ fraternity until now.. more than 25 years after the making of The Jazz Room.

The new label “The Lost dance” has been chosen because this we believe is an apt term, as “Jazz Dance” is far too narrow a bracket to pigeonhole what these young geniuses were doing.

The term was coined by Seymour Nurse, then adopted by dance dons Gary Nurse, and Milton ‘Milly the kid’ McAlpine. Milton was and still is ‘The Holy Grail’ of the floor in the opinion of many foot soldiers of the days. He firmly believes that this dance belonged on the club dancefloor and was never meant for the stage.

As a style conscious dancer, McAlpine also believed that the aesthetic expression of this UK phenomena was certainly not a ‘Cotton Club throwback look’ as it was portrayed and promoted as duing the ‘Acid Jazz’ years. Glimpse the raw style, and fashion savvy young blacks on the dance floor in the The Jazz Room. Dancer’s styles included punkish tee shirts, split frayed skinny leg jeans, dyed hair, Adidas track suits, Adidas and Nike kicks with fat laces, patent leather bow shoes, rolled hats, and goggle glasses. In this film, a younger generation can witness for the first time the roots of their fashion that have silently filtered down over the past two decades. The style of young fashion conscious London is perfect for the ‘LOST DANCE RENAISSANCE’, as some new stylers exactly fit the profile for “Lost Dance” manoeuvre massive.

Airto’s Jazz dance classic, “Celebration Suite” was the stock soundtrack Jewell used in crucial parts of the film, greatly taking away from the focus of the timing and virtuosity of the dancers… Where else could you witness a black, self taught, 15 year old dancer take control of Afro Cuban, Latin Jazz, and Bebop tunes of 160 bpm, and any jazz time signature imaginable? These kids defeated 15 minute jazz opuses, knowing where all of the beats hits were, solo lines, fills, and also where vamps fell, AND THEY DANCED ON EVERY BEAT. This type of genius prowess was first witnessed in the Bebop years of the mid 40’s, where the virtuosos Dizzy and Miles where so acute and musically in tune that they could tell you what key a door hinge sweaked in. Today it is common place for trained street dance crews to move (sometimes rigidly) to every beat of sequenced dance music, and the stage has been set for the reintroduction of the steps of “The Lost Dance.”

What is incredible is that the songs and music the young ghetto kids danced on in the 80’s were mainly ‘muso workouts’ from artists such as George Duke and Barry Miles… with the rare exception of artists such as Barry Miles himself, THESE LEGENDS OF FUSION NEVER INTENDED THEIR MUSIC TO BE DANCE MUSIC. As reference check Seymour Nurse’s interview with the legendary George Duke.

The 45min Jazz Room film captures a selection of documented nights over a period of months from 1984 to 1987 toward the end of the Paul Murphy era, and the beginning of Gilles Peterson’s residency of the Jazz Room. These rare and lost moments that captured Lost Dance legends such as Jerry Barry, Gary Nurse, and Milton aka “Milly the kid”, as well as IDJ legends Marshall Smith, and Steve “Afro” Edwards are featured on the dancefloor. It’s amazing to witness this valuable footage on Super 8 of the incredible variety of styles and techniques.

If all of the movements had been logged (i.e. names that describe moves as a kind of dance vocabulary), then the steps could have been preserved and become more widely known in the same way as the movements of Locking, B-boying, House and Popping. The Filmore, the Stop and Go, The Baby, Air Flares, Freezes, Uncle Sam Point, Ticking, Glides, Strutting and Tutting are all part of dance vocabulary that the young dancers are well versed in. Dave Graham calls one move “The Rook”, because of the side and forward chess piece like movement. Names like Richard Butler, and Kevin “Penguin” Haynes can be pinpointed as fundamental exponents of movements similar to Dave Graham’s ‘Rook’.

Although the film does not credit any of the individual dancers, it probably remains one of the only, if not the only, known documentation of Jazz Room club activity of its kind in existence. The fact that this type of movie has not been made available, has contributed to the ignorance of 21st Century  young Londoners to London’s historical contribution to the world of music and dance. As a result the vocabulary of The Lost Dance has been made obselete, with exception of from maybe two ‘pure’ Jazz sessions Countrywide.

It’s interesting to note that another undercover Dick Jewell film is of the “Spats” lunchtime sessions in the early 80’s. Here is another example of a film that even the die-hard inner circles of 80’s B-boying have no knowledge of because of its lack of public exposure. Films like this could have been the “WILD STYLE”, the “BREAKIN and ENTERIN”, or “STYLE WARS” of the UK, and Dick Jewell could have received accolades as the HENRY CHALFONT, or the CHARLIE AHEARN of UK street culture.

Historical data such as this (when taken out of the dark!) sheds light on the UK’s Freshest kids!! The gifted and talented young geniuses (predominantly black but some white) of London Town, and other parts of the UK, carved out a creative future for themselves, unaware of the stop lights in the road ahead.
Shottsman

Check out the Shottsman produced film Floor Violence which features some some of the original dancers, and some short clips from Dick Jewell’s film.

Film stills taken from The Jazz Room by Dick Jewell: