Savoy Ballroom T-Shirt

Product Description

Located in Harlem on Lenox Avenue, between 140th and 141st, New York City’s Savoy Ballroom was the leading venue for the best African-American Swing bands, as well as the center of the jitterbug universe. The best Lindy hoppers in Harlem danced furiously to the house band led by the brilliant drummer Chick Webb, and to visiting orchestras led by Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Erskine Hawkins and many others. In the 1930’s, when Swing music still had something like a real jazz pedigree, it took a great dancer to keep up with some of tempos favored by the best bands. White and black kids freely mixed at the Savoy, as did the musicians, which wasn’t always the case elsewhere in the Jim Crow America of that era. Harlem was hip, but not immune to the worst sorts of racism, and the Savoy provided an oasis of sorts. The Savoy was also famous for its Battles of the Bands, which pitted Webb’s house band against the best touring bands in the country. Goodman, Basie, Benny Carter and many others all succumbed to the diminutive king of the drums and his slick, polished orchestra. The Savoy, like most ballrooms, declined rapidly in popularity after Pearl Harbor, with many of the young jitterbugs gone with the draft, but while it lasted, it was a phenomenon. The imprint on the shirt is a re-creation of the front of the Savoy’s Lenox Street marquee as its neon-lit face might have appeared on a typical night.