Brotherhood in Rhythm

The Jazz Tap Dancing of the Nicholas Brothers, 20th Anniversary Edition

De: Constance Valis Hill

Narrado por: Greg Campbell

When the Nicholas Brothers danced, uptown at the Cotton Club, downtown at the Roxy, in segregated movie theatres in the South, and dance halls across the country, audiences cheered, clapped, stomped their feet, and shouted out uncontrollably. Their exuberant style of American theatrical dance—a melding of jazz, tap, acrobatics, black vernacular dance, and witty repartee—was dazzling. Though daredevil flips, slides, and hair-raising splits made them show-stoppers, the Nicholas Brothers were also highly sophisticated dancers who refined a centuries-old tradition of percussive dance into the rhythmic brilliance of jazz tap.

In Brotherhood in Rhythm, author Constance Valis Hill interweaves an intimate portrait of these great performers with a richly detailed history of jazz music and jazz dance, both bringing their act to life and explaining their significance through a colorful analysis of their eloquent footwork, their full-bodied expressiveness, and their changing style. Hill vividly captures their soaring careers, from the Cotton Club appearances with Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, and Jimmy Lunceford, to film-stealing big-screen performances with Chick Webb, Tommy Dorsey, and Glenn Miller.

©2021 Oxford University Press (P)2022 Tantor

Narration is awful

The material is interesting, but the narrator was constantly mispronouncing names, places and some common words. It happened so much that it took away from the experience.

Inattentive

Narration was sub-par. He didn't appear to knowledgeable or interested in the subject.
Disappointed.