Description
The Charleston was written in 1923 with music by James P. Johnson (1894-1955) and lyrics by Cecil Mack (1873-1944). It was written to accompany the Charleston dance which is characterised by a distinctive rhythm Johnson had heard from dockworkers of Charleston, South Carolina.
The Charleston is a high-energy, syncopated jazz dance characterised by its pigeon-toed, ‘toes-in, heels-out’ twisting steps. Dancers would often also swing their arms, sometimes imitating a flapping bird (giving rise to the term ‘flapper’). Flapper fashion – with drop-waist fringed dresses, accessorised by long pearl necklaces and feathered headbands in bobbed hair – marked a deliberate move away from the rigid, corseted clothing of the Victorian era.
Johnson and Mack’s song featured in the Broadway musical comedy show Runnin’ Wild and became one of the most popular hits of the decade. Indeed, such was its popularity that the Charleston came to epitomise the Roaring 20s era.
This version for wind quintet draws much inspiration from a 1925 arrangement made by Debroy Somers (1890-1952) for an 11-piece dance band he had founded called the Savoy Orpheans. Demonstrating his considerable fame at the time, in 1925 Somers also conducted the British premiere of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, with the composer at the piano.
