ARCHIVE

Alfred Leagins in the Seifert Library in Harlem

A mixture of articles already written and published about the Savoy along with projects, dissertations and academic papers on the subject will be shortly added to this site. Many people have tried to contribute to keeping the Savoy's memory alive by writing straightforward articles whilst in the academic sphere work is progressing to get to grips with the more complex aspects. The remarks of former Savoy regulars that it seems ironical that such serious attention should be devoted to a venue where the overwhelming number of visitors went purely to "enjoy" themselves, has been paralleled by dismissive comments by some old style jazz historians that the dance aspect was largely "commercial." On a more obvious level, although the "enjoyment" factor was paramount, there were many others who were responsible for the management, maintenance and artistic operation of the Ballroom who took their roles very seriously indeed, and which made possible the "enjoyment" of everyone else. Anyone who has organised anything to do with 'swing dance' will testify to this dimension that tends to be forgotten! Not so long ago I jokingly suggested forming a therapy group for "burnt-out" swing dance organisers and found some people were willing to take the suggestion seriously. Perhaps if we understood more about how the Savoy operated that kind of eventuality could be avoided. The other more academic observation to be made is the general failure until recently to study the complex web of artistic creativity that compromised not just Harlem in its hey-day, but the various population centres of African-Americans. For example there should be PhD's galore on the Renaissance, Lafayette, Lincoln, Alhambra, Rockland Palace and the many other places of black creativity in Harlem. It is to be hoped that by making clear how complex the creative processes that comprised the Savoy alone were, it might encourage others to ignore the superficial observations that pass as 'adequate' interpretations of these seminal cultural institutions and to embark on detailed studies of them.