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Interview with James Buster Brown / James "Buster" Brown [sound recording]

Title

Interview with James Buster Brown [Sound Recording]

Performers

Brown, James "Buster"

Robinson, Bill "Bojangles"

Gaines, Leslie "Bubba"

Coles, Charles "Honi"

Edwards Sisters

Whitman, Alice

Published/Created

1997-02-08

Genre

Sound Recording

Abstract

3 sound cassettes. Dianne Walker interviewer. Funded by the National Initiative to Preserve American Dance. Brown talks on relationships between black and white musicians; then describes social dancing at the New York City's Savoy Ballroom and Baltimore's Goodhope Hall; various dancers and their acts, including Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Carnell Lyons, Bubba Gaines, and Honi Coles; compares the dancing of Baby Laurence to Teddy Hale, the Hoofers to the Copasetics; discusses women tap dancers, including Louise Madison, The Edward Sisters and Alice Whitman (of the Whitman Sisters); dancing with Beige and Brown; integrating paddle and roll into his own act; his partnership with Teddy Hale and Leon Collins; his friendship with Collins; performing a solo act; and the history of the Copasetics Club.
Cassette 3 - recorded February 8, 1997. Mr. Brown discusses filming the documentary "Great Feats of Feet;" teaching tap dancing; the dancing and musicality of Charles "Cookie" Cook; the decline and subsequent revival of tap dancing's popularity; touring Africa for the State Department; touring to Berlin; performing with Duke Ellington; performing at the Apollo Theatre in New York; his mother's enduring influence on his character; the death of his son Ricky; his admiration for Savion Glover's dancing; dancing the Charleston as a young performer; and his most embarrassing moment in show business.

Source

New York Public Library: CATNYP: Dance Collection: Tap Dancing. New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Gregory Hines Collection of American Tap Dance ().

Last Updated: 12-16-2015