“The Sound of Tap” is a comprehensive compilation of internationally recorded tap dancing between 1926 and 1949. Tap dancing developed along with Jazz music from Ragtime over Swing to Bebop and Bigband. Written in English, “The Sound of Tap” presents an audible history of tap dance that has rarely been accessible and therefore received little attention. One can hear the pioneers of tap dance as well as lesser known exponents on rare and sometimes unique recordings. An entire chapter is dedicated to Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson, the father of tap dancing, including unpublished radio and private recordings. Fred Astaire’s tap recordings are presented here in their entirety for the first time and include six alternate takes. Newly researched and detailed biographies are provided for a total of 47 performers, and for the first time one gets an insight into the largely unknown history of tap dancing in Europe. Part 3 with educational records for tap instruction is dedicated to the pedagogical aspect of tap dance and the topics: Rhythm representation, notation and terminology. Here Uwe Meusel uses historical documents to present his system of tap dance notation, which solves a number of problems of previous notation systems. At the end there are 40 accompaniments included, to tap dance to the original sound of the 1930s. The USB stick, integrated into the cover, contains 273 music titles as WAV data. Restored from Shellac originals, more than half of these titles have not been published digitally before. The book has liner notes and descriptions for each track. 251 label illustrations and 460 photos make what you hear vivid. This multi-media documentary offers an insight into the development of swing music on the show- and vaudeville stage as well as in the international musical film of the 1920s, 30s and 40s. A historical collection of material that every tap lover and shellac fan should own.
