Goodbye, Jimmy

Stacie Strong | May 17, 2008 | 2

Today, the tap world mourns the passing of Jimmy Slyde, one of the true legends of tap dance.  Known for his musicality, wit and his unbelievably graceful and creative slides, Jimmy began his career in the 1940s, during the heyday of tap, and never looked back.  Read on to see clips of Jimmy in action and for more about his life and about what his colleagues said about him.

Here's a clip of Jimmy doing "Here's That Rainy Day."  I assure you that the floor is not specially waxed to make those slides easier.

Jimmy Slyde was born James T. Godbolt in Atlanta, Georgia, on October 27, 1927, and later moved with his family to Boston.  He became hooked on tap at the age of 12 after seeing the great Bill "Bojangles" Robinson perform and started taking classes at the New England Conservatory of Music under the great Stanley Brown.  There he met Jimmy Mitchell, who took the stage name "Sir Slyde" when the two youngsters formed a performance duo known as "The Slyde Brothers."  Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, the two toured with some of the greatest big bands of the day, including Louis Armstrong, Count Basie and Duke Ellington, perfecting their hallmark style of rapid tapping and incredibly slick slides across the stage.

A typical Slyde performance would see him tapping for three choruses, then having the band come in for another two and a half or three choruses before closing.   For the most part, Slyde was an improvisational dancer, saying in Rusty Frank's book, Tap! The Greatest Tap Dance Stars and Their Stories , "I tried not to get too mired in routines. . . .  I'm not a routine man. 'Cause dancing is a translating thing, especially if you're tapping. You're making sounds yourself. . . . But the sound is so important.  Not just your 'tonation.'  Tonation is important, too.  But it takes a long time to get aware or become aware of your tonation.  Different dancers have different sounds. Some dance heavy, some dance light. I'm strictly sound-oriented. . . . I'm not a great dancer or anything like that. . . . I'm more of a tonation.  I'm a musical dancer."

In the 1960s, work for tap dancers dried up in the United States.  Undaunted, Slyde moved to Paris, where he continued dancing during a time when many great tappers were forced to look for jobs outside the theater to make ends meet.

Slyde was active in the tap renaissance of the 1980s and 1990s, not only performing in some of the movies that helped bring tap back to mainstream audiences (Cotton Club, Tap and Round Midnight), but also working on Broadway (receiving a Tony nomination for his role in Black and Blue) and promoting tap education through film and personal teaching appearances.  He also hosted jazz tap "salons" at La Place and La Cave in Manhattan, helping young tappers to build their improvisational chops and their connections to the masters of tap community.

Slyde won many awards and accolades during his life, including the Charles "Honi" Coles Award, the NEA National Heritage Fellowship Award, the Guggenheim Fellowship for Choreography and an honorary doctorate from Oklahoma City University, and indeed was known as a dancer's dancer.  However, his skill was such that his talent was visible even to the untrained eye, and his joy in performance touched audience members of all types.  Here he is, performing on Broadway in "Black and Blue."

Though the coming days will be filled with remarks about Slyde by his surviving friends and colleagues, the late great Gregory Hines is not here to share his thoughts.  Still, Hines's view shows the impact Slyde had on the dance community.  When asked in a 1997 interview for the New York Times about who his biggest influences were, Hines said, "I'm trying to decide if it's Jimmy Slyde, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly or Jimmy Slyde, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire. . . . I don't know who was second. Slyde just swings, so hard. As an audience member, you can feel it, but he looks like he's taking a walk in the park. He's just one of those people whose fame is not commensurate with his talent."

For those of us in the tap community, Jimmy Slyde's fame will always shine strong and bright.  Thank you for sharing yourself with us, Jimmy - you will be missed.

Please feel free to share your memories of Jimmy Slyde in a comment.

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