The Snowboy Tome

It's been a long time since I anticipated the arrival of something with such excitement, when I finally received an e-mail saying that Mark"Snowboy" Cotgrove's book on the history of the jazz-dance movement  was finally available to order, my fingers flew, and then there was the wait as it winged it's way to me here in Okinawa. In the hours post delivery I was virtually unreachable, as I hungrily devoured the contents; my wife and daughter gave up trying to communicate and left me to it.

Of course I didn't know prior to actually reading the book how good it was going to be, I was just insanely curious. Mark had interviewed me some time ago for the project and I'd not thought about it much until a conversation with Swifty (the book's designer) last summer really whetted my appetite. It was then that I realised just how much dedication and work Mark had put in to it, literally ten years of research and graft, although pure sweat and thoroughness don't necessarily make for a captivating read! To be completely honest I had my reservations, I  knew Mark could be opinionated and headstrong in his dedication to the cause and was a mite concerned as to whether he'd be able to keep the text from turning into a rant!! Apologies Mark! My fears were totally unfounded, and on reflection the conversations I'd had with him of late had revealed his sensitivity and plain and simple love of music, we'd even had a couple of deep discussions about broken-beat; a style I was surprised to discover he had a passion for.  Anyway suffice to say that although he's by no means a fundamentalist when it comes to jazz-dance, a close read of the text does reveal his view, but by no means is it obvious. In fact that's the book's great strength, the lack of authorial intervention, he literally let's the story tell itself. There's a simple time-lined history of the scene and and the dance styles, then Mark let's the interviewees tell the story. Robert Farris Thonpson's remarks about Snowboy's writing style in the preface are bang on, when he does want to say something he says it in plain and direct language , and the book is all the better for it.

Anyone who has even the vaguest of interest in dance music history should read this book. It redresses the balance back to the U.K. and the incredibly innovative and pioneering djs and dancers who created a scene that is without parallel in the U.S. Recent histories of dance music and dj culture have tended to focus on  the States and have underestimated the value and originality of the U.K. scene. Read the book, and raise your hat to the true pioneers, Bob Jones and Colin Curtis to name but two, and the chronicler of it all, Snowboy.  Find out more here.