{"title":"Born into Jazz","authors":"C. Hill","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197523971.003.0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197523971.003.0001","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter presents a historiography of jazz music and dance in the first two decades of the twentieth century as the musical-cultural foundation from which the Nicholas Brothers emerged: Fayard Nicholas, born in Mobile, Alabama, on October 20, 1914, twelve weeks before the declarations of war by European countries that exploded into World War I; Harold Nicholas, born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on March 17, 1921, in the wake of the Great War. In the span of time between the Nicholas brothers’ births, with its mixed moods of anxiety and optimism over what the future would bring, a new form of music emerged—jazz—that reshaped American culture and influenced European culture, with its sudden turns, shocks, and swift changes of pace. Fayard and Harold Nicholas were instrumental in bringing the black vernacular form of jazz tap dancing to its penultimate expression.","PeriodicalId":387827,"journal":{"name":"Brotherhood in Rhythm","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123736619","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Brothers","authors":"C. Hill","doi":"10.7312/chan12096-025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7312/chan12096-025","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter tells the story of the early years of the Nicholas family; the Nicholas Collegians, the highly skilled and musically versatile ten-piece orchestra directed by Viola Nicholas, playing piano, and Ulysses Nicholas, on drums; young Fayard’s musical orientation; and the decision by Ulysses and Viola that their sons would perform as the Nicholas Kids. The success of the Nicholas brothers was a family affair. Love and respect, perfection and professionalism had been instilled by parents who not only guided and managed their sons’ career but modeled a supreme form of partnership at home that the brothers would celebrate together on stage. It was at the Standard Theater, where the Nicholas Collegians were installed, that young Fayard watched tap dance in live performance, memorized the steps, and taught them to his young brother Harold.","PeriodicalId":387827,"journal":{"name":"Brotherhood in Rhythm","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116438981","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}