ORCHESTRA LEADER SAYS RHYTHM CHIEF DEMAND

"Today an orchestra leader has to be continually in motion, always undulating with sound waves," said Ted Hanson, leader of the Normandie Orchestra now playing at the new Normandie Dance Salon in Boston. Hanson was formerly with Rudy Vallee, Yale '27.

"It's the hi-di-ho, hotcha, how ya doin, hey hey," that the college boys want from the dance orchestra today. Rhythm, rhythm, rhythm, and more rhythm that is the spirit of the musical age. The day of the "Peanut Vender," and "Yes, We Have No Bananas," is over. 'The Big Bad Wolf," "Mine," and "Heat Wave" -- they're the kind of songs people like now. Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington have ushered in a new era of popular music.

"For the purpose of arranging my orchestrations, I have a little old melodeon which is pumped by foot. My grandmother brought it over with her from Norway seventy years ago. It wouldn't be worth much to anyone else but I wouldn't part with it for anything in the world. It is invaluable to me in my arranging because I can play a piece over and get the important sustained effects, which you don't get on the piano.

"There is really no reason why dances which are reeking with rhythm can't be aesthetic. Take the "400" -- there's a dance with any number of graceful variations, and at the same time it is bubbling over with rhythm. You know, I never could figure out why they called it the "400" till I tried to learn it. Then I decided it was because there were 400 different steps to it. The Rhumba -- that's really a hot dance, too, and the NRA, a waltz named after the Recovery Act is another new step that's pretty sweet. Thank the Lord we don't have some of the vulgar dances they used to have like the "Grizzly Bear," and the "Rocking Chair."