Does Neo-Swing Got That Swing?

April 9, 1998, 4.1

A few weeks ago, I had the good fortune to hear Frank Foster's Quintet at Iridium, an event dutifully covered by New York area jazz critics. Foster, the tenor sax, composer and arranger for Count Basie, lead the Basie band after Basie died. That Friday night, as Foster finished up an intricate, danceable yet near-bebop rendition of Foster's own composition "Shiny Stockings", I turned to my table mates and said "If Foster played this at a swing dance, no jazz critics would show up."

This was brought to mind as I read the April 7, 1998 article by Ben Ratliff, music and jazz critic of the New York Times: "It Don't Mean a Thing If it Ain't Got That Swing", an article prompted most likely by the appearance of the Los Angeles band, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy at the Supper Club and the appearance of neo-swing bands the prior week.

The article made some good points but could leave the impression that the resurgence of swing dancing is a phenomena fueled and represented by neo-swing bands populated by white dropouts from punk rock. That is a debatable proposition. Moreover, it is debatable how much swing dancing, as opposed to mashing and posing, is accompanied by the neo-swing music reviewed by Ratliff (although, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy is known for playing music that dancers appreciate.)

If Ratliff meant to suggest that Cherry Poppin Daddies (CPD), The Squirrel Nut Zippers, and Royal Crown Revue are playing predominantly swing dance music, then he needs to do more listening and learn about swing dance. Although some of the songs played are the same as Louis Jordan's, playing a jump blues tune in a retro-outfit does not make the music jump blues. Moreover, tempos as high as 320 beats per minute are not danceable by any objective standard and the music's heavy emphasis on a fairly monotonous 4/4 beat with the drums and bass so prominent would lead one to question whether much of the music is jump blues at all.

So Called Swing

Ratliff states that "by the mid-90's this so-called swing (though it was really jump blues) became a viable life style package." Jump blues is not swing? Louis Jordan was not playing swing? That depends on definitions. Much of the neo-swing music is only "so-called", that is, not only is it "so-called" swing as Ratliff recognizes, but is also "so-called" jump blues and "so-called" dance music." If one says that CPD is playing jump blues, then it is true that such music is not "swing.' The fallacy of course is that CPD is NOT playing jump blues, albeit they play melodies played by 1950's jump blues bands.

Jazz Musicians Energize New York Swing Dance Bands

Over the same several days covered by Ratliff's review, other bands in the New York area were laying out real jump blues and real big band swing music for swinging jumping lindy dancers. Some of these bands have sax sections lead by mainstream jazz musicians like Matt Hong of The Blues Jumpers who played that Friday at Swing 46, Saturday at the Supper Club, and Sunday at the New York Swing Society's Sunday dance (the Sunday dances are in the tenth continuous year if anyone thinks the swing revival is a new or California revival), Michael Hashim of Nick Palumbo's The Flipped Fedoras which played Tuesday at Swing 46 and Monday at Louisiana, and Joey Cavasino of The Yallopin' Hounds which played at Swing 46 Wednesday and Thursday Night.

Ordinarily, as Ratliff knows, he could have heard George Gee's Big Band and jazz sax section on Thursday at Swing 46 playing for dancers. [Ratliff reviewed Gee's band in January, 1998]. But on that Thursday night, the Gee band was at the American Swing Dance Championships being held in the Meadowlands, attended by swing dancers from around the world and included a multi-racial big band with musicians from The Flipped Fedoras and The Blues Jumpers. The band played to a multi-racial cross-generational crowd. This is the same night that Ratliff was at an rockabilly oriented event at the Roxy, perhaps prompting Ratliff's statement that "in New York City, where the swing scene is still cruder than in San Francisco". This statement may have a lot to do with where Ratliff was that night. [It was Thursday night, not Wednesday as Ratliff states.]

It is significant that these New York bands playing more authentic swing/jump blues dance music have jazz oriented sax sections. In particular, the sax is the instrument that defined jump blues music. The drums and bass, ever important and essential in jump blues and swing bands of the era kept the music swinging and moving without overwhelming the music -- something not true as to the neo-swing imitators with over pressurized brass and pounding rhythm sections. The prevalence of these jazz musicians in these real New York swing bands is significant: jump blues and big band swing are jazz grounded and, as Ratliff aptly points out, neo-swing bands are hard rock grounded.

No doubt a new form of music has evolved by punk rock dropouts -- but whether is should be called either dance or swing music is debatable. Cherry Poppin Daddies may spark an interest in swing to rock hardened ears, and may lead some over to real Louis Jordan.

Does Neo Swing Dance?

Ratliff quotes one person as saying "And once people invest a little bit of time learning how to dance, they are not going to just suddenly quit."

Maybe.

But, if the only music available for swing dancing were the sound of Royal Cherry Poppin Zipper Nuts, then those new dancers might just quit dancing out of frustration. One factor in the demise of big dance bands, according to conventional wisdom, was the rise of be-bop. Bee-bop musicians expressed disdain for dance and dancers, a disdain often echoed today by neo-swing musicians who pursue the goal of MTV, record contracts and concerts, with little concern for whether the music has an affinity to swing dance. In the 50's, this attitude in the end harmed all jazz and bee bop, not just big swing bands.

Do Jazz Critics Do Swing

Even today in mainstream jazz circles, there remains a similar disdain for recognizing the dance origins of jazz and swing. Even though the column ostensibly is discussing swing dance music, it does not describe the dancing, if any, taking place, but devotes much time to fashion. The article ignores a most essential issue: is neo-swing music compatible with swing dance? Peter Watrous, another jazz critic of the Times, wrote in a recent article urging that a dance hall be included any new Lincoln Center jazz hall, "Jazz began as dance music, and at best it still retains dance music's vitality."

The good news is that, in New York City and elsewhere, other music grounded in name and style in Louis Jordan and Count Basie is being played night after night for music loving dancers, and attracting drop-outs from neo-swing bands.

White Hard Rock Roots and The 90's Cultural Swing Revolution

Ratliff's comments about white rock and race are not off base: "the language of neo-swing's white world feels pre-negotiated." The dance that goes with this pre-negotiated music is similarly pre-negotiated, stripped down swing like doing the cha cha to Lawrence Welk champagne imitations of Latin music.

Ratliff also argues that "the first swing era was racially and sexually radical", suggesting that in some way the new revival of swing is somehow devoid of a shift in social mores. Some believe that the return to social partner dancing similarly reflects the reassessment of the relationship of the sexes where it is okay again for men and women to adopt a semblance of traditional sex roles Social partner dancing provides opportunities for those of different sexes (and races) to mingle and touch in socially acceptable but still intimate ways. Social dancing in New York today is a venue for the development of cross-generational and cross-racial friendships. Blacks now drift below 125th Street and whites drift up above 125th Street motivated as they were in the 30's -- by swing music and dancing.

White and Black

Even Ratliff's cogent comments about the prevailing whiteness of neo-swing parallels some of the divisions that existed in the 30's where there were definitely white bands and black bands, and then integrated bands as well. Today, curious colorations still exists. One can only raise an eyebrow when one sees a 17 piece all white big band in New York City.

The problem with Ratliff's article is that to some the article might suggest that neo-swing is what the new interest in swing is about. But, there are other factors in the revival of swing dancing: all forms of social partner dancing are thriving including ballroom and Latin dancing.

Had Ratliff crossed the Hudson to the Meadowlands that weekend, he would have seen not a punk-white scene, but a wide variety of swing dancers and styles: white Carolina beach shaggers, black Hand Dancers from Washington DC, stylized West Coast Swingers, classic white and black straight up jitterbuggers, and Savoy style Lindy Hop dancers from Singapore to England. If Ratliff had come to the Sunday Night Swing Society dance, he would have seen an audience that may have looked more like a Savoy audience, definitely multi-racial, where the black Mama Lu Parks Dance Company performed to a racially mixed audience of dancers, who then hopped to the music of the multi-racial Blues Jumpers.

Nihilism and Punk Rockers

Ratliff points out that "most of the movement's major leaders are ex-punks in their early 30's, and this music is their second career." Unfortunately, it is questionable whether many of these neo-swing band leaders have an interest in the jazz/blues roots of the original swing music. Is the nihilism that populated punk rock gone or just beneath the surface?

Hostility is evoked when a neo-swing musician is confronted with a hard to dispute assertion that a particular piece of music is "neither swing nor danceable". The responses tend to reveal the chasm and frequently underlying hostility to swing and dance. Interestingly, a number of neo-swing bands have seen disputes break out, resulting in break-ups between the traditional jazz oriented musicians and those still grounded in rock. Is one factor that jazz based musicians rebel at the pre-packaging that Ratliff observes?

The good news is that are several generations of jazz musicians who are populating, not neo-swing and neo-jump blues bands, but the real thing. That is where the dancers will flock after they take their few swing lessons, that is, if they want to dance. Possibly as well, the emergence of a new swing generation will also signal and enlarge the audience in mainstream jazz.

Jazz and music critics who review of swing dance music need to swing dancing shoes, learn something about the dance and explore the full world of swing dance and music in New York.

Neo-Swing -- Near but Not Swing

In the meantime, over the coming months, New York City will see a number of California swing bands such as Indigo Swing and Lavay Smith and the Red Hot Skillet Lickers, both from San Francisco. These are not neo-swing bands - both bands play real swing music for dancing. The label neo-swing would best be retired, and, if it is used, should mean "near but not swing."