by Degen Pener
Plus: The entertaining Jive Aces, the Scientologists of the swing scene; the blasting jump band King Pleasure and the Biscuit Boys; the doo-wop group the Senti-Mentals; Sophie Garner and Her Swing Kings, swinging à la Carmen Miranda; Blue Harlem, influenced by everyone from Jimmie Lunceford to Ruth Brown; and the recently reconstituted jumpin’ blues group Sugar Ray’s Flying Fortress.
Florida
Swingerhead: With a name like Swingerhead and an infectious lounge/swing sound, Florida’s powerhouse retro band is starting to gain national attention. Singer and bandleader Michael Andrew first came up with his band’s irreverent moniker in 1996 when he wrote and performed in an Orlando musical called “Mickey Swingerhead and the Earthgirls,” about a lonely guy living on another planet, where, horror of horrors, swing music is forbidden. Thankfully, the situation’s a little better back on earth. In fact, Rolling Stone has called Swingerhead’s “Pick Up the Phone”—from the hot CD She Could Be a Spy—one of the two best songs on the Swing This, Baby compilation album. Andrew lists Frank Sinatra, Burt Bacharach, Herb Alpert, and Tom Waits among his inspirations. “But for me,” he says, “Bobby Darin is absolutely number one.” Unlike many swingers, Andrew—the former bandleader of New York’s famous Rainbow Room—isn’t a rock refugee. Says Andrew: “All I’ve ever listened to is swing.”
Plus: Felix and the Buzzcats, a Prima-influenced group that’s secured the right to use the animated Felix’s trademarked mug on their bandstand; Sarasota’s jump-blues band Dan Electro and the Silvertones; the rock-edged Swingin’ Mooks of Tampa; and Orlando’s Johnny Cool and the Mobster Swing Band.
Los Angeles and San Diego
Alien Fashion Show: “We didn’t set out to be a quote swing band,” says Eldon Daetweiler, the lead singer of this lounge-from-another-planet quintet. “We came up with this concept of, ‘What if Frank Sinatra grew up in the town of Twin Peaks or hung out with David Bowie?’” Formed in 1996, Alien Fashion Show adds a postmodern banquet of influences—from surf and rockabilly to trip-hop and Angelo Badalamenti—to their cocktail-culture style of swing. But these sharkskin-loving guys—who even cover the Kiss tune “Detroit Rock City” as “Detroit Swing City”—always keep in mind where it all started. Eldon and his drumming brother Jeff have a green-and-purple psychedelic portrait of Gene Krupa hanging over their living room sofa.
Big Time Operator: The swing kings of San Diego, Big Time Operator is a jump blues band fronted by Sinatra-esque crooner Frank Lovell, who sails like a pro on such covers as “Fly Me to the Moon,” “Leap Frog,” and “Calloway Boogie.” But where did their name come from? During World War II, Big Time Operator was a nickname for the B-17 bomber.
Jumpin’ Jimes: What else can you call it but swingabilly? The Jumpin’ Jimes, a Derby favorite, made up of vocalist Mark Tortorici and six terrific musicians, always seem like they’re having fun, whether they’re rocking it out or swinging it up. And they do a lot of both on their high-spirited CD They Rock! They Roll! They Swing!
Mora’s Modern Rhythmists: Givin’ you good old-fashioned swing, Dean Mora’s ten-piece orchestra is as purist a band as they come. Covering songs from 1929 to 1936, they send dancers with the works of Fletcher Henderson, Jimmie Lunceford, and early Benny Goodman. They even wear tuxedos just like the old bandleaders did.
Red and the Red Hots: Red’s got cred. A Texas-born boogie-woogie pianist, Red Young was part of a swingy jazz vocal group called the Stepsisters that came together in Los Angeles in 1983. The group soon found themselves opening on tour for Linda Ronstadt and legendary Sinatra arranger Nelson Riddle. That experience was so great it inspired Young—who’s also played piano for everyone from Sonny and Cher to Tanya Tucker and Joan Armatrading—to start his own band, the Red Hots. With their distinctive sound—this big band’s got three lead vocalists—and their effortless melodies, Red and the Red Hots know how to rev up Lindy Hoppers.
Plus: Like a championship NBA team, dance-obsessed Los Angeles has the best and deepest bench of bands of any city in the country. Among the city’s other hot players are the swinging jump blues groups the Swing Sinners, Blue Plate Special, the Chrome Addicts, the Jumpin’ Joz Band, the Eric Ekstrand Ensemble, and Flattop Tom and His Jump Cats; the nostalgic Pete Jacobs and His Wartime Radio Revue, who even dress in armed-forces-style khaki uniforms; two traditional groups, Johnny Crawford and His 1928 Society Orchestra and the Don Miller Orchestra; boogie-woogie pianist Rob Rio; and last but certainly not least Candye Kane, a big-lady singer who bills herself as “two hundred pounds of fun.”
Minneapolis
The Senders: The jump blues band the Senders, a critics’ pick of the editors of MusicHound Lounge, has been having a blast mixing up swing and jump blues for more than a decade. But lately they’re starting to get attention outside the Twin Cities as well. And it’s not just because they lured legendary blues pianist Charles Brown to guest on their album Jumpin’ Uptown. Their lead singer, Charmin Michelle, has an endearing Betty Boop-like voice, put to fun effect on standards by the likes of B. B. King and Wynonie Harris.
Plus: Hot Heads, whose influences range from the twenties to the fifties; and local lounge/swing bands the Jaztronauts and Vic Volare.
New York
The Camaros: “Our female fans are the ones who really get it. They’re rabid,” says lead singer Jen Jones, who founded this “swingabilly” group in 1997. But who really needs categories anyway? The Camaros’ lyrically entertaining songs take a stance on love with which anybody can identify: if you get burned by romance, hang tough. And while Jones won’t reveal which certain someones in the New York scene inspired the sardonic tunes on the Camaros’ debut CD Evil, she will say, “It’s what female blues singers have done all the time, which is not take any shit and not let yourself be beaten down. You come back with some wit and some humor and create a space to say it.”
Flying Neutrinos: Breaking out of the jump blues mold, the Flying Neutrinos came to the Big Apple from the Big Easy in 1992 and have carved out a real niche for themselves playing New Orleans-influenced swing. “If I could clarify one thing, it’s that New Orleans music can swing just as much as jump blues. Swing isn’t any particular style of music, it’s a certain type of feel,” says the band’s Billie Holiday-influenced lead singer Ingrid Lucia. No argument here. On their album I’d Rather Be in New Orleans, the Neutrinos get just the right mix of the sultry and the swingin’.
George Gee and His Make-Believe Ballroom Orchestra: Billing himself as the only Asian-American bandleader in the business, Gee fronts a seventeen-piece orchestra that pridefully recreates the jump swing of Count Basie. And boy do they have the chops. Boasting a slew of veteran musicians (who’ve played in the bands of Basie, Goodman, Xavier Cugat, and Hampton), this orchestra hit new peaks in 1999. They faced off against Bill Elliott in two high-profile battles of the bands, swung the crowd at Frankie Manning’s eighty-fifth birthday party, and even toured Japan. “For someone who’s been in the business twenty years,” says Gee, who started a band while in college at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie-Mellon University, “I’m living in a fantasy world now.”
Jet Set Six: Many bands claim to mix lounge and swing, but the Jet Set Six may be the one band that most truly melds the two. Yes, they’ve got a suave sophistication that does justice to their foremost inspiration, Tony Bennett. But this isn’t sit-back-with-a-martini music. It makes you want to get up on your feet and dance. And while the band began back in 1989 under the name Beat Positive, they thankfully aren’t changing their style just to ride the zoot suit bandwagon. As lead singer John Ceparano told Swing Time magazine: “We’ve always been a sharkskin band.”
Ron Sunshine and Full Swing: With zero irony and on-the-money musicianship, the experienced band Full Swing—formed in 1991—plays swing from the other side of the tracks. Not sophisticated nightclub stylings, the songs on its album Straight Up sound like they were laid down at a modern-day roadhouse. The honky-tonk feel gets a great boost from Ron Sunshine’s inspired harmonica playi
ng.
Yalloppin’ Hounds: With a barking big sound, the Hounds have torn up New York City in the last couple years like a pack on the hunt. They’ve not only got three musicians who’ve played with sax legend Illinois Jacquet, they’re pioneering a compelling new hybrid: swing with rap elements (not as much of a stretch as you might think, considering how much both Cab Calloway and Louis Jordan are deemed forerunners of rap). “They are the only band I know of right now that not only deeply care about pleasing dancers,” promoter “Lo-Fi” Lee Sobel has enthused, “but [are] also willing to risk everything to infuse hip-hop into some of their material.”
Plus: The original pioneers of swing in New York City, Nick Palumbo and the Flipped Fedoras; the jump blues faves Set ’Em Up Joe, the Blues Jumpers, and New Jersey’s Crescent City Maulers; Bim Bam Baby, featuring blond chanteuse Shawn Sobel; the gangster bop boys Dem Brooklyn Bums; the traditional swing of the Blue Saracens; and the jazzy R&B group the Delegates.
Ohio and Indiana
Wolfgang Parker: Columbus’s most devilish swing bandleader, Wolfgang Parker turns swing into a full-out head-bangers ball. He’s even coined his own term for his heavily punk-influenced music: “acid swing.”
Plus: Columbus’s Honk, Wail and Moan, from big band to Sun Ra and Miles Davis, and the classic swing outfit Tenors Head On; Cleveland’s jump blues groups Dukes of Wail and Blue Lunch; Cincinnati’s best dance band, Rich Uncle Skelton; Toledo’s the Mighty Meaty Swing Kings and Hepcat Revival; and Indianapolis’s Kelly Jay Orchestra.
Saint Louis
Vargas Swing: A favorite of Swing Time magazine, the eight-piece band Vargas Swing, fronted by soulful singer Pete Bold, has its roots in funk. Now they are swinging themselves and the city up with such hot, jumping numbers as “Fire” and “Satan.”
San Francisco
Jellyroll: Jellyroll, a stylish six-piece combo, goes beyond just Louis Jordan jump blues. On their well-liked album Hep Cats Holiday, and in their great live shows, soulful singer Belinda Blair brings back lesser-known gems by such early R&B singers as Helen Humes, Tiny Bradshaw, Ella Mae Morse, and Big Mama Thornton.
New Morty Show: Morty Okin and his extroverted band put on one of the best live shows in the business. With po-mo abandon, they excel at swinging up hard-rock classics, making you sway instead of grind to such songs as Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” or Poison’s “Unskinny Bop.” Says Okin, the bandleader and trumpeter of New Morty Show, “We’ll do a straight-ahead tune and in the middle of it we’ll put in a ripping metal part or a punk part and then go back into swing.” But don’t worry, this Louis Prima-inspired band’s got real musical chops too. Their trombonist Van Hughes has recorded with Ellington and toured with Woody Herman. And both Okin and vocalist Vise Grip were in a band called St. Vitus Dance during the early days of the swing revival in San Francisco. Says Okin: “We live in the nineties and it’s nice to incorporate lots of different music with a backbone of swing.”
ACME Swing Company: Unlike some swing bands, the guys in ACME Swing Company don’t sound like they’re trying too hard. On the CD California Premium Hops! bassist and singer Tom Beyer and his six sidemen kick back, have fun, and create a real party album with twelve all-original tunes.
Plus: The Goth-inspired showstopper Lee Press-on and the Nails; Ambassadors of Swing, a Cab Calloway tribute band; Mitch Woods and his Rockets 88’s, led by boogie-woogie pianist Woods, who’s played with both Joe Liggins and John Lee Hooker; Blue Room Boys, hitting all the right Ellington and Basie notes; local jump swing crowd pleasers Swing Session, Chazz Cats, and the Johnny Nocturne Band, with fabulous singer Kim Nalley; and retro pioneer Connie Champagne’s new band the Magnum Brutes.
Seattle
Casey MacGill and the Spirits of Rhythm: You certainly can’t accuse Casey MacGill of jumping on the bandwagon. This accomplished songwriter and keyboard/ukelele player had a swing band way back in 1971 in Southern California. “We used to open for Lily Tomlin at the Ice House in Pasadena,” he recalls. In the early eighties he fronted a second swing group, a trio called Mood Indigo, that showed up in the thirties period piece Frances, starring Jessica Lange. Now, after what he calls a few years of “oblivion” in the Pacific Northwest, MacGill has emerged in his most successful incarnation yet. His band’s new swing and boogie-woogie CD Jump, featuring jitterbugged-out songs like “Git It (In the Groove)” and “Jump Up,” has been one of the most buzzed-about releases of 1999. He’s also written an original number, “Kitchen Mechanics’ Night Out,” for Swing, the Broadway musical. The tune is inspired by the Thursday evenings at the Savoy, the night that black chauffeurs, maids, and cooks tended to have off from work. “‘Kitchen mechanic’ was the nickname they used for the cooks,” says MacGill, adding, “I love the energy of fifties rock ’n’ roll done with the style of thirties music. That’s where I’m at.”
Plus: The dancer-friendly Lance Buller and the Monarchs; the Sinatra-esque H. B. Radke and the Jet City Swingers; Jump Up! from classic swing to bebop and rhumba; and the jumpin’ blues of New York Jimmy and the Jive Five.
Texas
8½ Souvenirs: Austin’s vibrant “roots” music scene counts the 8½ Souvenirs quintet as one of its brightest stars. Founded by Olivier Giraud, a French guitar player and singer, the band plays swing music with an international flair. Not surprising, given that their greatest influence is Django Reinhardt, the Gypsy guitarist who was one of Europe’s jazz pioneers. The band describes their music as “cosmopolitan swing pop,” and you can tune in to their sophisticated stylings with their CD Happy Feet, which includes four classic Reinhardt tunes.
Plus: Austin’s popular dance band Lucky Strikes, which boasts a lead singer who croons like Tony Bennett; Johnny Reno and the Lounge Kings, who make Dallas swing and sway, starring frontman Reno, Chris Isaak’s former saxophonist; Austin swing bands Rocket 69, the Jive Bombers, the Day Jobs, and the Nash Hernandez Orchestra; the bawdy ten-piece Austin swing-meets-country group Asylum Street Spankers; and Dallas bands, the jump outfit Lakewood Rats, the Sinatra-and-Dino-style Mr. Pink, and red-headed rockabilly queen Kim Lenz and the Jaguars.
Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania
J Street Jumpers: A veteran swing and jump blues band, the J Street Jumpers came together in the early nineties and have quickly been embraced by Washington’s strong dance community. Led by bluesy singer Marianne Previti, they travel comfortably between traditional Count Basie swing and more devilish R&B classics.
Plus: Washington’s traditional big band, the Tom Cunningham Orchestra; Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania’s jump blues band Big Tubba Mista; Philadelphia’s classic band the City Rhythm Orchestra; and Pittsburgh’s Dr. Zoot, which adds a dose of Latin to their swing.
THE TEN HOTTEST NEOSWING CDS
Here they are: the ten albums that swing’s top DJs and swingzine reviewers have picked as the best you can buy.
1. The Bill Elliott Swing Orchestra, Calling All Jitterbugs! (Wayland Records): This album is a dancer’s dream, featuring fourteen midtempo tracks with a classic big band sound. The vocals are on the sweet side, but the music is full-bodied, with hot-blowing horns and sliding piano. Except for a cover of “On the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe,” all the numbers are original compositions by Elliott but sound like the real deal, with great arrangements and stunning vocal performances.
2. Indigo Swing, All Aboard! (TimeBomb Records): This collection of originals encompasses everything from piano-based ballads to boogie-woogie and jump blues, all topped off with Johnny Boyd’s smooth, soulful vocals. The midtempo melodies make this a favorite with the dancers, and the innocent lyrics capture a certain sweet sincerity that has been lost in modern times.
3. The Ray Gelato Giants, The Men from Uncle (Hepcat Records): In the tradition of Louis Prima and Frank Sinatra, Ray Gelato is a smooth crooner with huge swing appeal. The Men from Uncle offers up crowd-pleasing chestnuts, such as “Angelina/Zooma Zooma,” along with well-crafted originals, including the jumpin’ “Givin’ Up Givin’
Up.” The instrumental title track roars in true big band style, while songs like “Let’s Face the Music and Dance” hark back to the dulcet tones of Tony Bennett.
4. Royal Crown Revue, Mugzy’s Move (Warner Records): RCR’s gutsy CD starts off with a bang, as the pounding drums and blasting brass of “Hey Pachuco!” work the listener into a frenzy right from the start. It is followed by the pulsing rhythms of “Zip Gun Bop,” the high-octane title track, and ten more hard-hitting numbers. This is punk rock-style swing at its punchiest.
5. Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers, One Hour Mama (Fat Note Records): Sounding as seductive as Lena Home and throwing in some of the power of Billie Holiday, diva Lavay Smith delivers a varied selection of jazz standards, including “Blue Skies” and “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.” Smith’s vocals are what make this album truly remarkable, and thanks to Chris Siebert’s innovative arrangements, these classics swing in new and unexpected ways.
6. Steve Lucky and the Rhumba Bums, Come Out Swingin’! Rumpus Records): From the opening toe tapper, “Jumptown,” straight through a dozen more good-time tracks, Come Out Swingin’! will keep listeners on the dance floor all night long. The songs place a strong emphasis on guitar and sax and feature delightful call-and-response vocals by Steve Lucky and Carmen Getit that sound as good as Louis Prima and Keely Smith in their prime.