Back in the Swing

Web posted October 28, 1998

 This time, Swing's a different thing

By Richard Harrington
The Washington Post

The swing revival keeps rolling along, fueled by cadres of New Swing Kids riffling through their grandparents' closets and searching out local thrift shops for vintage threads to wear when they go jitterbugging to bands with such jive monikers as Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, the Squirrel Nut Zippers, Royal Crown Revue and Dem Brooklyn Bums.

These neo-swing bands are filled with refugees from punk and alternative rock who sport shiny zoot suits, wide ties, wide-brimmed fedoras and two-tone shoes. They serve up a propulsive sound built on screaming syncopated horns, thundering drums and thumping stand-up bass and sing sly, fun-filled songs about gambling, drinking and romancing dizzy dames.

They call it swing, but little of this music fits the traditional definition of swing, the lush, sweetly melodic dance music of the '30s and early '40s purveyed by Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw and Count Basie.

While traditional swing, supported by both original fans of the music and later generations attracted to social dancing, has survived in small pockets around the country, what's really being revived is the aggressive, riff-rooted jump blues popularized in the late '40s and '50s by Cab Calloway, Louis Jordan, Louis Prima, Wynonie Harris and Roy Brown.

Royal Crown Revue, self-styled purveyors of ``hard-boiled swing,'' were the first retrofitted swing band when it started playing at San Francisco's art-deco nightclub the Deluxe in 1989. The Revue released the movement's first album, 1990's ``Kings of Gangster Bop,'' and provided swing's first mainstream break in 1994 when it performed ``Hey Pachuco!'' in Jim Carrey's film ``The Mask.''

Another movie, however, set the table for the current craze: 1996's ``Swingers,'' whose writer and star, John Favreau, was inspired by the swing revivalism he encountered at Hollywood's Derby Club. That film featured performances by Royal Crown Revue and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, neither well known outside of retro-swing's two epicenters, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

MTV helped the revival along last year when it put Squirrel Nut Zippers' quirky ``Hell'' into heavy rotation. Though it's considered the first new-swing hit, the song is actually calypso, and the Zippers' main influences -- hot jazz, string band music and Dixieland -- all predate swing. Earlier this year, the Cherry Poppin' Daddies did the same with the tom-tom-fueled ``Zoot Suit Riot'' on MTV; that song remains the revival's only Top 40 radio hit. The MTV exposure pushed albums by both acts to the platinum level.

However it was a commercial that pushed the swing revival into overdrive, when the Gap unveiled its Lindy-hopping ``Khakis Swing'' spot in April during the highly rated finales of ``ER'' and ``Seinfeld.'' Set to Louis Prima's 1959 classic ``Jump, Jive an' Wail,'' the 30-second spot featured high-flying kids and proved so popular that the Gap recycled it this fall.

'' 'Swingers' brought the swing lifestyle to the heartland,'' says V. Vale, author of the recently published book, ``Swing! The New Retro Renaissance.'' What the Gap's ``Khakis Swing'' ad did, he adds, ``was expose the dance and music to a large and underdeveloped demographic -- kids under 18. As soon as it came out, all the dance studios were besieged with young-sounding voices who'd gotten their names out of the Yellow Pages, asking if they could teach them to dance 'like in that Gap commercial.' ''

Suddenly, new generations are learning an old style of dancing that has many variations -- Lindy Hop, shag, jive, jitterbug, jump, push, whip -- almost all the names suggesting the vibrancy at the heart of swing.

Concurrently, there's been a revival of classically flashy fashion, from zoot suits, high-waisted pants and gabardine shirts for men to flared-skirt dresses for women. With authentic '40s and '50s threads now hard to find, some companies have begun manufacturing new lines based on original designs.

And though it's still a rarity on the radio (except on some very oldies stations), swing is now a favored style on Madison Avenue, in ads for the Gap, Toyota, Dockers, Coke and other products, as well as in promotional music on the WB network. It's hip, and in terms of corporate image, it's safe compared to rock and hip-hop.