The Swing Book (16 page)

Classic Songs:
“Swingin’ the Blues,” “Taxi War Dance,” “Jumpin’ at the Woodside,” “Dickie’s Dream,” and the Frankie Manning favorite “Shiny
Stockings.”

Swing Trivia:
Basie’s band could improvise much more than solos. It recorded its signature song completely on the spur of the moment. One
night, when the band didn’t have a number with which to end a radio program, Basie looked at the clock, shouted out “One O’clock
Jump,” and the band, renowned for its cohesion, put together this now-classic number on the spot.

CD Pick:
Don’t skimp on Basie. Buy the three-CD set
Count Basie: The Complete Decca Recordings, 1937–1939
(Decca/GRP). “It represents the zenith of Kansas City jazz, the recordings that really brought Basie to the national forefront,”
says Chuck Haddix, director of the Marr Sound Archives at the University of Missouri, Kansas City.

With 1999’s celebration of what would have been Ellington’s one hundredth birthday, this multitalented musician was justly
acclaimed as one of a handful of America’s most talented composers, along with Gershwin and Copland. His songs are so ingrained
in our culture that even if you think you don’t know an Ellington song, you do. During a career that spanned the twenties
to the seventies, Ellington composed more than two thousand pieces of music. He even popularized the word
swing
in his early classic “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing).” Born in Washington, D.C., in 1899, Edward Kennedy
Ellington transformed himself into the elegant Duke after moving to New York in 1923, where he formed his own orchestra. In
1927 he secured a star-making gig at the Cotton Club, where he directed the nightspots exotic floor shows in addition to creating
such memorable songs as “Mood Indigo” and “Black and Tan Fantasy.” A brilliant pianist, Ellington composed songs in which
he took jazz to new levels of artistry, adding an emotional depth, a lyric poetry, and an easy confidence that hadn’t been
there before. “He’s one of the major impressionist painters of the twentieth century. His colors are as rich and subtle and
sophisticated as Cezanne’s or Monet’s,” says bandleader Casey MacGill.

Ellington’s renowned sidemen over the years included trombonists Juan Tizol and Lawrence Brown; trumpeters Bubber Miley, Cootie
Williams, Ray Nance, and Rex Stewart; the incomparable alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges; and clarinetist Barney Bigard, plus
singers Ivie Anderson and Betty Roche. Ellington’s secret talent lay in writing for the specific, and often quirky, talents
of each one. The band hit its high-water mark in the late thirties with the additions of Jimmy Blanton, who imparted a new
expressive voice to the bass, and tenor saxophonist Ben Webster, plus arranger/composer Billy Strayhorn, with whom Ellington
formed an intense and rich musical partnership. After the end of the swing era, Ellington enjoyed a huge resurgence after
appearing at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1956. Consistent with his ambitious artistic aims, he explored other types of music
throughout his life, from long-form pieces to spiritual compositions. He died in 1974 at age seventy-five, a genius who defined
swing but was never defined by it.

Classic Songs:
“Cottontail,” “Ko-Ko,” “Harlem Air Shaft,” “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore,” “Sophisticated Lady,” “Solitude,” and Strayhorn’s
“Take the ‘A’ Train.”

Swing Trivia:
According to Bill Crow’s
Jazz Anecdotes,
Ellington was notoriously superstitious. He feared drafts, hated to fly, and wouldn’t wear yellow. He also never gave shoes
as gifts; to him they were a symbol that someone might walk away from him.

CD Pick:
The three-CD set
The Blanton-Webster Band
(RCA) includes sixty-six songs, gems one and all, from the band’s peak years.

Admit it, when you were a kid, his albums were collecting dust on your parents’ (or grandparents’) shelves and you probably
thought he was lame. But now you realize the error of your ways. It’s about time that the King of Swing is cool again. Without
Goodman, the man most responsible for bringing the hot sounds of Harlem to the masses, there might have been no swing era.
After a period of disillusionment with jazz, Goodman broke through in 1935 at the now-famous Palomar engagement in Los Angeles
with his truly hard-swinging music. And he challenged the color barrier by hiring such extraordinary black musicians as pianist
Teddy Wilson, vibraphonist Lionel Hampton, and guitarist Charlie Christian to play in his small combos and later in his full
orchestra. His string of female singers — Helen Ward, Martha Tilton, Helen Forrest, and Peggy Lee—ranks as the best lineup
any band could boast. And when it came to playing the clarinet, Goodman was so crystal clear and so passionate that he carved
out a new, richer place for the instrument in the jazz world. Dressing like an egghead, famous for his prickly personality,
Goodman proved that you don’t have to be a flashy entertainer to become one of the most beloved and inspired musicians of
all time. He died in 1986 at age seventy-seven.

Classic Songs:
The swing anthem “Sing, Sing, Sing,” “Christopher Columbus,” “Sometimes I’m Happy,” “Blue Skies,” and the Fletcher Henderson
arrangement “King Porter Stomp.”

Swing Trivia:
When Goodman became angry at one of his sidemen, he’d glare so harshly at the guy that band members talked about avoiding
“the Ray.”

CD Pick:
The two-CD set
Benny Goodman On the Air, 1937–1938
(Columbia). “These are live broadcast performances that really capture the famous band with Harry James and Gene Krupa that
played Carnegie Hall. There’s much more life than in some of the studio recordings,” says Loren Schoenberg, leader of the
Loren Schoenberg Big Band and former director of the Benny Goodman Archive.

Squawk! The seminal R&B vocalist and alto sax player Louis Jordan recorded no fewer than three songs about chickens. And once
you’ve heard “There Ain’t Nobody Here but Us Chickens,” “A Chicken Ain’t Nothing but a Bird,” and “Chicken Back,” you’ll be
plucked if you don’t agree that Jordan is one of the most raucously fun singers who ever lived. But Jordan wasn’t just about
laughs. This soulful singer’s voice has astonishingly expressive range. And his flyin’ combo, the Tympany Five, never failed
to get a crowd’s feet moving. All three qualities have combined to make Jordan the king of the neoswing movement. The reason?
His influential jump blues sound—Jordan had more than fifty Top 10 R&B hits between 1942 and 1951—stands at the crossroads
of jazz and rock ’n’ roll, which is exactly where most of today’s swing fans find themselves. (Jordan, who had played for
Chick Webb, led the post-big band transition toward smaller groups.) In fact, the only thing negative that can be said about
this entertainer is that, since his death in 1975, he’s been in danger of overexposure. Every other new swing group seems
like a Jordan cover band.

Classic Songs:
“Choo Choo Ch’Boogie,” which sold a million copies in 1946, “Caldonia,” “Knock Me a Kiss,” “What’s the Use of Gettin’ Sober.”

Swing Trivia:
According to John Chilton’s biography
Let the Good Times Roll,
one old-time shtick of Jordan’s was to dedicate his hit song “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby?” to Errol Flynn while the
actor was in the midst of a paternity suit.

CD Pick:
“To me, Louis Jordan is really the most important guy out there,” says Steve Lucky, leader of Steve Lucky and the Rhumba
Bums, who recommends
The Best of Louis Jordan
(MCA). “These are the hits that really define the sounds of the small jump swing band, from ‘Knock Me a Kiss’ to ‘Open the
Door, Richard.’ It’s twenty great cuts.”

Get it right. It was Prima’s classic “Jump, Jive, an’ Wail” that was featured in the Gap’s “Khakis Swing” ad, not Brian Setzer’s
recent cover of the song. Prima’s original is the real deal, and just a taste of the rollicking musical banquet this superb
entertainer has to offer. Influenced by the trumpet playing of Louis Armstrong and the jump blues of Louis Jordan, Prima created
an unforgettable mix of the Dixieland sounds of his native New Orleans, the
abbon-danza
attitude of his Neapolitan heritage, and a steady stream of knockout humor. Grabbing fame in the fifties in Las Vegas, Prima
created a bridge from the swing era (he composed Goodman’s most famous number, “Sing, Sing, Sing”) into the world of lounge,
especially after he hooked up with his fourth wife, Keely Smith, and wild saxman Sam Butera. The latter two still perform
on the Strip, but Prima died in 1978. His memory lives on, most recently in the hit indie film
Big Night. Buona séera,
indeed.

Classic Songs:
“That Old Black Magic,” Prima’s hit duet with Keely Smith, and “Just a Gigolo,” later covered by David Lee Roth.

Swing Trivia:
Prima was the voice of every kid’s favorite orangutan, King Louie, in Disney’s 1967 animated film
The Jungle Book.

CD Pick:
“Something you have to have in your collection is the Louis Prima
Collector’s Series”
(Capitol), says Marc Berman, host of Philadelphia’s
Swingtime
radio show. “It’s not only an introduction, it’s the essential Louis Prima, and you can find it in every store. It’s got
all the hits, but what it also has is Louis’s version of ‘Sing, Sing, Sing.’”

Every swing musician spoke Louis Armstrong’s language. With his remarkable trumpet solos and raspy but rich voice, Armstrong
had an effect on jazz so profound he might as well have redirected the course of the Mississippi. Born in New Orleans in 1901
and put in a waif’s home by the age of twelve, Armstrong got his start as a protégé of cornetist King Oliver and gained experience
playing in bands on the Mississippi’s riverboats. Early on, his soaring range was literally incredible. Armstrong hit so many
high Cs and Fs, that he was occasionally accused of using a trick instrument. But it was Armstrong’s gift for creating new
rhythms, phrases, and harmonies, on his landmark
Hot Fives
and
Hot Sevens
recordings of the mid- to late twenties, that really shook up the jazz world. Exuberant, warm, and full of life, he appeared
in scores of movies; recorded unforgettable duets with fellow legend Ella Fitzgerald; put out a seemingly limitless catalog
of albums; and in 1964, seven years before his death in 1971, dislodged the Beatles’ “Can’t Buy Me Love” from the Billboard
No. 1 spot with his rendition of “Hello Dolly.” Armstrong was jazz’s first international star and is arguably still its most
famous.

Classic Songs
: The
Hot Fives
cuts “Potato Head Blues” and “West End Blues”; “Weather Bird,” with pianist Earl Hines; “Basin Street Blues”; and “What a
Wonderful World,” which became a hit after its appearance in the film
Good Morning, Vietnam.

Swing Trivia:
Armstrong’s nickname Satchmo was taken from the song “Satchel Mouth Swing.”

CD Pick:
To witness the birth of the swing solo and Armstrong at his most stunning, buy
The Hot Fives, Volume 1
(which features the pioneering scat song “Heebie Jeebies”), plus
The Hot Fives and Hot Sevens, Volumes 2 and
3 (Columbia). For later Armstrong check out a great live performance, the two-CD
Complete Town Hall Concert 17 May 1947
(BMG/RCA), which includes solos by trombonist Jack Teagarden.

Tommy Dorsey (left) and saxophonist Bud Freeman watch as Louis Armstrong launches into a solo.
(C
HARLES
P
ETERSON
/A
RCHIVE
P
HOTOS
)

The biggest showman of them all, Calloway seemed practically possessed onstage, stomping around in his extreme zoot suit,
throwing his hair back, and baring his teeth with gleeful abandon. “His spirit was life or death,” says his daughter, singer
Chris Calloway. “He always felt as if you owed everything to your audience.” On countless songs, such as “Are You All Reet?”
and “Are You Hep to the Jive?” he established himself as the avatar of rap. Calloway—who published his own slang guide called
The Hep-ster’s Dictionary
in 1936—could rhyme, jive talk, and scat to Mars and back in the course of a three-minute number. And while the high points
of his career extend from his appearances at the Cotton Club beginning in 1930 to his performance in
The Blues Brothers
in 1980, Calloway was once remembered more as a cartoonish novelty act than a serious musician. Lately, however, he’s gained
hugely increased respect. His stylistic influence is, of course, undebatable. From clothes to slang to songs about reefer,
he practically invented the concept of hipness. But it shouldn’t be forgotten that back in the day, Calloway’s orchestra was
one of the highest-class outfits out there, boasting such stellar sidemen as bassist Milt Hinton and sax player Chu Berry.
The Professor of Jive knew how to keep ’em dancing too.