The Swing Book (22 page)

One of the most in-demand dance outfits in the country, San Francisco’s Indigo Swing plays more than three hundred live shows
a year. And it’s not hard to see why. Lead singer Johnny Boyd’s crooning voice is smooth as buttermilk. The band members—who
look for inspiration from folks like guitarist Charlie Christian and pianist Earl Hines—walk a fine line between tradition
and invention. And Indigo Swing’s modern-day lyrics are all about good old love and heartache. “What my band does is real,
honest postwar boogie-woogie swing,” Boyd has said. Look for the band’s fourth and most recent album,
Red Light,
or better yet, dance to ’em live.

One of the top neoswing albums,
Come Out Swingin’
by Steve Lucky and the Rhumba Bums.
(P
HOTO
: T
RACY
H
ATCH
)

When swing music really swings, according to the Rhumba Bums’ alluring guitarist Carmen Getit, “it makes you moist.” Oh, behave.
Or don’t. Carmen’s sirenlike ways and pianist/vocalist Steve Lucky’s handsome looks certainly make this band a must-stare.
But it’s their original boogie-woogie pieces and unexpected jump covers that keep you coming back for more. In the last couple
of years, this San Francisco band has held the coveted Wednesday night slot at LA’s Derby nightclub and has even done parties
for Whoopi Goldberg and the casts of
Party of Five
and
ER.
Of course, this music’s nothing new for Lucky, who fronted a jump blues-style band back in the early eighties, when Ann Arbor,
Michigan, had its own microscene going. “We don’t do a lot of the songs that we used to, like ‘Caldonia’ and ‘Choo Choo Ch’Boogie,’
because they are the chestnuts of swing,” says Carmen, who can always be counted on to be fresh.

How did a rockabilly fanatic come to revere Artie Shaw? Reed was one of the first to make the musical journey from the starting
point of fifties roots rock back to the big band era. After fronting a rockabilly band in the eighties called Eddie Reed and
the Bluehearts, this multi-instrumentalist began exploring further back in time. He was soon listening to Benny Goodman and
Tommy Dorsey but really got hooked when his young son had him listen to “Traffic Jam” by Shaw. “It blew my mind,” he says.
By 1993 Reed, who plays clarinet, guitar, and piano, had his own orchestra up and running. A true traditionalist, he has hooked
up with such greats as Anita O’Day, Helen Forrest, and his idol, Shaw himself (who has even given some of his original charts
to Reed). And he has consciously catered to the dance community (even listing the beats per minute of his songs in the liner
notes of his CDs). “In my opinion,” says Reed, “if you write a song and it doesn’t appeal to someone’s physical body, if it
doesn’t make them want to tap their toes, then you are leaving part of the equation out.”

Two bars into one of Lavay Smith’s songs, you realize one thing you’ll never forget. This gal can sing, with a voice that’s
both forceful and dazzlingly warm. One of the most authentic jazz singers in the scene, Smith has been entertaining San Francisco
crowds since 1989 and has crossed over into the mainstream jazz festival circuit. “I don’t even look at it as swing. I look
at it as jazz,” says Smith, who’s known for her signature look, a va-va-voom style that’s all about fishtail dresses and gardenias
behind the ear. But what’s most impressive is the depth of musical knowledge of Smith and her partner, arranger and pianist
Chris Siebert. “We have thousands and thousands of records,” says Smith, whose commitment to her music involves listening
to as little rock as possible. “The rhythm of rock is a lot different. It’s a bad influence for me. I have to be surrounded
by good music and listen to it all the time. The more you listen to Billie Holiday and Dinah Washington, the better the swing
will sound.”

From Seattle to Orlando, each city or region has its own distinct dancing scene. Because swing is a movement that thrives
on live music, there are many great bands in almost every major town across the United States, Canada, and England. Some have
national followings; some are local secrets. Here are the best ones to look out for near where you live.

Kings of Pleasure:
Arizona was one of the first states after California to get caught up in the Lindy craze, and the Kings of Pleasure were
there from the beginning. Started in 1996, this five-piece group is a dancer’s delight, playing a mix of swing and rocked-out
jump blues and having fun on such signatures as “Are You Buyin’ Wine” and “Havana Hop.”

Plus: Swingtips
—the favorites from Phoenix—boasting a big horn section and even a Christmas album,
Santa Swings;
Swing 42,
a traditional big band;
Heavenly 7,
swing with a George Clinton funk twist; and
Hipster Daddy-O and the Handgrenades,
a hard-core ska/swing band.

Lost Continentals:
With the sultry vocals of lead singer Amy Pike, the four-member Atlanta band Lost Continentals is revving up the Georgia
scene. And while they’ve got only a bass, drums, and a guitar, they swing with a big sound on their popular CD
Moonshine and Martinis.
Among the best cuts are quirky romantic numbers like “Please, Please”—as in “please give me another chance”—and “Love Roller
Coaster.” Get ready for a great ride.

Plus:
Nashville’s
Badabing Badaboom,
featuring an Andrews Sisters-style vocal group; Memphis’s classic swing band the
New Memphis Hepcats;
New Orleans’s
Amy and the Hank Sinatras,
who mix swing with country and R&B; Athens, Georgia’s ska-meets-swing powerhouse
Seven Foot Politic;
and Atlanta’s
League of Decency,
with a sound that ranges from jump blues to James Brown.

Bellevue Cadillac:
On their lyrically ambitious album
Prozac Nation,
Bellevue Cadillac riffs on the overcaffeinated and mood-enhanced 1990s. Fronted by terrifically smooth lead singer Doug Bell,
this seven-piece band has a relaxed, swinging sound that’s been described as a confluence of “sixties Memphis R&B and forties
swing.” After hearing such simmering songs as “Pull the Plug” (it’s about euthanasia), “Cuppa Joe,” and “Call of the Wild,”
you definitely won’t be needing coffee.

Plus:
Connecticut’s
Eight to the Bar,
a six-piece band that swings from Kansas City to Motown, and Boston’s New Orleans-influenced
Love Dogs.

Johnny Favourite Swing Orchestra:
Who’d have ever imagined that one of the hottest new swing bands would come out of Halifax, Nova Scotia? A ten-piece group
of mostly twentysomething Canadian lads, this band is fronted by singer Johnny Favourite, nicknamed Young Blue Eyes, a sweet
bad-boy who grew up loving David Bowie’s swingesque
Let’s Dance
music and wearing suits in high school. Just three years since he started the band in 1996, the orchestra has put out two
CDs, including the latest,
Holiday Romance;
signed a deal with Universal; and won a Juneau Award, the Canadian equivalent of a Grammy, for best new group. “It’s nice
to find out you’re not a freak,” says Favourite, whose image now is anything but. “We’re not some retro guys. We’re not like
‘Hey, Daddy-O’ or any of that stuff. For the most part, the band is comprised of shit-kicking Canadian guys that drink beer,
like to surf and ride fast cars, and love this music. Sometimes we’ll rock out and sometimes we’ll do like a real nice Benny
Goodman number. It just really varies.”

Plus:
The popular
Big Rude Jake,
a thoughtfully provocative songwriter whose brash humor shows up most forcefully on his song “Let’s Kill All the Rock Stars”;
Vancouver’s peerless Western swing and rockabilly outfit
Ray Condo and the Ricochets;
Montreal’s crooning
Swingtown Sinners;
Calgary’s top swing band the
Dino Martinis
(their humorously titled CDs include
The Bottle Collector’s Lounge
and
Steak and Comedian Night);
Vancouver’s the
Molestics,
who throw everything from Jelly Roll Morton jazz to Hawaiian, calypso, and polka into their musical blender; and last but
far from least, north-of-the-border star
Colin James,
a blues-based rock guitarist who’s recorded two great swing albums with his Little Big Band.

Rhythm Rockets:
The title track of the Rockets’ CD
Come Ride the Rocket
says it all. Plying the suggestive lyrical terrain of late-forties jump blues, the seven-piece Rockets play everything from
original material to the best of Cab Calloway and Louis Jordan. Fronted by singer Lesley Byers, they’re a hit not just with
hoppers, they’ve also entertained the Chicago Bulls. What makes them distinct? A big-time sound provided by the group’s three
saxophonists.

Plus:
The wonderfully danceable
Blues Swingers;
the New Orleans-influenced
Speak Easy Swing; Three Cent Stomp,
who swing from Ellington to Sinatra on their CD
Jimmy Primo Livin’ At Large;
the rockin’
Chicago Jump Company; Alan Gresik’s Swing Shift Orchestra,
a traditional late-thirties big band; and the band that swingers love but that for some reason hates being known as a swing
band, the
Mighty Blue Kings.

Money Plays Eight:
Colorado native sons Money Plays Eight, taking the name of their band from a gambling term, bring a little Las Vegas glamour
to the Mile High City. They play fast, dress sharply, and perform constantly at Denver’s top swing clubs.

Plus:
The
Hot Tomatoes Dance Orchestra,
a big band; and the jump blues groups
Papa Grande and His Double-Wide Jumptet, David Booker and His Swingtet,
and
Chris Daniels and the Kings.

Atomic Fireballs:
Charging through lyrics with his deep raspy voice, Atomic Fireballs’ lead singer John Bunkley sounds like Tom Waits … if
Waits had a swing band. This high-octane eight-piece group recently signed a major-label deal with Lava/Atlantic and appeared
in the Matthew Perry/Neve Campbell movie
Three to Tango.
It’s not hard to see what the buzz is about. On their album
Torch This Place,
they fire up their fast call-and-response style on such songs as “Man with the Hex,” “Lover Lies,” and “Drink, Drank, Drunk.”
Says
Swing Time
magazine’s Michael Moss: “They have anything anybody could want in a live show. They rock like rock stars and swing like
maniacs.”

The Ray Gelato Giants:
Sounding almost like Louis Prima reincarnated, Ray Gelato is one of the major pioneers of the swing music revival. Back in
the early eighties—even before Joe Jackson went swing—Gelato was in the influential English jump blues band the Chevalier
Brothers. After London’s eighties swing scene came and went, Gelato kept perfecting his brand of Las Vegas-inspired music,
and he’s now gaining a strong following stateside. A singer and tenor sax player, he’s recorded six albums, including one
in Italian and his latest,
The Men from Uncle.
“Swing is difficult to define,” says Gelato. “I think it just means really great music and lots of people Lindy Hopping to
it.”

The Big Six:
The ultimate British retro rockers, the Big Six mix up swing, ska, rock, and R&B into one potent ball of fire. Influenced
by everyone from Bill Haley and James Brown to the Skatalites, they’re the one band that’s guaranteed to bring swing and rockabilly
fans into the same club. And they do it all in the loudest, maddest plaid suits known to man. They aren’t bluffing when they
shout out on their signature song, “We the Boys Will Rock Ya!”

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.

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.”