It’s a Swing Thing; TMGI Day 14

I made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t write a music article until at least the half-way point…because let’s be honest, I could probably make the entire 30-day challenge about music.  I didn’t want to go there too easily.

So, although tomorrow is technically the half-way point to 30 days, my iPod apparently had different plans.  All throughout the day, driving from client to client, I usually have my iPod hard-wired into my car stereo, automatically shuffling through my 5400+ song library.  Well today, for reasons only the iPod gods know, a disproportionate amount of swing music was being randomly selected to play, and powerless against the will of the iPod as I am, I knew today’s article was going to be about Glenn Miller, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Squirrel Nut Zippers, and Cherry Poppin Daddies.

Ok, not about them personally, but their music to be sure.  First, a bit of background.  You know how when you ask most people what kind of music they listen to, most of the time you get the response:  ”a little bit of everything”? Well, 99 times out of 100, that turns out not to be true after just a little digging.  Well, I am that 1 out of 100 who LITERALLY listens to every kind of music.  rock, rap, alternative, R & B, folk, classic rock, 50s music, mariachi music, new age, country, classical, instrumentals, show tunes, world music, pop, 80s, disco, hip hop, gospel & religious, punk, bluegrass, and Nina Simone (let’s not pretend we can categorize Nina Simone).  But there are 3 kinds of music that absolutely get to me unlike any others:  Latin music, opera, and swing.

 
Ooooohhhh…swing.

 

I first started listening to swing music when I was in 6th or 7th grade.  Already a novice saxophone player, there was something that was instantly magnetic about the syncopation, the melodies, the “dotted-eighth-and-sixteenth” swing of the rhythms.  The driving engine of the drummers and walking bass lines, the warm bounce of the trombones, the brightness and flare of the trumpets, and the sweet, sweet voices of the unified saxophones.  As my music ability matured, my appreciation for swing did too, and soon I was playing it in my high school 20+ piece show band.  For 4 years, in one form or another, I jumped into love with swing – feet first and head-over-heels.  Playing all over the country, what began to color my understanding of swing beyond the brilliance of the orchestrations was the way so many people, from so many places, found connection to the times and places this music represents.  Couples in their 70s were kids again dancing as we played In The Mood; but in addition to their rejuvination, the music and their dancing also revealed the bond, the connection, the short-hand of the love they shared.  To dance swing well requires not just rhythm or ability, but trust, understanding, a bit of anticipation, and teamwork, and a confidence that can’t be overpowering, and can’t be apologetic.

I knew after years of watching others dance to our music, I wanted to learn how to also.  I HAD to learn how also.  So in college I did.  Finally learning to swing felt like I had finally learned the words my feet had been wanting to say my whole life.  Let me say, to be clear, that I can’t stand snobs when it comes to music and/or dance – you know, people who look down on others who perhaps don’t know something as well as they might.  It bothers me in any circumstance, but in the arts it is somehow even more offensive to me.  That said, I have to admit that I’ve given up trying to explain to those who don’t know swing how and why it’s sooo muuuch fuuun.  Maybe part of it is because in some ways, you have to give yourself over to the music and let it move you – there is a certain amount of mental control you give up over yourself, even as you must be physically more precise than normal.  Maybe because for some people all things “old” somehow means “useless.”  Whatever the reason, if you are someone who doesn’t like or “get” swing, I gently encourage you to give it another shot.  Listen to some music, take a swing class, take a decade and learn the upright bass…you know, whatever works best for you.  Regardless of the form by which you seek it, remember just this:  you don’t have to be good at it to have fun, you just have to have fun doing it to be good.

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