In
the Mood for Swing
From
Sydney Timeout Magazine
Hey,
hep cats, it's back - in movies, on discs, via old and new
bands, but mainly on dance floors - and this time around Swing
is bigger than ever, writes Miranda Wood.
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MORE than 50 years after the Glenn Miller Band helped the world get through
it’s wartime woes the swing scene is alive, jiving and bigger
than ever. In
the past year demand for swing music, lessons and dance venues
has jumped and record shops are stocked with nostalgic hits.
Our US and UK counterparts are also rediscovering swing with
twenty and thirty somethings enjoying the big band sound and
hip swiveling moves.
The
term Swing was originally used by jazz musicians to describe
Louis Armstrong’s style of playing in the mid-20s when he
joined the Fletcher Henderson Band but the King of Swing,
Benny Goodman, is credited with kicking off the swing era
in 1935. Many variations on the swing dancing theme have emerged
over the decades, including the lindy hop, west coast swing,
east coast swing, the jitterbug and the shag.
The dances originated from specific areas, usually
US cities, and each has a radically different style.
Sydney
is also home to popular swing outfits. Nicknamed "the
Cat in the Hat", John Morrison and his big band SWING
CITY play upbeat 40s swing music with a star studded line
up.
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Raised
in a family of swing music enthusiasts (his brother is trumpeter
James Morrison), John said the swing revival in Sydney has
well and truly arrived. “People
love it. It’s more than just great music - it’s a culture,”
he said. “The
new young dancers are looking for something a bit different
and at first they don’t recognise it as a blast from the past
because it has its own contemporary feel to it.” “At
the moment, the swing dancers are following the big bands
around like bees to the honey pot.” At Morrison’s gigs, nostalgic
Sydneysiders are dressing for the occasion, with men in zoot
suits and women in cocktail frocks. Many RSL clubs are providing
big band music on Sunday afternoons and Sydney swing enthusiasts
believe swing nightclubs will open in the near future mirroring
the revival in the US.
So,
what are you waiting for? Men, grab a colourful zoot
suit and, ladies, twirl the night away because in the words
of swing legend Duke Ellington, “It don’t mean a thing if
it ain’t got that swing”.
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