The Crucifixion of Swing
I’ve heard several of my favorite drummers call out other drummers, saying, they didn’t swing. With Facebook and social media it’s easy to hide behind the invisible shield and preach your superior intellect to the world. But, this isn’t about that.
This is about the dehumanization of music, the groove, feel, and soul of what makes me tap my foot. It’s either has the “Swing” or it don’t mean a thing.
I’ve written about my music teacher, Tommy Thomas, born in 1901. Tommy and his fellow drummers, born and playing in that period (1920-1930) were the inventors of the rhythmic feel called Swing. Those drummers were Baby Dobbs, Big Sid Catlett and Chick Webb. Several were from New Orleans. Many migrated to Chicago. Chick was from Baltimore and moved to New York City.
Those drummers and the musicians they played with developed Swing music in the 1920s and 1930s. It was dance music and became very popular from 1935 to 1946. Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Cab Callaway, Harry James, Glenn Miller, Django Reinhardt and others made it the most popular, excepted music in America.
Swing is the human feel that gave music life. The genre of Swing eventually declined in popularity, but the root feel of swing remained embedded in musician’s soul. Country music had it. Early Rock n Roll had it. Bob Willis, Jimmie Rodgers, Willie Nelson all had it. Fats Domino and Elvis had it. Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Bill Haley, Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Gene Vincent, Johnny Cash…they all had it. It was in their musical DNA.
Those vinyl records migrated to the United Kingdom. Those records were heard by future UK musicians. It was Rock N Roll, Blues and Jazz…but it had the original form of Swing.
Charlie Watts, Ringo, Ginger and Keith Moon heard it. Probably the most unapologetic player/drummer of swing and jazz was Mitch Mitchell. When I first heard Hendrix, I didn’t think of his style, as anything but music, I loved it.
The music from Stax, Motown, Chess and Sun Records all had that feel and groove. It wasn’t Swing music, but it did (Swing)
American artist, The Beach Boys music had it, played by drummer Hal Blaine. The Everly Brothers records had the great drummer Buddy Harman, always making their music swing.
Roger Hawkins made the music out of Muscle Shoals swing. Aretha’s Respect, Wilson Pickets-Mustang Sally, Etta James, Joe Cocker, Paul Simon, Eric Clapton. Roger Hawkins gave those songs a human feel. Roger gave Traffic a great feel.
What happened? Why doesn’t music feel good anymore?
In My Opinion = it’s all dehumanized, sterilized, homogenized. It doesn’t have any grit, grease, dirt and soul. Another sad part is the listener doesn’t know it’s missing. Most have grown up through the period of computer’s, drum machines, auto-tune and Pro Tools.
As controversial as Rap and sampling is, the producers “borrowed” real drum grooves from James Brown and classic vinyl records. It gave the tunes a human heartbeat.
I miss tapping my foot to music. It’s the musical thermometer of my soul and spirit. I check myself to see if I feel anything about what I’m hearing. Is my foot tapping, my head bobbing?
If not, something is wrong.
On many occasions, I’ve been on Youtube listening to a classic 50s, 60s, 70s track and I’ll read the comments. There’s usually a comment by a teenager exclaiming, how they wish they were born and grew up in that period. How today’s music is horrible, the music from the past is great.
This current world we live in is out of balance. I love my MacBook Pro and Ipad. My iphone is questionable but handy. I don’t see (popular) music getting, better but continuing to be filtered and generic.
(AI) Artificial Intelligence is here to stay. A few days ago, I was watching a Youtube video, after several minutes I realized it wasn’t a human. I noticed the intermittent twitches and recognized it was a digital AI - person speaking.
As an auto race fan, I’ve been fooled watching Youtube video of games…. Auto racing (F1-Indy) simulators are extremely accurate.
(ai) music and art is the next big thing, so they say.