IN DEFENCE OF SWING
| The Editor, New Zealand Listener. Sir.-I was sorry to read the mis-informed opinions of Mr. Stewart in your issue for July 7. So Mr. Stewart thinks the glorious, untrammelled art of swing music playing will die out, eh? Well, so says the small voice in the wilderness! Did his remarks display much serious thought? Has he been long enough in New Zealand to judge the correct standard of local dance bands? How can he consider the "straight" and very monotonous versions given by the average New Zealanders to be anywhere near the polished performances of the London dance bands! And whoever told him that "Hot" Music was "Swing"? Swing has no need now to defend itself. It is an established art, the world’s greatest musicians and dancers applauding its many virtues. Mr. Stewart has obviously been led "up the garden." Yours, etc.,
L. M.
Constable
7 Mariri Road, Kelburn. The Editor, New Zealand Listener. Sir,-In your paper dated July 7, a visiting dance band leader, Mr. Maxwell Stewart, says that "nothing will ever be as popular or profitable as straight melody." Perhaps Mr. Stewart could imagine what would happen if the highest paid and most popular dance bands in the world to-day, such as Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Chic Webb, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmie Dorsey, Bob Crosby, or Jimmie Lunceford, were to stop playing swing and to play what he calls straight melody. They would cease to be the most popular bands; their record sales would drop to practically nil, and they would no longer contain the highest paid jance musicians. As to the continued existence of swing, one of the original swing bands, the "Dixieland Band," started to make swing popular in 1914. Each year since has seen an increase and improvement in swing bands until to-day the leading dance bands feature no-
thing but swing. Twenty-five years and swing is still gaining popularity, and the swing musician’s income still continues to increase. Mr. Stewart claims that in London there are very many swing and hot rhythm bands as capable as any of their sort anywhere. This is a very incorrect statement, for even the best band in England (ie, Ambrose) is rated by the world critics as second-rate to the topline American bands. Yours. etc.
Wellington,
Jobas
July 13 1,939.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 5, 28 July 1939, Page 33
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385IN DEFENCE OF SWING New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 5, 28 July 1939, Page 33
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