More About Swing

Radio Record, 18 March 1938, Page 9

More About Swing

By

ROBERT O.

LAURIE

THE dusky boys of Harlem started it-blowing off steam because all night they played corny music, whatever the insistence of the jungle-urge in them. And, once they started it, it spread and spread, like Zola’s truth forced underground. Even staid London sweyed its hips at last. And the author of this article saw the beginnings of the plague mear the Law Courts of England.

HERE the xX Strand meets Fleet Street and the famous Griffin of Temple Bar marks the entry into the City of London, stand the Law Courts of England. As the bustle of London’s busiest street

gives way to the tranquility of evening, the majesty of the grey stone buildings is thrown into vivid relief. They personify, perhaps more than any other part of the world’s greatest city, the dignity of age-old tradition which has been such a stabilising influence in the growth of the British Commonwealth of Nations. In this contrasting atmosphere of impressive antiquity I first "met" Swing, the most up-to-the-minute, excitingand perhaps neurotic-form of emotional expression That was barely three years ago. The Great British public, now swing-crazy, was at that time ignorant of its existence, but its coming was being heralded with unconcealed enthusinsm by a small, select band of ultra-modern music fans. Realising that they were the first to recognise it as the new technique which was to supersede the already fullydeveloped forms of jazz, they had banded together as the British Rhythm Club Federation in 1934. Organising rapidly, they had soon initiated enough numbers to the secrets of the latest "art" to split themselves into rhythm clubs, spread mainly over the larger towns of England. In a Basement Cafe O it was that, on a winter evening in March, 1935, I -Inade my way up Chancery Lane, past the Law Courts Buildings, looming high above me ou either side, to -the weekly meeting of London’s Rhythm Club No. 1. It met in a small basement cafe. As I walked down the stairs the first soul-throbbing strains of what I was to know as "swing" niusic came to me. I realised then that its whole essence was rhythm. When music is "swung," and even classics can be "swung," no one can help but respond to its rhythm, though the degree of appreciation varies, naturally, with the latent sense of rhythm in each listener.’

There were one than thirty people, most seemingly not much more than boys and girls, in this Chancery Lane cafe. Each was listening to the gramophone record with rapt attention. The excitement shining from their eves

and their slightly swaying bodies as they responded to the melody told me that here I was in the midst of real "swing" connoisseurs. . As the record finished there was a slight stirring, quick, excited whisperings, and a speaker came forward. He commented on the record just played, pointing out variations-in the phrasing, sections of solo work, and individual interpretations which had been examples of good swing. Then-he went on to explain the next record to be played, telling the audience which parts to listen for and drawing contrasts between the new technique and oldfashioned jazz-and, by the way, never let a swing fan hear you call it jazz! 66 ‘@ 39 How Was Born I OBTAINED a programme of the evening’s entertainment. It was split into two sections of gramophone recordings, the middle part of the evening being given up to a talk on some aspect of swing by one of the more knowledgeable of its enthusiasts’ On some occasions, I was told, a well-known instrumentalist would give a practical demonstration instead. The weekly programme was devised and presented by a different member of the club each week, although it almost invariably took the same form, with comments before and after each record, and a lecture sandwiched between each half. That same evening I met "Joe Paradise," a mystery dance band leader, incidentally aw Australian, who "swung" music from the BBC shortly afterwards. He told me how "swing" was born. J A424, as the post-war dance musie had been called, had. developed along highly sophisticated lines, becoming more and more expressionless, and (Cont. on page 37.)

More About Swing (Continued from page 9.)

suppressing to the limit any uatural inclinations on the part of either the listener or the player to "let go." In the United States a large percentage of band leaders and top-class instrumentalists have been negroes. Their race has probably the highest inborn sense of rhythm of any in the world, so it was small wonder that to them the old interpretation of dance music was as soul-deadening as it was unnatural to their temperaments, To relieve their pent-up emotions, the players began to "swing" it. First it was in their "off" time. They would go to their clubs in Harlem just to "blow off steam." They applied their own individual interpretation, dictated by the mood of the moment, reckless, happy, sad or otherwise, to anything and everything they played, but always, however far they might stray from the melody-they retained a perfect rhythm, Soon they began to make recordings of these exciting treats of emotional relief, not for any commercial gain and only for limited cir culation. From these beginnings it was not a big step to introduce swing in their public playing. The mood conveyed itself to the listeners, who found that they themselves were being "swung" and decided. that it wasn’t at all unpleasant to get a "lift." The wave surged rapidly across the vast continent. Swing became the rage:

ITH American influence strong in Paris, the new trend has swept across the Atlantic, but it missed England. It was not until "hot" clubs, as they were called, had been recognised for many months as the places of the moment in the eyes of the French dancing public that England formed her first rhythm clubs. "THREE weeks after my visit to the club the British Federation held its first public concert, with interpretations by members of leading London orchestras. The hall was packed to overflowing. Impressed by what I had seen of swing’s immediate popularity, I tried to interest the daily newspapers. "No," they answered, "The British public would not be interested in a crazy thing like that!" But they reckoned without the pioneers of the new-found escape from humdrum worries. Swing ‘clubs spread their influence everywhere-and swing became News! It was then the newspapers devoted large sections of their entertainment pages to it, analysing it, explaining it and welcoming it. "Dance bands became "swing" bands overnight. Scott-Wood and his Six Swingers at the BBC gained a world-wide reputation in almost as short a time. Swing had come to Town! But whether to stay or not is another thing... ‘