~ ALASKA SWING DANCE ~

WELCOME TO ~ NELLEE’S LINDY HOP SHOP

CHAPTER 12

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(Text is adapted from “The Swing Book”):

SWING HISTORY

“EVEN MORE OFTHE REBIRTH OF SWING”!!!! !!

How Jump Blues “Fits in With” (OUCH!!) Rockabilly and Rock ‘n Roll!!!!

WHILE SEARCHING FOR THE ROOTS OF ROCK & ROLL, THE SWING REVIVALISTS DISCOVERED THAT THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN JAZZ, SWING, BLUES & ROCK & ROOOLLL WERE REALLY BLURRY.  They discovered that Jazz not only influenced early Rock n Roll (which was really up-tempo Blues) but that swing music could be just as wild and energetic as Rockabilly and Rock n Roll!  For example:  to today’s ears, bands like Bill Haley and the Comets sounds very swing.  The distance between Lionel Hampton’s 1946 hit “Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop” and Gene Vincent’s 1956 hit “Be-Bop A-Lula” isn’t very far.  “To me, swing encompasses [big] band, jump blues, and the beginnings of Rock and Roll.  The current term swing has become a convention for talking about retro dance music in general,” says Carmen Getit, vocalist and guitarist with Steve Lucky and the Rhumba Bums.

Lionel Hampton

The rockabilly revival of the late 1970s and 1980s took modern musicians back to the sound of the 1950’s and tantalizingly close to the brink of jump blues.  Inspired by rebellious rockin’ fifties singers such as Jerry Lee Lewis, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran,  early eighties bands like the Blasters and the Stray Cats made hits of songs like Little Richard’s “Keep A-Knockin,” and Brian Setzer’s “Rock This Town.”  The rockabilly rebirth helped bring back partner dancing too.  “That’s when kids started couples dancing.  They were doing the jitterbug, which is like a fifties mishmash.  I called it sling dancing.  It was just grab your girl and spin her around,” says Eddie Reed (of Eddie Reed Big Band).

The Blasters 

Stray Cats 1980s

By the late 1980’s and into the early 1990’s, the rockabilly scene in Los Angeles became a vibrant “roots” music movement.  Centered around clubs like the King King and the Palominio, the roots scene included musicians playing music that was a mix of traditional country, western swing, and Louis Jordan.  “it was a great crossroads moment.  It was very diverse,” says Royal Crown Revue guitarist James Achor, who recalled going to performances by country swing singer Dwight Yoakum, the rockabilly and Western swing band Big Sandy and his Fly-Rite boys, and a ska-type band fronted by Joey Altruda.  “They were the first band I really sw do a [Louis] Jordan song,” said Achor. 

Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys

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