SATURDAY        September 12, 1998      
         
 
Here's a response I wrote on the barflies list, a swing list devoted to the neoswing band 'Royal Crown Revue'.   This is regarding the recent Swing Revival that seems to be sweeping the country.   Some people think this is the Second Swing Era, judging by the strength and growth of this movement. 
  
  
Tim Ingram wrote: 

This new swing revival is considered more to be a Second Swing Era,  rather than just a passing fad.  And if swing has always been in American culture, then I can't see it being a fad, and I can't see it ever dying. 
   
I kind of wonder if ska has scared some of the music industry. (In my most humble of all opinions) it was just a year ago when ska's mainstream popularity was really at it's height. Now record labels are nearly replacing their ska productions with swing productions--just like yesterday's dinner special! 
  
  
Tim, 

BTO's been approached by a label or two...  negotiations are still underway. 

Anyway, this brings up a good point, that record labels are wary of signing bands labeled under a certain 'genre', mainly because this swing thing is still being treated as a fad by the record labels.   Unfortunately, it seems to me that you are correct in stating that there's a switchover from ska to swing,  and awhile back there was this blues wave, and prior to that a reggae wave.   These days of 'dinner specials' as you call it seem to hold true.  But it's almost as if these record labels are fishing for 'something' only because of the public's complacency for music in general.   If you recall,  a few 
years back the music industry was in a slump and didn't know what the public out there wanted in the way of music. 

But now we have a swing movement that's strong enough and has grown quite a bit with the help of the world wide web,  and I have this huge optimistic 
attitude that this swing thing is more than just a fad because of the social implications and the wildfire growth from state to state that this so-called 'fad' is experiencing right now. 

I feel swing's time has come, judging by the proliferation of 'neoswing' bands out there.   I mean, the music of that original era was quite stunning, and the 'musicianship' was superb!   Unfortunately, a lot of those recordings were done on primitive recording equipment, so a lot of the nuances of the music may have been lost.  As musicians now in the 90's, we are faced with the golden opportunity to recapture this wonderful music (respectfully) and record it the way it should have been recorded in the first place  (with a little bit more drums and bass!!! ---just kiddin')  But, that's another story folks... 



   

CDs Played Today:  

    Chucho Valdez - Bele Bele en La Habana 
    Peter Gabriel - So 
    Keith Jarrett - La Scala 
    Fourplay - The Best of...
Last  Movie Seen:  
     Next Stop, Wonderland
Last Book Read:  
    Oxford Essential Quotations Dictionary
Tonight's Gig: 
    Street Scene - San Diego! 
    Wedding Reception
     
 
 
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