Is it just the 2 singers with the pianist?

Is it music to drink coffee by? The kind they feature
at Barnes and Noble?

I recently landed a copy of Origianl Swingers:Hipsters Zoots
and Wingtips Vol. 2 from the swing revival of 1998. But this collection is of the originals from which acts like Brian Setzer, Indigo Swing, and The Mighty Blue Kings (Chicago) got their material.
Oh, and Diana Krall. This record also includes something
that Diana Krall did on her Nat King Cole tribute called
"Hit That Jive Jack."

Recommended.

• Hipsters, Zoots and Wingtips Vol.2

When the local blues show is on here I have fairly
regular chats with the person that does the show.

One time I made mention of Calhoun Tubbs. Calhoun Tubbs
was a character played by David Allen Greer on the old
In Living Color show. Greer's character is in a
performance setting doing his act. As he introduces the
songs, they are all exactly the same tune.. with different
introductions.

The radio jock told me this is some times a running gag
at blues shows and some of the audience can do the
routine. This means I think, that there is a certain
amount of nod and a wink about white people being taken
in by anything seeming black and authentic.

David Allen Greer pretty much nailed blues to the wall
with that routine. It's unforgettable.

Rhythm and Blues, Jump Blues, early rock and roll and swing
have something in common: they are happy musics. And I
think that people have a hard time relating to happy musics.
That's why the retro swing fad died out so quickly. I bought
all of it I could at the time and I'm glad it's available
at the state-wide library system or I'd miss that much more of
it.

So if I take your point correctly; that Jump is an original and authentic style of music that has as much validity as Blues or any other genre then I agree and can offer the example of South African developement of pop Jive as proof. The concept that one style of music is more authentic than another is; well to me irrellavent. I mean what does that mean? And why would it be important to assign a label of greater uniqeness?

Earlier we talked about how hard it was for people other than those who grew up in certain areas of the country and experienced the same circumstances to reproduce the exact timing and feel of a style. So I would guess that the Jump style that came out of the Latino Ghettos of Los Angeles in the 40's would qualify as unique and difficult to copy well. Is that so? Just to see we are on the same page.

But no; I would not have an opinion as to which musical style is more important. I don't see the point of musical snobbery. Some style may have a greater effect on the culture and some may be relagated to less of an impact but in musical terms they have effects that we can't determine over the long haul.

I am more interested in how the music does what it does than why it might be better or worse. Why does a twelve bar 1/4/5 progression grab people the way it does.
Ditto for the Jump styles.

You know it's incredibly difficult to play the most simplest music right. Becuase there is no room for mistakes. because it is so simple every little nuance becomes magnified and assume's tremendous signifigance. So some can listen for years to Sleepy John Estes and still never get his timing and inflection and tone exactly right.
Or Blind Willie; or Petey Wheatstraw. And the cultural divide is real and hard to overcome when you are trying to replicate a music indigenous to a time and place and people.

Something got unblocked here now where I can respond.

You lost me at where you were talking about an earlier part of the
discussion. That's part of the fragmenting that occurs
in net chats.

Lets focus on the notion of happy music.

Blues is not happy music, in the main-- just the opposite.
Country Western is another egregious example of music which is
sad rather than happy.

I believe there is a reason for this. Blues is club music.
Country Western is club music. When Swing hit the bars, the bar owners saw that people dancing i.e. having _fun_ were not drinking
as much.

Will come back to this... stay tuned

what I usually do is break up a message like this and write it as
a conversation. They get complex very fast.

I think every music can be 'cultural icongraphic art.'

And Blues is the icon of what? If the reply as I would suspect
is of the slave condition, then Jump and Swing would be the
icon of freedom.

Thinking ahead to what might happen in New Orleans I heard a
funny remark which may belong in the context of reconstruction:
the phrase I heard was, "Even the old stuff is new." Meaning that
a recreation and gentrification of the area would only benefit
those who experience the icon rather than the reality.

I remember a few years ago, one of the best programs on the
public radio here was from the state capitol. It was called
"Downhome Dairyland" by Rick March. It was about Polka music.
it was about how one area had different styles than the other
based on the ethnicity of the population. It was about how the
Germans brought polka to Texas where it became Conjunto.
And it was even about an ethnic presentation of polka where
Hispanic and German bands took the same stage at a national event
in Washington DC.

But when I mentioned this to anyone they thought it was silly and
frivolous because it was, you know, polka: no class ethnic music
with silly lyrics about the jilted lover telling his
sweetheart to jump off a bridge. That is the "Jump off
The Bridge Polka" BTW. I suppose there is an equivalent in the
blues world for such a sentiment. But the iconography is
all different.

And I find it most odd that white people of a certain age
are the ones who have become guardians of the style.
Guardians of the Style is a phrase specifically applied
to barbershop harmony. The Hi-los _sound_ like
barbershop to some people, but they are not guardians
of the style like groups such as The Sweet Adelines and
Excaliber. In the case of these blues aficionados or
cognoscenti the authenticity of the tragic rarely makes
way for the joy and freedom in more upbeat expressions.
Bedroom jazz falls into a similar category: people of my age
admire the likes of Miles Davis and Dave Brubeck over
Maynard Ferguson or Ted Heath becaue they fit their idea of what
jazz is: bedroom or seduction music. Something that
'goes better with coke' to borrow the borrowed phrase
from Gil Scott Heron.

So in the icongraphic sense blues = tragic = serious.
But OTOH Swing = joyous = silly. I just happen to be
serious about my swing and jump blues. I'll venture, though
I cannot give proof, that swing and big band music in it's
complexity is, in that complexity, a higher art form.
Stan Kenton always maintained this as a fact.

Finally, I have been most puzzled by music education
for young people. In their school bands they are taught
the big band classics. Yet when they leave school, they have virtually no place to practice the skills learned except in
the few bands that tour and as studio musicians. To me, this is a
tragic loss. Something similar happens in Drum Corps: the
joy and exultation in playing as a unit is lost nearly
as soon as it has been experienced.

If you think I'm getting off track, the common thread here
is joy in the music-- happy music-- to put it simply.
That is the icon I want to portray.