the best bands that play American swing are unfortunatly not American

[Blackjack]

they may sound funny when they sing but you cant beat the Europeans when it comes to authentic swing...
[video=youtube;DVdojmdQK1U]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVdojmdQK1U[/video]

 

[rue]

That was a cute video! The secretary looked a lot better after her 'change', didn't she?

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

I'm familiar with most of Ondrej Havelka's recordings but I'd completely forgotten about that one. He uses the 1940 Will Bradley arrangement.

[video=youtube;QWMMdK51FWQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWMMdK51FWQ[/video]

 

[HodgePodge]

I'm not overly familiar with Mr. Havelka, but aside from "beat me daddy," everything I've heard from him sounds more like dance orchestra "sweet" rather than anything that really swings. This nod to bojangles at 4:20, during "Sing, Sing, Sing", is pretty cool though.
[video=youtube_share;ZnLKfDX7nzU]http://youtu.be/ZnLKfDX7nzU[/video]

 

[rue]

What an amazing dancer he is! You don't see anyone doing that anymore......

 

[Flat Foot Floey]

The Bratislava Hot Serenaders are also very very good.

 

[Fletch]

America is a big spread-out mercantile nation. We mostly only support classical music as an arts institution, because it's European and good for you. We do jazz largely in the universities, where it has to be very pure and vie for status as art. Anything else has to be mass marketable - to millions of folks in different parts of the USA - or it disappears.

This is especially true of jazz and related music. Any jazz has a tough time outside New York or the universities. But older, more commercial jazz styles call up associations we don't feel comfortable with - for example, Jim Crow, which is not so close to European memories, but which American art and learning still has to address seriously.

Getting back to that mass marketability issue, our pop music legacy from the 1920s to 60s is not public property. Large media companies own most of it. Because they are large, and it is not mass marketable, they can't afford to license it at all. Its greatest profit lies in suing people for damages who play or re-release it.

Just some of the many reasons American bands can't play American swing well, or at all. There are exceptions, but so few as to mostly prove the rule.

 

[Blackjack]

I don't know Fletch, I'm going to have to disagree with you here. I don't think it has anything to do with civil rights or marketing to the masses, I think it's just a matter of Europe has always embraced jazz, much more than the US. When the bands over there do a swing band they are much more detailed in the authenticity of the band, they don't disallow 40's swing just because rap is popular or it's not the flavor of the month anymore. They don't feel it as trendy, or retro, it's just another kind of music that they enjoy and they do it well...

 

[Marc Chevalier]

I'd nominate Dean Mora's bands as contenders. They specialize in late 1920s to mid '30s stuff.

Some music samples here: http://morasmodern.com/music-usa.ASP

 

[rue]

They sound really great, but can any of them dance like Ondrej Havelka?

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

They sound really great, but can any of them dance like Ondrej Havelka?

Here he is at his dancing best.

I'm Tired Of This Place (1934)
[video=youtube;TSOD3SMwSd0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSOD3SMwSd0[/video]

[video=youtube;bui1NgxEqJQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bui1NgxEqJQ[/video]

starts at 4:10
[video=youtube;xWJ86TPb28k]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWJ86TPb28k&feature=related[/video]

 

[rue]

Thank you V.C..... he's absolutely amazing and so very talented. He's a bit like Benny Goodman in the looks department mixed with a touch of Fred Astaire. I only wish I could understand what they're saying in most of his videos......

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

I'm not overly familiar with Mr. Havelka, but aside from "beat me daddy," everything I've heard from him sounds more like dance orchestra "sweet" rather than anything that really swings.

Actually a lot of European swing sounds like that.

Orchester Erhard Bauschke -- Sensation (1938)

[video=youtube;EpLd2G7j13Q]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpLd2G7j13Q&feature=channel_video_title[/video]

Otto Stenzel und sein Orchester -- Hinter Einer Düne (1938)
(Behind A Dune)

[video=youtube;phx6hTyaCcI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phx6hTyaCcI&feature=related[/video]

 

[Blackjack]

They sound really great, but can any of them dance like Ondrej Havelka?

The answer to that Rue is a big NO...

 

[Blackjack]

I do like Pete Jacobs Wartime Revue quite a bit...

[video=youtube;DjV1ez7-eZ4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjV1ez7-eZ4&feature=related[/video]

 

[dhermann1]

Oh, dear, where to begin. Regarding "authentic" swing: balderdash. This rendition of 8 to the Bar is WAAAYYY too fast, downright hyper. They do the 30's dance band stuff very well. There are a few really great swing bands left in this country who can knock walls down. But not even as many as there were 15 years ago.
And anything Fletch says on the subject, you can believe. The man knows.
http://www.lindemeyer.com/

 

[Blackjack]

Weeelll, on this subject lets say we agree to disagree. Quite a few famous American jazz musicians had to go to Europe to really be recognized. They are and always have been way more open to jazz than we are.

 

[Viper Man]

NOTHING compares to the real deal. If I want to hear authentic American 30s-40s swing, that's what I listen to. This guy doesn't hold a candle to Lionel Hampton, Chu Berry, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Benny Goodman, et al.

The piano player in blackface is disturbing.

 

[dhermann1]

Weeelll, on this subject lets say we agree to disagree. Quite a few famous American jazz musicians had to go to Europe to really be recognized. They are and always have been way more open to jazz than we are.

That's all true, but on the subject of contemporary bands, I guess we can just see (or hear) things differently.

 

[skyvue]

Weeelll, on this subject lets say we agree to disagree. Quite a few famous American jazz musicians had to go to Europe to really be recognized. They are and always have been way more open to jazz than we are.

I would categorize this as an overstatement. It would depend upon a) which era of jazz history you're talking about -- "always" is a awfully broad word to use in this context -- and b) how you define jazz -- jazz and pop are very separate worlds now, but that hasn't always been the case; in the first few decades of jazz history, the two genres overlapped and fed each other to a degree they've not done so much in the past fifty or sixty years, which brings us back to the use of questionable use of the word "always."

That a few American jazz musicians thrived in Europe after struggling in the US is true, but social issues (read: racism in the US) played a role in that. And there are many, many more prominent jazz musicians who didn't move to Europe, so I'd say you're painting with too broad a brush.