As we all know the neo swing movement started in the year 1989, by bands who played modernized arrangements of big band swing and jump blues, along with their own original compositions. Pioneers of the movement are RCR, BBVD, CPD and Brian Setzer. In short they are swing revivalist or new swing bands.

So how do we classify a neo swing band? do we based it on the year of their recordings?, by their fashion and lifestyle?, or just their music?

if we would classify them by the year of their recordings this should be the recordings from 1989 to 2000. but i believe that there are a number of swing artists in the early 80's such as harry connick, john pizzarelli, mitch woods to name a few that wouldn't belong to neo swing category if this would be the basis.

Fashion and lifestyle - most neo swing bands has a sense of fashion wearing zoot suits, fedoras, 2 tone shoes and often vintage collectors. vintage car collectors such as brian setzer, Eddie Nichols of RCR and Johnny Boyd of Indigo Swing who is a Vintage ties collector. but again how about other bands who also in to retro culture but doesn't play swing music? The Mighty Mighty Bosstones for instance i don't really what kind of music they play. ska, hardcore. whatever! in a glance you'd mistakenly think that they are a neo swing band but when you hear them hell no!

Of course music, the very feasible answer to define a neo swing band yet a very difficult one. an example is the band Cherry Poppin' Daddies they are one of the pioneers of the neo swing movement but if you would come to think of it their only swing album is the Zoot Suit Riot. another is Bill Elliot Swing Orchestra, one of the favorite band of lindy hoppers during the neo swing movement. should we categorize it iunder big band/orchestra instead of neo swing? what aboutthe bands which we are not really familiar with. example is one of my posts "Chris Daniels and the Kings' album Louie, Louie" all the while i knew that they were a neo swing band until Steve posted their early album... then i realized they belong to jump blues. And Lastly do you consider artists like Michael Buble, Rod Stewart, Michael Bolton, Westlife, Robbie Williams because they croon like Bobby Darin and covers Frank Sinatra songs?

In my opinion neo swing is as general and broad as swing. it can be subdivided into more specific category. but in the end they are still all neo swing

Swanky, I am writing a good reply for this magnificent discussion, but for now let me just say a couple of things:

1) In my oppinion Joe Jackson Started the neo swing movement in 1981 with Jumpn Jive. In the midst of the electronic 80s era, Joe Jackson's pure hard-swingin' album covering old jazz swing classics from the 1930s and 40s was both a complete anachronism and a jolt of musical energy.

2) Michael Buble, Rod Stewart, Michael Bolton, Westlife, Robbie Williams, Pizzarelli, HArry Connick ... I am sure that those guys must be categorized as MODERN CROONERS

Agree?

I have to go with the Modern Crooners label ... except I think Rod Stewart
sounds like goat combined with a duck with a bad cold.

Let's hear it for Steve! Rod Stewart sounds like me, when I'm drunk and I have a cold!!!He should keep his sweaty palms off our standards!

ok...my two cents.....NEO-swing...although most neo swing bands cover standards of the jazz era, the seperation that keeps them from being revivalists or modern whatevers is the fact that they compose NEW music in the swing or jazz mode. They write or record new music along with the old. Bands like Vince Giordano or the Beau Hunks re-record old songs. They revive old music styles. Some people are modern voices that sing "standards". Standards are pop songs that never really died away. These songs were often re-recorded as rock and roll or swing(think Louis Prima singing 1917 jazz songs). They were still being recorded by singers long after their era had come and gone. Music by Irving Berlin, Victor Herbert, George Gershwin, would be good examples. ALTHOUGH those songs may be jazz, or swing, or ragtime, or light opera...Bette Midler, Barbara Streisand, Michael Buble, and Frank Zappa can all record them with satisfactory results. Does that seem agreeable?

luizoak wrote:Michael Buble, Rod Stewart, Michael Bolton, Westlife, Robbie Williams, Pizzarelli, HArry Connick ... I am sure that those guys must be categorized as MODERN CROONERS
Agree?

how do we define them as modern crooners? is it when an artist becomes a soloist? just for an example Johnny Boyd of Indigo Swing. Indigo Swing is considered as a neo swing band but unfortunately for unknown reasons Johnny Boyd went solo. Should he now be categorized as Modern Crooner?

I dont think that when it comes to Johnny Boyd he can be called a Crooner, but he is modern. And if he swings he is a neo swing singer, just like Joe Jackson did on Jumpn Jive.

The Great American Songbook defines when an specifi artist album is a Crooner Album or an authoral album. Harry Connick Jr, Michael Buble, John Pizzarelli, Tony Hadley are crooners. CRooners must be male, by definition. Dont know where to place Ann Hampton CALLAWAY for instance.

luizoak wrote:... Dont know where to place Ann Hampton CALLAWAY for instance.

Back in the swing era, I think she'd have been termed a "canary". I asked my best friend, Mikey (who owns every record Ann Hampton Callaway has ever made); he likes the term "jazz diva". Which works for me.

Well, you could always say that some group is e.g. a Neo-Swing band playing Retro Swing. When they're trying to imitate the style of the old grand masters.

Personally, I've had the impression that many Neo-Swing bands actually have a different style than the old big bands. Not all of them, of course. Many show strong Ska or Punk influences, for example.

Classifying music is always a pain, because so much stuff just doesn't fit in right anywhere...

luizoak wrote:2) Michael Buble, Rod Stewart, Michael Bolton, Westlife, Robbie Williams, Pizzarelli, HArry Connick ... I am sure that those guys must be categorized as MODERN CROONERS

Agree?

Well, for me, "Modern Crooner" is a bit too restrictive for a guy like Harry Connick who is first a real Jazz musician. And a song like "If I could Give You More" swings more than anything Brian Setzer ever released.

To go back to Neo-swing, I'd make the comparison with rockabilly and neo-rockabilly.
Johnny Burnette is rockabilly and Stray Cats are neo-rockabilly
Count Basie is swing and BSO is neo-swing
In both case, Setzer brought new ingredient and it wasn't a reproduction of the past. If it's good or not, that another question ;-)
But if you look back, many so-called "neo swing" bands didn't swing and were just rock'n'roll bands with horns.

A Neo Swing band to me introduces contemporary elements to a swing style. For example Big Rude Jake and CPD that mixed swing with a lot of punk and ska influences or Dem Brooklyn Bums who threw a lot of early NY rap in the mix.

Now, when the band simply copies the old masters like The Good Fellas and Ray Gelato do to Louis Prima, I call it Swing Revival. It's not exactly "neo", you know, it's just doing the same stuff Prima did, trying to get inside his mind to swing like him.

That's the main diference for me.

Michael Buble, Rod Stewart, Michael Bolton, Westlife, Robbie Williams, Pizzarelli, HArry Connick ... I think that kind of music must be categorized as Really boring music

mighty mighty bosstones are skacore