Swing It: An Annotated History of Jive

by Bill Milkowski, Tim Hauser (Foreword)

"Swing It! is a celebration of jive, that exuberant, irrepressible, and entirely infectious spirit found in such good-time anthems as "Are You Hep to the Jive?" "Jump, Jive 'n' Wail," and "Hit That Jive, Jack." It chronicles the rich and colorful history of that quintessentially American sound, taking us on a journey from its pioneers to today's retro swingers through its Golden Era. Along the way it illuminates the hip contributions made by beboppers, jump blues hounds, N'awlins jivesters, the white connection, and women jivesters. Swing It! includes a hilarious, too-hip-for-the-room foreword by Tim Hauser (founder of the Grammy Award-winning Manhattan Transfer), extensive discographies, a comprehensive A-Z jive glossary, and vintage photos of jive's most charismatic entertainers."--BOOK JACKET.

Genres: Jazz

288 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2001

Reviews

[Ralphz · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Swing It!: An Annotated History of Jive" takes a much-maligned song style and has a lot of fun with it.

Jive occupies the sweet spot between swing and early rock 'n' roll, which is why it sometimes is dismissed. It's not jazz enough for jazz (sometimes swing gets treated like that too) and it's not rock enough for rock. Sometimes thought of as a novelty or, these days, like mere nostalgia, this music is a powerhouse of fun, rhythm and energy that informed both jazz and rock going forward.

This book is a survey of some of the top acts by era, starting with Louis Armstrong and Louis Jordan and ending with Brian Setzer and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. In between are Cab Calloway, Louis Prima, Fats Waller and others.

Also included are chapters about some key white and female artists in jive.

This was a bonus book for my February reading, keeping with my theme of music genres. Another Spotify playlist to come!