Swingorillas

Swingorillas: Dick Suave

by Ed Kopp
April 1, 2000

No doubt my age influences my thinking, but the state of popular music has seemed pretty sad for some time now. The FM dial is rife with soulless beats, fake cowboys, thug rappers and teenage twits. Under the circumstances, I welcomed the swing craze in the late '90s. Sure, the swing thing was retro, but at least it required some degree of training, if not talent. Moreover, it drew a few young people to jazz.

Swing is not nearly so ...