America Goes Primitive to Rhythmic Tunes of the 'Cats' By JOSEPH W. LaBINE A bunch of the cats were a long underwear gang was handing out sweet and sticky schmaltz while a monkey waved his baton. tors didn’t like it either. description of open house at the zoo—it's just a picturesque way of saying that an audience of dissatisfied patrons in a New York night spot are hungry for that indefinable, primitive and captivating type of alleged | music called “swing.” The ‘cats’ are swing musi- | cians, rhythm-mad boys who, by ‘lickin’ their chops’ and “friskin’ their whiskers,” indi- cate a desire for an impromptu gathering of their ilk to play for the fun of it, otherwise known as a ‘“‘jam session.” The ‘“‘long underwear gang’’ they despise might be Guy Lombardo’s orchestra, famous for its smooth and restful tunes (otherwise, “‘schmaltz’’). Lombardo himself, the director, might be the ‘‘mon- key.” The ‘‘alligators’ are several mil- lion Americans—mostly younger generation—who play no instrument but have been bitten by the swing bug. And what a bug it is, sting- ing white man and black man alike, invading Chicago's beer-scented joints and New York's swankiest supper clubs! A BIT FAMILIAR To youth it is a new delight but | to middle-aged Americans it has a strangely familiar beat, reminiscent of something they heard 15 or 20 years ago, before what is known as | “jazz” attained respectability. Those were the days when jazz was ‘“hot,”” when polite society frowned on it primitive and uncivilized. It was before George Gershwin wrote ‘‘Rhapsody in Blue,” before jazz symphonized itself and fell un- der such artistic control that it was no longer free and natural. When that day arrived it ceased be jazz, ranking as unreal and unprecedented, som had no reason to exist and therefore soon expired. Swing took its place. And swing | is nothing more than the original | Dixieland jazz, a second wave of | the throbbing, carefree rhythm | which New Orleans’ shanties and | honky-tonks discovered 20 years | as to ng that ago. This second wave seems vengeful, determined to punish the faithless first wave which went astray and made itself respect- able. In the last two years it has traveled by river boat up the Mis- sissippi to St. Louis, squirmed its way into Chicago night life and spread throughout America like a flood. Riding the crest of this wave has been a bespectacled young man to whom swing is a semi-sacred Cause, an orchestra leader who tossed it right in the laps of New York's so- cial elect by staging a concert at sophisticated Carnegie hall a few weeks ago! His name is Benny Goodman, and although the Carnegie hall concert prompted one critic to change the name from Manhattan to ‘““Madhat- tan,” he will continue to play hot music until the Cause is won or the battle lost. SUCCESS STORY Though still youthful, Goodman is a jazz man of the old school. He got his start in Chicago with the late Leon Bismarck (Bix) Beiderbecke, outfits as Frankie Trumbauer and es Sb ot co are ; by patrons of the ‘music school. He died in THE with the America a new era of hot music. Grofe and Paul Whiteman were the height of their popularity jazz and ‘‘schmaltz.” Goodman played for years with other bands, unhappy because he was forced to restrain himself and produce ‘commercial’ music, sweet ular with the customers but sicken- Ing to musicians, of the Gershwin-Grofe-Whiteman in- In 1934, nauseated, he or- ganized another outfit that In the nick of time a large commercial radio show picked him up. Next came a Manhattan hotel engagement which closed be- cause the pared for hot music dark until the iat . customers Fate Palom again ight at ar ballroom one 1 overnight stampede SWING DEFINED Any selection from a Beethoven sonata to ‘Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen’ is presumably swing- able but we'd just as soon they'd let Beethoven alone SPREADING THE JAM Though critics scorn swing as an “art,”! the musicians have demonstrated a positively regard for their unlike Gershwin without glamor. most able and out-of-the- “Three Ives ar- profession ma Jazz, themse thrive “cats'' way Chicago's ub places as night cl “Three " Deuces, was once some people stamp their feet shout, that makes other people sit tensely for every note as if life itself depended on it? Gene Krupa, popular drummer with Goodman's band, says interpretation.” Whit follow music; of rhythmic means that you don't When Benny Goodman's band ap- peared at New York's Paramount theater recently the customers were so carried away by the swing musie that some of them danced in the aisles. A few, still more intoxicated by the rhythm, swarmed up on the stage where the orchestra gave im- prompta exhibitions of the ‘‘shag" and other swing tempo dances. In lower picture the conductor is in the left background while Gene Krupa, king of the drummers, plies his trade behind his “suitcase.” 1931 when George Gershwin, Ferde But it remai ‘a's ables swing enthusiast ster rr more f Ted $v man’s pianist, nor can m pet men approach Roy crystal-clear high notes withou a mute What will happen to swing? become more merous and hist ] that this primitive music is only a second edition of the jazz, it becomes increasingly possible that swing may also try to get respect able and thereby kill itself. Swing is already tremendously successful Already it is appearing New York's finer hotels, far removed from the smoky atmosphere in which it developed. rians eariy in in WILL IT STAGNATE? Soon may come the stagnation that usually seizes arts patronized by the well-to-do. It will be spon- sored and supported. Swingmen will, without realizing, develop a codified technique and a set of rules which all music must conform True exponents of swing will not by this prediction. gather ‘round tonight " watching hundreds of the faithful cock an at- tentive ear to the music, all fears will be cast aside. Even though the current swing craze does give way to the respect- able jazz of future George Gersh- wins and Ferde Grofes, it will prob- ably return at a later date. For the New Orleans honky-tonks will al- ways be loyal and the tom-tom rhythm that beats within a negro's breast must find expression. Then will come a third wave, and the “alligators” will be happy again! © Western Newspaper Union. they | ELLO EVERYBODY: an engine on the Milwaukee. says, consisted carloads pound engines. of forty John was on the The train, John two Baldwin com- coal behind John had ever seen in his life, locomotives along. is, John explains it to us. again by coasting downgrade. fine. and everything was going of curves, gathering momentum climb. happened. 7 os ER FS ’ ra SEA rd SARE Fs grabbing for the reverse ley for all of them at the 4 gham go into action brake valve-—grabl as il he ‘ the I was just in time to see a ballast full in the face. iron rails.” John reeled back a second or two the big engin felt the wheels bump off “was almost useless curves with the throttle as w ticular ] We had stretch Our hour at the time, and | carloads of coal, shovigg us alc in that downhill run.” There was no hope of stopping wasn't any possibility of jumping, and swaying so badly that long enough to jump “The emergency brake,” almost forty-five was The big engine was rocking could stand he says, ‘‘was to grab what- aware of at the time. “I don't know. 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