Get back into the SWING

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This article was published 15/05/2011 (5426 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO — If a case can be made for music as a representation of our collective consciousness, an evolving time capsule of sorts, then the electronic genre is no exception.

When the first waves of the recession hit North America in late 2007, the high-energy bass lines of drum and bass got slower and more wobbly, ushering in an era of deep, reverberating dubstep. But as the economy enters recovery mode and spirits begin to rise, people hunger for something other than dark, grimy beats.

Enter electro swing, the eclectic love child of early 1900s jazz and modern electronic beats. The upbeat, toe-tapping sounds of big-band brass have already taken over dance floors in the United Kingdom and parts of Western Europe. Electro swing parties in London and Paris draw regular crowds of 600 people, says U.K. musician Max Chekonova, while Berlin draws 1,200.

Now, with a little bit of prodding from local promoters and some help from an international collective called the Electro Swing Club, the infectious grooves are making their way back to the continent that birthed jazz music in the first place.

“The original swing movement was during hard economic times,” says Toronto world fusion DJ Richard Martin. “It’s an interesting coincidence that electro swing as a movement is happening against the context of this economic uncertainty.”

Martin, who goes by the handle Medicineman, is one half of a duo that will be starting a series of monthly electro swing parties in Toronto this summer. He decided to launch the initiative after connecting with Chekonova, who goes by Max Pashm and is the founder the Electro Swing Club.

The collective hopes to create a worldwide network of electro swing DJs and promoters and plans to take its members on tour. Several artists in Montreal and Victoria, B.C., have also joined the Electro Swing Club, and others in the United States will be joining.

But despite all this talk about creating an international brand, electro swing is about not taking yourself too seriously, says Euan Lampitt, Martin’s business partner and a party promoter from the U.K.

“It’s really playing on that idea of having fun, of being silly and goofy,” says Lampitt, 26. “It’s like taking the swinging sounds of yesteryear and giving them a modern, dance floor kick.”

With influences ranging from hip hop to house to drum and bass and more than two decades of jazz and swing music to draw from, it’s a pretty diverse genre, the pair says.

“The common feature is that there’s always a vintage sound,” says Martin, who first started playing electro swing roughly three years ago. “Something that feels nostalgic.”

It’s that familiarity that makes electro swing so immediately accessible to a wide range of audiences, he adds.

Electro swing likely has some roots in the nu jazz movement of the 1990s, says Martin, where old-school jazz was remixed with a variety of other musical genres.

But it didn’t appear in earnest until a few years ago, and only started really taking off in Europe last year, says Chekonova, 44.

The idea of revellers dressing up and interacting with their environment is central to what Martin and Lampitt hope to achieve. At a recent Vintage Cuts party featuring electro swing, Lampitt transformed his venue into a 1940s home front household.

But you don’t have to be a swing dancer, or in costume, to take part, he adds. Martin says he has played the genre for crowds that range from top 40s enthusiasts to urban hippies.

“I play everything from raves to corporate shmooz and one of the genres — maybe the only genre — that actually crosses all of those boundaries is electro swing,” says Martin. “It hearkens back to a really square time but where there was this whole subversive element of people just saying, ‘You know what? We’re going to have a good time.’ “

— The Canadian Press