The Swing Book (9 page)
Authors: Degen Pener
And then there was that Gap commercial, the eight-hundred-pound gorilla that finally propelled swing into the stratosphere.
Featuring Louis Prima’s original “Jump, Jive, an’ Wail” and a new stop-motion cinematography that brought the Lindy’s aerials
into breathtaking relief, the Gap’s “Khakis Swing” commercial was as much a hit as any song when it premiered in April of
1998. After the ad was taken off the air three months later, customers screamed for more. “You can’t believe the responses
we got. We got letters and calls saying, ‘Why did you take it off so soon? I’ve only seen it three times and I love that ad.’
The public wasn’t ready to give it up yet. So we put it back on the air,” the Gap’s Michael McCadden told
Entertainment Weekly.
And despite the fact that it used hardly a single real Lindy dancer (the dancers in the ad were almost all models) and it
promoted khakis (a plain, unisex look that was in fact antithetical to the dressed-up atmosphere of the swing movement), it
brought droves of eager novices into dance studios, wanting to have as much fun as the people in the ad seemed to be having.
“The ad put it over the top,” says Diane Lachtrupp, co-owner of New York’s Stepping Out, which like every dance studio around
the country was soon scrambling to keep up with the demand for classes. Just as in the thirties, jazz had once again gone
mainstream under the label swing. No one in the movement was going to be singing the blues.
1993
The Derby, LA’s first all-swing nightclub, opens in the soon-to-revive Los Feliz neighborhood
Also in Los Angeles, Brian Setzer, Bill Elliott, and Eddie Reed all play their first big band gigs
It’s official. Lounge music is back: Frank Sinatra’s chart-topping
Duets
is released
The movie
Swing Kids,
about jitterbug fans in Germany just before the war, premieres. While not a hit, it’s credited for giving juice to the dance
scene
1994
Decked out in zoot suits, Jim Carrey hams it up and Royal Crown Revue plays it up in
The Mask
MTV produces “Tony Bennett Unplugged”
On November 18 the great Cab Calloway dies
1995
Swing Time
magazine, the first magazine dedicated to the swing scene, is published
The Hi-Ball Lounge, San Francisco’s first all-swing nightclub, opens in the space once occupied by the legendary Jazz Workshop
1996
Jon Favreau’s
Swingers
puts the swing scene on the map, showcasing Big Bad Voodoo Daddy playing at the Derby
Slimstyle, the first swing independent record label, sets up shop in Tucson
1997
The Squirrel Nut Zippers’ “Hell” becomes a radio hit. While the sound is more twenties hot jazz than swing, the success of
the song creates an opening for other retro-style tunes
