SWING BROADCASTS

Southland Times, Issue 24598, 21 November 1941, Page 8

SWING BROADCASTS

Sir, —Thank goodness somebody has had the courage to attempt to awaken Invercargill from the sluggish inertia in which it has so long slumbered. Swing is now a part of modem education, an established form of music. People must realize that. It has had to fight hard for recognition, but is gaining it at last, in spite of much unfair criticism—faulty criticism, coming from those who have never been interested in the subject, and have never had the time or the desire to study it closely. To most people, all modern music is the same—swing. How exasperating it is to hear, and unfortunately I have often heard it: “Isn’t swing grand? Victor Silvester is really marvellous!” It must be reiterated: there are three main branches to modern music—commercial dance, jazz, and swing. The first consists of a simple, catchy melody, strangled through stereotyped treatment; excellent for dancing, but contaminated by mass-production which stamps out the soul of the piece. Jazz and swing are distinguished from the above mainly by their style. The same catchy theme is there, but improvization, in the place of orchestration brings out the individuality, the inspiration, and the soul, making it a work which still remains enchanting even after hundreds of hearings. Of these two, jazz is rather tire “jitterbug” music, full of originality and self-expression, while swing is a more restrained and subdued form. To appreciate fully the vast difference between these three forms of music, one must listen to examples of each. Crosby and Spanier give us jazz; Shaw, Goodman and Ellington are famous exponents of swing; while Kyser, Loss and Ambrose lead commercial bands which deliberately play down to the public. I hope that this helps one or two people to clear up the mystery of swing. “DE GUSTIBUS” ,