Perhaps one of the most unexpected fads of the '90s was the emergence of Retro Swing, a joyous, relatively amateurish celebration of jump blues, hot dance, and swing. There were a number of accomplished artists -- such as Brian Setzer and the Squirrel Nut Zippers -- within the scene, but generally, retro swing was played by twentysomethings -- (
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Perhaps one of the most unexpected fads of the '90s was the emergence of Retro Swing, a joyous, relatively amateurish celebration of jump blues, hot dance, and swing. There were a number of accomplished artists -- such as Brian Setzer and the Squirrel Nut Zippers -- within the scene, but generally, retro swing was played by twentysomethings -- children of alternative rock who found that they favored martinis and Sinatra to dope and grunge. Certainly, the scene was tangentially related to the lounge hipsters in indie rock, those fans that rediscovered Esquivel and assembled groups that played lazily swinging easy listening. However, retro swingers weren't really an elitist pack. They made good-time party music, designed for dancing and fun. At first, the scene was concentrated in Los Angeles, but Doug Liman's 1996 film Swingers, which featured Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, brought it into the mainstream, and soon afterward, a deluge of retro swing bands were appearing on major and indie labels. Some had been doing it for a while -- veterans included BBVD, Cherry Poppin' Daddies, the Squirrel Nut Zippers and, Brian Setzer, who pioneered the whole sound in the early '90s with his big band, the Brian Setzer Orchestra. Others were fresh-faced kids, swooning over the legacy of the Rat Pack, while borrowing ideas and songs from Joe Jackson's Jumpin' Jive. It was a self-conscious hybrid and most bands certainly couldn't play as well as the first-wave swingers they were emulating -- as a matter of fact, soloing hardly even mattered in retro swing -- it was the overall feel and groove that counted.(
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