I was at Oxford Lindy Exchange last weekend, where British swing supergroup The Shirt Tail Stompers provided Sunday’s live dancing soundtrack. Before their set, bandleader Steven Coombe and co held a seminar on musicality in swing dance—a fascinating, hour-long workshop which could be summed up as a polite but insistent, “Are you really listening, though?” So it was a curious coincidence that the first record to land in my reviews inbox this week was Swingin’ Uptown: “a celebration of Harlem and the historic link between music and dance in jazz,” according to the PR bumf.
The seventh (sixth full-length) release by the Eyal Vilner Big Band, this delectable platter serves up sixteen helpings of extremely danceable music, spicing up old staples and creating nouvelle cuisine in the form of four original additions to the melodic menu. It’s a slick, sexy banquet of blues, swing and hot jazz which leaves the listener both fully satisfied and craving second helpings. (Wow. That metaphor stuck around like the taste of a bacon-flavored Frazzle.)
Israeli multi-instrumentalist, bandleader and composer Eyal Vilner moved to New York in 2007, assembled his big band in 2008 and has graced famous NYC stages including Lincoln Center, the Guggenheim, Birdland, Dizzy’s Club, Smalls, Minton’s Playhouse, Harlem Jazzmobile and Central Park SummerStage since then. His crew have also played festivals across Israel and several of the hottest historical clubs in Paris, including La Bellevilloise, Le Duc des Lombards, and Caveau de la Huchette.
Vilner co-created the critically acclaimed stage show SW!NG OUT and in May his band headlined the International Lindy Hop Championships—arguably the highest honor and greatest endorsement for an outfit aspiring to be danceable. Indeed, Vilner is himself a jazz dancer and Swingin’ Uptown is both a love letter to dancers past and a soundtrack for dancers present.
It opens with “Chicken An’ Dumplings,” a compelling blend of bebop and swing which had me hitting the Susie Q at the kitchen sink within seconds. “Tell Me Pretty Baby” takes the tempo down to a blues-appropriate pace, with Imani Rousselle providing the first of several sensuous vocals. John Thomas adds interest with his sparse but harmonically fascinating piano work, while Eran Fink’s rapid-fire drum triplets keep things ticking over like an idling V8.
“Don’t You Feel My Leg” is another one for the blues dancers which, unbelievably, doesn’t include a vocal from Rousselle. I guess Vilner was going for a non-standard treatment of the tune, which he achieves with a juicy reharmonisation which kicks in about half way through. Together with some very Glenn Miller-esque sax harmony, it creates a saucy film noir sound evoking smoky speakeasies—just where every eager swing dancer would like to imagine themselves.
The disc features a take on “Tea For Two” which swings harder than any other I’ve heard, breathing new life into a tune I’d previously thought a bit plodding. There’s also a particularly nice take on “Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t [My Baby],” in which Rousselle dances around the melody like a skilled Lindy follow embellishing the led steps with her own footwork variations. Uniquely amongst the versions I’ve heard, she and the whole band take a one-bar break after the first line (“I’ve got a man who’s always late”), which confused me for a second—before making me laugh out loud when the penny dropped.
The album features six Vilner originals, all of which sound tailor made for dancing. “Bumpy Tour Bus” and “I Want Coffee” are mid-tempo toe-tappers with a clear AABA structures marked by a simple, repeating brass riffs. “Swingin’ Uptown” and “Lobby Call Blues” cater to Balboa and shag dancers with their lightning-fast pace, “Coffee Bean Stomp” has a New Orleans second line flavor which breaks out into swinging bebop, and “Afternoon at Smalls” has a sixties cool-jazz vibe with its trilling flute set against squealing trumpets.
As if the intended audience for this album wasn’t already clear, it features a rarely heard rendition of “Hellzapoppin’”: a tune beloved by jazz dancers for its appearance the 1941 movie of the same name—the seminal silver screen performance of Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers, featuring Frankie Manning and Norma Miller. Despite this affection—or perhaps because of it—the tune is seldom replicated by swing bands now. Vilner’s band does a sterling job with this, as it does with every other track on this disc. It’s well worth the $15 being asked for a digital copy at eyalvilner.com, and a fitting tribute to the best pastime two people can do standing up.
Swingin’ Uptown
Eyal Vilner Big Band
www.eyalvilner.com
