What is authentic swing music? It depends who you ask. Plenty of modern outfits advertise themselves as “authentic” swing musicians—many of them function bands, sporting velvet-trimmed, pastel drape jackets in their glossy promo shots.
Jonathan Stout disagrees. The self-confessed “giant nerd” for jazz saw many such bands during the neo-swing revival, and set out to create something which honored his idols much more faithfully. But then other influences crept in and the guitarist—whose outfits now include his Close Shave Quartet, Campus Five, Grand Slam Sextet, Rugcutters, and Rhythm Busters—regularly plays the world’s biggest events, to some of its most appreciative audiences: dancers. Because although a Stout record makes a nice listen, this is music conceived, crafted, and fine tuned for moving to.
“I started swing dancing as a high school student in 1995, the beginning of the revival,” said Jonathan, a lawyer by day who lives in Los Angeles, CA, with his wife and four-year-old son (who is named for two of his heroes: Charlie Christian and Freddie Green). “My Spanish teacher gave us some lessons. I was an awkward teen playing metal, and it just wasn’t working with the ladies. So I said okay, I’ll try this.” Soon the after-school club wasn’t enough, and Jonathan went looking for more specialized tuition.
But the first classes he found were teaching
