As with any genre, it’s difficult
to pinpoint the exact moment electro swing could be said to have first begun.
Genres are constantly evolving and adapting to their respective environments,
and it’s often only with hindsight that one may realise the importance certain
songs or events may have had on a subsequent genre’s emergence. The roots of
electro swing stretch far far back, and determining the genre’s development is
not an objective matter. However, we may look at the music that preceded it
retrospectively, and begin to develop some sort of timeline that can be said to
have foreshadowed the genre’s arrival.
I’ve chosen to put the most
recent end of the timeline at 2004, for this year saw the release of both Parov
Stelar’s Rough Cuts, and Nicolas Repac’s Swing-Swing. By this
year, electro swing had well and truly surfaced. Determining the other end of
this timeline is a bit more tricky however. We could obviously look at the
lineage of jazz, going back to the late 18th-century, but I’m more
interested in looking at the first merging of jazz and dance music; of vintage
and remix; of swing and electro.
1917
One might say then, that the
first example of this was the very first time a jazz track was put to
recording. In this instance then, we have a very clear answer to the question,
for the first jazz recording is very well documented, that being the Original
Dixieland Jass Band’s ‘Livery Stable Blues’.
1926
Another early development that
one must take note of is the type of vocal stylings that would later provide a
basis for hip hop, and most notably, jazz rap. It’s long been argued that this
type of vocal delivery emerged out of scat singing, and whilst it’s difficult
to determine the very first instance of this, what’s often cited as the first
example is Louis Armstrong’s ‘Heebie Jeebies’.
1937
Scat singing was used extensively
through jazz and its related styles, and if one digs hard enough, it’s possible
to find examples of early tunes sounding considerably similar to what would
later develop into rap. The finest example I’ve come across is in the gospel
music of the Golden Gate Quartet.
Now, whilst the use of the studio
can certainly be described as electronic innovation in jazz, all of the
examples featured so far have only featured acoustic instruments. This would
change in this same year however, whereupon we can find the first example of
true electronic instrumentation on a jazz record: George Barnes’ electric
guitarwork on Big Bill Broonzy’s ‘Sweetheart Land’.
1939
Whilst Barnes’ work was certainly
revolutionary, he never managed to achieve the popularity that he perhaps
deserved. That acclaim would largely be directed towards Charlie Christian, who
– joining the Benny Goodman Orchestra in this year – would become one of the
most notable and influential guitarists of all time.
1969
To an extent, these types of
developments opened the floodgates to all sorts of electrical innovation in
jazz, and as the style would progress, many more artists began incorporating electronic
instrumentation into their music. The most notable of these was arguably Miles
Davis, who between 1968 and 1975 was even referred to as having an ‘electric
period’, marked by albums such as In a Silent Way, and Bitches
Brew.
1970
Similarly, the proto-hip hop
sounds would continue to develop, often directly alongside the music of jazz.
The most notable of these artists around this period was Gil Scott Heron, who has
at times been considered the world’s first rapper.
1975
Jazz also started to become
intertwined with the early development of electronic dance music around this
time, and one of the first records to showcase this was Lonnie Liston Smith’s
‘Expansions’.
1983
Inspired by music such as this,
one of the earliest musicians to extensively fuse jazz with the emerging
electro sound was Herbie Hancock. This year, Hancock released Future Shock,
an album unlike anything he’d produced before. Most notably for the single ‘Rockit’,
from this album onwards, Hancock would begin to focus just as much energy onto
the electro sound as he had previously done with jazz.
1985
By this time, the world had fully
embraced the hip hop style, and musicians would begin to see how they might be
able to fuse this music with various others. Although something of a gimmick,
the first track to do this with jazz was the appropriately named ‘Jazz Rap’ by
Cargo, the group centred around British musician Mike Carr.
This year would see the
development of the new jack swing sound, pioneered by producer Teddy Riley,
which fused the sounds of swing with the contemporary R&B sound. Developing
the sound alongside his own act Blackstreet, what is generally considered the
first new jack swing release was Janet Jackson’s Control.
1988 would then see the release
of what’s widely considered the first genuine jazz rap track, a track that
would arguably set off the whole of the jazz rap scene that developed out
of New York around this time, Stetsasonic’s ‘Talkin’ All That Jazz’.
The NY jazz rap scene culminated
in the creation of Native Tongues, a crew of various artists creating this type
of music, and all regularly collaborating with one another, including the
Jungle Brothers, A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Queen Latifah, and Monie
Love.
This year also saw the emergence
of acid jazz in Britain, combining the sounds of acid house with contemporary
jazz. Developed by DJs such as Gilles Peterson and Chris Bangs, the Acid Jazz
label put out its first compilation in 1988, entitled Totally Wired.
1989
The various movements around this
time can all retrospectively be seen to signal the introduction of a style like
electro swing, and what is occasionally cited as the first electro swing track
would emerge this year, Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers ‘Swing the Mood’, based
around Glenn Miller’s ‘In the Mood’, and sampling many early rock ’n’ roll
tracks as well. Like Cargo’s ‘Jazz Rap’, this release was certainly something
of a gimmick, but it’s essential to highlight when considering the development
of the electro swing style.
1991
Alongside the acid jazz scene,
Britain would also see the development of trip hop, a more laidback style
fusing the sounds of hip hop and jazz, featuring extensive sampling. Largely
emerging out of Bristol, the pioneers of trip hop are generally considered to
be Massive Attack, Tricky, and Portishead.
Back in America, the ’90s would
also see the development of the neo-swing genre, pioneered by California’s
Royal Crown Revue. Fusing swing with a more contemporary rock sound, this genre
would have considerable influence upon the electro swing style.
1992 brought with it the release
of Miles Davis’s final album, Doo-Bop. Unsurprisingly, considering the
innovation Davis involved himself with during his ‘electric period’ – and
indeed, throughout his entire career – he would continue to create music in
unexplored territory, this time working alongside hip hop producer Easy Mo Bee.
Another of the most significant
artists of this era for electro swing was Courtney Pine, a jazz saxophonist who
would undertake extensive collaboration with artists from genres including hip
hop, and drum ’n’ bass. Pine’s sixth album is arguably his most influential in
this regard, ‘To The Eyes of Creation’.
1993
One of the acts Pine would
occasionally collaborate with was the hip hop duo Gang Starr, and in 1993, Gang
Starr’s MC Guru would release Jazzmatazz, which many have argued is the
absolute pinnacle of the entire jazz rap scene.
Returning to new jack swing, this
year also saw the release of K7’s ‘Hi De Ho’, a track which resembles
incredibly closely what we would now undoubtedly refer to as electro swing.
And a similar track in this
manner is ‘U Got Me Up’, a house track by Dajaé featuring a significant swing
influence, which was released the same year.
1994
So this year is important, as it
saw the release of ‘Lucas With the Lid Off’ by Danish rapper Lucas, in which he
raps over a sample of Benny Goodman’s ‘When Buddha Smiles’. Considering all of
the tracks featured so far throughout this post, there is plenty of opportunity
for debate as to what constitutes genuine electro swing and what doesn’t, but
in this case there can be no doubt. ‘Lucas With the Lid Off’ is 100% electro
swing, and makes a very convincing argument for the first ever electro swing
release.
1999
Following on from ‘Lucas With the
Lid Off’ we would see a number of similar tracks emerge, but this seemed to
really take shape around the turn of the century, when we would find tracks
such as Moby’s ‘Honey’…
…Mr Scruff’s ‘Get a Move On’…
2000
…and the following year, Jurassic
5’s ‘Swing Set’.
The penultimate year I will
discuss is 2001, during which ‘Shadow Kingdom’ was released, by the obscure
Austrian artist Plasma. More in line with acid jazz than the new electro swing
sound, this album was notable for being the first release by Marcus Füreder,
who would later become Parov Stelar.
2004
And by this point, electro swing
had undoubtedly emerged. I mentioned at the beginning that this year’s releases
by Parov Stelar and Nicolas Repac signalled the first undeniable electro swing
albums; interestingly enough a decade after the first undeniable electro swing
single.
Since this, it’s quite easy to
track the development of electro swing. The following years would see the
beginnings of Caravan Palace, C2C, Caro Emerald, Chinese Man, the
Correspondents and a whole host of other acts who any enthusiast will
presumably be familiar with. These preceding developments did not occur with
any kind of predetermined purpose of creating electro swing, but in many of
their cases it’s easy to see how significant their impact upon the scene has
been. I certainly hope that this little history lesson has been educational,
and has demonstrated – if nothing else – how complex the roots of a music scene
can be. Indeed, particularly for electro swing – which owes so much to its
predecessors – an awareness of how the genre came to be will perhaps make the
experience of listening to the music even more enjoyable.
