Swing Gang Deluxe
The Swing Gang performs at The Toronto Blues Society's "Jumpin'
the Blues" on Wednesday October 27 at 9 pm with special guests Morgan
Davis, Rita Chiarelli and more to be announced. Pictured from left to
right are Tyler Yarema, Jesse Barksdale, Terry Wilkins, Bob
Vespaziani and Chris Gale.
Terry Wilkins has been a guiding force and a leading light to a generation of musicians on the Toronto scene since arriving in town in the early 70's as part of an Australian rock band called the Flying Circus. The Swing Gang is but one chapter in a musical life that continues to stretch the boundaries and conventions of popular music (including spearheading a revival of...mono recording!) Who better to relate the phenomenal growth of the Swing Gang than the "Swing Daddy" himself.
When I was asked to write this piece by Brian Blain, he asked that I cover, firstly, the history of The Swing Gang (not so difficult) and, secondly, to define swing music especially in comparison to jump blues (a more daunting task). So I will begin with the history of The Swing Gang. For me, the beginnings of my involvement with swing music go back to 1977 when I made my first contact with Professor Piano (Scott Cushnie) and it involved hanging out in his coach house with Prof and Bucky Berger woodshedding Fats Waller. This project eventually grew into The Canadian Aces which grew into a popular Toronto act and gave me my grounding in swing music. My next exposure came via drummer Michele Josef, who in 1979 came to me to say that she had recommended me for a gig with Ken and Chris Whiteley. I was thrilled at the prospect but taken aback when she sheepishly added that she had told them that I played string bass (which I did not). And so the following week I went to Ken's house and picked up his string bass. What a beast! I soon procured my own bass and so began my next phase of swinging. Now we jump to the late winter of 1994. The scene is Albert's Hall and Danny Marks' Stormy Monday. Danny was in Barbados and the gig was being hosted by various people and I happened to be on a string of Mondays. On one of these Mondays a young chap came up to play the piano. This fellow had arrived in Toronto from Thunder Bay just 3 days before. After the set we chatted and as the result of this interesting conversation regarding the merits of being influenced as opposed to copying, the die was cast on my relationship with said fellow, Tyler Yarema. Within weeks of this occurrence, Tyler had introduced me to his sidekick and (then) guitarist, Mike Carson. Their relationship with hometown mentor, Gary Kendall, produced a month of Wednesdays at The Black Swan. I was asked to be involved and in a short time, marked by some deep rehearsal and a whack of woodshedding, I began composing the songs for what was to become `The Signifying Monkey - New Standards' CD. Our original focus had been on demystifying the Chicago blues form but it was not long before the lure of swing music started to make itself felt. The swing factor, albeit mixed with blues and even Caribbean stylings, was most evident in that work.
Although that CD met with less than astounding results the momentum was in place for the next period of `swingingness'. What followed was Tyler Yarema and His Rhythm moving into their Tuesday house gig at the Reservoir Lounge. This featured Tyler and Mike (on bass) and Bob Vespaziani (drums).
Simultaneously, Jake and The Blue Midnights had begun their house gig on Mondays at the venerable Cameron House under the auspices of Paul Sanella, the boss and legendary talent magnet. Jake had been hanging around various gigs that we were all doing around town and with Jesse Barksdale could be seen sitting in often. Out of this the germ, The Swing Gang began to form. While Tyler and I were playing at Grossmans with Jack de Keyzer another significant event occurred. This was the arrival one night of Jeff Healey who heard Ty warming up with "Tiger Rag" and promptly freaked out (in the nicest possible way). Jeff's entry into the fold brought with it his expertise in the swing form and enabled all of the above mentioned musicians access to his stellar record collection of pre-war swing. It also meant that Jeff became a regular visitor to Ty and Jake's gigs and gave these young musicians a credibility that served them well.
By May of '97, The Signifying Monkey had returned to a Wednesday night house gig at The Black Swan. In the next 10 months we were regularly visited by everybody mentioned and some nights were truly star-studded. A chance meeting with Paul Laventhal, then manager of Ted's Wrecking Yard, on an unrelated matter allowed me to spy that big grand piano in the downstairs room, known as Barcode which was only used on Sundays for classical music. As Tyler had managed to convince the owners of The Reservoir to install a real piano thus enabling the bands to perform in the more authentic acoustic style, finding another room with a grand piano was too much to resist and so on March 11th, 1998 we moved from The Swan to Barcode. The main characteristic of The Swing Gang was that anybody on stage who sang did so and thus the musical democracy took shape that put the limelight on all of the players with no actual frontperson. I assumed the role of referee in what proves to be a popular and rollicking format that continues til today.
Along the way, horn players and more singers were brought in until The Swing Gang began to resemble a big family. This included Ty, Mike, Bob and myself plus Jesse Barksdale (guitar), Jake Chisholm (guitar), Chris Gale (sax), Chris Whiteley (trumpet etc.) Tory Cassis (trumpet), Alex Pangman (vocal), Janice Hagan (vocals), William Sperandei (trumpet), William Carn (trombone), Scott Neilson, Jeff Healey (trumpet/guitar), Pat Carey (sax), Richard Underhill (sax), John Deehan (sax), Mitch Lewis (guitar), Mark Mariash (drums), Davide Direnzo (drums), Daniel Barnes (drums) and Paul Brennan (drums). Ty made a CD ( Got a Bran' New Suit ) with Bill King and lots of the family were there in one form or another. Jake and The Blue Midnights made a CD ( Jake and The Blue Midnights - ArtOfficial Records - ) and again it was full of a Swing Gang who's who. The last few years have been a churnin', burnin' journey of club dates, festivals and a whole lot of dancing as the lindy-hop dancers of Toronto supported all of the bands that make up The Swing Gang.
I would like to acknowledge the support of Derek Andrews, Gary Kendall, Liz Seabrook, Hai-soon, Richard Flohil, Paul and Ted and everybody else who has contributed to a splendid ride.
For me it all goes back to my 1974 cross-Canada tour with Lighthouse where 68 concerts in 75 days from Victoria to St. John's caused me to fall into a funk regarding the seemingly shallow reality of the modern musician. This was the era of `tight` bands and rehearsed to death performances. It was on that tour that I started to fantasize about which era I would rather have been a musician.
The 1930's was where I would rather have been and The Swing Gang and all of its wonderfully talented young (and not so young) musicians have afforded me the opportunity to feel what it must have been like in the wicked and wild era.
The reality is that, as of now, the swing revival has begun to wane, somewhat, with more than a few digs from the local press who never really acknowledged what happened in the last few years anyway. But that is typical of a trend-hungry industry and culture who fail to see all of this in its historical context as the continuation of something that has been at the root of popular music for the last 75 years. To dismiss that musicians want to play this music and that the people want to listen and dance to this music is arrogant and shallow. This music is entering the 21st century in better shape than it has been since it happened. Swing music will be still played in another 75 years because it is the classical music of its time. Nobody writes about `the Beethoven revival trend'. It, too, is here to stay.
As to the second part of this piece regarding what is swing and how is it different from jump blues, I must take a wide berth as endless conversations have been had as to what constitutes swing. I know that jump blues swings as does early rock and roll (swing being the `roll' part). To put a date and a description on what is swing and what is not seems too difficult a question to answer and I am not up to the task. It did start in the 20's and it hasn't stopped yet. Ellington swings, Basie swings, Fats swings, the 3 Louis' swing as does a whole lot of Chuck Berry and a whole lot of Bob Marley. Everybody make up their own mind - just keep on swingin'.
- Terry Wilkins