Swing Guitar - Preserving A Legacy With Enthusiasm (And Spite)

Jonathan Stout is incredibly enthusiastic about preserving the legacy of swing guitar and honoring the people who created and developed the genre.

Swing music is amazing but real swing music that actually sounds like it did in the 30s and 40s is depressingly rare these days. Modern jazz musicians tend to look down on swing jazz and even when they do try to play it, they don't do it right and it ends up sounding more like modern jazz.

Jonathan is a band leader and guitarist specializing in pre bebop jazz guitar. He leads eight different bands, but is best known for Jonathan Stout and his Campus Five and the Jonathan Stout Orchestra, both of which he co-leads with Hilary Alexander. His bands have been heralded as some of the world's premier swing dance bands.

Hear about how Jonathan went from heavy metal electric guitar to jazz music, his incredible collection of vintage guitars and what "white whale" guitar he dreams of getting his hands on and the time he got the thumbs-up from Norma Miller, one of the original swing dance performers

BTWs include racism in jazz and the producer who discovered Billy Holiday, Count Basie, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and MANY others.

In our Moment of Meta we talk about the fourth enthusiandment: Thou shalt not fake enthusiasm!

Get the links and full show notes or leave a question/comment at electricenthusiasm.com.