Grooveline - North East Function Band

Some words on Swing

A favorite and very popular style of music to play at weddings is swing. Although this music form was very popular on the 1930’s played by big bands and performed by artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Glenn Miller and Duke Ellington, swing has lived on into the 21st century helped by musicians such as Michael Buble and Jamie Cullum. These modern day artists covered songs such as ‘I get a Kick out of you’ and ’Feeling good’ and ‘Fever’.

In order to be able to convincingly perform this style of music it is critical to employ a strong rhythm section in basic form comprising of bass (originally double bass) and drums. This gives the music its back bone on which it’s flowing melodies and rhythms can sit. One of the most important elements of swing music is that it allows the musicians a freedom to improvise (To make up music on the spur of the moment according to the musician's whim; in other words, the musician does not follow notes on a printed page, but rather relies on his or her own imagination to create music that bears a spiritual relation to the original source).

‘The Rat Pack’, Sammy Davis Jr, Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, further defined the era of swing in the 1960’s performing classics such as ‘Mr Bojangles’, ’One for my baby’ and ‘Mack the Knife‘.

The swing style is a great music option for all ages as each generation is able to connect in different ways with the era. Grooveline have a wide variety of popular swing songs in their repertoire please check out the song list for more information.