The Beantown Swing Orchestra represents swing music as it really was during its heyday: exciting and performed by hip young musicians.

In any musical era, it's usually the younger generation of performers that popularizes the music of the period. That's because they are in tune to what is hip, and they are not afraid to take chances, which leads to innovation and refreshing change. The Swing Era (late-1930s to early-1940s) was no different - the music was popularized by musicians in their early twenties. It was also last time in American history that music was created specifically for dancing, and the magic that it created unified black and white youngsters on the dance floor, which was unprecedented in an era of racial segregation. Furthermore, it was last time that any form of jazz would dominate the airwaves with Top 40 hits. After World War II, when the youngsters moved on to other forms of music (e.g. rock and roll), swing became stagnant, and older, less energetic musicians brought it down a path of mediocrity.

Seventy years later, the Beantown Swing Orchestra picks up where the young Swing Era bands left off. There is one surprising difference, however: the unifying magic that we are creating is that our music is enjoyed by all generations, as opposed to the Swing Era when older folks did not appreciate the "new" sounds they were hearing. Older generations adore us because we perform the music as they remember it when they were growing up. In addition, younger generations love us because our musicians know how to stylize the music to make it sound hip to modern ears. This is in large part due to the talent of our 25-year-old arranger Danny Fratina, who transcribes and scores all of our music. The result is a phenomenon not seen anywhere else - kids, adults, and seniors dancing to our music together.

The Hudson-Delange Orchestra in 1937 (left), with members averaging 22 years old.
The Beantown Swing Orchestra (right) in 2009, with members averaging 23 years old.

The orchestra's configuration is exactly the same as the Swing Era bands, with four trumpets, four trombones, five saxes/clarinets, piano, guitar, bass, drums, and a vocalist. This is the only way to get the big band sound of the Swing Era, which consists of four-part harmonies in each of the horn sections. Very little amplification is used due to the acoustic nature of the instruments, resulting in a magnificent sound which is clean and pure and which comes directly from the instruments. This is in contrast to a modern-day setup that smaller bands use in which most of the instruments are miked, and the sound is aimed at the audience through large speakers, making the music sound harsh and blaring. Our setup creates an authentic, three-dimensional listening and dancing experience that is performed by a true "orchestra," and one that cannot be matched by any other type of band, let alone a DJ.