Sir Rod Stewart is no stranger to the Great American Songbook. Beginning with 2002’s It Had To Be You, he has released five volumes of Songbook recordings, each one developing his mastery of the timeless classics that have been the bedrock of Broadway show tunes and of the careers of the best jazz singers of all time. But, two decades on from his initial foray into this world, and with designs on paying tribute to the big-band era of the early 20th century, the rock icon and former Faces frontman realised he needed to go in a different direction if his 33rd solo album, Swing Fever, was going to fire his imagination.
Listen to ‘Swing Fever’here.
“What we try and do is get to the essence of it”
“I’d already started making a swing album, but it didn’t turn out how I wanted it,” Stewart has said of the early Swing Fever sessions. “It was more Frank Sinatra than it was Louis Prima, let’s say.”
Indeed, the energy of the great New Orleans trumpeter, known for his percussive arrangements of tunes that have long since earned their place among the best jazz songs, makes itself felt from the off, courtesy of Swing Fever’s opening song, Lullaby Of Broadway. Conjuring an open-all-hours joint on New York City’s 52nd Street, the song – complete with playful tap-dance solo – sets out Swing Fever’s stall: big-band jazz served piping hot, straight from the engine room of Jool Holland’s studio in Greenwich, South-East London.
