The Jazz of the Southwest

An Oral History of Western Swing

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by Jean A. Boyd

University of Texas Press

Due/Published May 1998, 292 pages, paper

ISBN 0292708602

They may wear cowboy hats and boots and sing about 'faded love,' but western swing musicians have always played jazz. Jean A. Boyd explores the origins and development of western swing as a vibrant current in the mainstream of jazz. She focuses in particular on the performers--such as pioneers Cliff Bruner and Eldon Shamblin and longtime current performers like Johnny Gimbel--who made the music, and draws on personal interviews with some fifty living western swing musicians. Although the performers typically came from the same rural roots that nurtured country music, their words make it clear that they considered themselves neither 'hillbillies' nor 'country pickers,' but jazz musicians whose performance approach and repertory were no different from those of mainstream jazz. Get your cowboy boots out and hum along.