The J Street Jumpers
Is You or Is You Ain’t My Baby?
by Scott Hefflon
This is an issue we’re going to have to deal with someday, kids, so it may as well be now. The J Street Jumpers are a swing band that’s been playing swing for ten years. Let’s just say the Jumpers aren’t spring chickens who took the safety pins out of their ears and donned dapper suits, nor are they post-21st wave ska dweebs (post-marching band dweebs to begin with, but we need not dig that deep, K?) who realized swing is the next craze “the kids” are eatin’ up and hell, it sure is fun to play! So now, instead of taking all the spirituality out of “roots-based” ska and the rebellion out of ska/punk, a whole new generation of MTV House of Style-watching bandwagon-jumpers are going to take the sex and violence out of swing. This is the music of high-living and/or desperate escapism (watch The Cotton Club, Hoodlum, Swing Kids, and countless others and see the themes for yourself).
But the real eye-opener is this: Is You or Is You Ain’t My Baby? is all “covers.” Usually, this would be grounds for a hateful sentence or two to the effect of “What, can’t y’all write your own damn songs?” But that’s thinking within the context of current pop music (I mean pop bands, not postergirl/songbirds like Whitney and Mariah – that’s not pop, that’s shit). Unlike punk or ska covering a great oldie-but-goodie to show roots, influence, or fill space, a swing band “doing their interpretation” of a timeless classic is legit. I think. Think of the crooners in their heyday. Frank, Sammy, Dean, and countless others all performed many of the same songs, yet each did them in their own very distinct style. And I doubt they wrote many or any of them. In those days, there were songwriters and there were performers. Even performers were divided into the singer in the spotlight and the back-up band. While highly respected, the backing musicians were allowed a solo here and there, but spent most of the time in the pit or in the dark wings providing a solid foundation for a center stage crooner to melt butter and hearts.
Which brings us back to The J Street Jumpers… Since before there were The Squirrel Nut Zippers, Cherry Poppin’ Daddies, and most of the rest, these guys and gal have been doing their swing thing in the Maryland/D.C. area. Are they any good? Are they any better than the rest? Damned if I know. But sure are fun to listen to.
The name, incidentally, comes from the omission of a J street in D.C., despite their being an A through I, and then K and up. Story has it, French architect Pierre L’Enfant’s wife was having an affair with Supreme Court chief justice John Jay. If my U of M architectural classes serve me correctly, it was Thomas Jefferson’s bright idea to make the city based on concentric circles that, in theory, are cool as shit, but make driving a total bitch. Curse his name loudly every time you get “bumped” from the desired street because you made the silly mistake of going straight instead of turning to stay on the same street.
(2301 Crain Hwy. Upper Marlboro, MD 20774)
