With some encouragement among the community I am going to explore some big band swing sound. I wanted to have a good challenge and I decided on producing a big band piece based on one of my favorites. 'Swing Shift' is based on a popular sound in the 1940s called 'In The Mood' with the Glenn Miller Band. That was a time when music and swing dancing was everything to those who lived in the war time of WWII. I think the spirit of the music and dancing of the style of this piece would be good for the enjoyment for all of us in the present times. During those times people would spend their after work hours and join in to swing dancing events often called swing shift events that gives me the title to this song.

So I used an excellent midi set to assist me in the melody of the song and I created the sound and sound space of each instrument with my own studio resources, some more than 20 tracks and believe me this was quite a mixdown.

Hear the sounds of an acoustical bass, the tenor sax, a baritone sax, an alto sax group, some trumpets and trombones, drums, and a 16' grand piano. This did make me feel like a band leader. I especially did have some fun with the drums, the 'raspberry' tenors, and the 'rubber band' acoustical upright bass (who needed the help of the drummer to give it the bass punch that we would expect for the big band era sound). I could imagine that each member of the band had their own personality with their instrument. I am sure that Glenn had the humor and fun loving way of working with his band members.

I am always grateful for the images provided to me for producing this song including some historical archived images. I also have an appreciation of the woman of that era who could swing dance in high heels, I am sure you would need strong ankles for such a feat. If you try it a home be careful ;) A couple of the images are from jazz gigs prior to the 1940s.

I have produced the music exclusively for this music video.

I hope you all enjoy the sound and the good humor that went into this piece ;)

All my best ...

Mark ;)