Rod Stewart with Jools Holland: Swing Fever – this album of swing standards is utterly joyous
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The last time I interviewed Rod Stewart, in 2021, he was talking about slowing down. “I don’t think I’ll be singing Maggie May and Hot Legs forever,” he told me. “I’d like to do the standards, become a jazz crooner. I’d love that. It’s closer than you think.”
And now, at 79, the old rocker has made an album of swing standards with TV’s favourite piano man, Jools Holland (a comparatively sprightly 66). Every song hails from the first pre-rock’n’roll half of the 20th century (earlier in the case of folk murder ballad, Frankie and Johnny). But, rather than showing any signs of slowing down, Stewart’s Swing Fever kicks like an unbroken stallion at its first rodeo.
Jazz standards and showtunes have become a safe harbour for ageing pop singers, finely wrought but over-familiar songs that allow weathered voices to relax into melody and narrative. Stewart himself has put out five volumes of Great American Songbook recordings, from It Had to Be You in 2002 to Fly Me to the Moon in 2010, all toned down and lushly orchestrated to show off his still potent voice. That’s certainly not what has occurred in the studio with Holland, however, for which I suspect we should give the former punk rocker and original keyboard player with Squeeze a lot of credit.
Holland never misses an opportunity to put some boogie in the woogie of guests on his BBC Two music show Later. A real enthusiast for music history, he knows there is nothing quaint about swing or cute about jazz, and has the live experience with his hard touring Rhythm and Blues Orchestra to know how to get a joint jumping. They may be well into golden oldies territory, but together Stewart and Holland tackle these classic tunes as if they are trying to set fire to the ballroom and burn the old folk’s home to the ground.
Tempos are high and the sense of exuberance is infectious, with Holland’s stride piano pounding away at the centre of a rich stew of power walking bass, rattling drums, wailing Hammond organ and thick, raspy horns punching and interweaving whilst tightly harmonised backing vocalists zig and zag into artfully syncopated spaces. Stewart skitters across the top of the action like he’s having the time of his life, dashing off some ridiculous scatting on Louis Prima’s Oh Marie (“Squiggly diddly dada! Hunga baby ah da!”) or barking out a snorting “Ha!” on Lullaby of Broadway before an instrumental coda that seems to involve someone trying to break the speed record for tap dancing.
These are songs made famous by such legendary vocalists as Bing Crosby, Doris Day, Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra, so what does one of Britain’s finest veteran rock and soul singers bring to the party? The hoarse tone and raw power of his voice is distinctively of the post-swing era. While there’s nothing radical or new here, joy always sounds fresh, and Stewart sounds like he’s having the time of his life. So turn it up loud with a bit of bass and remind yourself that dance music didn’t start with disco. Skiddly diddly dah dah!
Best songs of the week
By Poppie Platt
Kneecap, Sick in the Head
Irish rap trio Kneecap are controversial – recently blocked from receiving a funding grant by the UK government over their politics – but they’re also on a meteoric rise: Sick in the Head takes aim at the poverty that breeds mental illness.
Lainey Wilson, Country’s Cool Again
The evidence seems to suggest so, doesn’t it? Even Beyoncé is getting in on the yee-haw action. Wilson, America’s biggest female country singer and recent Grammy winner, returns with a thigh-slapping ode to her small town roots – and declaration that “Everybody wanna be a cowboy” these days.
Lip Critic, Milky Max
Blending Death Grips’ punk-rap with electronica and hardcore, this New York quartet’s live UK debut was a 2023 highlight for me – rowdy and oh-so-sweaty – and Milky Max is a riot (jump along to “All my life, waiting for this!”, each lyric’s delivery underlined by thrashing drums).
Melts, Altered
Signed to the same record label (Fuzz Club) as The Jesus and Mary Chain, the Dublin-based band mark themselves out as ones to watch with this fuzzy, frantic alternative love song.
MGMT and Christine and the Queens, Dancing in Babylon
Back in the limelight thanks to Time to Pretend’s starring role in Saltburn, US psych-rockers MGMT team up with the acclaimed French singer on this addictive single, taken from new album Loss of Life. With its power-ballad vocals and retro synths, it wouldn’t go amiss on any Eighties movie soundtrack.
Swim Deep, How Many Love Songs Have Died in Vegas?
Broken marriages, fatherhood, the sober reality of an ill-judged decision made in a Sin City chapel… All sound like pretty heavy themes, but the Birmingham indie-pop band manage a lightness of touch here, mainly thanks to Austin Williams’s tender vocals.
