Listening 2-Zoot Suit Riot

One of the most iconic and most well known swing songs in existence, Zoot Suit Riot by the Cherry Poppin' Daddies (CPD) took America by storm during the swing revival in the 1997.  Even though it was written in the late 90s, the style is of 1940's jump swing, the type of song that almost compels one to get up and dance.  CPD was a ska-band, so a regular jazz group with lots of walking brass.  This is a fast paced song so a lot more could be fit into a small amount of time.  The form is as follows:
8bar Drum Intro
8bar instrumental I'll refer to as the theme (T)
8bar T again
8bar A (vocals start)
8bar B
8bar C (Refrain)
8bar C
8bar T
8bar A
8bar B
8bar C
16bar Bridge (a lot of falls from instruments and then a build as the vocals say the title)
4bar shout-out to Drum Intro
16bar scat (drum intro in background while instruments echo the vocal's calls)
8bar B (skips A)
8bar C
8bar C
16bar Bridge again (great part to let loose the dance moves)
6bar recall of the drum intro
Tag to finish it out

The instruments used were a drum set, bass (most likely string-), trumpet, saxes, piano, and the music video on the left shows a guitar.  The beat is uptempo and bright (around 190 bpm) and is ideal for swing dancing.  Being a ska band, the brass instruments are mainly for background hits and for echoes to the vocal calls.  The scat section is a style of music in and of itself.  Scat is essentially soloing with ones voice, using nonsense syllables.  It accents the time period this song is shooting for fairly well.

The lyrics and music style weave a tale of the mid 40s, during WWII.  The government was asking people to conserve the uses of basic materials that could be used for the war effort. Zoot suits were made with very baggy sleeves and legs using a lot of unnecessary cloth, and happened to be popular among the Mexican-American community.  American military/navy men saw this as unpatriotic during war times, and well, conflict ensued.  The lyrics don't really root for either side, but just talk about happenings in the mid 1940s.

This is one of my favorite songs, probably because I love swing jazz and probably because I love to swing dance.  If you've never heard it, I recommend it.  If you have heard it, try dancing to it.  If you are looking for a funny parody, check out "Grapefruit Diet" by Weird Al Yankovich.