Cherry Poppin' Daddies / Zoot Suit Riot by Austin Graham UMI/Universal Records The fact that the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, one of many West-Coast retro swing bands that gained prominence in the wake of Swingers two years ago, already have a "Greatest Hits" album probably says a lot about the musical movement and where it's going. Quick, hepcats! Just in case this peculiar jazz-rock fusion is on its last legs, you'd better head to the record store and pick up a few good representative samples while you still can. Most of these sorts of outfits end up sounding basically the same, and image is often more important than tune composition: in general, you've got a bunch of ex-rockers who've added a few horn players and donned the appropriate vintage clothing. The rock in this swinging mixed breed makes sense to those of us who expect a little Hendrix in every band; the jazz ingredient, however, is bizarre. Anyone who's taken Deveaux's "History of Jazz" course will recognize that swing is only one of many jazz styles evoked by these artists. Every album includes obligatory tracks of pre-swing hot, Miles Davis cool, and, for reasons I've never been able to understand, early honky-tonk rock aped from the Big Bopper. The Cherry Poppin' Daddies never deviate from this formula, but on this compilation of their best work they play the convention better than anyone. The songs are extremely well-orchestrated, some of the harmonics and horn lines contain deliciously dissonant intervals, and the simultaneous sax-trumpet solos are almost Ellingtonian in their togetherness. The music is exactly what you'd expect from such wannabe jazzmen, but the Cherry Poppin' Daddies are at the level of musicianship that all other retro bands aspire to. Zoot Suit Riot also boasts a bigger sound than albums from fellow swingers, sometimes sounding like a real twenty-piece outfit, but when you glance at the cover book you'll find an extensive list of guest musicians (including the "First Church of Sinatra" band). There's little doubt that this album, with its pumped-up fullness, is probably more impressive than their live shows. If angst and tough worldliness in lyrics are a requirement for you, don't think that the Cherry Poppin' Daddies are trapped in a square musical tradition; whoever wrote these songs seems to have had as bad a childhood as your average Kurt Cobain knock-off, and articulates it much more imaginatively. A full half of the tracks (seven of fourteen) are portraits of no-good, morally bankrupt men. Lyrics like "But the father he walks the water / He ain't never tossed a nickel to his son / Ain't I your prodigal boy?" on "Master and Slave" and "You gotta move fast to beat the devil / Your arm is too short to box with God" from "Drunk Daddy" are plentiful; and when the band members aren't being accusatory they're trying to coax girls out of their virginity, as the band's name suggests. It's a long way from Benny Goodman (whose themes, along with Cab Calloway's, are liberally borrowed) singing "If it ain't bean, it's frank / Gotta be this or that!" As someone who considers the authentic, less rock-oriented Squirrel Nut Zippers the penultimate retro band on the scene, I sometimes find the Cherry Poppin' Daddies a little too polished and wish for more old-school twang from the guitars, but Zoot Suit Riot makes up for its carefully recorded perfection with some money licks and rhythmic lyrics that stand far above their imitators. They're like the instructors for those Swing Dance prep-step courses that are so popular these days: the rest of the retro movement is flapping its arms about in a halfway Charleston imitation, trying to keep up.

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