"It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" is a 1931 composition
by Duke Ellington with lyrics by Irving Mills, now accepted as a jazz
standard. The music was written and arranged by Ellington in August 1931
during intermissions at Chicago's Lincoln Tavern and was first recorded
by Ellington and his orchestra for Brunswick Records (Br 6265) on February
2, 1932. Ivie Anderson sang the vocal and trombonist Joe Nanton and alto
saxophonist Johnny Hodges played the instrumental solos. The title was
based on the oft stated credo of Ellington's former trumpeter Bubber Miley.
The song became famous, Ellington wrote, "as the expression of a sentiment
which prevailed among jazz musicians at the time." Probably the first
song to use the phrase "swing" in the title, it introduced the term into
everyday language and presaged the swing era by three years. The Ellington
band played the song continuously over the years and recorded it numerous
times, most often with trumpeter Ray Nance as vocalist.
Billy Banks (b.
c. 1908; d. October 19, 1967, Tokyo, Japan) was an American jazz singer.
Banks is most prominently remembered for being a successful female impersonator
on record. Banks recorded in 1932 with an all-star, multi-racial jazz lineup
made up of Red Allen on trumpet, Pee Wee Russell on clarinet, Tommy Dorsey
on trombone, Joe Sullivan on piano, Zutty Singleton on drums, and Fats Waller,
also on piano; most of the black musicians were from Luis Russell's retinue,
while the white ones had been brought to the studio by producer Irving Mills.
The vocals were once thought to have been performed by Una Mae Carlisle,
but Banks is the actual vocalist. Banks worked with Russell as a showman
and vocalist, and later worked with Noble Sissle. He later performed in
cabarets under Billy Rose, then toured Europe, Australia, and East Asia
in the 1950s. One of his last recordings was done in Denmark in 1954 with
Cy Laurie. Late in the 1950s he relocated to Japan, and died there in Tokyo
in 1967.
