When a Sweet Swing devotee tries to struggle out of the ooze and goo that is Lombardo, and investigate this thing called jazz, he is generally licked from the start. He is seized upon by friends steeped in jazz lore and subjected to Gutbucket Gus and his Dixieland Breakdowners. Appalled by the seemingly mad confusion of growl trumpets and crisscrossing trombones, he yields himself again to the blandishments of the Kysers and the Kayes, who, if cloying, are at least comprehensible to him.

Obviously, the offerings of a Gutbucket Gus are gibberish to the uninitiated. What the Sweet Singers need by way of introduction is someone who can play good jazz on something approaching their own terms. And Lunceford, Basie, and Ellington are the men for that. A comparison of their recordings of popular songs with the effusions of the Sweet, Swing set is eye-opening. The gulf between Ellington's "Take the 'A' Train," and Miller's is immeasurable. The Ellington band's complete grasp of the spirit of the thing, its spontaneity, its "soul," if you will, make Miller's version seem pallid and pointless, which it is.

The big thing is, of course, not the tune, but they way the band plans in and around it. "Down by the Old Mill Stream" is as ancient and hoary a piece as you'll find, but Lunceford's version of it on Decca shows such imagination and ingenuity that the tune, while recognizable at all times, is a secondary consideration. Earl Hines's "Jersey Bounce" on Bluebird is comparatively unknown, yet it is probably the most vivid and happily-conceived version ever put to wax. So try a direct comparison on well-known songs if you want to find the gateway to good jazz.