As their name implies,
Black Cat Zoot are a swing band with a difference, not least in that their album was produced not by a jazz great, but a modern ska hero,
Dr. Ring Ding. Nor was the good Doctor content to stay behind the console, his trombone, percussion, organ, piano, and backing vocals are strewn across the set, and he even duets with singer Lisa Muller on the rip- roaring "Shake That Bone." But even a septet can use some filling out, and other local luminaries also guest on the set. The
Zoots may be German, but their lyrics are in English and their influences are mostly American, their music borrowing heavily from the jazz and swing scene. The blistering "No Swinging in Your Walking" is so lethal, you could even put it up against anything by
Glen Miller and it would hold its own. "Dirty Dancing" has a more dangerous aura, just the kind of number you would hear blasting out of a Harlem club during this same period.