TERRY BLAINE Singer and group do best to keep swing era swinging

The trio's latest CD features numbers by bandleader Benny Goodman.
By JOHN BENSON
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
There is no denying the love affair that exists between swing vocalist Terry Blaine and Northeast Ohio.
"We've had a lot of support from Cleveland and the surrounding areas, Youngstown, Canton and Alliance," said Blaine, calling from her Woodstock, N.Y., home.
"And the whole area has been just incredible for us but you know, Cleveland was really the audience that put us on the map way back when. It will always be a special place and people always ask me if I'm from Cleveland. It kind of feels that way sometimes because they are so wonderful to us when we're there."
Blaine's affection for the shores of Lake Erie dates back a decade to when she released her debut album "In Concert with the Mark Shane Quintet," which was recorded in 1994 at Cleveland's Masonic Hall.
It was a special night for her and a jazz-loving crowd of more than 2,000 people who enjoyed hearing gems from the '30s and '40s.
It's the same sense of rediscovery that defines Blaine's latest album "Swingin' the Benny Goodman Songbook," which finds the talented vocalist joined by her partners pianist Mark Shane and clarinetist Allan Vache as they tear up such classics as "I Don't Know Why," "Junk Man," "Cause I Feel Lowdown" and "You Can't Stop Me From Loving You."
Considering Goodman's classic catalog, one has to wonder whether the legacy of the bandleader, arguably a superstar in his day, has been lost on a few generations.
Swing is not dead
"I don't think it's lost by any means," Blaine said.
"There's a lot of people right now [in a] swing craze, which was birthed by Benny Goodman. That was sort of the pop music of its day. I think there has always been a contingent of people who kept the swing style going. People who hear it now for the first time say, 'Gee that was great.'
"Gene Krupa's drumming was unique and Teddy Wilson's piano was really unique and Benny's clarinet was that kind of hot, small band swing thing.
"There's a certain joy and a sense of abandon built right into the music that people still respond to."
With so much history and so much music from the Big Band era, Blaine has yet to travel down the original material road for any of her half a dozen or so albums.
However, she feels she has an all-original album in her that at some point will come out.
In the meantime, she's touring Benny Goodman-style and looking forward to her trio's Monday return to Nighttown, the Cleveland Heights establishment that oozes jazz club coolness.
"It's a wonderful venue and an intimate room with great ambiance and great food," Blaine said. "The crowd that shows up is always wonderful and it's just an ideal place for us to do what we do. It's a marvelous, and genuine, jazz club. You can go in there and really hear the music and just relax."
She added, "You can expect to have a great time, hear some wonderful music, relax for a couple of hours, have a great meal and kick back with friends. You can't ask for anything more, as George Gershwin would say."