This video has been one of my holy grails for over forty years.

Every few years I’d go to YouTube to see if anybody had found it and posted it, but only bits and pieces had turned up.

While I wasn’t looking, back in 2022, someone uploaded this entire concert by Joe Jackson’s Jumpin’ Jive, which was broadcast once or twice on USA Network’s Night Flight (a major inspiration of mine) and as far as I know, never released commercially.

When Joe Jackson, waylaid by an illness that broke up his band after three albums, delved into the music that was played by his father, a big band musician in the UK. He recorded the album, Joe Jackson’s Jumpin’ Jive, and it triggered a love of Swing Music in my brain that continues to this day.  You can hear it often on The AIR, as I host The Swing Shift and even drop the occasional Swing tune into RFC.

I remember watching this on Night Flight, and getting my dad, who loved Swing, to watch with me.

Now I get to see it again, and so do you. It’s Joe Jackson leading a tight band through classics made famous by Louis Jordan, Cab Calloway, Glenn Miller and more.

Here’s the setlist, which includes two songs that the band never recorded:

Intro
Jumpin’ With Symphony Sid
Jack you’re Dead
Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby?
We The Cats (Shall Hep Ya)
San Francisco Fan
Stomping At The Savoy
You’re My Meat
What’s The Use Of Getting Sober (When you’re Gonna Get Drunk Again)
Tuxedo Junction
Minnie The Moocher
Five Guys Named Moe
How Long Must I Wait For You?
Jumpin’Jive