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Jesper Thilo has led his own bands since 1985, and always surrounded himself with some of the Denmark’s very best rhythm sections, including the team he prefers to play with at the moment: a super tight, swinging unit with Søren Kristiansen at the piano, Daniel Franck on the bass, and Frands Rifbjerg behind the drums. Little surprise then that it’s this inspired group that he wanted to appear on his new record. Unlike many other jazz musicians, Thilo has always kept his distance from composing original music. His repertoire is primarily culled from the great American songbook and beloved jazz standards – material that’s enduring and flexible enough to be turned upside down and dance another round in the ring, but retro? Not on your life. In his very entertaining autobiography (Man ska’ ku’ se komikken), Jesper Thilo writes that “jazz is for grown-ups who want to tear a few hours out of their perhaps boring lives to have a little fun and hear something that they can concentrate on, where they can be free of dogs, kids, TV, and that kind of thing.” That’s just the jazz you can hear on Swing is the Thing – recorded live, without edits and other fixes, over three short days in Thomas Vang’s studio, ‘The Village’ in Copenhagen. Live, but without an audience, accompanied only by fun, and where Swing is the Thing!