It’s the jitterbug meets dub step, it’s flappers on Facebook. “It’s Cab Calloway meets Daft Punk,” explains Good Co bandleader Carey Rayburn.

Good Co is the US’s first live Electro Swing Band, a genre mixing the music of the swing era with the dance music of today. Like baseball, mom, and apple pie, Jazz is about as American as it gets. But for years jazz has faded from the mainstream, and is now often thought of as an eclectic or intellectual type of music. Of course this was not always the case. When jazz was first invented it was the music of the clubs, it was for dancing, it was for boozing, it was forbreaking away from the constraints and formalities of the time. What’s a good speakeasy without some wild jazz music to go along with all that gin? 

Electro Swing takes these sounds, embedded in the American identity, and brings them into the 21st century. Its Roaring‘20s meets 2020s as swinging samples are mixed with electronic beats and modern production techniques. 

For Seattle six piece Good Co, the Jazz came first and the Electro followed after. “All of the band members are musicians who studied performance at college, our background is pretty traditional” explained Rayburn. But that all changed when a friend introduced him to the Electro Swing sounds that were percolating in Europe. “I’d always been a big fan of early jazz, and I had just starting really getting into Electronica, so it was a perfect fit!”

Rayburn quickly started writing Electro Swing music of his own and formed the band Good Co. He was surprised to find there were no other bands performing the genre in the US. “It was taking off in Europe but I was shocked to find there were no groups back here. It seemed crazy to me, I mean, the US invented Jazz!” 

Since forming the band in 2012 Good Co has been called “pure entertainment” and “a bit addictive” by reviewers. The group has played throughout the the country in an effort to, according to Rayburn, “spread the sound of Electro Swing, and, most importantly, show people a good time. I mean, that’s the whole point dance music, no matter the era!”