I've heard some over the years say that Greer didn't REALLY swing, not like Jo Jones or Chick Webb or any of those guys, and I guess, sure, ok, whatever.
Me, I call bullshit on that, because ultimately swing, even/especially in its more "abstract" forms, is about pocket. And jesuscrisco, Sonny Greer had pocket.
My Exhibit A will be the almost universally disdained "Kitty" one of the supposedly "desperate" Ellington singles from the last days of the 40s band. It's so universally unloved that there's no YouTube video of it now (and the one that used to be there was buried deep in the bowels of that beast). Maybe it's still there?
Anyway, it's Ray Nance all the way, and Ray Nance at his Floorshow BEST. And Sonny Greer is locking into it HARD. Especially when Johnny Hodges gets a solo on a bridge, with band punctuation. Oh my GOD, Sonny Greer is hitting a backbeat so deep in the pocket that it gives even the fattest asses room to move with glory, gaiety, and GROOVE.
Sonny Greer didn't REALLY swing?
Bullshit.