With due respect, John from Kansas, I have to disagree with you.

Back in the late 70's,I spent an entertaining couple of years playing club dates on the west coast with a random and ever-changing assortment of musicians, many of whom had been sidemen in greater and lesser known Swing Bands and Dance orchestras. My job was to pound out that straight beat underneath what ever they managed to improvise from the fake sheets. They were fairly insistent that they were playing swing jazz, and absolutely insistent that I pound away with that straight beat. If I slipped, or, God forbid, tried to get fancy, I'd get the fisheye.