I'm pretty sure Jo Jones would disagree with you, and pretty much every old testament Basie tune would completely contradict your assertion about the difficulty of dancing to hi hats. Just because a drummer sucks, or is too modern to understand how to play hi hats right, that's not a reason to tell him not to play hats. The alternative (ride) is one of things that most often makes swing STOP swinging and start grooving - and there's plenty of that out there. Instead its a reason to buy him an old testament Basie CD as a lesson in hi hats, and perhaps refer him to some sources of information on swing playing.Lawrence wrote: Many bands also generally play at one tempo (around 180 BPM), and do little more to change it up than than play a slow ballad. The drummers often also like to use the high-hat (the cymbal with two parts that clamp together via a foot pedal to stiphle the sound) to create that campy, choppy swing beat instead of smoothly just tapping out the syncopated rhythm on the ride cymbal. I have had to similarly disavow some drummers of using the high-hat swing beat, advising them for the first time that it is difficult to dance to because it creates an odd, choppy stop in the middle of the syncopation.
(you know I was incensed when I started writing this, but I'm calm now, you're just trying to do what you think works best, no worries)
I consider proper Swing playing a virtually lost art, and the number of drummers worldwide I've heard that get it right is rather small. 99% of big band drummers on earth go the ride all the time, and have no clue how to play hi hats. Why push him into the great ignorant mass of drummers who will never bother to try?