When he was 20, Swope played with
Sonny Dunham; he was then with
Boyd Raeburn (1943–44),
Georgie Auld (1945), and
Buddy Rich (1945–47). From 1947 to 1949 he worked with
Woody Herman and also recorded in small groups with
Stan Getz and
Serge Chaloff. In 1950–51 he was with
Elliot Lawrence, then worked freelance in New York and Washington, D.C. Later in the 1950s he returned to big band work, playing with
Jimmy Dorsey (1957) and
Louie Bellson (1959). In the 1960s he played locally in Washington, D.C.; he died there on January 3, 1968. ==Playing style==