Born in Mobile, Alabama, Swingle studied music, particularly jazz, from a very young age.

[2] Swingle then moved to France in 1951 on a Fulbright scholarship, where he studied piano with Walter Gieseking and also worked as a rehearsal pianist for Les Ballets de Paris.

[2] In 1959, he was a founding member of Les Double Six of Paris, which specialised in scat singing of jazz standards.

[1] Swingle subsequently applied the scat singing idea to the works of Johann Sebastian Bach.

In March 1994, Swingle and his wife moved back to France, where he continued his work in arranging, composing and guest conducting.