Wow. You were talking about Swing (the genre), not swing (the brutish, hardly musical battering of drum heads). I apologize for my density, however, you slid heavily off course on your "here's why Cozy Powell sucks" diatribe.
It's a stretch to insinuate that he was a key factor in bringing Rainbow down to earth (that was lame, I know) - Rainbow had enough on-going internal strife that the band was bound for the member-only revolving door and inevitable flame-out. I doubt that many of Rainbow's 700 break-ups/make-ups/reformations/Mk 3, 4, 5, etc.) were due to drum play.
Some of my favorite music of all time are those Rio/Blackmore/Bain/Powell songs like Stargazer and A Light in the Black off of "Rising". Epic stuff. His drumming on Kill the King is so wickedly inspirational (and tiring) that it confounds me how folks look at him only as a beater.
Swing is not dead in modern music, either. Take a guy like JP Gaster of Clutch - he's a big hitter, but has sinister chops and cites Buddy Rich and Elvin Jones as key influences. If you listen to JP speak about drumming, he also cites John Bonham (who I don't particularly care for) as a huge influence on his playing style.
My son's drum instructor is heavily into the hitters like Bill Ward and Powell, but is enjoying teaching the different passions that many influential drummers brought to music. I love the fact that my 14 year old loves some of the old (and dead) guys like Powell, Paice, Ward as well as some of the new beasties like Jordison and Lombardo
Although everyone is entitled to their own opinion about music and the effect that music has on them, there is no "case closed" on any topic...although I totally agree that Ian Paice may be the most overlooked drummer in the history of music. I grew up (I'm 51) with 2 older brothers shoving DP down my throat at a very early age, and my oldest brother (being a drummer) trying to show me every nuance to Paice's playing. One thing about DP is that even their more recent stuff is chock full of great drumming. The man is a machine.
Steve