CHAPTER 5
During the late 1920’s and early 1930’s, a number
of social and economic forces were coming
together that would ultimately transform pop
culture in America. During these “pre-swing era”
years the music business was rapidly changing
and becoming more centralized, radio networks
were launched that increased its already powerful
influence, and public dancing was becoming more
and more popular as a way for people to forget
about their troubles.
New York and Kansas City
Jazz was rapidly changing to keep abreast with
these developments, and during these years the
typical jazz ensemble grew in size, smoothed out
its rhythms and standardized its instrumentation.
As Chicago declined in influence, the most
important center for the development of jazz
became New York and Kansas City. As the
largest city in America, New York had always
been an important music city and was a logical
destination for musicians looking for work.
New York
Many of the top jazz musicians moved to New
York in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s, and
found literally thousands of nightclubs,
speakeasies, cabarets and dance halls.
Kansas City
Kansas City on the other hand, with its isolated,
rural setting, was an unlikely locale to support an
important music scene. Nonetheless, Kansas City
was the most wide-open town in America, and the
music that came out of it was exciting, modern,
and literally drenched in the blues. Like New
Orleans and Chicago before them, New York and
Kansas City each had a rich tradition of mixing
politics and corruption that was good for jazz.
Harlem Renaissance
As an important destination point for the Great
Migration, by 1920 the northern Manhattan
neighborhood of Harlem had become the largest
black community in America. Along with the
new immigrants came optimism and a belief that
the city was experiencing an awakening of the
“New Negro.”
Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance, as it was called, was
focused on the arts: theatre, literature, art,
poetry, and music.
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Other leaders of the Harlem Renaissance
Other leaders of the Harlem Renaissance include authors Zora
Neale Hurston, James Weldon Johnson and Langston Hughes, and
black nationalist Marcus Garvey.
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Zora Neale Hurston
Wrote Their Eyes Were
Watching God. (1937), written
during her fieldwork in Haiti and
considered her masterwork; and
Moses, Man of the Mountain
(1939).
Nationalist Marcus Garvey.
He founded the University Negro
Improvement Association in August
1914 as a means of uniting all of
Africa and its diaspora into "one
grand racial hierarchy."
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The Battle Hymn of Africa (black poetry)
Africa's sun is shining above the horizon clear, the day for us is rising, for black men far
and near; Our God is in the front line, the heav'nly batallion leads, Onward, make your
banners shine, ye men of noble deeds.There's a flag we love so well The red, the black
and green,Greatest emblem tongues can tell, The brightest ever seen.When
pandemonium breaks, the earth will tremble fast, Nor oceans, seas nor lakes shall save
the first or last; Our suffering has been long, our cries to God ascending; We have
counted ev'ry wrong which calls for an amending.So into battle let us go, with the Cross
before; The Angels, great, from high to low, watch forevermore; We see the enemy
scatter, and watch their ranks divide-With God there is no fetter for whom He doth provide.
All God's children, in trouble, or burdened down with care, No matter where, how humble,
His love is ever there; So cheerful let our courage be and rally for the King, The Saviour,
Christ, the Lord, is He, whom angels tidings bring. Ho, Africa, victorious! See, the foe goes
down! The Christ and Simon lead us to wear the triumphant crown; Jesus remembers
dearly the sacrifice with the cross, So raise those banners gladly-never to suffer loss! And
so the war is ending, the victor's palm is ours,Crushed 'neath a sorry bending, like dead,
fallen flowers, Thus lay the proud men of the day, all lost, forever, Where the demons
never say to God, "We'll deliver."
1910s
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During the 1910’s, political and activist
organizations also emerged in Harlem that
were associated with the Harlem Renaissance
movement. These include the development of
the NAACP and the Universal Negro
Improvement Association (founded by Marcus
Garvey).
NAACP
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The Race Riot of 1908 in Lincoln's hometown of Springfield, Illinois,
in 1908 had highlighted the urgent need for an effective civil rights
organization in the U.S. This event is often cited as the catalyst for
the formation of the NAACP.Mary White Ovington, journalist William
English Walling, and Henry Moscowitz met in New York City in
January 1909 and the NAACP was born. Solicitations for support
went out to more than 60 prominent Americans, and a meeting date
was set for February 12, 1909. This was intended to coincide with
the 100th anniversary of the birth of President Abraham Lincoln,
who emancipated enslaved African Americans. While the meeting
did not take place until three months later, this date is often cited as
the founding date of the organization.
1920’s and 1930’s - Jazz everywhere!
Due to the work and support for African Americans and
fascination with the African American culture and music,
Jazz was all over the place in Harlem during the 1920’s
and 1930s. You could hear it in dance halls like the
Savoy, Renaissance, and Roseland Ballrooms. You
could hear it in nightclubs like the Cotton Club, Connie’s
Inn and Small’s Paradise. It was jazz that to a large
degree drew white America to Harlem to get a
voyeuristic taste of the exotic world of the African
American.
The New York Club Scene
Owney “the Killer” Madden, proprietor of the Cotton Club, was one
of the white downtown gangsters that controlled much of the Harlem
nightlife by bootlegging liquor to speakeasies and operating
exclusive nightclubs that catered to rich and famous patrons. The
high prices at the clubs essentially instilled a “whites only” policy by
keeping the local middle-class blacks out. The big three were
Connie’s Inn at 131st street and Seventh Ave, where an evening out
cost an average of $15 per person in 1929; Small’s Paradise, a
huge club at 135th and Seventh Avenue with space for 1500
customers; and The Cotton Club, the “Aristocrat of Harlem” 142nd
and Lenox Avenue.
The Cotton Club
(where Duke Ellington end’s up getting his big start)
Reserved for whites only, the Cotton Club
was a vestige of the Jim Crow South.
The name itself was a slap in the face to
blacks, evoking the memory of the crop
most associate with slavery and
plantations. The exterior to the club had
a log cabin façade, while the backdrop to
the stage was a replica of a plantation
house. There were murals depicting
primitive African life on the wall. The
band played “Jungle Music” while
dancers performed in elaborate, risque
floor shows that had themes of darkness,
danger, and Africa.
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Downtown Night Clubs include:
• Moulin Rouge
• Café de Paris
• Hollywood Club
Theaters include:
• Lafayette (with 2,000 seats)
• Apollo Theatre on 125th which specialized in
vaudeville acts, stage shows, and musical
revues.
Dancing and Dance Halls
• Harlem home to biggest
dance halls in the country.
• Admission was cheap $50.
• White and blacks could
mix.
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• Hottest Bands were lead by
Fletcher Henderson, Chick
Webb, Cab Calloway, and
others.
• The Savoy was were the
biggest dance fad of the 1920’s
originated. In 1927, dancers
started doing the Lindy Hop as
a tribute to Charles Lindbergh’s
famous solo “hop” across the
Atlantic. The Lindy Hop was
an exciting, athletic dance
where dancers sometimes
actually threw their partners up
in the air.
Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley is the name given to the collection of New York
City-centered music publishers and songwriters who dominated
the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and
early 20th century.The start of Tin Pan Alley is usually dated to
about 1885, when a number of music publishers set up shop in
the same district of Manhattan. The end of Tin Pan Alley is less
clear cut. Some date it to the start of the Great Depression in the
1930s when the phonograph and radio supplanted sheet music as
the driving force of American popular music, while others
consider Tin Pan Alley to have continued into the 1950s when
earlier styles of American popular music were upstaged by the
rise of rock & roll.Tin Pan Alley was originally a specific place in
New York City, West 28th Street between Fifth and Sixth
Avenue. There is a plaque on the sidewalk on 28th St between
Broadway and Fifth with a dedication.
Song Writers of Tin Pan Alley
• Irving Berlin - wrote God Bless America, White
Christmas, Blue Skies, Puttin on the Ritz
• Jerome Kern - All The Thing You Are, The Song is
You, The Way You Look Tonight.
• George Gershwin - Summertime, I Got Rhythm,
Someone to Watch Over Me
• Richard Rogers - My Funny Valentine, My Romance,
and with Oscar Hammerstein II wrote the music for
Broadway shows like South Pacific, Oklahoma, and
The Sound of Music.
• Cole Porter - Night and Day, What is This Thing
Called Love, I’ve Got You Under My Skin and Let’s
Fall In Love.
The Music Biz and Birth of Radio
• Depression almost kills recording industry.
• Sale of records went from over 100 million in 1927 to
around 5 million in 1933.
• Advent of talking movies caused many theatres to
stop using live orchestras and music revues.
• Vaudeville died and Prohibition ended.
• A new broadcast medium - the radio - was also
changing the landscape.
• People started staying home and opting to venture out
for movies instead of live music.
Radio changes the entertainment industry
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Underwent explosive growth in first few years.
Between 1920-1924, 600 stations began broadcasting.
Radio executives realize the value of music programs.
Throughout 1920’s it is estimated that music programming
accounted for some 60 percent of all broadcast time.
• In 1927 three small networks were launched in New York:
NBC Red, NBC Blue, and CBS.
• It become increasingly clear that a small number of business
executives - “gatekeepers” - were deciding which orchestras
would be featured on the music programs that would be heard
by millions.
• Record companies, radio networks, booking agents, music
publishers and management companies all began to exert
tremendous pressure on musicians to have the right look,
sound and repertoire.
Birth of the Jazz Band
• Through 1920’s and 1930’s jazz band experiment with increasing their size.
• Because dance halls kept getting bigger and bigger, the amount of volume a
band needed to fill them kept growing.
• Duke Ellington exemplified this trend: his first band in 1924 had six
members. By 1927 he had 10 men, by 1930, 12 and by 1940, 15 members.
• The Depression made musical labor cheap and available.
• With more members in the band, there was an increased emphasis on
written arrangements.
• During the years leading up to 1935, the bands of Duke Ellington, Fletcher
Henderson, and others worked out arranging techniques that became
standardized during the Swing Era.
• Saxophones are added because of their wide range (Alto, Tenor, Bari).
• During the 1920’s Coleman Hawkins became the first star of the tenor
saxophone as a featured soloist with Fletcher Henderson.
• Two beat rhythms as the norm are replaced with smoother 4/4 rhythm.
Paul Whiteman Orchestra
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Symphonic Jazz - (used 20 to 30 instruments adding orchestral instruments such as the voilin and oboe.
Want to “make a lady of out of jazz” as he called it because jazz had an image problem.
February 12th, 1924 he hosts a concert in Aeolian Hall and brings jazz music to the classical area by showcasing
new performers such as George Gershwin and his Rhapsody in Blue. For the first time, jazz was given an
important place on the concert stage of the classical music world. For that, he became know as the “King of Jazz.”
At one point was the most popular band leader in New York.
Alumni include Bix Beiderbecke, Frankie Trumbauer, and both Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey
Not much improvisation in his charts because of the strict arrangements.
Gave future pop star Bing Crosby his first job.
Paid top dollar (as much as $350 a week).
Was grossing over a million dollars a year by 1922.
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Fletcher Henderson
• Was a chemist who went to New York for work. Could find
work.
• Became a “song plugger” for Pace and Handy and soon was
producing recordings sessions for Black Swan Records and their
classic blues singers like Ethel Waters and Bessie Smith.
• 1923 - secure a gig for his newly formed orchestra.
• Next lands gig at the Roseland, the top ballroom in Harlem at
the time, where they stayed for nearly 10 years.
• Infatuated with hot soloists and set about to acquire the best.
• Nearly every great jazz musician of the era passed through his
band.
• Alumni include Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins, and Don
Redman (arranger who created the mold for big band
arrangements of the swing era.
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Big Band Innovations of Fletcher Henderson Orchestra
• Sectionalization - Dividing up the band into brass, reeds and
rhythm section. Used call and response style.
• Ensemble Swing - Writing parts for the band that sound like
that were improvisations, including freer rhythms and jazz
inflections, just as a soloist would.
• Block Chord Writing - Harmonizing melodies into two or three
parts for each section to make them thicker and fuller.
• Solos - Incorporating improvised solos throughout as an
essential element of the arrangement.
• When Don Redman left in 1927 to join the rival McKinney’s
Cotton Pickers, the arranging duties were passed on to
saxophonist Benny Carter, Henderson’s brother Horace, and
ultimately Fletcher himself.
• Continued to be one of the elite black bands in New York
through the early 1930’s.
Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington
• Often called the greatest jazz
composer, if not the greatest
American composer.
• First jazz composer to write
extended works.
• First to write in a variety of
different styles.
• He was his own arranger.
• His arrangements were ground
breaking in their use of complex
harmonies, instrumental voicings
and utilizing the unique talents of
his musicians.
• Great bandleader in jazz.
• He lead an orchestra for more than
50 years.
• Born in Washington D.C.
• His father worked as a butler and a
caterer (occasionally at the White
House), and taught his son good
manners.
• Early in life developed a strong
sense of self confidence.
• His aristocratic manner of dressing
and interactions with others caused a
classmate to give him his famous
nickname at the age of fourteen.
• In 1917, after dropping out of high
school three months before
graduating, he started his first group,
the Dukes Serenaders.
• Age 14 writes his first composition
“Soda Fountain Rag.”
Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington
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Was a businessman and networked on
his own.
Followed around pianist Willie “The
Lion” Smith and James P. Johnson.
Sought advice on long taxi rides
through Central Park from orchestra
leader and composer Will Marion
Cook.
Made contacts in Tin Pan Alley.
Hired James “Bubber” Miley on
trumpet who studied the mute
techniques of Joe Oliver and because a
master of the plunger mute (popular for
growls and speech like notes).
During the Cotton Club Years he had to
provide music for the lavish floor
shows that started nightly at midnight
and 2:00am. Every six months a new
show would start so Ellington was
constantly writing.
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Jungle Style: Ellington’s first style of
writing. Because the shows at the Cotton
Club were exotic and risque, Ellington used
musical elements such as “Bubber” Miley’s
& “Tricky” Sam Nanton’s growling and
bluesy plunger techniques to get his Jungle
Sound.
Drummer Sonny Greer used a giant set of
percussion instruments that included
tympani, gongs and chimes to achieve all
kinds of interesting musical sounds and
effects.
1928 - One of Ellington’s most important
soloists, alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges
joined the group.
Stayed at the Cotton Club from 1927 -1931.
During the Cotton Club years established
himself as a composer, arranger, and
bandleader par excellence.
Receives national exposure for the first
time, as CBS Radio Network started
broadcasting live from the Cotton Club.
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Duke Ellington
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Kansas City - The Pendergast Machine
• 1500 miles from New York another scene
was developing in Kansas City.
• Kansas City was a major riverboat, railroad
and slaughterhouse center.
• The standard vices of gambling,
prostitution and drugs were present well
before Prohibition brought in the
bootleggers and organized crime element.
• During the early twentieth century, the city was
slowly coming under the de facto control of Tom
“Boss Pendergast.
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Kansas City - Tom
“Boss Pendergast
By 1926 had maneuvered on of his minions, Henry F. McElroy
into the post of city manager (the equivalent of mayor) and
sruck a deal with the mob boss Johnny Lazia (the “Al
Capone of Kansas City”) to run the police force,
Pendergast’s control of Kansas City politics was complete.
The Pendergast “administration” was one of the most
remarkable and corrupt in U.S. history.
He was the ultimate power broker who befriended the poor and
built up a popular grassroots political base.
Kansas City became an oasis of prosperity that enabled it to
remain Depression-proof throughout the 1930’s.
There was not one single alcohol violation in Kansas City
during the entire Prohibition Era!!!
Kansas City Club Scene
• The Subway - at 18th and Vine - had regular jam sessions the
attracted out of town musicians.
• The Sunset Club - at 18th and Highland was where blues
shouter Joe Turner tended bar and sang while boogie-woogie
virtuoso Pete Johnson played the piano.
• The Cherry Blossom - at 12 and Vine, had the most
notorious cutting contests (musician playing for superior
ranking and work).
• The Reno Club - at 12th and Cherry, had four show nightly.
Prostitutes took clients via a private stairway. The Reno club
discovered Count Basie Orchestra in 1935. It was where a
young Charlie Parker would hang out and listen to Lester
Young, Basie’s main tenor soloist.
Kansas City Trivia
• It is because of the notorious cutting contests and jam
sessions that Kansas city rhythm section players developed
tremendous chops and endurance that made them among the
hardest swinging players of their generation. Sometimes one
song could last three hours: Although horn players can rest
and relax during other solos, the rhythm section is forced to
play for hours on end. This is why they became so strong
and music was second nature to them.
Characteristics of Kansas City Style
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12 bar blues commonly used
Head arrangements and other simple arrangements
Emphasis on improvised solos, especially tenor sax
Boogie-Woogie influence
Light, crisp, powerful swing from rhythm section
Cultivated Tenor players (Lester Young, Herschel
Evans, and Ben Webster). Legendary story of
Fletcher Henderson’s band coming to Kansas
where the word spread about a cuttin contest:
Coleman Hawkins from Fletchers Band, Young,
Evans, and Webster were the last saxophonist
playing till dawn. A draw was declared.
Territory Bands
• Traveled the Midwest
• The home 'territories' were loosely defined, but some
classifications emerged. Generally, the areas were defined as
Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, West Coast, Southwest and
Northwest. In addition, some state-groupings became common.
One such group was usually referred to as MINK — Minnesota,
Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas. Another group was VSA — Virginia,
South Carolina and Alabama. The Southwest proved especially
fertile for territory bands. Texas, with its spread-out geography and
relatively large population, offered the greatest opportunity with
developed markets for dance music in Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston,
San Antonio, Austin, Amarillo, and other cities.
Territory Bands Produced Legendary Groups
• The Clouds of Joy (1929 - feature Mary Lou Williams who became one of the
finest pianist and arrangers)
• The Blue Devils - Led by bassist Walter Page the band included Lester Young
on tenor, Count Basie on piano, Buster Smith on alto sax and Jimmy Rushing
on vocals. Many of the Blue Devils when into Bennie Moten’s band include
Walter Page himself.
• Benny Moten Orchestra - Considered to be the top band in Kansas City from
1930 until 1935 (when he died on the operating table during a tonsillectomy).
Moten’s band included Ben Webster on tenor, Count Basie on piano, Young,
Rushing and Page. The cats possessed a great rhythmic drive and power that
Count Basie’s Orchestra was to be known for in the coming years.
• The Count Basie Orchestra - originally called Bill Basie and the Baron of
Rhythm. Basie secured a residency for the Baron of Rhythm at the Reno Club,
where experimental shor wave radio statioin W9XBY was broadcasting on a
weekly basis. When Columbia Records producer John Hammond heard the
band from his car radio in Chicago in 1936, he drove to Kansas City and set the
wheels in motion for Basie to debut in New York, get a recording contract, and
become the most famous of all Kansas City Bands.
• The Jay McShann Orchestra - last great Kansas City era band. His featured
soloist was 18 year old alto saxophonist Charlie Parker, who in just a few short
years, would become the leader of the modern jazz revolution.
Territory Bands Produced Kansas City Shouters
• Little Jimmy Rushing - sang with Basie from 1935-1950. Know as “Mr. Five by
Five” for his diminutive stature and expansive girth. Rushing was the greatest of
all blues shouters.
• Big Joe Turner - Turners greatest popularity came in the 1950’s when he had
several R&B hits including “Shake, Rattle and Roll” in 1954.
• Joe Williams -- had a career that started in the late 1930’s. Williams’ biggest hit
came in 1954 with Count Basie. “Every Day I have the Blues” almost singlehandedly revived Basie’s career when hard times had fallen on big bands. Later
in his life, William became more of a crooner in the style of Nat King Cole.
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Demise of Kansas City Bands
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Came to an end in the early 1930s.
Basie is discovered and leaves in 1936.
Many musicians follow success to New York.
Talent Scouts descend on Kansas and rob most of the talent.
Tom Pendergast’s reign of power was unraveling.
By mid decade a number of high profile gang assassinations took
place, including Johnny Lazia in 1933, and three of Pedergast’s
rivals at a polling place on election day in 1934.
• Pedergast was losing as much as $50,000 a day better on the race
track and was eventually indicted for income tax evasion in 1938.
Convicted the following year and sent to Leavenworth Prison.
• Dealing with the huge debt Pendergast left meant the city spent
years of rebuilding its economy.
• As jobs for musicians started to dry up, America’s entry into WWII
and the draft, gas and rubber rationing and entertainment tax that
came with it was the final blow that put an end to the glory years of
Kansas City jazz.