Jazz, Big Bands and the
Swing Years
Chapter 7/8
Ragtime vs African Americanized
Marches
• John Philip Sousa (white) – popularized
marches Stars and Stripes Forever, march
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4v9Da
5DpYo
• Scott Joplin – (black) – popularized
ragtime
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57DCa6
cboHA
Similarities – steady pulse
Differences - Ragtime had more
syncopation, more blue notes, and
more swing
New Orleans
• Mixed African American / White population
• Blacks, and creoles(light skinned) were mostly
formally trained musicians
• Professional musicians were typically looked
down upon and considered lower class
• Jazz was orginially a street form with negative
connotations
• The spread of Jazz can be associated with
Prohibition in the 1920s.
Dixieland Jazz Band
• First Jazz recording 1917 in NYC
• All white group of musicians
• Helped bring jazz to a larger white
audience
• Musicians began moving out of New
Orleans to other cities, especially Chicago
Chicago
• Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, and
Bix Beiderbecke – best known musicians
Jelly Roll Morton
• 1890-1941
• Creole pianist and composer from New
Orleans
• 1926 – formed a studio band called the
Red Hot Peppers
• Grandpa’s Spells
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSvEqtHtEE
Louis Armstrong
•
•
•
•
•
From New Orleans, moved to Chicago
Known for technical prowess
Bright tone – bugle, cornet, trumpet
Stonger emphasis on improvised solos
Notable practitioner of scatting – the
practice of using nonsense syllables
instead of words to indicate an instrument
• , scat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3fGrQ
YHHBI
Leon “Bix” Beiderbecke
• 1903-1931
• 1923-came to Chicago and formed a band of young
white musicians called the Wolverines
• Cool School strain of jazz – a warm mellow sound
opposite of Armstrong’s bright tone
• Pioneered a ballad style in jazz – a slower number
• Remember, fast numbers weren’t really fast and slow
numbers weren’t really slow.
• One of the first modernists in Jazz. Used the whole-tone
scale which gave listeners an exotic sound.
• Singin the Blues
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ue9igC7flI
The Swing Era
• 1935-1945 – most popular period for Jazz
• Ensembles are referred to as “big bands”
• New York – musicians were accompanists
for classic blues singers during recording
sessions, and formed dance orchestras to
play at clubs in Manhattan and Harlem
Fletcher Henderson
• 1897-1952
• Fletcher Henderson Orchestra let by Fletcher Henderson
– pianist
• Much arranging was left to lead saxophonist Don
Redman
• Evolved with influence from Louis Armstrong –
innovative, hot swinging style with relaxed rhythm, and
from the Paul Whiteman Orchestra – dance band that
identified itself with jazz.
• Drums used sparingly at first – rhythm section was tuba
and banjo
• Band went bankrupt by 1934 and disbanded
Fletcher Henderson
Sugar Foot Stomp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hj
EiyhESlh4
NY VS New Orleans
• NY –3 (later 4-5) saxophones, 2(later 3-4)
trumpets, 1 (later 2-4) trombones
• Homophonic
• *********************************************
• New Orleans – frontline horn section –
clarinet, trumpet, and trombone
• Polyphonic
Kansas City Style
• Musicians generally had less formal training
unlike musicians from New Orleans and Chicago
• More emphasis was placed on individual solo
• Arrangements made up on the spot
• One member would dictate a short melodic
figure (RIFF) and the band would play it back in
unison or with improvied harmonies ( RIFF
CHARTS)
William “Count” Basie
• 1904-1984
• Born in Red Bank, NJ – moved to Kansas
City
• Pianist
• Possessed the finest rhythm section of the
swing era
• His musicians were not formally trained
Count Basie – Doggin’ Around –
AABA form
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
_Z5MOyL1cco
Count Basie - April In Paris
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
sU1yg6_l0_4
Benny Goodman
• 1909-1986 Born in Chicago, a white clarinetist
• Swing was a fully formed style by the 1930s, but
was not accepted into mainstream popular
music – Benny Goodman’s orchestra was most
responsible for that acceptance
• Goodman purchased Fletcher Henderson’s
library and it became a basis for the band’s style
• In The Mood
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR3K5uBwMA
Benny Goodman, cont.
• Goodman had racially mixed bands – a practice
that was uncommon for the time. This helped
bring jazz to a more diverse audience and
therefore increased its popularity
• He is known in the history of jazz as the
benchmark of its success
• He was the first jazz ensemble to perform at
Carnegie Hall in 1938 – concert sold out, tickets
were $2.75
• “KING OF SWING”
Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington
• 1899-1974
• He brought his band from Washington to
NY in the early 1920s
• Band started as a syncopated dance
orchestra, but were influenced by two
things
• It Don't Mean a Thing If It Aint Got That
Swing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvsgGp8rSE
Influence #1
• Trumpeter James “Babber” Miley from
New Orleans
• Babber affected Ellington the same way
Armstrong affected Henderson
• Miley did this freakish growl effect with his
trumpet, putting a plunger over the bell
and making a growling sound with his
throat (ex. 1927 East St. Louis Toodle-Oo)
• http://youtu.be/-_Y0cJ-aEbY
Influence #2
• The Cotton Club in Harlem – he was
hired for a residency as a house band
• Operated by mob owner Owney Madden
• Sold illegal alcohol during Prohibition
• Offered black entertainment to a primarily
white Manhattan audience
Art Influence
• Ellington was an artist
• He brought ideas of color, texture, and
mood to manuscript paper instead of
canvas
• This can be seen in songs such as “Mood
Indigo,” “ On a Turquoise Cloud,” and
“Magenta Haze.”
• Ellington was unique because he spent so
much time playing with the same
musicians, the parts he wrote were written
specifically for their abilities
• The parts were labeled not by instrument,
but with the performers name
A Pulitzer Prize?
• Career lasted well into the 1970s
• Ellington was denied the Pulitzer Prize for
music, primarily because of racism
• In 1999, the centennial of Ellington’s birth,
he was posthumously awarded a special
and belated Pulitzer award
Other Big Bands
White Orchestras
• Access to major recording labels, the
finest and the most prestigious ballrooms,
and had the most radio exposure
• Technical perfection, finest musicians,
extremely conservative, leaned toward the
“sweet” side of popular music
Black Bands
• Bold and driving music whenever racial
customs allowed
• Leaned toward the “hot” and “sweet” side
of popular music
• “Sweet” and “hot” coexisted before a mass
audience
Glen Miller Orchestra
• Glen Miller 1904-1944, trombonist
• Orchestra was formed in 1939
• Through his efforts as bandleader and
arranger, he developed the most
commercially viable style of any swing band
• “Hot” – In the Mood
• “Sweet” – Moonlight Serenade
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQseFAc
WvtE
Tommy Dorsey
• 1905-1956
• An early colleague of Goodman, Miller, and
Beiderbecke
• One of the finest trombonists of any style
• Instead of as a gruff instrument, Dorsey
presented the trombone as a beautiful solo
instrument.
• His tone, phrasing, and remarkable breath
control were the primary influences on Frank
Sinatra.
Artie Shaw
• 1910-2004
• The only real threat to Benny Goodman’s
clarinet expertise
• His sensitive personality did not fit with the
pressures of musical commercialism.
• His band was so unstable, they formed and
disbanded 8 times between 1936 and 1955
• Formed a curious group consisting of a
Dixieland band with a string quartet!
• Though sweet and hot prevailed for a long time
in the Swing Era, commercialism soon prevailed.
• The music of the bands became more polite; the
arrangements became more conservative and
began to crowd the space previously reserved
for improvising jazz soloists.
• The greatest fame, money, and exposure was
again given to white artists, but musicians would
continue to explore their creativity and technical
abilities in private jam sessions.
• This eventually will lead to bebop in the 1940s.
World War II
* Rationing of gasoline and other products
Curtailed touring and record production
• It became too expensive to fund big bands
• Many band members were drafted
Crooners
• Crooners – singers of popular ballads
• 1942-1944 – Musician’s union imposed a
ban on recording. Singers were NOT
union members and so were exempt!
• Because of this, public attention went to
singers, particularly crooners (Like
Sinatra)
REVIVAL
• In 1998, there was an experienced swing
revival with bands like the Brian Setzer
Orchestra and the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies
• Cherry Poppin Daddies, Zoot Suit Riot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd5HqNEf
aUA
• Brian Setzer Orchestra Jump Jive and Wail
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHWcN5Y
xuYc