SWING – BANDLEADERS
MUH 271 Jazz History
PROHIBITION
• The Volstead Act
• “After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture,
sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation
thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and
all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes
is hereby prohibited.”
• Amendment 18 to the US Constitution (repealed by 21st
Amendment)
• Ratified Jan. 16, 1919, took effect Jan. 20, 1920
• Result:
• Some reduction in drinking
• a vast web of illegal drinking establishments usually controlled by
organized crime
• owners hired the best entertainers they could afford, including jazz
musicians
PAUL WHITEMAN
• Possibly the first pop superstar, called the “King of Jazz”
during the 1920s
• Symphonic jazz – Whiteman attempted to “make a lady out
of jazz”
• Wanted to hire “some jazz musicians, preferably black” in
1926
• Hired vocalist Bing Crosby, who had been influenced by
Louis Armstrong
• Hired jazz instrumentalists such as Bix Beiderbecke and Frank
Trumbauer
• some innovative jazz recordings from 1927 to 1929
FLETCHER HENDERSON (DEC. 18,
1897-DEC. 29, 1952)
• Born into middle-class family, studied music with his mother
• Received a degree in chemistry and mathematics at Atlanta
University, moved to New York in 1920 to establish career as a
chemist
• Song demonstrator for the Pace-Handy Music Co.
• Recording director and composer for Black Swan
• Black Swan “the first black-owned recording company
that sold popular music to black audiences”
• In operation from 1921-23
MORE FLETCHER HENDERSON
• Offered a position at the Roseland Ballroom – initially a dance band
• Brought in Louis Armstrong as a "jazz specialist" in 1924
• Don Redman, the band's music director until 1927, established a basic
format for big band arrangements:
• Sectional writing; interplay of reeds and brass
• Use of call-and-response
• Solo sections interspersed between arranged sections
• good soloists and the ability to make written arrangements swing
• a primary model for big bands until the mid-1930's
IMPEDIMENTS TO GREATER
SUCCESS
• Failure to embrace newer modes of marketing
• Although Henderson recruited excellent players, they were frequently lured
away by other bandleaders
• Sold many of his best arrangements to Benny Goodman in 1934
• Worked as a full-time staff arranger for Goodman from 1939-1941
BENNY (BENJAMIN DAVID)
GOODMAN (MAY 30, 1909-JUNE 13,
1986)
• “Classical" clarinet training at the Kehelah Jacob Synagogue in Chicago
and later from Franz Schoepp.
• Familiar with jazz artists of the day through radio
• Joined the musician's union in 1923, and he joined Ben Pollack's band in 1925
• Recorded his first solo with Pollack ("He's the Last Word") on December 17, 1926
• Pollack's band moved to New York in 1928.
• Left Pollack in 1929; a leading freelance musicians until 1934, when he
formed his first big band
AS A BANDLEADER:
• began recording for Columbia in the spring of 1934
• NBC radio series "Let's Dance"
• Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles on August 21, 1935
• Concert was broadcast nationwide
• Considered by many to be the beginning of the Swing Era
• Carnegie Hall concert January 16, 1938
INNOVATIONS
• High standards of musicianship
• First white bandleader to adopt (and popularize) an "uncompromising jazz
style“
• One of the first white bandleaders to feature African American players
(Teddy Wilson, Lionel Hampton, Charlie Christian)
• After 1940, groups tended to assembled as needed, often performed
classical repertory