Swing music
Musicians of the swing era include Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Benny Carter, Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey, Woody Herman, Earl Hines, Bunny Berigan, Harry James, Lionel Hampton, Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, Jimmie Lunceford, and Django Reinhardt.
Swing has its roots in 1920s dance music ensembles, which began using new styles of written arrangements, incorporating rhythmic innovations pioneered by Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter and other jazzmen.
[5] In the late 1980s to early 1990s, new urban-styled swing-beat emerged called new jack swing (New York go-go), created by young producer Teddy Riley.
[6] In the late 1990s and into the 2000s, there was a swing revival, led by Squirrel Nut Zippers,[7] Brian Setzer orchestra and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.
The Henderson band also featured Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter, and Buster Bailey as soloists, who all were influential in the development of swing era instrumental styles.
Traditional New Orleans style jazz was based on a two-beat meter and contrapuntal improvisation led by a trumpet or cornet, typically followed by a clarinet and trombone in a call-response pattern.
The Chicago style released the soloist from the constraints of contrapuntal improvisation with other front-line instruments, lending greater freedom in creating melodic lines.
Hines' melodic, horn-like conception of playing deviated from the contemporary conventions in jazz piano centered on building rhythmic patterns around "pivot notes".
Black territory dance bands in the southwest were developing dynamic styles that often went in the direction of blues-based simplicity, using riffs in a call-response pattern to build a strong, danceable rhythm and provide a musical platform for extended solos.
The requirement for volume led to continued use of the sousaphone over the string bass with the larger ensembles, which dictated a more conservative approach to rhythm based on 2/4 time signatures.
Meanwhile, string bass players such as Walter Page were developing their technique to the point where they could hold down the bottom end of a full-sized dance orchestra.
Jean Goldkette's Victor Recording Orchestra featured many of the top white jazz musicians of the day including Bix Beiderbecke, Jimmy Dorsey, Frank Trumbauer, Pee Wee Russell, Eddie Lang, and Joe Venuti.
As the 1920s turned to the 1930s, the new concepts in rhythm and ensemble playing that comprised the swing style were transforming the sounds of large and small bands.
[14] With the early 1930s came the financial difficulties of the Great Depression that curtailed recording of the new music and drove some bands out of business, including the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra and McKinney's Cotton Pickers in 1934.
Despite Benny Goodman's claim that "sweet" music was a "weak sister" as compared to the "real music" of America, Lombardo's band enjoyed widespread popularity for decades while crossing over racial divides and was even praised by Louis Armstrong as one of his favorites[29][30] In 1935 the Benny Goodman Orchestra had won a spot on the radio show Let's Dance and started showcasing an updated repertoire featuring Fletcher Henderson arrangements.
Swing-era repertoire included the Great American Songbook of Tin Pan Alley standards, band originals, traditional jazz tunes such as the "King Porter Stomp", with which the Goodman orchestra had a smash hit, and blues.
Swing dancing originated in the late 1920s as the "Lindy Hop", and would later incorporate other styles including The Suzie Q, Truckin', Peckin' Jive, The Big Apple, and The Shag in various combinations of moves.
As with many new popular musical styles, swing met with some resistance because of its improvisation, tempo, occasionally risqué lyrics, and frenetic dancing.
[32] In his 1941 autobiography, W. C. Handy wrote that "prominent white orchestra leaders, concert singers and others are making commercial use of Negro music in its various phases.
That's why they introduced "swing" which is not a musical form" (no comment on Fletcher Henderson, Earl Hines, Duke Ellington, or Count Basie).
[33] The Dixieland revival started in the late 1930s as a self-conscious re-creation of New Orleans jazz in reaction against the orchestrated style of big band swing.
With its Savoy engagement in 1937, the Count Basie Orchestra brought the riff-and-solo oriented Kansas City style of swing to national attention.
Coleman Hawkins arrived back from an extended stay in Europe to New York in 1939, recorded his famous version of "Body and Soul", and fronted his own big band.
In 1940 vocalist Vaughn Monroe was leading his own big band and Frank Sinatra was becoming the star attraction of the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, inciting mass hysteria among bobby-soxers.
Ability to adapt performing styles to various situations was an essential skill among these bands-for-hire, with a somewhat sedated version of swing in common use for backing up vocalists.
The Stan Kenton and Woody Herman bands maintained their popularity during lean years of the late 1940s and beyond, making their mark with innovative arrangements and high-level jazz soloists (Shorty Rogers, Art Pepper, Kai Winding, Stan Getz, Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, Serge Chaloff, Gene Ammons, Sal Nistico).
The Basie and Ellington bands flourished creatively and commercially through the 1960s and beyond, with both veteran leaders receiving high acclaim for their contemporary work and performing until they were physically unable.
Asleep at the Wheel has also recorded the Count Basie tunes "One O'Clock Jump", "Jumpin' at the Woodside", and "Song of the Wanderer" using a steel guitar as a stand-in for a horn section.
Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks, and later David Grisman, presented adaptations of Gypsy Swing, rekindling interest in the musical form.
In Seattle the New Deal Rhythm Band and the Horns O Plenty Orchestra revived 1930s swing with a dose of comedy behind vocalists Phil "De Basket" Shallat, Cheryl "Benzene" Bentyne, and six-foot-tall "Little Janie" Lambert.
