Orchestral jazz
Early innovators of the genre, such as Fletcher Henderson and Duke Ellington, include some of the most highly regarded musicians, composers, and arrangers in all of jazz history.
But before the widespread popularity of big bands, which developed in tandem with the growing dance craze, jazz was generally regarded as a rather crude variety of music.
His classical training substantially influenced the way in which he approached "Modern Music"; most famously, Whiteman's performance at Aeolian Hall in 1924 showcased the transformation he helped pioneer.
As a white man, Whiteman's capitalization on a musical genre that is incontrovertibly African-American in origins has led many critics to question the authenticity of his artistic pursuits, and even deem them exploitative.
Two of Whiteman's contemporaries that made, arguably, the most significant contributions to the development of orchestral jazz, were the collaborative duo of Fletcher Henderson and Don Redman.
Though Henderson, a piano player, never gained the celebrity of many other bandleaders of the time, his collaborations with Redman nonetheless had enormous influence on the development of orchestral jazz, and particularly its transition from Whiteman's symphonic arrangements to the eventual supremacy of big band.
[6] His use of arpeggiated chords, sectional point and counterpoint, changes in key signature and rhythm, and his layering of complex harmonies demonstrate Redman's nuanced grasp of musical composition.
This would become the foundational structure for big bands which typically consist of four trumpets, four trombones, five saxophones, and rhythm section (piano, bass, guitar, and drums).
But whereas Whiteman continued to write and perform an extensive amount of popular music—and did so almost exclusively after he suffered from the economic pressures of the Stock Market Crash of 1929—other big bands, like Henderson's, transitioned into the swing era.
These included Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins, Roy Eldridge, Benny Carter, Lester Young, and Chu Berry, to name just a few of the impressive bandmates Henderson recruited.
Big bands ushered in the swing era that began in the early thirties, signifying the culmination of commercial jazz that was heavily orchestrated.
His orchestra would feature players such as Johnny Hodges, Ben Webster, Jimmy Blanton, Juan Tizol, Cootie Williams, Harry Carney,[2] and would also see witness to a nearly thirty-year collaboration with composer-arranger-pianist Billy Strayhorn.
Basie's orchestra would feature many prominent members including Lester Young, Joe Keyes, Oran 'Hot Lips' Page, Buster Smith, Earle Warren, and later Illinois Jacquet, Paul Gonsalves and Lucky Thompson.
The orchestra was also well known for their rhythm section with including Basie on piano, Jo Jones on drums, Walter Page on bass, and Freddie Green on guitar.
The rhythm section would go on to define the sound for modern big bands, with Jones being one of the first drummers to shift the role of timekeeping from the bass drum to the hi-hat cymbal,[10] Page a leading innovator of the walking bassline, and Green developing the ''Freddie Green" style of guitar playing in which chords are played four to the bar, often while being muted slightly.
Prior to 1930, big bands were composed of trumpets, trombones, saxophones or clarinets, and a rhythm section made up of tuba, banjo, piano, and drums.
