His famous recording Body and Soul, recorded in 1939, is known for its continuous smooth sound. Trumpets A prominent feature of swing music is a leading brass section, which is often provided by a trumpet. The Cotton Club started in Harlem before it moved downtown. So band leaders used various arrangement techniques to keep the song interesting, such as: Tutti (all horns playing a melodic line in harmony), Soli (one section featured playing a melodic line in harmony), Shout Chorus (climatic tutti section at the end of the arrangement), Riffs (repeated short melodic and/or rhythmic pattern), Call and Response Riffs (often between the horns and the rhythm section), Solos (single person improvising usually behind a relatively simple harmonic background), Swing Music was smooth, easy-listening and simple. (As told to Albert Murray). endstream endobj 1558 0 obj <>stream Louis ARMSTRONG (1900-1971): Hotter Than That (1927). Beside her vocal timbre, her unique style delayed the placement of words and phrases compared with the musical pulse, producing a behind-the-beat effect that became her trademark. Tenor saxophonist Lester Young (19091959) had a different approach than Hawkins and used a lighter tone. Fish, Scott K. Duke Ellington vs Chick Webb: We Tore Them Up, Man. March 1, 2016. https://scottkfish.com/2016/03/01/5221/. (1899-1974): The Concert When it comes to swing music, keyboards are typically used as a harmonic element. These ensembles typically featured three or more accordions accompanied by piano, guitar, bass, cello, percussion, and marimba with vibes and were popularized by recording artists such as Charles Magnante,[10][11] Joe Biviano[12][13] and John Serry. Art-music composer/conductor Leonard Please change your browser preferences to enable javascript, and reload this page. Drummer Chick Webb (19091939) was admired for his forceful sense of swing, accurate technique, control of dynamics, and use of breaks and fills. such works incorporate certain elements of the jazz tradition, there is not even She led her Swingphony while playing marimba. An Autobiography: John Hammond on Record with Irvin Townsend. The Big Bands of swing were only able to acquire one-night stand performances and consequently suffered financially. a vocalist with piano or a small backup group. is called the "12-bar blues." Many of the great swing bands broke up, as the times and tastes changed. By the 1930s, these and other cities became major centers for the development of the swing style. These musical ensembles associated with the swing era. Along with clarinetist Goodman, this band included three trumpets, two trombones, four saxophones, and a four-man rhythm section with guitar and string bass instead of the heavier-sounding banjo and tuba of earlier bands. Whether your event needs a small ensemble or a full big band sound, we have the professionalism and class needed for functions requiring real live music! Swing is sandwiched between two huge historical events. Which of the following changes occurred in the rhythm section during the 1930s? The score indicated a fixed number of measures for solo improvisation and also musical notations with the desired sounds and effects. Many bands from the swing era continued for decades after the death or departure of their founders and namesakes, and some are still active in the 21st century, often referred to as "ghost bands", a term attributed to Woody Herman, referring to orchestras that persist in the absence of their original leaders. Swing bands featured orchestras with sections of trumpets, saxophones, and _________________. New York in the late 1920s. 20th-century popular music and culture. Charlie Parkers album South of the Border illustrated the influence of this genre on a bop artist, and the Tokyo Cuban Boys, an Afro-Cuban band dating from the postWorld War II years, exemplified the musics international appeal. They had the Blue Devils. Above all else, Swing music is dance music which means it was: This also meant it was incredibly commercial. serene style of "cool jazz" became the rage on the west coast. The size could be anywhere from about 12 to 30 players. the late 1930s through the 1950s, Duke Ellington was one of the premier swing band In swing, the saxophone was usually featured as the leading instrumental soloist. Big bands started as accompaniment for dancing. The popularity of many of the major bands was amplified by star vocalists, such as Frank Sinatra with Tommy Dorsey, Helen O'Connell and Bob Eberly with Jimmy Dorsey, Ella Fitzgerald with Chick Webb, Billie Holiday and Jimmy Rushing with Count Basie, Dick Haymes and Helen Forrest with Harry James, Doris Day with Les Brown,[40] and Peggy Lee with Benny Goodman. All Jazz styles have two common features: - Yet, as woodwind-style instruments, they also feature a wide range of available notes and pitches. Columbia, Victor, and Decca were the three most important, Swing bands featured sections of trumpets, saxophones, and. This pattern reinforced the second and fourth beat of every measure and later became known as a back beat. Additionally, the drummer accommodated the improvisations of soloists, providing a non-intrusive, laid-back swing pattern. - jukebox Which changes occurred in the rhythm section during the 1930s? trombone. Bridging the gap to white audiences in the mid-1930s was the Casa Loma Orchestra and Benny Goodman's early band. 1570 0 obj <>stream the following instruments: The syllables). style, boogie-woogie was born. Many swing-era compositions were written by professional songwriters employed by song publishing companies. Armstrong (nicknamed How relevant do you believe the poem is today? Thats what makes it stand out. Her version of the nursery rhyme A-Tisket, A-Tasket (1938) brought her international fame. Swing was the predominant style of jazz music played from the late 1920s to mid-1940s. During the "Roaring Swing bands adopted a consistent instrumentation of four sections that remained fairly stable. In the late 1960s, Jazz trumpeter Miles ARMSTRONG took "Hot" Jazz to Chicago, where its popularity grew - trombones The invention of ______ helped the record industry to recover in the mid-1930s. trumpet. grooves, click Steve Zegree; sax: Trent Kynaston; bass: Tom Knific; drums: Tim Froncek). Music is My Mistress. Count Basie became an Oklahoma City Blue Devil around 1929 and also played with Bennie Moten. Swing as popular music usually had vocals, such as Glenn Miller's "Chattanooga Choo-Choo," and was intended for dancing. and ingenuity. hbbd``b`:$g@Hp,@,Fb 0 O3 Paul Whiteman (18901967), called the King of Jazz, sought after talented top names for his band like Bing Crosby, Bix Beiderbecke, and Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey. out of tune) notes, (4) and even a section with Armstrong's famous "scat endstream endobj 1555 0 obj <>/Metadata 104 0 R/Outlines 108 0 R/PageLayout/OneColumn/Pages 1544 0 R/StructTreeRoot 655 0 R/Type/Catalog>> endobj 1556 0 obj <>/Font<>>>/Rotate 0/StructParents 0/Type/Page>> endobj 1557 0 obj <>stream The "white" bands of Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey, Shep Fields and, later, Glenn Miller were more popular than their "black" counterparts from the middle of the decade. You Big Bands evolved with the times and continue to this day. Swing music was performed by a larger ensemble consisting of saxophones (sometimes also clarinets), trumpets, and trombones. Count Basie played a relaxed, propulsive swing, Bob Crosby (brother of Bing), more of a dixieland style,[39] Benny Goodman a hard driving swing, and Duke Ellington's compositions were varied and sophisticated. The rhythm section would typically include piano, string bass, drum set, with occasional additions of guitar or other chordal/melody instruments. uses "call and response" Henderson and arranger Don Redman followed the template of King Oliver, but as the 1920s progressed they moved away from the New Orleans format and transformed jazz. initiated by a 4-measure lead-in improvised over a "C" chord in Blue (1925). The popular appeal of Benny Goodman's Trio and Quartet had a good deal to do with the extroverted energy of. He would conduct his band from his drum set. Some bands, like those of Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Woody Herman, that performed in the 1920s, 1930s, or 1940s continued to perform successfully into the 1970s and 1980s. introduction, the main theme, and four varied improvised choruses. often feature virtuoso performers, on exemplifies many of the most innovative aspects of this new jazz style: (1) It This would go back and forth a number of times. Kansas City was busy with musical activity from the early 1920s to about 1938. instruments (Saxophone, trumpet, clarinet, trombone, flute, vibraphone, etc.). Lester Leaps In: The Life and Times of Lester Pres Young. "Fusion" in its strictest Cool Jazz Ella Fitzgerald, the featured vocalist of Chick Webbs Orchestra during the late 1930s, is considered to be one of the most outstanding singers of the swing era. With the exception of Jelly Roll Morton, who continued playing in the New Orleans style, bandleaders paid attention to the demand for dance music and created their own big bands. Only hotel-type bands such as that of Guy Lombardo and select jazz players such as Benny Goodman found consistent employment. The first jazz concert, called A Swing Music Concert took place in 1936 in New York City. Big bands of today are not all from an earlier era. Three bypass valves over the tube can be used to lower the pitch of the trumpet. The Glenn Miller Band worked the best jobs and recorded often. Performers played, sang, danced, and presented shows and stand-up comedy in these large entertainment venues. [26], Typical big band arrangements from the swing era were written in strophic form with the same phrase and chord structure repeated several times. [19], It is useful to distinguish between the roles of composer, arranger and leader. Swing was hugely popular in fact, it was the pop music of the 1930s. harmony, structure and instrumentation. !/$v}5cliH_+B9W#PBY]C ::B) This was in part due to a political organization called the Pendergast Machine which encouraged a nightclub atmosphere. Since theyre built of brass, saxophones tend to produce a trumpet-like buzzing sound. Swing was hugely popular - in fact, it was the pop music of the 1930's. It was mostly performed by Big Bands, which were large orchestras divided into trumpets, saxophones, trombones, and a rhythm section (which consisted of the drums, bass, guitar and piano). The "Modern Popular Music" chart below, [44], Although big bands are identified with the swing era, they continued to exist after those decades, though the music they played was often different from swing. early style of "Hot Jazz" made its way north to Chicago and east to 1920s as a blending of blues, ragtime, and civic brass band traditions, then this The trumpeter blows on the mouthpiece at one end of the trumpet with closed lips, and the sound wave reverberates through the tube until it exits out the widened far end of the instrument. trombonist Glenn MILLER incorporated The dance duo Vernon and Irene Castle popularized the foxtrot while accompanied by the Europe Society Orchestra led by James Reese Europe. "Swing" feeling: The rhythmic phenomenon of "swing" feeling is Led by an African American woman, this 16-member band gained notoriety across the United States and in Europe, despite the challenge of imposed racial and gender restrictions. (String Bass or Electric Bass), plucked with the fingers, often providing a Jazz Big Band Arrangements. Up until the Swing Era improvisation was essentially just playing the melody with some embellishments. Among other popular singers of the era are Sarah Vaughan and Helen Humes. (called a "chorus"). $27.95. Many Kansas City bands featured head arrangements, which were . To learn more about the book this website supports, please visit its, You must be a registered user to view the. In the early years of Jazz, and up until the Swing Era, the piano was still very much rooted in the rhythm section of the band. Don Ellis, an excellent trumpet player and drummer, is influenced by music from India. But on performance day, this band of Lab rats replaces the high-tech gizmos with trumpets, saxophones, trombones, drums and a piano. (Change the second verb to the future progressive form.). II era. When the trumpets and saxophones are combined in a musical accompaniment, they can lead a vibrant and multi-toned swing melody. 3. - So generally the pianist played very rhythmically, and helped keep the beat. New York was an important geographic area for the developments leading toward the swing style of jazz. Two other musical characteristics of swing bands are a return to the use of a flat-four rhythm and the use of block chords (chords with many notes moving in parallel motion). (click rock . clip on the basic jazz rhythm section. They were knowledgeable and often biased toward their favorite bands and songs, and sometimes worshipful of famous soloists and vocalists. Lester Young & Herschel Evans. He created his band as a vehicle for his compositions. "8-to-the-bar" rhythmic structure: (LONG-short-LONG-short-LONG-short-LONG-short), 1 2 As swing developed, the second player became responsible for most of the jazz solos. The better jazz musicians of swing bands would form swing combos within most large bands. African American theaters and night clubs, the Apollo, the Savoy, and the Lafayette, became legendary for presenting jazz combos and orchestras. In Kansas City, Bennie Motens and Count Basies bands had begun developing a looser type of big band arrangement that allowed for freer styles of soloing, giving rise to a unique Kansas City swing style in the 1930s. Billie Holiday is considered to be the most influential of the jazz singers of the century after Louis Armstrong, who influenced her style. here to see a YouTube clip on jazz improvisation). jw7(W3;TEd5SOBmlyb./hh IOQ,+B}I\fT-q\ dJ(0!GF>B)- |0~J;:AC*: Y3[.(&=>:UU5aH@ZLLEc))3c.mcX=ia&1cy]aE~9CB7L_ :vQxc!#\JK?1UshqkF~[!eO W,{(HBjkps~'O;5lR. Compared to Dixieland bands, swing bands used two or three times as many players and produced a fuller sound. Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, and Jimmie Lunceford each led orchestras that achieved international standing. The piece Hotter Than That sense means to merge styles together. Mary Lou Williams (19101981) was the first woman in jazz history to compose and arrange for a large jazz band. Nostalgia for the Big Band style has kept it alive today. Click here for a FREE preview of The Classic Swing Bands newest CD Ballroom Dance Favorites.. projected in the way the drums and bass express the beat, how the piano New York in the late 1920s. The popularity of their bands in the mainstream reveals the extent to which jazz and blues had become the most popular dance music of the 1930s and 1940s. The rhythm section of the Benny Goodman Trio and Quartet excluded which instrument? A general format emerged from the creation of a swing jazz arrangement. Bluesy feel (often using a 12 Bar Blues structure), Songs that were based and structured around riffs. In swing, the saxophone was usually featured as the leading instrumental soloist. creating a style known as "Dixieland" Jazz or One Oclock Jump: The Unforgettable History of the Oklahoma City Blue Devils. Rhythm Section: (click here to see a YouTube In the 1970s, popular fusion groups included BLOOD, SWEAT & TEARS, CHICAGO, and SANTANA The most basic element of a song is also one of the most important a good rhythm. Later, a fifth bass trombone was often added. NY: Penguin Books:1977. bWkwf>JW'wJj_]6/?NxP]-0_wg"2;WjbuY5sujr7g/sueG>trp~ZBV7]M(//m!o/f[^fb]x>f]aX?UnAW|ng)]s? counting pattern over again for each successive variation of the pattern John Coltrane's "hard bop" of virtuosity. Swing is a term often used in reference to large dance bands of 15 or more musicians that played written arrangements using improvised sections alternating with arranged passages by brass and/or reeds. The band features selections mostly from the swing era, with a dose of 50's Sinatra and 60's hipsters. leaders in America. In the 1960s, Gunther SCHULLER developed a style known as "Third The methods of dance bands marked a step away from New Orleans jazz. YouTube clip with basic piano chords). Figure 3: WMU's "Gold In New Orleans, black Fitzgerald recorded several standards that became hit songs. They had Count Basie, they had Benny Moten, they had George Lee, they had Junior Lee, they had Lester Young, they had Walter Brown., What I heard in that first nine-piece Basie band was the sort of free, swinging jazz that I have always preferred. Since 1960, several newer types jazz techniques into a more heavily-arranged "big-band" white swing below to see YouTube performance clips), - They can be used to produce a melody or harmony for nearly every musical style. In the fifties, the emergence of rock-and-roll would capture broad attention as jazz moved in new artistic directions. Basie, Count. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. Hickman's arranger, Ferde Grof, wrote arrangements in which he divided the jazz orchestra into sections that combined in various ways. Scat singing, along with his gravelly voice, became Armstrongs trademark sound, as heard in Lazy River (1931). basic chord progression of a 12-bar blues in the key of "C": (click here to see animated [27] Each iteration, or chorus, commonly follows twelve bar blues form or thirty-two-bar (AABA) song form. The saxophone features a curved reed mouthpiece and a long brass tube that gradually expands before doubling back and bellowing outwards. [9] During the 1940s, somewhat smaller configurations of the big band emerged in the form of the "rhythm sextet". Western swing musicians also formed popular big bands during the same period. Ra's eclectic music was played by a roster of musicians from ten to thirty and was presented as theater, with costumes, dancers, and special effects.[1]. In the late 1990s, there was a swing revival in the U.S. Trumpets provide a brash buzzing sound thats well suited for a melody. Swing did not always swing but rather involved jazz performers doing a jazz interpretation of pretty ballads. Many arrangements contain an interlude, often similar in content to the introduction, inserted between some or all choruses. www.bigfishaudio.com. Ellington recorded this of American jazz. Swing as Popular Music 1. Some of the Piano techniques employed during the Swing Era were: A good example of this is the Count Basie song Kansas City Keys. In the 1950s, a smooth style of "West Starting in the early 1900s, various jazz and traditions have African American big band arrangers such as Fletcher Henderson and Eddie Durham were major contributors to the success of white bandleaders such as Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, and Glen Miller. The Music . Then circle the object of the preposition. (say, the brass section, i.e., trumpets and trombones) would play a musical phrase and then be "answered" by another section (say, the . Click black jazz musicians developed an intense Duke Ellington at one time used six trumpets. West Side Story. By the late 1930s, prosperity was returning, and records and radio were extremely helpful in publicizing jazz. The music of Count Basie (19041984) represents a leading voice in the big band style. This is where one section (say, the brass section, i.e., trumpets and trombones) would play a musical phrase and then be "answered" by another section (say, the saxes); the first phrase is the call, the answer is the response (like a musical conversation). "call" and a group does some type of "response"), (2) it During the 1920s, Kansas City, Oklahoma City, and Dallas were vital crossroads resulting in a mix of musical styles and cultures. GILLESPIE: Koko (1945). Swing music began appearing in the early 1930s and was distinguished by a more supple feel than the more literal 44 of early jazz. Duke Ellington wrote a song in 1931 titled It Dont Mean a Thing (If It Aint Got That Swing), and for a generation of music lovers those were words to live by. for hits such as Take the A Train, and Satin Doll, as well as colorful and Many college and university music departments offer jazz programs and feature big band courses in improvisation, composition, arranging, and studio recording, featuring performances by 18 to 20 piece big bands.[46]. Explain your opinion in a book review. The Timeline of African American Music has been made possible in part by a major grant from theNational Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom. As I said before, Swing music is played by Big Bands. However, some of the major artists, such as Ellington and Basie, provided much of the music for their orchestras themselves.