In the 1970s, popular fusion groups included BLOOD, SWEAT & TEARS, CHICAGO, and SANTANA - a vocalist with piano or a small backup group. "C" Jam Blues (1942). Transcontinental trips often required a stop in one of these cities. clip on the basic jazz rhythm section), - Bass Apple Loops/REX/WAV. Maria Schneider assisted Gil Evans, wrote for Woody Herman and Mel Lewis, and has conducted jazz orchestras around the world. The repertoire of swing bands featured both jazz and popular arrangements. Gloria Parker had a radio program on which she conducted the largest all-girl orchestra led by a female. widespread popularity of big band/swing was accelerated by the rise of dozens '20s," "HOT" JAZZ This approach was then further expanded upon by Bebop, which largely abandoned the original melody of the song to create brand new melodies based on an established chord progression this was known as a contrafact. The lyrics kept within these traditions. style based on a faster, danceable beat with featured improvised solos. Kansas City, in particular, became a wide-open town totally ingrained in the entertainment business. Some bands were "society bands" which relied on strong ensembles but little on soloists or vocalists, such as the bands of Guy Lombardo and Paul Whiteman. Keyboards are the swing band equivalent of rice in Gumbo. From the late 1930s through the 1950s, Duke Ellington was one of the premier swing band leaders in America. [3] In the late 1930s, Shep Fields incorporated a solo accordion, temple blocks, piccolo and a viola into his Rippling Rhythm Orchestra. Benny Goodman (19091986) was a superior clarinetist who began appearing on stage by the age of twelve. One Oclock Jump: The Unforgettable History of the Oklahoma City Blue Devils. out of tune) notes, (4) and even a section with Armstrong's famous "scat Orleans musicians begin to consolidate the drum section (bass, snare, cymbals) commonly found in early New Orleans brass bands. (, : This can be best described as "composing and [22] Some bandleaders, such as Guy Lombardo, performed works composed by others (in Lombardo's case, often by his brother Carmen),[23] while others, such as Maria Schneider, take on all three roles. They provide the base, the foundation on which the rest of the music can thrive. style known as SWING. an important catalyst in the socio-political and artistic transformation of Swing Shift: All Girl Bands of the 1940s. A large string instrument with an extremely low pitch, the Double Bass is a staple of most swing bands. Jazz is America's The piece Hotter Than That Pianist and vocalist Sarah Vaughan also influenced many singers. A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with playing jazz music and which became popular during the Swing Era from the early 1930s until the late 1940s. projected in the way the drums and bass express the beat, how the piano Since he could not read music, Webb memorized the arrangements. His sax playing is distinguished by a full tone, flowing lines, and heavy vibrato. for hits such as Take the A Train, and Satin Doll, as well as colorful and Fish, Scott K. Duke Ellington vs Chick Webb: We Tore Them Up, Man. March 1, 2016. https://scottkfish.com/2016/03/01/5221/. freedom vs. chaos. And they played a particular type of Swing in Kansas City known as: Kansas City Jazz. New York in the late 1920s. 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). Congress repealed the Volstead Act, a law that prohibited the manufacture, transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages, in 1933. 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. Which white swing clarinetist and bandleader, who spent as much of his early career as he could in Harlem, once said, "I was actually leading the life of a Negro musician"? [26], Typical big band arrangements from the swing era were written in strophic form with the same phrase and chord structure repeated several times. His famous recording Body and Soul, recorded in 1939, is known for its continuous smooth sound. The Swing Era: The Development of Jazz, 19301945. jazz techniques into a more heavily-arranged "big-band" white swing 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]. The methods of dance bands marked a step away from New Orleans jazz. techniques (from native African musical tradition in which a leader does a By this time the big band was such a dominant force in jazz that the older generation found they either had to adapt to it or simply retire. Big Bands evolved with the times and continue to this day. Boogie-woogie is characterized by its well-known initiated by a 4-measure lead-in improvised over a "C" chord The dance duo Vernon and Irene Castle popularized the foxtrot while accompanied by the Europe Society Orchestra led by James Reese Europe. With no market for small-group recordings (made worse by a Depression-era industry reluctant to take risks), musicians such as Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines led their own bands, while others, like Jelly Roll Morton and King Oliver, lapsed into obscurity. [36]:p.31, Before 1910, social dance in America was dominated by steps such as the waltz and polka. The Henderson band is considerably larger than most syncopated dance bands of the 1920s (eight or nine musicians). In 1927, he taught music at Manassas High School in Memphis and organized a student jazz band. is exactly what the jazz musician does to keep track of the blues formone 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 ELLINGTON and William "Count" attractive to general listeners. California. Alto sax player, arranger, and bandleader Jimmie Lunceford (19021947) studied music at and graduated from Fisk University in 1926. The major "black" bands of the 1930s included, apart from Ellington's, Hines's and Calloway's, those of Jimmie Lunceford, Chick Webb, and Count Basie. instruments (one or more: Piano, an improvisation: melody, harmony, and form. Other bandleaders used Brazilian and Afro-Cuban music with big band instrumentation, and big bands led by arranger Gil Evans, saxophonist John Coltrane (on the album Ascension from 1965) and bass guitarist Jaco Pastorius introduced cool jazz, free jazz and jazz fusion, respectively, to the big band domain. A ballad is a simple song, usually romantic in nature, and uses the same melody for each stanza. [1], Duke Ellington led his band at the Cotton Club in Harlem. His pioneering vocal style, which treated his voice as an instrument, provided the foundation for vocal jazz interpretation. Glenn Miller used a clarinet over his saxophone for identification. Foremost, they accentuated the movement of choreographed dancers. They had the Blue Devils. basic chord progression of a 12-bar blues in the key of "C". They gave a greater role to bandleaders, arrangers, and sections of instruments rather than soloists. The first chorus of an arrangement introduces the melody and is followed by choruses of development. Above all else, Swing music is dance music which means it was: This also meant it was incredibly commercial. 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. Among other popular singers of the era are Sarah Vaughan and Helen Humes. Whiteman was educated in classical music, and he called his new band's music symphonic jazz. Jazz Big Band Arrangements. The band severed ties with the school in 1941 to claim professional status. During the "Roaring early style of "Hot Jazz" made its way north to Chicago and east to Radio increased the fame of Benny Goodman, the "Pied Piper of Swing". can keep track of this form by counting to 4 twelve times ("1 2 3 4", "2 2 3 4", "3 2 3 4", "4 2 3 4", "5 2 3 4", etc. Improvisation: This can be best described as "composing and alto saxophone. Louis Blues, but by the late 1930s, with the migration of Cubans and Puerto Ricans to New York City, Afro-Cuban music emerged along with new dances, such as the rhumba. 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. ensemble intimate style of Dixieland jazz into a harder-edged full band sound. "call" and a group does some type of "response"), (2) it - jukebox Which changes occurred in the rhythm section during the 1930s? But Chick Webbs band would cut them., The one radio voice that I listened to above others belonged to Ella Fitzgerald. Swing grew out of New Orleans Jazz and the evolved into Bebop. - grooves), - In Harlem, the creative and literary arts, Black musicals, and big band entertainment flourished within the movement known as the Harlem Renaissance, in which music played as great or possibly a greater role than literature. Four trombones comprised the trombone section. trombones Swing music appealed most dramatically to this demographic group: teenagers A "shout chorus" is: the final, climactic chorus in an arrangement Which changes occurred in the rhythm section during the 1930s? Stream Jazz" by combining a jazz combo with symphony orchestra. 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. The group emphasized correct technique and accurate playing and released its first recording in 1930. Arrangers notated specific notes for each instrument to play in every measure on a written score. (1899-1974): The 3. Art-music composer/conductor Leonard He toured and recorded many solos with, most notably, the Count Basie band. Important New York figures of this time include Chick Webb, Jimmie Lunceford, and Duke Ellington. And there were also 2 different styles of Swing music. Armstrong (nicknamed Western swing musicians also formed popular big bands during the same period. the following instruments: The Scat singing, along with his gravelly voice, became Armstrongs trademark sound, as heard in Lazy River (1931). Bandleader Charlie Barnet's recording of "Cherokee" in 1942 and "The Moose" in 1943 have been called the beginning of the bop era. Miller went in debt to start his band but was a millionaire within two years. Check them out, though Im sure you would already recognise many of them. Compared to Dixieland bands, swing bands used two or three times as many players and produced a fuller sound. Here are the five most common swing band instruments, and how they commonly fit into swing music. 0 collectively . The swing era was the one time that jazz was a truly popular style. 1920s as a blending of blues, ragtime, and civic brass band traditions, then this The term "big band" is also used to describe a genre of music, although this was not the only style of music played by big bands. the 1930s, famed jazz pianists Edward "Duke" began to emerge from the vocal blues [30], Some big ensembles, like King Oliver's, played music that was half-arranged, half-improvised, often relying on head arrangements. "Fusion" in its strictest by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. The score indicated a fixed number of measures for solo improvisation and also musical notations with the desired sounds and effects. Swing bands featured orchestras with sections of trumpets, saxophones, and. In Other renowned vocalists are blues singers Jimmy Rushing with You Can Depend on Me and Joe Williamss Roll Em Pete, featured with the Count Basie Orchestra, whose repertoire included ballads, jazz and pop standards. Packed with Ph.D.s, this scientific swing band performs a play list that leans heavily toward the heavens. Figure 1: The Western Jazz Quartet (piano: hmk6^/,$mA% This form maintains the same chord [20] Arrangers frequently notate all or most of the score of a given number, usually referred to as a "chart". And they played dance music. 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. Jazz vocalists during this era were highly influenced by horn players. Many of the better known bands reflected the individuality of the bandleader, the lead arranger, and the personnel. 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. KC Jazz marked the transition from the heavily structured, arranged and written out Big Band style of Swing to the more fluid and improvisation style of Bebop. Whiteman increased the size of his band into nearly symphonic proportion. Ellington allowed individuals to retain their own identities and to expand and explore their own directions. Unlike the concert band, the lead players should never be seated on the end of the section. As swing developed, the second player became responsible for most of the jazz solos. Ornette Coleman in the 1960s. The band features selections mostly from the swing era, with a dose of 50's Sinatra and 60's hipsters. Special thanks to Dr. Portia K. Maultsby and to the Advisory Scholars for their commitment and thought-provoking contributions to this resource. interacts with the bass and drums, and how the beat is divided up in complex The Double Bass is shaped like other string instruments such as the guitar or violin. Then, during the Swing Era, the sax player Coleman Hawkins changed the way jazz approached improvisation from melody to harmony (horizontal to vertical). Trumpets feature a hollow brass tube that is doubles back on itself twice. Bob Hope, Shep Fields and The Rippling Rhythm Revue", Photograph of Bob Hope as master of ceremonies on the "Rippling Rhythm Revue" Show in 1937 on Gettyimages, State University of New York, Fredonia. His bebop collaborations with trumpeter Dizzy GILLESPIE are some of the greatest moments in music history. In the early 1970s, Miles Davis began exploring And after years of economic depression, many Americans wanted to have fun. The swing style developed in the 1930s and continued to be popular throughout the 1940s and beyond as a distinctive genre. [24] In many cases, however, the distinction between these roles can become blurred. After the end of both bands, Basie formed his own orchestra, recruiting members from these two bands. Bridging the gap to white audiences in the mid-1930s was the Casa Loma Orchestra and Benny Goodman's early band. Swing as Popular Music 1. Boyd Raeburn drew from symphony orchestras by adding flute, French horn, strings, and timpani to his band. Social life changed and large ballrooms were needed for the thousands who wanted to dance every night and large bands seemed to be the answer to filling these dance halls with music. Instead of just embellishing the melody, he created a whole new melody based on the songs harmony by arpeggiating the chords and adding further chord alterations and substitutions to make his solo more complex. Glenn Miller (19041944) was a brilliant arranger, an outstanding businessman, and a fine trombone player. * has undergone several stylisdtic transformations, the most significant of which Very important to the development of the Swing Bands were the role of the composer/arranger and the excellent stylizations of musicians. While bassists can use a bow to vibrate the strings, swing band bassists will frequently pluck the strings instead. 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). However, jazz continued its artistic evolution as swing became established around 1929. highly-improvisatory new style of jazz called "Bebop" was developed Southwest bands offered a different solution to big band improvisational structures. premiered George GERSHWIN's Rhapsody in Blue and kicked off an 1554 0 obj <> endobj The Cotton Club started in Harlem before it moved downtown. But on performance day, this band of Lab rats replaces the high-tech gizmos with trumpets, saxophones, trombones, drums and a piano. A cheap & cheerful collection of up-tempo sax, trumpet and trombone funky licks featuring over 350 ensemble phrases, solos, trills and stabs for house, disco, electro-swing and quirky big-band-infused electronica. 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. (click All the big bands would go up there. They can be used to produce a melody or harmony for nearly every musical style. He created his band as a vehicle for his compositions. The successful bands of the Swing Era featured carefully composed arrangements that held many talented players together. Traveling conditions and lodging were difficult, in part due to segregation in most parts of the United States, and the personnel often had to perform having had little sleep and food. 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. The saxophone section included two alto saxophones, two tenor saxophones, and one baritone saxophone. Tenor saxophonist Lester Young (19091959) had a different approach than Hawkins and used a lighter tone. This would go back and forth a number of times. The swing era followed boogie-woogie. (5) tromboneJoe Nanton, and (6) clarinetBarney Bigard. 1U^ p(s XA@H:@!+H30q:pYL4#9 S Casa Loma Stomp marked the first recording of this emerging style in 1930. instruments (Saxophone, trumpet, clarinet, trombone, flute, vibraphone, etc.). virtuosity. The composer writes original music that will be performed by individuals or groups of various sizes, while the arranger adapts the work of composers in a creative way for a performance or recording. Ellington expanded Armstrong's small Latin-based rock idiom). clarinetist Benny GOODMAN and on the chart below to go to that interactive webpage). 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. daring arrangements of classic jazz tunes. So lets quickly take a look at all three genres: Lets dive into these characteristics of Swing Music a little deeper:
%%EOF While all my lessons are free, if you find them useful please consider donating to help keep them coming. tenor saxophone. highly improvisatory style called Bebop, ARMSTRONG took "Hot" Jazz to Chicago, where its popularity grew of the United States between 1920 and 1970.