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. In the early 1950s a smoother, more As a result, employment opportunities for jazz musicians increased and Kansas City became a jazz mecca. tenor saxophone. Ornette Coleman in the 1960s. However, jazz continued its artistic evolution as swing became established around 1929. A large string instrument with an extremely low pitch, the Double Bass is a staple of most swing bands. Tucker, Sherrie. All the big bands would go up there. Transcontinental trips often required a stop in one of these cities. rapidly with both black and white audiences. Latin-based rock idiom). [3] In the 1940s, Stan Kenton's band used up to five trumpets, five trombones (three tenor and two bass trombones), five saxophones (two alto saxophones, two tenor saxophones, one baritone saxophone), and a rhythm section. 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. At these venues, which themselves gained notoriety, bandleaders and arrangers played a greater role than they had before. Bandleaders dealt with these obstacles through rigid discipline (Glenn Miller) and canny psychology (Duke Ellington). Vocalists began to strike out on their own. who specialized in less improvised tunes with more emphasis on sentimentality, featuring somewhat slower-paced, often heart-felt songs.[43]. The string bass replaced the tuba and the guitar replaced the banjo. Keyboards are some of the most versatile instruments out there. Up until that time, it was viewed with ridicule and looked upon as a curiosity. Yes drums are like the Roux or Fil in Gumbo. Check them out, though Im sure you would already recognise many of them. Phil Spitalny, a native of Ukraine, led a 22-piece female orchestra known as Phil Spitalny and His Hour of Charm Orchestra, named for his radio show, The Hour of Charm, during the 1930s and 1940s. During the 1920s, Kansas City, Oklahoma City, and Dallas were vital crossroads resulting in a mix of musical styles and cultures. accompaniment (acoustic bass with piano and/or guitar). Young, who also studied violin, trumpet and drums, displayed an excellent sense of melody in his lyrical soloing. Boyd Raeburn drew from symphony orchestras by adding flute, French horn, strings, and timpani to his band. IMPORTANT MUSICIANS: Louis Armstrong (cornet/trumpet), Bix Beiderbecke (cornet), Jelly Roll Morton (piano/composer), Sidney Bechet (soprano sax, clarinet), Earl "Fatha" Hines (piano) Swing/Big Band Era (1930-1945) In New Orleans, black daring arrangements of classic jazz tunes. For the trumpet and trombone players, the most common configuration is 2-1-3-4, from the director's . Ella Fitzgerald contributed to the success of Webbs band in New York City. He would conduct his band from his drum set. Armstrong (nicknamed (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
. Byron Almen, Dorothy Payne, Stefan Kostka. It began as an intensified rhythmic outgrowth of the black Rhythm & The Double Bass is shaped like other string instruments such as the guitar or violin. Ellington recorded this Her version of the nursery rhyme A-Tisket, A-Tasket (1938) brought her international fame. sense means to merge styles together. In contrast to the typical jazz emphasis on improvisation, big bands relied on written compositions and arrangements. California. a vocalist with piano or a small backup group. 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. African American theaters and night clubs, the Apollo, the Savoy, and the Lafayette, became legendary for presenting jazz combos and orchestras. performing at the same time." Many Kansas City bands featured head arrangements, which were . an improvisation: melody, harmony, and form. Blues tradition, then became popular with white listeners during the World War 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. From three to five plyers on each instrument might be used. Choose the vocabulary word that answers each riddle. Critics and historians refer to these groups as ghost bands because of the absence of their leaders and new personnel. Swing bands featured orchestras with sections of trumpets, saxophones, and _________________. Beacon, 2002. Guitar, Organ, Banjo), - One or more solo A. Rolfe, Anna Mae Winburn, and Ina Ray Hutton.[35]. His efforts helped make it possible for jazz musicians to earn a decent wage. Many of the better known bands reflected the individuality of the bandleader, the lead arranger, and the personnel. often feature virtuoso performers, on Among other popular singers of the era are Sarah Vaughan and Helen Humes. during the World War II years. Very important to the development of the Swing Bands were the role of the composer/arranger and the excellent stylizations of musicians. 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. So lets quickly take a look at all three genres: Lets dive into these characteristics of Swing Music a little deeper:
(1937). Fitzgerald recorded several standards that became hit songs. The 20th-century popular music and culture. Lester Leaps In: The Life and Times of Lester Pres Young. Rockefeller Arts Center. Q G("CH^T)daA]yg~zN^y>.g~01D%>7dj.|K+8'9 q*U!i|O1#"v\YOGtc_GD1JL. (5) tromboneJoe Nanton, and (6) clarinetBarney Bigard. Maria Schneider assisted Gil Evans, wrote for Woody Herman and Mel Lewis, and has conducted jazz orchestras around the world. projected in the way the drums and bass express the beat, how the piano Swing music was performed by a larger ensemble consisting of saxophones (sometimes also clarinets), trumpets, and trombones. Compared to Dixieland bands, swing bands used two or three times as many players and produced a fuller sound. Daniels, Douglas. The music business suffered during the Great Depression. Hot Swing (people like Duke Ellington) was more daring, experimental, faster, with longer improvisations, stronger rhythmic drive, and a rough blues feeling. The Timeline of African American Music by Portia K. Maultsby, Ph.D. presents the remarkable diversity of African American music, revealing the unique characteristics of each genre and style, from the earliest folk traditions to present-day popular music. When you mentioned the word Jazz to the average person, they probably think of Swing music, and for good reason. Then circle the object of the preposition. "Hot" Jazz, as improvised over standard blues patterns. Drummer Chick Webb (19091939) was admired for his forceful sense of swing, accurate technique, control of dynamics, and use of breaks and fills. ", One of the most common forms used in jazz Art-music composer/conductor Leonard - a jazz choir (with or without instrumental accompaniment): Jazz combos often feature virtuoso performers, on This exact format is employed today by the many high school and college jazz ensembles around the country as well as overseas. of the United States between 1920 and 1970. Big band swing was at the forefront of jazz and underwent its most concentrated growth and development from 1930 . 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. is called the "12-bar blues." During the next decades, ballrooms filled with people doing the jitterbug and Lindy Hop. In the fifties, the emergence of rock-and-roll would capture broad attention as jazz moved in new artistic directions. [28] This development may take the form of improvised solos, written solo sections, and "shout choruses". 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. The project is also supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. 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. (London: Paladin) 1987. Only hotel-type bands such as that of Guy Lombardo and select jazz players such as Benny Goodman found consistent employment. Pianist and vocalist Sarah Vaughan also influenced many singers. and His Mother Called Him Bill, featured "Blood Count" and "Lotus Blossom," was a tribute album to . Holiday crossed musical genres, singing jazz, blues, and pop while keeping her individual singing style. 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). 6 Steps to Big Band Writing with Steven Feifke. The saxophone section included two alto saxophones, two tenor saxophones, and one baritone saxophone. on the chart below to go to that interactive webpage). Since the 1920s, Jazz : The rhythmic phenomenon of "swing" feeling is https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Big_band&oldid=1142698476, This page was last edited on 3 March 2023, at 22:19. 1554 0 obj <> endobj She led her Swingphony while playing marimba. Starting in the early 1900s, various jazz and traditions have 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. Swing band music was organized in homophonywhere two or more instruments played similar or complementary lines. basic chord progression of a 12-bar blues in the key of "C". Ellington expanded Armstrong's small L6G9MTRv&hVSOC9Y)~06CW)j#8qE#C?YOK%d\SC9IT~U {J;F\m`F># The popular appeal of Benny Goodman's Trio and Quartet had a good deal to do with the extroverted energy of. 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. [30], Some big ensembles, like King Oliver's, played music that was half-arranged, half-improvised, often relying on head arrangements. initiated by a 4-measure lead-in improvised over a "C" chord Since 1960, several newer types [24] In many cases, however, the distinction between these roles can become blurred. The successful bands of the Swing Era featured carefully composed arrangements that held many talented players together. $27.95. improvised solo structure on the choruses: (1) piano--Ellington), (2) jazz The lyrics kept within these traditions. Swing bands featured sections of trumpets, saxophones, and trombones The invention of ______ helped the record industry to recover in the mid-1930s. Casa Loma Stomp marked the first recording of this emerging style in 1930. The stage was set up with five saxophones, two altos, two tenors, and one baritone, stage front left with four trombones directly behind them, and three trumpets at the back, the electric guitar was in center stage with . counting pattern over again for each successive variation of the pattern West Side Story. (, : This can be best described as "composing and here to see a YouTube clip on jazz improvisation). While drum sets are typically used for this important task in swing music, single drums can also do the trick if theyre played with precision. Jazz began in New Orleans in the The band severed ties with the school in 1941 to claim professional status. 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. And this is where the term head comes from, meaning the original melody of the song that is, its all in your head, not written down on paper. Swing music began appearing in the early 1930s and was distinguished by a more supple feel than the more literal 44 of early jazz. 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. There was a considerable range of styles among the hundreds of popular bands. early style of "Hot Jazz" made its way north to Chicago and east to John Coltrane's "hard bop" of Big bands originated during the early 1910s and dominated jazz in the early 1940s when swing was most popular. A ballad is a simple song, usually romantic in nature, and uses the same melody for each stanza. alto saxophone. Up until the Swing Era improvisation was essentially just playing the melody with some embellishments. sprouted up in different parts of the United States, and their uniquely - a vocalist with piano or a small backup group. The rhythm section of the Benny Goodman Trio and Quartet excluded which instrument? a) Henderson's big band comprises five brass instruments (three trumpets and two trombones), four reed instruments (saxophones and clarinets), and a rhythm section consisting of piano, bass, characterized by independent instrumental lines, massive harmonic dissonance, Kansas City, in particular, became a wide-open town totally ingrained in the entertainment business. Hickman's arranger, Ferde Grof, wrote arrangements in which he divided the jazz orchestra into sections that combined in various ways. 3. One of the most common forms used in jazz Duke Ellington (18991974) proved that orchestrating jazz was an art of the highest level. 1. Concert In general, swing refers to the music of large dance bands that played written arrangements. art form--a unique blending of West African and Western European/American Examples include the Vienna Art Orchestra, founded in 1977, and the Italian Instabile Orchestra, active in the 1990s. Arrangers notated specific notes for each instrument to play in every measure on a written score. of American jazz. A standard big band consists of saxes, trumpets and trombones with a rhythm section. They refuse to look for new ideas and new outlets, so they fall by the waysideIm going to try to find out the new ideas before the others do., I stole everything I ever heard, but mostly I stole from the horns.. The jazz musician relies on three basic elements of the song to develop Much like the stock in Gumbo, it provides an essential rhythmic and harmonic element in swing music. Bluesy feel (often using a 12 Bar Blues structure), Songs that were based and structured around riffs. Many of the great swing bands broke up, as the times and tastes changed. Swing was almost entirely commercial and part of the mass entertainment industry. 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. His music was a combination of solo and ensemble playing. 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! Thats intentional; the individual style of each swing band is what makes the music unique, much as the seasoning used in a particular Gumbo can make it one of a kind. [7][8], Jazz ensembles numbering eight (octet), nine (nonet) or ten (tentet) voices are sometimes called "little big bands". Swing as popular music usually had vocals, such as Glenn Miller's "Chattanooga Choo-Choo," and was intended for dancing. 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. Bassists generally assumed the role of timekeeper, while drummers functioned in a dual capacity. "big band" backup, the most famous example, The Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy from [1], Duke Ellington led his band at the Cotton Club in Harlem. "Duke" ELLINGTON Four trombones comprised the trombone section. [1], One of the first bands to accompany the new rhythms was led by a drummer, Art Hickman, in San Francisco in 1916. He was the recipient of a Fulbright Lecturing/Research Fellowship in Japan, where he taught courses in African American History and researched the history of jazz in Japan. In a big band jazz group, at least three trumpets, two trombones, four or more saxophones, and a rhythm section of piano, guitar, bass, and drums are combined with a vocal element. The most prominent features of big band swing were the use of written arrangements and improvised solos, repetitive horn riffs, call and response between the brass and reed sections, and a rhythmic drive derived from walking and/or boogie-woogie type bass lines. 1930s, jazz expanded into a "Big Band" phenomenon with Duke Ellington And they played a particular type of Swing in Kansas City known as: Kansas City Jazz. Western swing musicians also formed popular big bands during the same period. clip on the basic jazz rhythm section), - Bass It is usually played by big band ensembles that use a rhythm section with drums, bass, sometimes a guitar, and almost always a piano, a brass section of trumpets and trombones, and a reed section of saxophones and clarinets.