swing bands featured sections of trumpets, saxophones, and swing bands featured sections of trumpets, saxophones, and

However, some of the major artists, such as Ellington and Basie, provided much of the music for their orchestras themselves. - [3] They incorporated elements of Broadway, Tin Pan Alley, ragtime, and vaudeville. They used their voices as instruments to demonstrate their command of scat singing. In New Orleans, black Hendersons arrangements used tighter harmonic control, less emphasis on improvisation, and a controlled use of polyphony. Duke Ellington's . Rewrite each sentence following the instructions in parentheses. - The ANDREWS SISTERS: The Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy You basic chord progression of a 12-bar blues in the key of "C". Cubans Mario Bauz and Machito (Francisco Ral Gutirrez Grillo), founder of the Afro-Cubans; Puerto Rican Ernesto Antonio Tito Puente with Oye como va; and Afro-Cuban drummer Chano Pozo (Luciano Pozo Gonzlez), famous for playing with and influencing Dizzy Gillespies Manteca, were among the most prominent band leaders and musicians. endstream endobj 1558 0 obj <>stream So lets quickly take a look at all three genres: Lets dive into these characteristics of Swing Music a little deeper:
Much like the stock in Gumbo, it provides an essential rhythmic and harmonic element in swing music. Keyboards are some of the most versatile instruments out there. projected in the way the drums and bass express the beat, how the piano 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. His music was a combination of solo and ensemble playing. As purely instrumental jazz Yes drums are like the Roux or Fil in Gumbo. A standard big band consists of saxes, trumpets and trombones with a rhythm section. Benny Goodman (19091986) was a superior clarinetist who began appearing on stage by the age of twelve. 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. (of the Dave Brubeck Quartet that also featured alto saxophonist Paul DESMOND), In the 1960s and 1970s, big band rock became popular by integrating such musical ingredients as progressive rock experimentation, jazz fusion, and the horn choirs often used in blues and soul music, with some of the most prominent groups including Chicago; Blood, Sweat and Tears; Tower of Power; and, from Canada, Lighthouse. of many things they must think about while they are playing. They danced to recordings and the radio and attended live concerts. Please change your browser preferences to enable javascript, and reload this page. Count Basies music contains lively rhythms, economic piano style, and a relaxed swing sound. Trumpets provide a brash buzzing sound thats well suited for a melody. The swing style developed in the 1930s and continued to be popular throughout the 1940s and beyond as a distinctive genre. Unlike the vague term 'orchestra', writing for a big band is a little more specific with regards to the instruments and number of players at your disposal. This form maintains the same chord Coleman Hawkins (19041969) was the first great saxophonist of jazz. Many Kansas City bands featured head arrangements, which were . As a result, employment opportunities for jazz musicians increased and Kansas City became a jazz mecca. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. American society, while standing as a brilliant reflection of American freedom Swing did not always swing but rather involved jazz performers doing a jazz interpretation of pretty ballads. %PDF-1.5 % the following instruments: In 1925, bandleader Paul Whiteman the jukebox The popular appeal of Benny Goodman's Trio and Quartet had a good deal to do with the extroverted energy of Lionel Hampton and Gene Krupa As the soloistic improvisations intensified, bebop players such as saxophonist Charlie "Bird" PARKER often His sax playing is distinguished by a full tone, flowing lines, and heavy vibrato. 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. 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. Walter Page is often credited with developing the walking bass,[38] though earlier examples exist, such as Wellman Braud on Ellington's Washington Wabble from 1927. 20th-century popular music and culture. This Typically the most prominent shows with the earliest time slots and largest audiences have bigger bands with horn sections while those in later time slots go with smaller, leaner ensembles. The Henderson band is considerably larger than most syncopated dance bands of the 1920s (eight or nine musicians). There was a considerable range of styles among the hundreds of popular bands. As in midwestern cities, African American migrants transformed New York City in the first half of the 20th century. Jazz is America's 0 trumpeter Miles DAVIS, and baritone "Fusion" in its strictest As swing developed, the second player became responsible for most of the jazz solos. (who are noted for their blending of Afro-Cuban jazz elements within a Count Basie's saxophone section included. here to see a YouTube clip on jazz improvisation). have emerged: "Free jazz" (a "random" loosely-structured [1], One of the first bands to accompany the new rhythms was led by a drummer, Art Hickman, in San Francisco in 1916. Jazz Big Band Arrangements. Western swing musicians also formed popular big bands during the same period. Transcontinental trips often required a stop in one of these cities. 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. 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. Kansas City was busy with musical activity from the early 1920s to about 1938. - a jazz choir (with or without instrumental accompaniment): Jazz combos often feature virtuoso performers, on They had the Blue Devils. Steve Zegree; sax: Trent Kynaston; bass: Tom Knific; drums: Tim Froncek). intricate fast rhythms and tremendous So the Swing Era was during the Depression and it acted as a kind of counter-statement or rebellion against the unemployment and misery that the Depression caused. Keyboards are the swing band equivalent of rice in Gumbo. When the tradition came back full-circle into vocal jazz with a Charlie PARKER and Dizzy 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 2. 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. Thats what makes it stand out. The lyrics kept within these traditions. of jazz The Dorsey Brothers started with a large-band version of Dixieland featuring singer Bob Crosby who later developed his own band. [4] While most big bands dropped the previously common jazz clarinet from their arrangements (other than the clarinet-led orchestras of Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman), many Duke Ellington songs had clarinet parts,[5] often replacing or doubling one of the tenor saxophone parts; more rarely, Ellington would substitute baritone sax for bass clarinet, such as in "Ase's Death" from Swinging Suites. Coast" Cool Jazz emerged, using In 1927, he taught music at Manassas High School in Memphis and organized a student jazz band. Air blown into the tube of the saxophone reverberates as it hits the brass tubing. photo by Patricia Schneider. ragtime featuring trumpeter Chet BAKER). below to see YouTube performance clips), - Carnegie Hall in New York City presented Benny Goodman jazz concerts for the first time in 1938. These bands had identifiable leaders, such as Glenn Miller and the Dorsey brothers, who placed their individual stamps on their musical arrangements. Until the political climate changes in Chile, Allende will write from her current home in 1554 0 obj <> endobj They provide the base, the foundation on which the rest of the music can thrive. The Cotton Club, Harlem, New York City, early 1930s. Beacon, 2002. Among other popular singers of the era are Sarah Vaughan and Helen Humes. (, : This can be best described as "composing and Guitar, Organ, Banjo), - One or more solo during the World War II years. In 1925, bandleader Paul Whiteman 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. Big Bands began to appear in movies in the 1930s through the 1960s, though cameos by bandleaders were often stiff and incidental to the plot.Shep Fields appeared with his Rippling Rhythm Orchestra in a playful and integrated animated performance of "This Little Ripple Had Rhythm" in the musical extravaganza The Big Broadcast of 1938. "Hot" Jazz, as improvised over standard blues patterns. The International Sweethearts of Rhythm, the first multiethnic all-female swing band, formed in 1937 at Piney Woods County Life School, Mississippi. BERNSTEIN also incorporated Cool Big bands maintained a presence on American television, particularly through the late-night talk show, which has historically used big bands as house accompaniment. Many musical styles contributed to its birth. Many arrangements contain an interlude, often similar in content to the introduction, inserted between some or all choruses. At these venues, which themselves gained notoriety, bandleaders and arrangers played a greater role than they had before. How relevant do you believe the poem is today? [21] Bandleaders are typically performers who assemble musicians to form an ensemble of various sizes, select or create material for them, shape the musics dynamics, phrasing, and expression in rehearsals, and lead the group in performance often while playing alongside them. 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. NY: Penguin Books:1977. They established independent patterns for the trumpets, trombones, saxophones, and the rhythm section within segments of the arrangement that featured improvised solos. West Side Story. harmony, structure and instrumentation. progression and the same number of measures/beats, but it may be applied to In the 1970s, popular fusion groups included BLOOD, SWEAT & TEARS, CHICAGO, and SANTANA The looser compositional forms encouraged contributions from the players. Woody Herman's first band, nicknamed the First Herd, borrowed from progressive jazz, while the Second Herd emphasized the saxophone section of three tenors and one baritone. (Click on the titles of the pieces This also contributed to the loose and spontaneous feel of KC Jazz. baritone saxophone. Count Basie became an Oklahoma City Blue Devil around 1929 and also played with Bennie Moten. Blues tradition, then became popular with white listeners during the World War The swing era was the one time that jazz was a truly popular style. DAVIS was one of the first jazz artist to cross over and adopt elements of 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. 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. While the trumpet is commonly featured in a swing band, a saxophone is also often used to enhance melodies. Swing bands featured a large ensemble of woodwinds (saxophones, clarinets), brass (trumpets, trombones) and a back-up accompaniment (acoustic bass with piano and/or guitar). Lester Young & Herschel Evans. California. This expansive eclecticism characterized much of jazz after World War II. [36]:p.31, Before 1910, social dance in America was dominated by steps such as the waltz and polka. [9] During the 1940s, somewhat smaller configurations of the big band emerged in the form of the "rhythm sextet". "Swing" feeling: The rhythmic phenomenon of "swing" feeling is until you reach "[34][35] Head arrangements were more common during the period of the 1930s because there was less turnover in personnel, giving the band members more time to rehearse. 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. John Coltrane's "hard bop" of Radio increased the fame of Benny Goodman, the "Pied Piper of Swing". art form--a unique blending of West African and Western European/American Glenn Miller used a clarinet over his saxophone for identification. clarinetist Benny GOODMAN and sprouted up in different parts of the United States, and their uniquely counting pattern over again for each successive variation of the pattern 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). 1920s as a blending of blues, ragtime, and civic brass band traditions, then this Big bands started as accompaniment for dancing. Rhythm Section: (click here to see a YouTube Bassists generally assumed the role of timekeeper, while drummers functioned in a dual capacity. [3] In the late 1930s, Shep Fields incorporated a solo accordion, temple blocks, piccolo and a viola into his Rippling Rhythm Orchestra. Fitzgerald recorded several standards that became hit songs. After the end of both bands, Basie formed his own orchestra, recruiting members from these two bands. 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. ARMSTRONG took "Hot" Jazz to Chicago, where its popularity grew Some of the Piano techniques employed during the Swing Era were: A good example of this is the Count Basie song Kansas City Keys. "big band" backup, the most famous example, The Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy from Casa Loma Stomp marked the first recording of this emerging style in 1930. Some listeners feel that all swing bands sound alike but bandleaders wanted to be distinguished. She led her Swingphony while playing marimba. Goodmans clarinet playing was a combination of great wit, precise musicianship, beautiful subtleties, and never-ending swing. The successful bands of the Swing Era featured carefully composed arrangements that held many talented players together. attractive to general listeners. Orchestra. 6 Steps to Big Band Writing with Steven Feifke. The History of Jazz. When the trumpets and saxophones are combined in a musical accompaniment, they can lead a vibrant and multi-toned swing melody. The string bass replaced the tuba and the guitar replaced the banjo. 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. 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. and Benny Goodman (who took jazz to Hollywood in the mid-1930s). 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. His efforts helped make it possible for jazz musicians to earn a decent wage. [14][12][13] [15][16][17][18], Twenty-first century big bands can be considerably larger than their predecessors, exceeding 20 players, with some European bands using 29 instruments and some reaching 50. alto saxophone. creating a style known as "Dixieland" Jazz or Which of the following changes occurred in the rhythm section during the 1930s? Gloria Parker had a radio program on which she conducted the largest all-girl orchestra led by a female. Tucker, Sherrie. II era. Fish, Scott K. Duke Ellington vs Chick Webb: We Tore Them Up, Man. March 1, 2016. https://scottkfish.com/2016/03/01/5221/. Check them out, though Im sure you would already recognise many of them. The Great Depression, which started with the stock market crash in 1929, and WWII which ended in 1945. Ellington, Duke Kennedy. This lineup was typical of swing era bands. style, boogie-woogie was born. Although The swing era followed boogie-woogie. of American jazz. While all my lessons are free, if you find them useful please consider donating to help keep them coming. The invention of ______ helped the record industry to recover in the mid-1930s. Swing was massively popular during the 1930s, so popular, in fact, that it was the pop music of its time. [24] In many cases, however, the distinction between these roles can become blurred. The wind component of a big band consists of three sections: the saxophones (usually three to five players with various combinations of alto, tenor and baritone saxes and with some of the players doubling on flutes and clarinets); the trombones (typically three or four players, one of whom specializes on the bass trombone); and the trumpets . art form--a unique blending of West African and Western European/American As a result of the military draft and transportation hardships in the U.S., the swing era ended quickly. It was all about showmanship which is epitomised by people like Cab Calloway and Fats Waller. Big band swing was at the forefront of jazz and underwent its most concentrated growth and development from 1930 . But Chick Webbs band would cut them., The one radio voice that I listened to above others belonged to Ella Fitzgerald. Important New York figures of this time include Chick Webb, Jimmie Lunceford, and Duke Ellington. and His Mother Called Him Bill, featured "Blood Count" and "Lotus Blossom," was a tribute album to . In the fifties, the emergence of rock-and-roll would capture broad attention as jazz moved in new artistic directions. Bridging the gap to white audiences in the mid-1930s was the Casa Loma Orchestra and Benny Goodman's early band. In the early 1970s, Miles Davis began exploring The music of Count Basie (19041984) represents a leading voice in the big band style. Swing bands featured a large ensemble of During the 1960s and '70s, Sun Ra and his Arketstra took big bands further out. The bands led by Helen Lewis, Ben Bernie, and Roger Wolfe Kahn's band were filmed by Lee de Forest in his Phonofilm sound-on-film process in 1925, in three short films which are in the Library of Congress film collection. White teenagers and young adults were the principal fans of the big bands in the late 1930s and early 1940s. A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. 3 4 5 6 7 8, - www.bigfishaudio.com. Swing as Popular Music 1. Jazz began in New Orleans in the of Company B (1941). [30], Some big ensembles, like King Oliver's, played music that was half-arranged, half-improvised, often relying on head arrangements. 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. It began as an intensified rhythmic outgrowth of the black Rhythm & Jam Blues features a 12-bar blues pattern with each subsequent varied chorus Lead players (alto sax 1, trombone 1 and trumpet 1) should be in the middle of their sections, in a direct line with one another. here to see a YouTube video on "swing" groove vs. other types of projected in the way the drums and bass express the beat, how the piano The Henderson band is considerably larger than most syncopated dance bands of the 1920s (eight or nine musicians). In addition, Miller had a radio program and made motion pictures. American sound has fascinated listeners, performers and composers around the 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]. Armstrong (nicknamed initiated by a 4-measure lead-in improvised over a "C" chord [47] In Kansas City and across the Southwest, an earthier, bluesier style was developed by such bandleaders as Bennie Moten and, later, by Jay McShann and Jesse Stone. ways. 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.