Swing music

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Not to be confused with Swing (jazz performance style).
Swing
Stylistic origins
Cultural origins1930s, United States
Derivative forms
Subgenres
Swing revival
Fusion genres
Electro swing
Regional scenes
Western swing

Swing music is a style of

bandleaders such as Benny Goodman was the dominant form of American popular music from 1935 to 1946, known as the swing era, when people were dancing the Lindy Hop. The verb "to swing" is also used as a term of praise for playing that has a strong groove or drive. Musicians of the swing era include Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Benny Carter, Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey, Woody Herman, Earl Hines, Harry James, Lionel Hampton, Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, Jimmie Lunceford, and Django Reinhardt
.

Overview

Swing has its roots in 1920s dance music ensembles, which began using new styles of written arrangements, incorporating rhythmic innovations pioneered by Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter and other jazzmen.[1] During the World War II era Swing began to decline in popularity, and after war, bebop and jump blues gained popularity.[2]

Swing blended with other genres to create new musical styles. In

urban-styled swing-beat emerged called new jack swing (New York go-go), created by young producer Teddy Riley.[6] In the late 1990s and into the 2000s, there was a swing revival, led by Squirrel Nut Zippers,[7] Brian Setzer orchestra and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.[8]

1920s: Roots

Fletcher Henderson (middle) with his orchestra in 1925. Coleman Hawkins is sitting on the floor to the extreme left with Louis Armstrong above him to the right.

Developments in dance orchestra and jazz music during the 1920s both contributed to the development of the 1930s swing style. Starting in 1923, the

Fletcher Henderson Orchestra featured innovative arrangements by Don Redman that featured call-response interplay between brass and reed sections, and interludes arranged to back up soloists. The arrangements also had a smoother rhythmic sense than the ragtime-influenced arrangements that were the more typical "hot" dance music of the day.[9] In 1924 Louis Armstrong joined the Henderson band, lending impetus to an even greater emphasis on soloists. The Henderson band also featured Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter, and Buster Bailey as soloists, who all were influential in the development of swing era instrumental styles. During the Henderson band's extended residency at the Roseland Ballroom in New York, it became influential on other big bands. Duke Ellington credited the Henderson band with being an early influence when he was developing the sound for his own band.[9]
In 1925 Armstrong left the Henderson band and would add his innovations to New Orleans style jazz to develop Chicago style jazz, another step towards swing.

Traditional New Orleans style jazz was based on a two-

melodic lines. Louis Armstrong used the additional freedom of the new format with 4/4 time, accenting the second and fourth beats and anticipating the main beats with lead-in notes in his solos to create a sense of rhythmic pulse that happened between the beats as well as on them, i.e. swing.[10]

In 1927 Armstrong worked with pianist

Nat "King" Cole, Erroll Garner, Mary Lou Williams, and Jay McShann
.

Black

riffs in a call-response pattern to build a strong, danceable rhythm and provide a musical platform for extended solos.[13] The rhythm-heavy tunes for dancing were called "stomps". The requirement for volume led to continued use of the sousaphone over the string bass with the larger ensembles, which dictated a more conservative approach to rhythm based on 2/4 time signatures. Meanwhile, string bass players such as Walter Page were developing their technique to the point where they could hold down the bottom end of a full-sized dance orchestra.[14]

The growth of

Frank Trumbauer, Pee Wee Russell, Eddie Lang, and Joe Venuti. The Victor Recording Orchestra won the respect of the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra in a Battle of the Bands; Henderson's cornetist Rex Stewart credited the Goldkette band with being the most influential white band in the development of swing music before Benny Goodman's.[17][18] As a dance music promoter and agent, Goldkette also helped organize and promote McKinney's Cotton Pickers and Glen Gray's Orange Blossoms (later the Casa Loma Orchestra
), two other Detroit-area bands that were influential in the early swing era.

Early swing

As the 1920s turned to the 1930s, the new concepts in rhythm and ensemble playing that comprised the swing style were transforming the sounds of large and small bands. Starting in 1928,

riff-propelled, solo-oriented form of swing that had been developing in the hothouse of Kansas City.[20][21] Emblematic of the evolving music was the change in the name of Moten's signature tune, from "Moten Stomp" to "Moten Swing". Moten's orchestra had a highly successful tour in late 1932. Audiences raved about the new music, and at the Pearl Theatre in Philadelphia in December 1932, the doors were let open to the public who crammed into the theatre to hear the new sound, demanding seven encores from Moten's orchestra.[14]

With the early 1930s came the financial difficulties of the

Fletcher Henderson Orchestra and McKinney's Cotton Pickers in 1934. Henderson's next business was selling arrangements to up-and-coming bandleader Benny Goodman
.

At this time, "Sweet" dance music remained most popular with white audiences and was successfully showcased by bandleaders such as Guy Lombardo[22] [23] and Shep Fields,[24][25][26][27][28] but the Casa Loma Orchestra and the Benny Goodman Orchestra went against that grain, targeting the new swing style to younger audiences. Despite Benny Goodman's claim that "sweet" music was a "weak sister" as compared to the "real music" of America, Lombardo's band enjoyed widespread popularity for decades while crossing over racial divides and was even praised by Louis Armstrong as one of his favorites[29] [30]

1935–1946: The swing era

Main article: Swing era
Benny Goodman, one of the first swing bandleaders to achieve widespread fame

In 1935 the Benny Goodman Orchestra had won a spot on the radio show Let's Dance and started showcasing an updated repertoire featuring Fletcher Henderson arrangements. Goodman's slot was on after midnight in the East, and few people heard it. It was on earlier on the West Coast and developed the audience that later led to Goodman's Palomar Ballroom triumph. At the Palomar engagement starting on 21 August 1935, audiences of young white dancers favored Goodman's rhythm and daring arrangements. The sudden success of the Goodman orchestra transformed the landscape of popular music in America. Goodman's success with "hot" swing brought forth imitators and enthusiasts of the new style throughout the world of dance bands, which launched the "swing era" that lasted until 1946.[31]

A typical song played in swing style would feature a strong, anchoring rhythm section in support of more loosely-tied woodwind and brass sections playing call-response to each other. The level of improvisation that the audience might expect varied with the arrangement, song, band, and band-leader. Typically included in big band swing arrangements were an introductory chorus that stated the theme, choruses arranged for soloists, and climactic out-choruses. Some arrangements were built entirely around a featured soloist or vocalist. Some bands used string or vocal sections, or both. Swing-era repertoire included the Great American Songbook of Tin Pan Alley standards, band originals, traditional jazz tunes such as the "King Porter Stomp", with which the Goodman orchestra had a smash hit, and blues.

Hot swing music is strongly associated with the

Rock&Roll
.

As with many new popular musical styles, swing met with some resistance because of its improvisation, tempo, occasionally risqué lyrics, and frenetic

Dixieland revival started in the late 1930s as a self-conscious re-creation of New Orleans jazz in reaction against the orchestrated style of big band swing. Some swing bandleaders saw opportunities in the Dixieland revival. Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven and Bob Crosby's Bobcats
were examples of Dixieland ensembles within big swing bands.

Between the poles of hot and sweet, middlebrow interpretations of swing led to great commercial success for bands such as those led by Artie Shaw, Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey. Miller's trademark clarinet-led reed section was decidedly "sweet", but the Miller catalog had no shortage of bouncy, medium-tempo dance tunes and some up-tempo tunes such as Mission to Moscow and the Lionel Hampton composition "Flying Home". "The Sentimental Gentleman of Swing" Tommy Dorsey made a nod to the hot side by hiring jazz trumpeter and Goodman alumnus Bunny Berigan, then hiring Jimmie Lunceford's arranger Sy Oliver to spice up his catalog in 1939.

New York became a touchstone for national success of big bands, with nationally broadcast engagements at the

Chick Webb Orchestra remained closely identified with the Savoy Ballroom, having originated the tune "Stompin' at the Savoy", and became feared in the Savoy's Battles of the Bands. It humiliated Goodman's band,[19] and had memorable encounters with the Ellington and Basie bands. The Goodman band's 1938 Carnegie Hall Concert turned into a summit of swing, with guests from the Basie and Ellington bands invited for a jam session after the Goodman band's performance. Coleman Hawkins arrived back from an extended stay in Europe to New York in 1939, recorded his famous version of "Body and Soul", and fronted his own big band. 1940 saw top-flight musicians such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Don Byas, Charlie Christian, and Gene Ramey, whose careers in swing had brought them to New York, beginning to coalesce and develop the ideas that would become bebop
.

1940s: Decline

The early 1940s saw emerging trends in popular music and jazz that would, once they had run their course, result in the end of the swing era. Vocalists were becoming the star attractions of the big bands. Vocalist

The Earl Hines Orchestra in 1943 featured a collection of young, forward-looking musicians who were at the core of the bebop movement and would in the following year be in the Billy Eckstine Orchestra
, the first big band to showcase bebop. As the swing era went into decline, it secured legacies in vocalist-centered popular music, "progressive" big band jazz, R&B, and bebop.

The trend away from big-band swing was accelerated by wartime conditions and royalty conflicts.

small specialty labels not affected by the ban. These labels had limited distribution centered in large urban markets, which tended to limit the size of the ensembles with which recording could be a money-making proposition. Another blow fell on the market for dance-oriented swing in 1944 when the federal government levied a 30% excise tax on "dancing" nightclubs, undercutting the market for dance music in smaller venues.[36]

1950s–1960s

Swingin' pop

Frank Sinatra

Swing bands and sales continued to decline from 1953 to 1954. In 1955, a list of top recording artists from the previous year was publicly released. The list revealed that big band sales had decreased since the early 1950s.[37] However, big band music saw a revival in the 1950s and 1960s. One impetus was the demand for studio and stage orchestras as backups for popular vocalists, and in radio and television broadcasts. Ability to adapt performing styles to various situations was an essential skill among these bands-for-hire, with a somewhat sedated version of swing in common use for backing up vocalists. The resurgent commercial success of Frank Sinatra with a mildly swinging backup during the mid-1950s solidified the trend. It became a sound associated with pop vocalists such as Bobby Darin, Dean Martin, Judy Garland, and Nat King Cole, as well as jazz-oriented vocalists such as Ella Fitzgerald and Keely Smith. Many of these singers were also involved in the "less swinging" vocal pop music of this period. The bands in these contexts performed in relative anonymity, receiving secondary credit beneath the top billing. Some, such as the Nelson Riddle and Gordon Jenkins Orchestras, became well known in their own right, with Riddle particularly associated with the success of Sinatra and Cole. Swingin' pop remained popular into the mid-1960s, becoming one current of the "easy listening" genre.

Big band jazz

Big band jazz made a comeback as well. The

1956 Newport Jazz Festival. The Basie and Ellington bands flourished creatively and commercially through the 1960s and beyond, with both veteran leaders receiving high acclaim for their contemporary work and performing until they were physically unable. Drummer Buddy Rich, after briefly leading one big band during the late 1940s and performing in various jazz and big band gigs, formed his definitive big band in 1966. His name became synonymous with the dynamic, exuberant style of his big band. Other big jazz bands that drove the 1950s–60s revival include those led by Thad Jones, Mel Lewis, Quincy Jones, and Oliver Nelson
. Big band jazz remains a major component of college jazz instruction curricula.

Cross-genre swing

In country music

Jimmie Rodgers, Moon Mullican, and Bob Wills combined elements of swing and blues to create a Western swing. Mullican left the Cliff Bruner band to pursue solo career that included many songs that maintained a swing structure. Artists like Willie Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel have continued the swing elements of country music. Asleep at the Wheel has also recorded the Count Basie tunes "One O'Clock Jump", "Jumpin' at the Woodside", and "Song of the Wanderer" using a steel guitar as a stand-in for a horn section. Nat King Cole
followed Sinatra into pop music, bringing with him a similar combination of swing and ballads. Like Mullican, he was important in bringing piano to the fore of popular music.

Gypsy swing is an outgrowth of the jazz violin swing of Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang. In Europe it was heard in the music of guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist Stéphane Grappelli
. Their repertoire overlaps 1930s swing, including French popular music, gypsy songs, and compositions by Reinhardt, but gypsy swing bands are formulated differently. There is no brass or percussion; guitars and bass form the backbone, with violin, accordion, clarinet or guitar taking the lead. Gypsy swing groups generally have no more than five players. Although they originated in different continents, similarities have often been noted between gypsy swing and Western swing]l, leading to various fusions.

Rock music hitmakers like

Are You Lonesome Tonight" and "My Blue Heaven" into rock and roll-era hits. The doo-wop vocal group the Marcels had a big hit with their lively version of the swing-era ballad "Blue Moon
".

Multi-genre mandolinist Jethro Burns is widely known for playing Swing, Jazz, and many other forms of the genre on the mandolin. He has produced many albums that feature Jazz rhythms and swing chord progressions. He is often considered "The Father of Jazz Mandolin".

1960s–2000: Big Band nostalgia and swing revival

Main article: Swing revival

Though swing music was no longer mainstream, fans could attend "Big Band Nostalgia" tours from the 1970s into the 1980s. The tours featured bandleaders and vocalists of the swing era who were semi-retired, such as Harry James and vocalist Dick Haymes. Historically-themed radio broadcasts featuring period comedy, melodrama, and music also played a role in sustaining interest in the music of the swing era.

Manhattan Transfer and Bette Midler included swing era hits on albums during the early 1970s. In Seattle the New Deal Rhythm Band and the Horns O Plenty Orchestra revived 1930s swing with a dose of comedy behind vocalists Phil "De Basket" Shallat, Cheryl "Benzene" Bentyne, and six-foot-tall "Little Janie" Lambert. Bentyne would leave the New Deal Rhythm Band in 1978 for her long career with Manhattan Transfer. Founding leader of the New Deal Rhythm Band John Holte
led swing revival bands in the Seattle area until 2003.

A

neo-swing which combined swing with rockabilly, ska
, and rock. The music brought a revival in swing dancing.

In 2001 Robbie Williams's album Swing When You're Winning consisted mainly of popular swing covers. The album sold more than 7 million copies worldwide. In November 2013, Robbie Williams released Swings Both Ways.

1990s to present: swing house, electro swing, and swing pop

Another modern development consists of fusing swing (original, or remixes of classics) with

Lindy hop
.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Swing, Swing,Swing Retrieved 11 March 2021
  2. ^ Considine, J. D. (5 December 1993). "The missing link in the evolution of JUMP BLUES". Baltimoresun.com. Retrieved 23 February 2021.
  3. ^ Price, "Jazz Guitar and Western Swing", p. 82.
  4. ISBN 978-0-19-531192-1
    .
  5. ISBN 0-19-516752-X
    .
  6. ^ Teddie Riley Retrieved 11 December 2020
  7. ^ Gensler, Andy (6 June 2016). "Squirrel Nut Zippers Reissuing 'Hot' - Listen to Unreleased 1991 Song 'The Puffer': Exclusive". Billboard. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
  8. ^ Mondavi swings to the jive of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy Retrieved 11 March 2021
  9. ^ a b "Fletcher Henderson". Musicians.allaboutjazz.com. Retrieved 21 May 2017.
  10. ^ Harker, Brian C., 1997, Early Musical Development of Louis Armstrong, 1921–1928, unpublished PhD Dissertation, Columbia University, 390 p. plus Appendix
  11. ISBN 978-0-14-102646-6
    .
  12. ISBN 978-0-19-518359-7
    .
  13. ^ Russell, Ross, Jazz Style in Kansas City and the Southwest, Berkeley, CA, University of California Press, 1972, 291 p.
  14. ^
    ISBN 978-0-8070-7136-6
    .
  15. ^ Popa, Christopher (November 2007). "Big Band Library: Paul Whiteman". www.bigbandlibrary.com.
  16. ISBN 978-0300127478
    – via Google Books.
  17. ^ "Goldkette on The Red Hot Jazz Archive". Retrieved 22 May 2017.
  18. ^ Nye, Russell B., 1976, Music in the Twenties: The Jean Goldkette Orchestra, Prospects, An Annual of American Cultural Studies 1:179–203, October 1976, DOI: 10.1017/S0361233300004361
  19. ^ a b "Chick Webb". AllMusic. Retrieved 27 May 2017.
  20. ISBN 978-0-415-69960-0
    .
  21. ISBN 978-0-19-536435-4
    .
  22. ^ Crump, William D. Encyclopedia of New Year's Holidays Worldwide. McFarland & Co. Publishers. London. 2008 p. 101 ISBN 978-0-7864-3393-3 Guy lombardo on Google Books
  23. ^ Encyclopedia of Music in the 20th Century. Stacey, Lee & Henderson, Lol. Taylor and Francis Publishers. 27 January 2014, p. 379 ISBN 9781135929466 Guy Lombardo: the Sweetest Music This Side of heaven on Google Books
  24. ^ "The Telegraph - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. 24 February 1981. Retrieved 28 October 2020.
  25. ^ "SHEP FIELDS, LEADER OF BIG BAND KNOWEN FOR RIPPLING RYTHEM (Published 1981)". The New York Times. 24 February 1981. Retrieved 28 October 2020.
  26. ^ Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound. Hoffman, Fred. 2004 Shep Fields at the Empire Room of the Palmer House Hotel on Google Books
  27. ^ America's Music Makers: Big bands and Ballrooms 1912-2011 Jack Behrens.AuthorHouse, Indiana, 2010 p. 95 Shep Fields society band broadcasting on radio from the Palmer House on Books.Google.com
  28. ^ Shep Fields Obituary - United Press International Feb. 23, 1981 on UPI.com/Archive
  29. ^ Encyclopedia of music in the 20th Century. Stacey, Lee. Henderson, Lol Editors. Routledge Taylor and Francis Group London 2014 p. 379 Guy Lombardo Biography on Google Books
  30. ^ Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World Volume 8- Genres North America. Horn, David. Shephard, John Editors. Bloombury Publishing 2012 p. 472 "Armstrong and Lombardo did not view their worlds as diametrically opposed, nor did many other contemporary musicians of the 1930s. ...Lombardo himself always took great pride in the number of black orchestras that imitated his style." Guy lombardo band popularity on Google Books
  31. ^ Parker, Jeff. "Jazz History Part II". www.swingmusic.net.
  32. OCLC 701053921
  33. ^ Handy, William Christopher (1941). Father of the Blues. MacMillan. p. 292.
  34. ^ "It's not very difficult to understand the evolution of jazz into Swing. Ten years ago this type of music was flourishing, albeit amidst adverse conditions and surrounded by hearty indifference....It is the repetition and monotony of present-day Swing arrangements which bode ill for the future." Downbeat, February 1939, pp. 2–16
  35. ^ "The 1942 Recording Ban and the ASCAP/BMI War". Retrieved 15 June 2017.
  36. ISBN 0-252-06508-5
  37. ^ Walker, Leo (1972). The Wonderful Era of the Great Dance Bands. Garden City, New York: Doubleday. p. 152.

Further reading

  • Erenberg, Lewis A. Swingin' the Dream: Big Band Jazz and the Rebirth of American Culture (1998)
  • Gitler, Ira. Swing to Bop: An Oral History of the Transition in Jazz in the 1940s (1987)
  • Hennessey, Thomas J. From Jazz to Swing: African-Americans and Their Music, 1890–1935 (1994).
  • Schuller, Gunther. The Swing Era: The Development of Jazz, 1930–1945 (1991)
  • Spring, Howard. "Swing and the Lindy Hop: Dance, Venue, Media, and Tradition". American Music, Vol. 15, No. 2 (Summer, 1997), pp. 183–207.
  • Stowe, David. Swing Changes: Big-Band Jazz in New Deal America (1996)
  • Tucker, Sherrie. Swing Shift: 'All-Girl' Bands of the 1940s (2000)
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