SWING ERA circa 1935-48
As
Dixieland music spread all over the continent, from New Orleans out into
Chicago, New York, and Kansas City, the audience grew exponentially, and
jazz took on different dimensions. Larger and more varied avenues opened
up for musicians and composers. Dance halls sprung up all over the big cities,
and the crowds wanted jazz. Some of the Dixieland bands contained almost
a dozen members, but to fill out the sound of some of these places, an entire
orchestra was needed; instead of one or two saxes, an entire sax section.
As
these smaller bands got bigger, and the emphasis on dancing hit full stride,
the beat picked up a little more, in a different way than ever before and
began to swing. To explain just what it is technically to swing is a tough
proposition, but suffice it to say that a swing record during this period
will sound entirely different than a dixieland track. As the tunes projected,
and the beats swung high, it wasn't long before certain band leaders began
to tailor songs to the new, bigger, swing sound, to the new tack of the beat.
The
hippest, sauciest bands started to swing a little bit in the late 1920s and
really hit stride in the 1930s. The early masters are the bands led by Benny
Moten and Frankie Trumpaour. Although the depression all but ruined record
sales, many families invested a one-time sum into a radio, which would play
new music all the time. Swing music was featured on radio shows and by 1936,
the "Big Band craze" was full on, and orchestras proliferated. A great many
were like Paul Whiteman (the self proclaimed king of jazz) only playing watered
down jazz-like music, with no real emphasis on improvisation. Among a whole
slew of hack orchestras were a handful of great bands.
Bands
like Benny Goodman, Count Basie, and others were swinging like wildfire,
and by the time World War II erupted, Duke Ellington had mastered swing and
brought it to it's highest pinnacle as a form, both as a live act and the
form of the record single.
