Jazz History - Swing

Swing music grew out of stride piano.

(Your are listening to stride piano music entitled "Fingerbreaker" by Fats Waller)

The 1930s ushered in a style of music that that became the most accessible and popular in jazz history. From 1935, when the U.S. was recovering from the Great Depression, big bands flourished as the dance craze swept the country. Nationwide exposure to "swing" music via radio broadcasts and recordings enabled the music to thrust into popular culture. Band leaders including Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Jimmie Lunceford , Artie Shaw, Cab Calloway, Benny Carter, Earl Hines, Chick Webb, Tommy Dorsey, and Charlie Barnet became household names and popular music icons. At the onset of the swing era, jazz had begun to take on more standardized characteristics. Prior to the 1930s in New York, Chicago and the Southwest, bands began replacing the traditional small group New Orleans style of jazz, featuring collective improvisation, in favor of larger and more powerful groups consisting of twelve to sixteen musicians. One of the reasons for this change was the constraint of current technology. With the lack of microphones, or any form of electrical amplification, dance bands had to make other plans in order to be heard in large ballrooms and dance halls. By increasing the number of musicians, the volume also increased. No longer could the collective improvisation of the New Orleans style be sustained with a larger ensemble without sounding like chaos. New approaches to dealing with jazz on a grander scale had begun taking root by the early 1920s. The earliest musicians to create these big bands included pianist Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington and Benny Moten, as well as bandleaders Paul Whiteman, Jean Goldkette, and Ben Pollack. With the increase in ensemble size, arrangers became key to the success of these bands. Bandleaders like Duke Ellington became famous as composers and arrangers, while other leaders hired staff arrangers or commissioned music for their groups. The early New York big band style of the 1920s focused on the orchestration of commercial tunes from Tin Pan Alley and original compositions, eventually infusing "Hot" jazz soloists like Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, Coleman Hawkins and Benny Goodman into the arrangements. The bands based in Kansas City, the Southwest and Midwest were known as territory bands and played blues-oriented music focusing on the steady swing groove emanating from the rhythm section. These bands included Andy Kirk's Clouds of Joy, Walter Page's Blue Devils, Jay McShann, Alphonse Trent, and Benny Moten. Arrangements were loosely constructed around the soloists. The horn sections riffing behind the soloists often improvised the arrangements, eventually formalizing their parts. Key to the success of these groups were the soloists who added the excitement and creativity to the music. Musicians like saxophonist Lester Young and trumpeter Buck Clayton gained early fame as star soloists with the Count Basie Orchestra. As World War II came to a close, so did the popularity and economic viability of the big bands. Musician union strikes, special taxes imposed in dance halls and the drafting of musicians into the military struck heavy blows to the swing era. Many bandleaders also performed and recorded in small group settings focusing on improvisation. These groups were often composed of the soloists made famous from their big band exposure. Such artists include tenor saxophonist Ben Webster with the Duke Ellington Orchestra, Roy Eldridge with the Artie Shaw Orchestra, and Buddy Rich with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. Benny Goodman's famous quartet featuring pianist Teddy Wilson, vibraphonist Lionel Hampton, and drummer Gene Krupa became the first inter-racial group to perform in public. As the swing style developed, musicians began to incorporate more technically and harmonically advanced approaches to the music. Such musicians as pianist Art Tatum, tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, and guitarist Charlie Christian became instrumental in influencing younger musicians who would create the "bebop" style. By the 1940s, bebop was being worked out at jam sessions and after hours clubs in Harlem. Clubs like Minton's Playhouse and Monroe's Uptown House offered a haven for the next generation of jazz musicians including Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, and Max Roach.