Everything about Swing Music totally explained
Swing music, also known as
swing jazz, is a form of
jazz music that developed in the early 1930s and had solidified as a distinctive style by 1935 in the
United States. Swing uses a strong anchoring
rhythm section which supports a
brass section including saxophones, trumpets, and trombones; medium to fast
tempos; and a "lilting"
swing time rhythm. Swing bands usually featured
soloists who would improvise a new melody over the arrangement. The danceable swing style of bandleaders such as
Benny Goodman and
Count Basie was the dominant form of American popular music from 1935 to 1945.
The verb "to
swing" is also used as a term of praise for playing that has a strong rhythmic
"groove" or drive.
History
1920s: Origins
During the 1920s and early 1930s, the dance form of jazz was popular. This style used sweet and romantic melody accompanied by lush, romantic
string orchestra arrangements. Orchestras tended to stick to the melody as it was written,and vocals would be sung sweetly (often in a tenor voice). Swing music abandoned the string orchestra and used simpler, "edgier" arrangements that emphasized horns and wind instruments and improvised melodies.
Swing, like several other styles of 20th-century
popular music, has its origins in African rhythms. Traditional
West African music brought to the US and elsewhere by enslaved Africans hybridized with western music to eventually create a distinct style. The first recordings labeled
race records date from the 1920s, and come from both the United States and the United Kingdom. They are characterized by an improvised style, a smaller number of musicians, a lack of strings and a distinctive lively style which is harder to define, now known as
swing rhythm.
Since these recordings were mainly produced by minorities with limited resources, the recordings were often made with sub-standard equipment such as the acoustic recording method. Many of these records are extremely rare, as they didn't sell well with mainstream audiences. Although swing evolved out of the lively jazz experimentation that began in
New Orleans and that developed further (and in varying forms) in
Kansas City and
New York City, what is now called
swing diverged from other jazz music in ways that distinguished it as a form in its own right.
The styles of jazz that were popular from the late teens through the late 1920s were usually played with rhythms with a two beat feel, and often attempted to reproduce the style of contrapuntal improvisation developed by the first generation of jazz musicians in New Orleans. In the late 1920s, however, larger ensembles using written arrangements became the norm, and a subtle stylistic shift took place in the rhythm, which developed a four beat feel with a smoothly syncopated style of playing the melody, while the rhythm section supported it with a steady four to the bar.
1935: Birth of Swing
The overall effect is a more sophisticated sound than the styles of the 1920s, but with an exciting feel of its own that really makes you want to dance. Most jazz bands adopted this style by the early 1930s, but "sweet" bands remained the most popular for white dancers until Benny Goodman's appearance at the
Palomar Ballroom in August 1935. The audience of young white dancers favored Goodman's "hot" rhythms and daring swing arrangements. "Hot Swing" and
Boogie Woogie remained the dominant form of american popular music for the next ten years.
With the wider acceptance of swing music around 1935, larger mainstream bands began to embrace this style of music. Large orchestras had to reorganize themselves in order to achieve the new sound. These bands dropped their string instruments, which were now felt to hamper the improvised style necessary for swing music. This necessitated a slightly more detailed and organized type of
composition and
notation than was then the norm. Band leaders put more energy into developing
arrangements, perhaps reducing the chaos that might result from as many as 12 or 16 musicians spontaneously
improvising. But the best swing bands at the height of the era explored the full gamut of possibilities from spontaneous ensemble playing to highly orchestrated music in the vein of European art music.
A typical song played in swing style would feature a strong, anchoring
rhythm section in support of more loosely tied
wind,
brass, and later, in the 1940s,
string and/or
vocal sections. The level of improvisation that the audience might expect at any one time varied depending on the arrangement, the band, the song, and the band-leader.
The most common style consisted of having a
soloist take center stage, and improvise a solo within the framework of her or his bandmates playing support. As a song progressed, multiple soloists might be expected to take over and individually improvise their own part; however, it wasn't unusual to have two or three band members improvising at any one time.
Swing jazz began to be embraced by the public around 1935. Prior to that, it had had limited acceptance, mostly among
African American audiences.
Radio remotes increased interest in the music, and it grew in popularity throughout the States. As with many new popular musical styles, it met with some resistance from the public because of its improvisation, fast erratic tempos, lack of strings, occasionally risqué lyrics and other cultural associations, such as the sometimes frenetic
swing dancing that accompanied performances. Audiences who had become used to the romantic arrangements (and what was perceived as classier and more refined music), were taken aback by the often erratic and edginess of swing music.
WW II era
Harsher conflicts arose when Swing spread to other countries; for example, in
Germany it was forbidden by the
Nazi regime on the basis of its connection to African and Jewish musicians (see
Swing Kids). And, while jazz music was initially embraced during the early years of the
Soviet Union, it was soon forbidden as a result of being deemed politically unacceptable.
In the US, by the late 1930s and early 1940s, swing had become the most popular musical style and remained so for several years, until it was supplanted in the late 1940s by the
pop standards sung by the
crooners who grew out of the
Big Band tradition that swing began. Bandleaders such as
the Dorsey Brothers often helped launch the careers of vocalists who went on to popularity as solo artists, such as
Frank Sinatra.
Swing music began to decline in popularity during World War II because of several factors. Most importantly it became difficult to staff a "big band" because many musicians were overseas fighting in the war. Also, the cost of touring with a large ensemble became prohibitive because of wartime economics. These two factors made smaller 3 to 5 piece combos more profitable and manageable. A third reason is the
recording bans of 1942 and 1948 because of musicians' union strikes. In 1948, there were no records legally made at all, although independent labels continued to bootleg records in small numbers. When the ban was over in January 1949, swing had evolved into new styles such as
jump blues and
bebop.
Cross-genre swing
Many of the crooners who came to the fore after the swing era had their origins in swing bands. An example is
Bing Crosby.
Frank Sinatra used the swing-band approach to great effect in almost all of his recordings and kept this style of music popular even after the
rock 'n' roll era.
In
country music, artists such as
Jimmie Rodgers,
Moon Mullican and
Bob Wills introduced many elements of swing along with
blues to create a genre called
western swing. Like
Sinatra did,
Moon Mullican went solo from the
Cliff Bruner band, had a successful solo career that included many songs that maintained a swing structure. Artists like
Willie Nelson and
Jerry Lee Lewis have kept the swing elements of country music present into the rock 'n' roll era.
Nat King Cole followed
Sinatra into the pop music world bringing with him a similar combination of swing bands and ballads. Like
Moon Mullican, he was important in bringing
piano to the fore of popular music.
Rock 'n' roll era hitmakers like
Jerry Lee Lewis,
Chuck Berry,
Gene Vincent and
Elvis Presley also found time to include many swing-era standards into their repertoire. Presley's hit "Are you lonesome tonight" is an old swing standard and Lewis' "To make love sweeter for you" is a new song but in the old style. Among the critically acclaimed band leaders of the 1930s and 1940s whose performances included elements of both "Sweet Band" music and traditional swing music was
Shep Fields.
Late 1990s: Swing revival
Although ensembles like the Count Basie Orchestra and the Stan Kenton Orchestra survived into the 1950s by incorporating new musical styles into their repertoire, they were no longer the hallmark of American popular music. In the late 1990s (1998 until about 2000) there was a short-lived "
Swing revival" movement, led by bands such as
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy,
Cherry Poppin' Daddies,
Royal Crown Revue,
Squirrel Nut Zippers,
Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers,
Steve Lucky & The Rhumba Bums Featuring Miss Carmen Getit and
Brian Setzer. The style also revived
swing dancing, both in a traditional style, and in hybrid approaches which blended 1930s dancing with 2000-era dance styles.
In recent years Swing music has become hugely popular in Germany. Singers
Roger Cicero and Tom Gaebel
(External Link
)have attained large followings both in their native country and world wide. Cicero’s style is predominantly that of 1940s and 1950s swing music, combined with German lyrics; he became Germany's participant for the Eurovision Song Contest in 2007.
Samples
Notable musicians
Band leaders:
Artie Shaw,
Benny Goodman,
Buddy Rich,
Cab Calloway,
Count Basie,
Chick Webb,
The Dorsey Brothers,
Duke Ellington,
Earl Hines,
Fletcher Henderson,
Gene Krupa,
Glenn Miller,
Gloria Parker,
Harry James,
Louis Prima,
Shep Fields,
Glen Miller.
Clarinet:
Benny Goodman,
Artie Shaw
Saxophone:
Coleman Hawkins,
Johnny Hodges,
Lester Young,
Charlie Parker
Trumpet:
Louis Armstrong,
Roy Eldridge,
Harry Edison,
Louis Prima
Marimba:
Gloria Parker
Piano:
Duke Ellington,
Count Basie,
Earl Hines,
Art Tatum,
Oscar Peterson,
Teddy Wilson,
Jelly Roll Morton
Drums:
Sonny Greer,
Gene Krupa,
Buddy Rich,
Chick WebbFurther Information
Get more info on 'Swing Music'.
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