Swing Music is a combination of jazz and popular music, with a rhythmic and often repetitive beat. Swing is usually performed by dance bands having eight or more members, often accompanied by a vocalist and/or vocal group.
The name swing came from the 'swing feel' where the emphasis is on the off–beat or weaker pulse in the music.
Swing music's genesis was the change from ragtime to jazz in the 1910s. Jazz took off with The Original Dixieland Jass Band 's recording of "Livery Stable Blues", which sold a million copies in 1917 and launched jazz as a national phenomenon in the US.
In 1923 Fletcher Henderson begins enlarging jazz ensembles, providing the foundation for swing music. The following year Louis Armstrong joined the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra, arguably the beginning of big band jazz music.
The growing popularity of jazz music in the 1920s was enhanced in places where prohibition was not enforced correctly and the speakeasies were very popular, especially in Detroit with the bootleggers.
In 1925 Louis Armstrong left the Fletcher Henderson band and would add his innovations to New Orleans style jazz to develop Chicago style jazz, another step towards swing.
By the 1930s, Big band jazz had metamorphosed into swing. Swing was less improvised than big band jazz relying more on the written form.
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| Wikipedia |
The name swing came from the 'swing feel' where the emphasis is on the off–beat or weaker pulse in the music.
Swing music's genesis was the change from ragtime to jazz in the 1910s. Jazz took off with The Original Dixieland Jass Band 's recording of "Livery Stable Blues", which sold a million copies in 1917 and launched jazz as a national phenomenon in the US.
In 1923 Fletcher Henderson begins enlarging jazz ensembles, providing the foundation for swing music. The following year Louis Armstrong joined the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra, arguably the beginning of big band jazz music.
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| The Fletcher Henderson Orchestra in 1925, with Louis Armstrong 3rd from left |
The growing popularity of jazz music in the 1920s was enhanced in places where prohibition was not enforced correctly and the speakeasies were very popular, especially in Detroit with the bootleggers.
In 1925 Louis Armstrong left the Fletcher Henderson band and would add his innovations to New Orleans style jazz to develop Chicago style jazz, another step towards swing.
By the 1930s, Big band jazz had metamorphosed into swing. Swing was less improvised than big band jazz relying more on the written form.
In 1932, jazz composer Duke Ellington wrote "It Don't Mean a Thing, If It Ain't Got That Swing," a song that presaged the swing era.
In 1935, Benny Goodman's band ended a cross-country tour in Los Angeles. The tour was very disappointing, but when the band opened in Los Angeles, the youngsters went wild. They absolutely loved the music. It is the "official" start of the Swing Music era.
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| Goodman with his band and singer, Peggy Lee, in the film Stage Door Canteen |
The most famous swing bands rose to popularity in the 1930s and 1940s and included orchestras led by Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Glenn Miller and Count Basie. Their unprecedented success marked the peak of mainstream commercial emergence of swing music.
In 1938 the Archbishop of Dubuque, Francis J. L. Beckman, denounced swing music as "a degenerated musical system… turned loose to gnaw away at the moral fiber of young people", warning that it leads down a "primrose path to hell". His warning was widely ignored.
The great "Swing Era" started to die in the 1940s as the American Musician's Union disastrous strike, and the World War II years took their toll. In December 1946, 13-14 years after Benny Goodman officially started the swing era, the bubble broke. During that month, eight bands called it quits: Benny Goodman, Jack Teagarden, Ina Ray Hutton, Tommy Dorsey, Woody Herman, Harry James and Benny Carter, all disbanded their orchestras.
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