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    The Swing Era: Lindsay Neu, Jack Mcmullin and Mareva Vaughan

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    HasnainJamal
    The Swing Era saw the evolution of big band swing music from 1920s dance orchestras. Key developments included expanding ensemble sizes to 15 musicians, prominently featuring brass instruments and saxophones, and changing the rhythmic foundation to a steady four-beat pulse laid down by the rhythm section. This format was popularized by influential bandleaders like Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman in the 1930s-1940s and helped lift American spirits during the Great Depression with its energetic danceable style.

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    The Swing Era: Lindsay Neu, Jack Mcmullin and Mareva Vaughan

    Uploaded by

    HasnainJamal
    89 views16 pages
    The Swing Era saw the evolution of big band swing music from 1920s dance orchestras. Key developments included expanding ensemble sizes to 15 musicians, prominently featuring brass instruments and saxophones, and changing the rhythmic foundation to a steady four-beat pulse laid down by the rhythm section. This format was popularized by influential bandleaders like Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman in the 1930s-1940s and helped lift American spirits during the Great Depression with its energetic danceable style.

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    The Swing Era saw the evolution of big band swing music from 1920s dance orchestras. Key developments included expanding ensemble sizes to 15 musicians, prominently featuring brass instruments and saxophones, and changing the rhythmic foundation to a steady four-beat pulse laid down by the rhythm section. This format was popularized by influential bandleaders like Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman in the 1930s-1940s and helped lift American spirits during the Great Depression with its energetic danceable style.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    89 views16 pages

    The Swing Era: Lindsay Neu, Jack Mcmullin and Mareva Vaughan

    Uploaded by

    HasnainJamal
    The Swing Era saw the evolution of big band swing music from 1920s dance orchestras. Key developments included expanding ensemble sizes to 15 musicians, prominently featuring brass instruments and saxophones, and changing the rhythmic foundation to a steady four-beat pulse laid down by the rhythm section. This format was popularized by influential bandleaders like Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman in the 1930s-1940s and helped lift American spirits during the Great Depression with its energetic danceable style.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
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    The Swing Era

    Lindsay Neu, Jack McMullin and Mareva Vaughan

    The Sound Of Big Band Swing

    Big-band swing evolved directly from the jazzinfluenced dance orchestras of the 1920s
    2 most important developments were the
    expansion and the transformation of dance
    orchestra and the fundamental change in the
    rhythmic foundation of the music.
    1940: Duke Ellington orchestrated ko-ko with
    15 musicians using 2 trumpets and a cornet
    (relative of the trumpet), 3 trombones (2 slide
    and one valve), 5 saxophones (alto, tenor,
    baritone), 4 rhythm instruments (guitar, piano,
    bass and drums).

    The expansion of the dance orchestra coincided with an


    increase in the use of riffs.
    Riffs became more repetitive and more pervasive
    It was like a conversation among the sections which traded
    riffs back and forth.
    This mimics the long standing African practice of call and
    response heard in a wide range of black vernacular music.
    Normally following is one or more sections of supported
    solos with riffs.
    The foundation for the stacks of riffs generated by the horn
    section was the steady pulse laid down by the rhythmic
    section.

    Original Dance Orchestra

    Between the 30s and 40s is where the main


    transformation was made.
    Banjo was now guitar, tuba was now string bass and the
    drum set gained the hi-hat cymbal.
    The changes reflected in shift from two=beat foxtrot to
    four-beat string.
    The backbeat wasnt eliminated, just altered and more
    subtle.
    The string bass and guitar were the two instruments
    alternating on the beat and back beat.
    Mainly, swing-era guitarists often would strum on the
    first and third beat and down on the 2nd and 4th beats.
    The main element in swing rhythm is the persistent
    timekeeping by a full rhythm section supporting the
    extensive syncopation in the riffs and the call-response
    between each section.

    Because of the limited amount of freedoms African


    Americans had during the great depression, it didnt
    affect them as harshly. Some were able to play in bands
    and get by.

    They were the source of big-band swing.

    Fletcher Henderson (1997-1952)

    Came from a black middle class family in Georgia.


    Learned music from his mother and piano teacher.
    Came north in the 1870s to study chemistry but later
    found work as a song-plugger for Pace-Handy music
    company.
    He later became a jack-of-all-trades for Harry Paces
    black swan records.
    During the 1920s he led one of the top bands in new
    york.
    They played at the Roseland Ballroom and made it a
    hot spot.
    Some scholars deflect the fame from Henderson and
    aim it towards those who helped him arrange for his
    band: Don Redman and Benny Carter.

    Fletcher Henderson and the


    Roots of Big-Band Swing

    Swing Band

    The truth might never be known who truly deserves the credit
    Either way, Henderson was in the business for more than 20 years, bringing in
    some of the best black jazzmen of all time, such as:

    Louis Armstrong
    Coleman Hawkins
    Lester Young

    His most important impact was his arrangements that Goodman used to
    popularize swing.

    1934 recording of Wrappin It Up


    Swing syncopation over a steady four-beat rhythm.
    Rhythm section lays down the beat, and the horns play a simple riff that is out of
    phase with the beat.
    Swing results from the conflict between the beat and syncopated riff

    Continued

    Small-Group Jazz in the Swing Era

    Charlie Christian (1916-1942)

    Black guitarist
    Played in Goodmans band
    Good at improvising
    One of the first to play the electric
    guitar
    Died at 25 from tuberculosis
    Couldn't play at Washington and Lee
    College, had to play during
    intermissions

    Discriminated against.

    Charlie Christian

    Benny Goodman (1909-1986):


    King of Swing

    Lived for music


    Famous for being the leader of
    one of the most popular swingera big bands.
    Interrogated the bandstand more
    than any other white musician of
    his time.

    Benny Goodman

    I Found a New Baby

    Jazz performance as a popular song


    Big-band recordings and the time keeping rhythm section that was the
    foundation of swing music
    Both connections of swing are used, rhythmic and swing as a style.

    Edward Duke Ellington (1899-1974) most distinctive Big Band of the


    swing era KO-KO
    Master composer of jazz with vibrant and varied timbres (trumpets,
    trombones and sax), exotic harmonies, careful use of register and
    dynamics, clear sense of pacing
    Gave structure to jazz
    Unique sound with 3 key principals
    1. His own musical imagination
    2. Apprenticeship in New York Nightclubs
    3. Core of Musicians
    Glenn Miller (1904-1944)

    most popular big band of the era


    moved effortlessly between swing and sweet
    In the mood hit (swing) Moonlight serenade (sweet)

    Chatanooga Choo Choo

    Vocal, special effects, riffs, syncopation, and growled/smeared/bent notes


    firm four beat rhythm at a brisk tempo
    The kind of song that puts smiles on faces

    Duke Ellington
    Glen Miller

    RCA (a record label) created first gold record when they coated
    Chatanooga Choo Choo with gold lacquer
    swing era ended after Millers death
    swing brought a new and welcome energy to popular music

    Swing had a strong four-beat rhythmic foundation plus a lot of


    syncopation which gave it its drive

    its energy was not so much a function of temp as it is rhythmic activity


    swing as jazz was mostly instrumental

    swing era dances

    lifted peoples spirit as America lifted itself out of the depression

    jitterbugging
    Lindy-hopping

    swing split off in 3 directions

    1. Jazz-Influence popular singing


    2. Bebop
    3. upbeat rhythm and blues

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