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 is distinguished primarily by a strong rhythm section, usually including double bass and drums, medium to fast tempo, and the distinctive swing time rhythm that is common to many forms of jazz.
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[edit] History
The dance form of jazz, popular during the 1920s and early 1930s (up until 1934), was characterized by a sweet and romantic melody and emphasized the use of strings. Orchestras tended to stick to the melody as it was written and vocals would be sung sweetly (often in a tenor voice) and in tune with the melody. Swing Music differed from what had previously been popular in a number of ways. The arrangements are simpler, more emphasis was placed on horn/wind type instruments and, most importantly, throughout the 1930s there was a complete lack of a string section. Moreover, there was an overriding tendency to improvise the melody. The music had more of an edge to it and vocals were sung in an improvised manner.
Swing, like several other styles of 20th Century popular music, has its origins in African rhythms. Traditional West African music brought to the USA 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 did not 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 20s 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 20s, 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. The overall effect is a more sophisticated sound than the styles of the twenties, but with an exciting feel of its own that really makes you want to dance. Most jazz bands adopted this style by the early thirties, but sweet bands remained the most popular for white dancers until Benny Goodman's famous appearance at the Palomar Ballroom in august 1935 when the audience there made it apparent that young white dancers favored the hot rhythms of his more daring swing arrangements. This event has loomed large in jazz history and is usually cited as the "Birth of Swing Era". 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.
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 U.S., 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 ‘40s 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 2 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Swing revival
Although ensembles like the Count Basie Orchestra and the Stan Kenton Orchestra survived for decades by incorporating new musical styles into their repertoire, they were no longer the hallmark of American popular music. In the late 1990s ('98 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 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.
[edit] Samples
- "Begin the Beguine" by Artie Shaw, a surprise hit that turned the clarinetist into a swing star
- Download sample "Jumpin' at the Woodside" by Count Basie & His Orchestra, a popular swing song by a jazz legend
- "And the Angels Sing" by Benny Goodman and Martha Tilton, a legendary swing recording that helped keep Goodman's career afloat as band members departed
[edit] 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.
Clarinet:
Saxophone:
Coleman Hawkins, Johnny Hodges, Lester Young
Trumpet:
Louis Armstrong, Roy Eldridge, Harry Edison, Louis Prima
Marimba:
Piano:
Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Earl Hines, Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Teddy Wilson, Jelly Roll Morton
Drums:
Sonny Greer, Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich, Chick Webb
[edit] See also
- List of musical genres
- Swing Revival
- Swing (dance)
- Big band
- Continental Jazz, swing of continental Europe
- Category:Swing musicians
- Category:Retro-swing musicians
- Frank Sinatra
- Shane Hampsheir
- Dean Martin
- Swing Band
[edit] Further reading
- Erenberg, Lewis A. Swingin' the Dream: Big Band Jazz and the Rebirth of American Culture (1998), a history of big-band jazz and its fans.
- Gitler, Ira. Swing to Bop: An Oral History of the Transition in Jazz in the 1940s (1987), on the emergence of bop from big-band swing.
- Hennessey, Thomas J. From Jazz to Swing: African-Americans and Their Music, 1890-1935 (1994).
- Schuller, Gunther. The Swing Era: The Development of Jazz, 1930-1945 (1991), a musicological study.
- Stowe, David. Swing Changes: Big-Band Jazz in New Deal America (1996), a musicological study.
- Tucker, Sherrie. Swing Shift: 'All-Girl' Bands of the 1940s (2000)
- Yanow, Scott (2000). Swing. San Francisco, California: Miller Freeman Books. ISBN 0-87930-600-9.
- Milkowski, Bill (2001). Swing It: An Annotated History of Jive, Bob Nikard, ed., and Alison Hagge, ed., New York, New York: Billboard Books. ISBN 0-8230-7671-7.