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Materials Swing

Ball, Blues, Cançons, Frankie Manning, Jam videos, Músics, SWing Marshall Stearns

BALL

Harland Dixon i James Cagney: https://youtu.be/7hNIXpqjCWA
John Bubbles
ella fitzgerald lindy shag
diversos lindy
https://youtu.be/Xr1kvxThe_4?t=63 Lucky Millinder gran ball lindy

 

BLUES

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-queer-black-woman-who-reinvented-the-blues

when you’re smiling
When you’re smilin’, when you’re smilin’  / quan tu somrius
The whole world smiles with you   / tot el món somriu amb tu
When you’re laughin’, when you’re laughin’  / quan tu rius
The sun comes shinin’ through  / el sol arriba brillant
But when you’re cryin’, you bring on the rain   / però quan tu plores, fas que plogui
So stop your sighin’, be happy again   / així que para de somicar, torna a estar feliç
Keep on smilin’, ’cause when you’re smilin’  / segueix somrient pequè quan tu somrius
The whole world smiles with you  / tot el món somriu amb tu
“If I Could Be With You”
If I could be with you one li’l hour tonight,  /  si pogués estar amb tu una hora aquesta nit
And free to do all those little things I might, / i si fós lliure de fer tot el que podria
I want you to know you wouldn’t go,     /  vull que sàpigues que no te n’aniries
Until I told you that I loved you so.  / fins que t’hagués dit que t’estimo molt.
If I could be with you I’d love you long,   / si pogués estar amb tu, t’estimaria estona
If I could be with you I’d love you strong,   /  si pogués estar amb tu t’estimaria ben fort
And I’m telling you for true, you’d be anything but blue,  /  i de debó, que et sentiries de tot menys trista
If I could be with you   (just for an hour)   / si pogués estar amb tu, ni que fos una hora
A vegades abans hi ha aquesta introducció
I’m so blue, I don’t know what to do,  /   estic tant trist que no sé què fer
All day through, I seem to say to you,  / tot el dia sembla que t’estigui dient
I did wrong when I let you go away,    / em vaiog equivocar en deixar-te anar
‘Cause now I dream about you night and day,  /  perquè ara penso en tu nit i dia
I’m so unhappy and dissatisfied   /   sóc tant infeliç i insatisfet
I’ll be happy if I had you by my side,   /  seria feliç si et pogués tenir al meu costat
If dreams come true  / si els somnis es fan veritat
I’ll be with you  /  estaré amb tu
I love that smile in your eyes / m’agrada aquest somriure als teus ulls
You see a dream in the skies  / tu veus un somni als cels
In your caress there is happiness  / en la teva carícia hi ha felicitat
And love in view  / i amor a la vista
If dreams come true   / si els somnis es fan veritat
Desamor
Who’s sorry now
Some of these days you’ll be sorry
Goody goody
Solitud
Lover Man
Enamorat
I can’t give you anything but love
All of me

Frankie Manning

p.25
You haven’t seen slow dancing until you’ve been to a house rent party. When people wanted to get funky, they’d do the black bottom, the mess ariound, and slow drags -honky tonk dabce, what they did to slower music. If it was a blues number, everybody would be out there shakin’ butt. You’d hear someone say, “Turn the lights down and let the party get started!” Or, as Fats Waller used to say, “Put out the lights and call the law.”
[This is so nice it must be illegal]
p.33 Bert WIlliams, Bill Robinson, Paul RObeson, Eddie Rector, Whitman sisters, Noble Sissle.
p.67 Sales a HArlem
origens
 
barreja de charleston i breakaway (sembla com si ballessin shag i se separessin shorty snowden after 
seben 1929
 
Al llibre de Frankie Manning s’explica com el lindy es va anar formant a partir de tres balls que es feien a Harlem a finals dels 1920s:
 
El Charleston: Amb arrels cenre africanes es diu que va començar a Charleston, Soth Carolina i hauria arribat a Harlem amb la gran migració. Es va fer molt popular amb la peça del pianista de stride  James P. Johnson al show de Broadway Runnin’ Wild de 1923. Era un ball molt alegre que van adoptar també els blancs. Josephine Baker el va prsentar a París amb gran èxit. Les faldilles curtes de les “flappers”, els passos desinhibits, obrint i tanant les cames, fent kicks, van acabar simbolitzant una època feliç, els roaring twenties, que acabarien amb el crack del 1929.
 
[ video exemple josephine baker] 
 
El Collegiate: que Frankie Manning va veure a l’Alhambra, “de vuit temps amb el patró de peus similar al Charleston i el Breakaway, però sense separació entre els balladors. Més aviat estaven en una posició relativament estreta, gairebé abraçats de cintura cap amunt i enfocat a un ràpid treball de peus”. En frankie diu que era com el Charleston però enganxats.
 
 
El Breakaway.Tot i mantenint la connexió, els balladors se separaven una mica (breakaway), i a vegades es deixaven anar de les mans (d’aquí el nom); ni junts del tot com en el collegiate, ni separats del tot com en el Charleston.  
 
 
EL breakaway s’aniria modificant incorporant més passos del Charleston i segons FM, del shag i acabria donant lloc al lindy hop:
 
 
shorty snowden 1929
 
1914 neix
1926 12 anys obre el Savoy
1928 Shorty Snowden
1933 Primers passos al Savoy
1934 20 anys amb els Whitey Lindy Hoppers, un estil més horitzontal 
1935 Air step
1941 Hellzapoppin’
1943 Guerra
1955 correus
p. 203
By the tiime I get out of the army, the music scene had changed. Many bands, mostly small, like Charlie PArker, but some large ones, like Dizzy Gillespie, were paying bebop, which was such a strange sound to my ears that I could not understand it. [´´´] I was used to music for dancing, but this new sound was only for listening.
FM va seguir ballant uns anys i a primers dels ’50 ho va deixar.
p.225 In 1984, just about thirty years after I’d gone to work in the post office, Norma MIller called to tell me that Smalls’ Paradise, an old nightclub in Harlem, had begun holding swing dances on Monday nights.
p. 228 Erin Stevens Steven Mitchell, el telefonen des de California. Frankie Manning the dancer? “No, this is Frankie Manning the postal worker”.  Practiquen a casa seva a Queens amb Shiny Stockings (feien passos ràpids des de vídeo). Sylvia Sykes i Jonathan Bixby de Sta. Barbara. Big Apple Lindy Hoppers amb Monica Coe i Pat McLaughin.
1987 The Rhythm Hot shots a Suècia, els ensenya passos, el shim sham. Des de 1989 a Herräng.  p. 230 “Figuring out how to teach people who didn’t learn to Lindy hop by going to the Savoy has been a strange experience for me … I’d never thought about whether the Lindy is made up of eight-count and sis-count steps, which it is … and I sonmetimes joke that the only count I know is Count Basie.
escena Malcom X: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OapkoQEzQS0 amb Denzel Washington
coreografia, bbaladors professionals p. 236 “the dancers in these shows were terrific, top-notch at what they were used to doing. But just like with all the other professional grups I’d been working with (except the ones that already knew how to lindy hop), the challenge was to get them to change from an upright position to dancing down”:
[FM canviant la posició a la d’un corredor inclinat, o fent aeris ]
1990 explosió
p.238 “It became my mission to let swing dancers know that jitterbug is just a nickname for the Lindy hop, and I think a lot more people realize that now.
timeline FM
1914 neix
1926 12 anys obre el Savoy
1928 Shorty Snowden
1933 Primers passos al Savoy
1934 20 anys amb els Whitey Lindy Hoppers, un estil més horitzontal
1935 Air step
1941 Hellzapoppin’
1943 Guerra
1955 correus

JAM VIDEOS

https://youtu.be/QFjwSB7f4UA four step brothers
https://youtu.be/zC6zz0ObNuU al minns leon james after hours
https://youtu.be/z1-mEEQPxIs gbojangles jeni legon
https://youtu.be/mCUk8kZ2FiU minut 31 dinah washington

MÚSICS

https://youtu.be/1gIqkYqw0PU?t=1084 JLCO Joe Williams, un nen escriu dues línies de blues sobre com són difícils.
https://youtu.be/nayYQXtddXE  herlin riley per veure
DONES AL JAZZ
The piano and organ were considered more socially acceptable instruments for young women to play, and few serious fans of jazz would be unfamiliar with the names Mary Lou Williams, Marian McPartland, Hazel Scott, Shirley Scott or Alice Coltrane. But the ranks of female jazz genius run much deeper than that. Here a

10 Women in Jazz Who Never Got Their Due

We’re often taught to think of jazz’s history as a cavalcade of great men and their bands, but from its beginnings the music was often in the hands of women. Listen to some of the greatest.
From left: Valaida Snow, Lil Hardin Armstrong and Una Mae Carlisle, three instrumentalists who made a big impression in their day.Credit…Popperfoto/Getty Images; Gilles Petard/Redferns, via Getty Images; Afro Newspaper/Gado, via Getty Images
  • April 22, 2020
Young, female instrumentalists have been establishing a firmer footing in jazz, taking some of the music’s boldest creative steps and organizing for change on a structural level. But this isn’t an entirely new development.
While we’re often taught to think of jazz’s history as a cavalcade of great men and their bands, from its beginnings in the early 20th century women played a range of important roles, including onstage. During World War II, right in the heart of the swing era, all-female bands became a sensation, filling the void left by men in the military. But in fact they were continuing a tradition that had begun in the vaudeville years and continued, albeit to a lesser degree, in jazz’s early decades.
Prevented from taking center stage, many female instrumentalists became composers, arrangers or artists’ managers. Buffeted by sexism from venue owners and record companies in the United States, they often went abroad to pursue careers in Europe or even Asia. As was also true of their male counterparts, the African-American women who helped blaze some of jazz’s earliest trails had to innovate their way around additional roadblocks.
“These jazz women were pioneers, and huge proponents in disseminating jazz and making it a global art form,” said Hannah Grantham, a musicologist at the National Museum of African American History and Culture who studies the work of female jazz musicians and contributed notes to this list. “I don’t think they’ve been given enough credit for that, because of their willingness to go everywhere.”
The piano and organ were considered more socially acceptable instruments for young women to play, and few serious fans of jazz would be unfamiliar with the names Mary Lou Williams, Marian McPartland, Hazel Scott, Shirley Scott or Alice Coltrane. But the ranks of female jazz genius run much deeper than that. Here are 10 performers who made a big impression in their day, but are rarely as remembered as they should be in jazz’s popular history.

Lovie Austin, pianist (1887-1972)

Lovie Austin composed for and accompanied some of the greatest singers of the early recording era, including Ma Rainey and Ethel Waters. A number of her songs became hits, including “Down Hearted Blues,” a smash for Bessie Smith that sold close to 800,000 copies. Based in Chicago, Austin was also a frequent bandleader at some of the Harlem Renaissance’s most famous venues. Mary Lou Williams counted Austin as her largest inspiration. “My entire concept was based on the few times I was around Lovie Austin,” she later said.

Lil Hardin Armstrong, pianist (1898-1971)

Lil Hardin met her future husband Louis Armstrong in 1922, when he joined her as a member of King Oliver’s famed Creole Jazz Band. Hardin, who studied at Fisk University and had an entrepreneurial streak, helped bring Armstrong forward as a bandleader, serving as his first manager, pianist and frequent co-composer. After they split up around 1930, she found some success with her own big band, but stepped away from performing years later after determining that male promoters would never be willing to promote her on the same level as men.

Valaida Snow, trumpeter (1904-1956)

Valaida Snow’s career was a wildfire: a thing of great expanse and then rapid, wrenching exhaustion. She was a master of the trumpet but played a dozen other instruments, as well as singing, doing arrangements for orchestras, dancing, and appearing prominently in early Hollywood films. When the pioneering blues musician and composer W.C. Handy heard her play, he dubbed her “Queen of the Trumpet.” Denied a proper spotlight in Chicago and New York, Snow became a star abroad, touring for years in East Asia and Europe. She wound up stuck in Denmark during World War II, becoming ill while imprisoned there. She escaped in 1942 and spent the rest of her career back in the United States, although her health never recovered.

Peggy Gilbert, saxophonist (1905-2007)

As a grade-school student in Sioux City, Iowa, Peggy Gilbert quickly became accustomed to cutting against the grain. The daughter of classical musicians, she was told in high school that the saxophone was unsuitable for a young woman — but she taught herself anyway. A year after graduating she started her first band, the Melody Girls. In 1938, outraged at an article in DownBeat magazine headlined “Why Women Musicians Are Inferior,” she penned a retort that the magazine published in full. “A woman has to be a thousand times more talented, has to have a thousand times more initiative even to be recognized as the peer of the least successful man,” she wrote. Talent and initiative were two things Gilbert possessed. She went on to lead ensembles for decades, on the vaudeville circuit and the Los Angeles scene, eventually becoming an official with the musicians’ union there. She continued to perform well into her 90s, and died at 102.

Una Mae Carlisle, pianist (1915-1956)

Just like better-remembered contemporaries such as Fats Waller and Louis Jordan, Una Mae Carlisle made jazz that was also R&B and also pop — before the Billboard charts had effectively codified those genres. She was publicly known best as a singer, but she played virtuosic stride piano and composed prolifically too. Part black and part Native American, Carlisle was a pioneer in various ways, as Ms. Grantham pointed out. Carlisle was the first black woman to be credited as the composer of a song on the Billboard charts, and the first African-American to host her own regular, nationally broadcast radio show. She wrote for stars like Benny Goodman and Peggy Lee, and recorded her own hit singles, often with famous jazz musicians as her accompanists, before illness tragically shortened her career.

Ginger Smock, violinist (1920-1995)

Orphaned at age 6 and subsequently raised by her aunt and uncle, Ginger Smock showed extravagant talents early on. At 10, she performed at the Hollywood Bowl; a year later, she gave a solo recital at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles. She was the only black member of the Los Angeles Junior Philharmonic’s all-student symphony, and soon after she apprenticed with the jazz pioneer Stuff Smith. She then started an all-female trio, the Sepia Tones, that was a centerpiece of the city’s burgeoning Central Avenue jazz scene, and she soon became “pretty influential on the West Coast,” Ms. Grantham said. Later, Smock hosted a full-length (though short-lived) show on Los Angeles’s CBS affiliate, KTSL, in 1951, making hers the first black band to host a regular TV program.

Dorothy Donegan, pianist (1922-1998)

SWING

Orquestres
Jazz Swing Era
El swing: inicis , 36 – 45, declivi
Orquestres
  • Fletcher Henderson, Fletcher Henderson, New York, Roseland Ballroom, In July 1924 the band began a brief engagement at the Roseland Ballroom. Although only meant to stay for a few months, the band was brought back for the Autumn season. Henderson called on the 23 year old cornetist Louis Armstrong to join the band. On October 13, 1924 history was made when the Henderson band began their re-engagement at Roseland with Louis Armstrong now in the orchestra. Quickly the band became known as the best African-American band in New York. By late 1924 the arrangements by Don Redman were featuring more solo work. Although Armstrong played in the band for only a year, his influence on all the Henderson band and all jazz during this time. Benny Carter i després ell mateix, plegava
Although Henderson’s band was popular, he had little success in managing it. His lack of recognition outside of Harlem had to do more with the times in which he lived, apparently lackluster management, and the hard times that resulted after the 1929 stock market crash. Fletcher had a knack for finding talent, but he did not have much luck keeping it. On many occasions he lost talented members to other bandleaders. He also had trouble with finances. When the band split up in 1934, he was forced to sell some of his popular arrangements to Benny Goodman to keep them together.[4]

Contributions to jazz and the Harlem Renaissance

Henderson, along with Don Redman, established the formula for swing music. The two broke the band into sections (sax section, trumpet section etc.). These sections worked together to create a unique sound. Sometimes, the sections would play in call-and-response style, and at other times one section would play supporting riffs behind the other.[10] Swing, its popularity spanning over a decade, was the most fashionable form of jazz ever in the United States.
Henderson was also responsible for bringing Louis Armstrong from Chicago to New York in October 1924, thus flipping the focal point of jazz in the history of the United States (although Armstrong left the band in November 1925 and returned to Chicago).
Henderson also played a key role in bringing improvisatory jazz styles from New Orleans and other areas of the country to New York, where they merged with a dance-band tradition that relied heavily on arrangements written out in musical notation.[13]
  • Earl Hines,  On December 28, 1928 (his 25th birthday and six weeks before the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre), the always-immaculate Hines opened at Chicago’s Grand Terrace Cafe leading his own big band, the pinnacle of jazz ambition at the time. “All America was dancing”, Hines said,[10] and for the next 12 years and through the worst of the Great Depression and Prohibition, Hines’s band was the orchestra at the Grand Terrace. The Hines Orchestra – or “Organization”, as Hines preferred it – had up to 28 musicians and did three shows a night at the Grand Terrace, four shows every Saturday and sometimes Sundays.
el 1940 va tabncar i estaria fins el 1947 de gira per tot el país
  • Duke Ellington  In September 1927, King Oliver turned down a regular booking for his group as the house band at Harlem’s Cotton Club;[22] the offer passed to Ellington after Jimmy McHugh suggested him and Mills arranged an audition.[23] Ellington had to increase from a six to eleven-piece group to meet the requirements of the Cotton Club’s management for the audition,[24] and the engagement finally began on December 4.[25] With a weekly radio broadcast, the Cotton Club’s exclusively white and wealthy clientele poured in nightly to see them. At the Cotton Club, Ellington’s group performed all the music for the revues, which mixed comedy, dance numbers, vaudeville, burlesque, music, and illicit alcohol. The musical numbers were composed by Jimmy McHugh and the lyrics by Dorothy Fields (later Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler), with some Ellington originals mixed in. (Here he moved in with a dancer, his second wife Mildred Dixon). Weekly radio broadcasts from the club gave Ellington national exposure, while Ellington also recorded Fields-JMcHugh and Fats Waller–Andy Razaf songs.

Early post-war years

Musicians enlisting in the military and travel restrictions made touring difficult for the big bands and dancing became subject to a new tax, which continued for many years, affecting the choices of club owners. By the time World War II ended, the focus of popular music was shifting towards singing crooners such as Frank Sinatra and Jo Stafford. As the cost of hiring big bands had increased, club owners now found smaller jazz groups more cost-effective. Some of Ellington’s new works, such as the wordless vocal feature “Transblucency” (1946) with Kay Davis, was not going to have a similar reach as the newly emerging stars.
Ellington continued on his own course through these tectonic shifts. While Count Basie was forced to disband his whole ensemble and work as an octet for a time, Ellington was able to tour most of Western Europe between April 6 and June 30, 1950, with the orchestra playing 74 dates over 77 days.[49] During the tour, according to Sonny Greer, the newer works were not performed, though Ellington’s extended composition, Harlem (1950) was in the process of being completed at this time. Ellington later presented its score to music-loving President Harry Truman. Also during his time in Europe, Ellington would compose the music for a stage production by Orson Welles. Titled Time Runs in Paris[50] and An Evening With Orson Welles in Frankfurt, the variety show also featured a newly discovered Eartha Kitt, who performed Ellington’s original song “Hungry Little Trouble” as Helen of Troy.[51]
In 1951, Ellington suffered a significant loss of personnel: Sonny Greer, Lawrence Brown and, most importantly, Johnny Hodges left to pursue other ventures, although only Greer was a permanent departee. Drummer Louie Bellson replaced Greer, and his “Skin Deep” was a hit for Ellington. Tenor player Paul Gonsalves had joined in December 1950[49] after periods with Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie and stayed for the rest of his life, while Clark Terry joined in November 1951.[52]
During the early 1950s, Ellington’s career was at a low point with his style being generally seen as outmoded, but his reputation did not suffer as badly as some artists. André Previn said in 1952: “You know, Stan Kenton can stand in front of a thousand fiddles and a thousand brass and make a dramatic gesture and every studio arranger can nod his head and say, Oh, yes, that’s done like this. But Duke merely lifts his finger, three horns make a sound, and I don’t know what it is!”[53] However, by 1955, after three years of recording for Capitol, Ellington lacked a regular recording affiliation.
  • Bennie Moten by Count Basie in 1935 and  //Count Basie Kansas City://  e Count Basie Orchestra a   // The following year, in 1929, Basie became the pianist with the Bennie Moten band based in Kansas City, inspired by Moten’s ambition to raise his band to the level of Duke Ellington’s or Fletcher Henderson‘s.[20] Where the Blue Devils were “snappier” and more “bluesy,” the Moten band was more refined and respected, playing in the “Kansas City stomp” style.[21] In addition to playing piano, Basie was co-arranger with Eddie Durham, who notated the music.[22] Their “Moten Swing“, which Basie claimed credit for,[23] was widely acclaimed and was an invaluable contribution to the development of swing music, and at one performance at the Pearl Theatre in Philadelphia in December 1932, the theatre opened its door to allow anybody in who wanted to hear the band perform.[24] During a stay in Chicago, Basie recorded with the band. He occasionally played four-hand piano and dual pianos with Moten, who also conducted.[25] The band improved with several personnel changes, including the addition of tenor saxophonist Ben Webster.// When Basie took his orchestra to New York in 1937, they made the Woodside Hotel in Harlem their base (they often rehearsed in its basement).[37] Soon, they were booked at the Roseland Ballroom for the Christmas show. Basie recalled a review, which said something like, “We caught the great Count Basie band which is supposed to be so hot he was going to come in here and set the Roseland on fire. Well, the Roseland is still standing”.[38] Compared to the reigning band of Fletcher Henderson, Basie’s band lacked polish and presentation.[39]// The band’s first appearance at the Apollo Theater followed, with the vocalists Holiday and Jimmy Rushing getting the most attention.[43] Durham returned to help with arranging and composing, but for the most part, the orchestra worked out its numbers in rehearsal, with Basie guiding the proceedings. There were often no musical notations made. Once the musicians found what they liked, they usually were able to repeat it using their “head arrangements” and collective memory.[44] Next, Basie played at the Savoy, which was noted more for lindy-hopping, while the Roseland was a place for fox-trots and congas.[45] In early 1938, the Savoy was the meeting ground for a “battle of the bands” with Chick Webb‘s group. Basie had Holiday, and Webb countered with the singer Ella Fitzgerald. As Metronome magazine proclaimed, “Basie’s Brilliant Band Conquers Chick’s”; the article described the evenin

Post-war and later years

The big band era appeared to have ended after the war, and Basie disbanded the group. For a while, he performed in combos, sometimes stretched to an orchestra. In 1950, he headlined the Universal-International short film “Sugar Chile” Robinson, Billie Holiday, Count Basie and His Sextet. He reformed his group as a 16-piece orchestra in 1952. This group was eventually called the New Testament band. Basie credited Billy Eckstine, a top male vocalist of the time, for prompting his return to Big Band. He said that Norman Granz got them into the Birdland club and promoted the new band through recordings on the Mercury, Clef, and Verve labels.[60] The jukebox era had begun, and Basie shared the exposure along with early rock’n’roll and rhythm and blues artists. Basie’s new band was more of an ensemble group, with fewer solo turns, and relying less on “head” and more on written arrangements.
Basie added touches of bebop “so long as it made sense”, and he required that “it all had to have feeling”. Basie’s band was sharing Birdland with such bebop greats as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis. Behind the occasional bebop solos, he always kept his strict rhythmic pulse, “so it doesn’t matter what they do up front; the audience gets the beat”.[61] Basie also added flute to some numbers, a novelty at the time that became widely copied.[62] Soon, his band was touring and recording again. The new band included: Paul Campbell, Tommy Turrentine, Johnny Letman, Idrees Sulieman, and Joe Newman (trumpet); Jimmy Wilkins, Benny Powell, Matthew Gee (trombone); Paul Quinichette and Floyd “Candy” Johnson (tenor sax); Marshal Royal and Ernie Wilkins (alto sax); and Charlie Fowlkes (baritone sax).[63] Down Beat magazine reported, “(Basie) has managed to assemble an ensemble that can thrill both the listener who remembers 1938 and the youngster who has never before heard a big band like this.”[64] In 1957, Basie sued the jazz venue Ball and Chain in Miami over outstanding fees, causing the closure of the venue.[65]
In 1958, the band made its first European tour. Jazz was especially appreciated in France, The Netherlands, and Germany in the 1950s; these countries were the stomping grounds for many expatriate American jazz stars who were either resurrecting their careers or sitting out the years of racial divide in the United States. Neal Hefti began to provide arrangements, notably “Lil Darlin’“. By the mid-1950s, Basie’s band had become one of the preeminent backing big bands for some of the most prominent jazz vocalists of the time. They also toured with the “Birdland Stars of 1955”, whose lineup included Sarah Vaughan, Erroll Garner, Lester Young, George Shearing, and Stan Getz.[66]
In 1957, Basie released the live album Count Basie at Newport. “April in Paris” (arrangement by Wild Bill Davis) was a best-selling instrumental and the title song for the hit album.[67] The Basie band made two tours in the British Isles and on the second, they put on a command performance for Queen Elizabeth II, along with Judy Garland, Vera Lynn, and Mario Lanza.[68] He was a guest on ABC‘s The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, a venue also opened to several other black entertainers. In 1959, Basie’s band recorded a “greatest hits” double album The Count Basie Story (Frank Foster, arranger), and Basie/Eckstine Incorporated, an album featuring Billy Eckstine, Quincy Jones (as arranger) and the Count Basie Orchestra. It was released by Roulette Records, then later reissued by Capitol Records.
Later that year, Basie appeared on a television special with Fred Astaire, featuring a dance solo to “Sweet Georgia Brown“, followed in January 1961 by Basie performing at one of the five John F. Kennedy Inaugural Balls.[69] That summer, Basie and Duke Ellington combined forces for the recording First Time! The Count Meets the Duke, each providing four numbers from their play books.[70]
va morir le 1984ount Basie (left) in concert (Cologne 1975)
During the balance of the 1960s, the band kept busy with tours, recordings, television appearances, festivals, Las Vegas shows, and travel abroad, including cruises. Some time around 1964, Basie adopted his trademark yachting cap.[71]
Through steady changes in personnel, Basie led the band into the 1980s. Basie made a few more movie appearances, such as the Jerry Lewis film Cinderfella (1960) and the Mel Brooks movie Blazing Saddles (1974), playing a revised arrangement of “April in Paris”.
During its heyday, The Gong Show (1976–80) used Basie’s “Jumpin’ at the Woodside” during some episodes, while an NBC stagehand named Eugene Patton would
  • Jimmie Lunceford, mephis NY  Under the new name, the band started its professional career in 1929, and made its first recordings in 1930.[5] Lunceford was the first public high school band director in Memphis. After a period of touring, in 1934 the band accepted a booking at the Harlem nightclub The Cotton Club for their revue ‘Cotton Club Parade’ starring Adelaide Hall.[6][7] The Cotton Club had already featured Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway, who won their first widespread fame from their inventive shows for the Cotton Club’s all-white patrons. With their tight musicianship and the often outrageous humor in their music and lyrics, Lunceford’s orchestra made an ideal band for the club, and Lunceford’s reputation began to steadily grow.[8] Jimmie Lunceford’s band differed from other great bands of the time because it was better known for its ensemble than for its solo work. Additionally, he was known for using a two-beat rhythm, called the Lunceford two-beat, as opposed to the standard four-beat rhythm.[9] This distinctive “Lunceford style” was largely the result of the imaginative arrangements by trumpeter Sy Oliver, which set high standards for dance-band arrangers of the time
The orchestra began recording for the Decca label and later signed with the Columbia subsidiary Vocalion in 1938. They toured Europe extensively in 1937, but had to cancel a second tour in 1939 because of the outbreak of World War II. Columbia dropped Lunceford in 1940 because of flagging sales. (Oliver departed the group before the scheduled European tour to take a position as an arranger for Tommy Dorsey). Lunceford returned to the Decca label. The orchestra appeared in the 1941 movie Blues in the Night.
Most of Lunceford’s sidemen were underpaid and left for better paying bands, leading to the band’s decline.[10]
.” In the late 1940s, however, Calloway’s bad financial decisions and his gambling caused his band to break up
  • Chick Webb  ith Chick Webb‘s gro // In 1931, his band became the house band at the Savoy Ballroom. He became one of the best-regarded bandleaders and drummers of the new “swing” style. Drummer Buddy Rich cited Webb’s powerful technique and virtuoso performances as heavily influential on his own drumming, and even referred to Webb as “the daddy of them all”.[5] Webb was unable to read music, and instead memorized the arrangements played by the band and conducted from a platform in the center. He used custom-made pedals, goose-neck cymbal holders, a 28-inch bass drum and other percussion instruments.[6]Although his band was not as influential, it was feared in the battle of the bands.[4] The Savoy often featured “Battle of the Bands” where Webb’s band would compete with other top bands, such as the Benny Goodman Orchestra or the Count Basie Orchestra. By the end of the night’s battles the dancers seemed always to have voted Webb’s band as the best. Webb lost to Duke Ellington in 1937. Although a judge declared Webb’s band the official winner in 1938 over Count Basie’s, and Basie himself said he was relieved to come away from the contest without embarrassing himself, surviving musicians continued to dispute the ruling for decade
In November 1938, Webb’s health began to decline; for a time, however, he continued to play, refusing to give up touring so that his band could remain employed during the Great Depression. He disregarded his own discomfort and fatigue, which often found him passing out from physical exhaustion after finishing sets. Finally, he had a major operation at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore in 1939. Webb died from Pott disease on June 16, 1939, in Baltimore. Reportedly his last words were, “I’m sorry, I’ve got to go.” He was roughly 34 years old.[7] Webb was buried in Baltimore County, in Arbutus Memorial Park, in Arbutus, Maryland.
  • oin Andy Kirk‘s band in Andy Kirk (Mary Lou Williams)  ar. Mary Lou Williams came in as Kansas City.  Kirk moved the band to Kansas City, and since their first recordings in 1929–1930, they grew popular as they epitomized the Kansas City jazz sound. In mid-1936, he was signed to Decca and made scores of popular records until 1946. He presumably disbanded and reformed his band during that 6-year recording layoff, as his 1929–1930 Brunswick appeared to have sold well enough to stay in the catalog through the period and 1933-34 pressings (with the mid-1930s label variations) have been seen.
Their pianist, and the band’s arranger, was Mary Lou Williams, who went on to become a prominent figure in jazz.[6]
In 1948, Kirk disbanded the Clouds of Joy and continued to work as a musician, but eventually switched to hotel management and real estate.[7] He also served as an official in the Musicians’ Union.[2]
  • Benny Goodman, RADIO,  NBC hired Goodman for the radio program Let’s Dance.[8] John Hammond asked Fletcher Henderson if he wanted to write arrangements for Goodman, and Henderson agreed.[3]:114 During the Depression, Henderson disbanded his orchestra because he was in debt.[13] Goodman hired Henderson’s band members to teach his musicians how to play the music.[14]
Goodman commissioned compositions for clarinet and chamber ensembles or orchestra that have become standard pieces of classical repertoire. He premiered works by composers, such as Contrasts by Béla Bartók; Clarinet Concerto No. 2, Op. 115 by Malcolm Arnold; Derivations for Clarinet and Band by Morton Gould; Sonata for Clarinet and Piano by Francis Poulenc, and Clarinet Concerto by Aaron Copland. Prelude, Fugue, and Riffs by Leonard Bernstein was commissioned for Woody Herman‘s big band, but it was premiered by Goodman. Herman was the dedicatee (1945) and first performer (1946) of Igor Stravinsky’s Ebony Concerto, but many years later Stravinsky made another recording with Goodman as the soloist.[32]
la vaga de músics

Decline of the big bands

One unexpected result of the strike was the decline in popularity of the big bands of the 1930s and early 1940s. The strike was not the only cause of this decline, but it emphasized the shift from big bands with an accompanying vocalist to an emphasis on the vocalist, with the exclusion of the band. In the 1930s and pre–strike 1940s, big bands dominated popular music; immediately following the strike, vocalists began their dominance of popular music.[23][24]
During the strike, vocalists could and did record without instrumentalists; instrumentalists could not record for the public at all. As historian Peter Soderbergh put it, “Until the war most singers were props. After the war they became the stars and the role of the bands was gradually subordinated.”[21][25]
Before the strike began there were signs that the increasing popularity of singers was beginning to reshape the big bands. When Frank Sinatra joined Tommy Dorsey‘s band in 1940, most selections started with a Tommy Dorsey solo. By the time Sinatra left in 1942, his songs with the band began with his singing, followed by any solos by Dorsey or others.[citation needed]
JAZZ SWING ERA

Swing in the 1920s and 1930s

The 1930s belonged to popular swing big bands, in which some virtuoso soloists became as famous as the band leaders. Key figures in developing the “big” jazz band included bandleaders and arrangers Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Fletcher Henderson, Earl Hines, Harry James, Jimmie Lunceford, Glenn Miller and Artie Shaw. Although it was a collective sound, swing also offered individual musicians a chance to “solo” and improvise melodic, thematic solos which could at times be complex “important” music.
Over time, social strictures regarding racial segregation began to relax in America: white bandleaders began to recruit black musicians and black bandleaders white ones. In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman hired pianist Teddy Wilson, vibraphonist Lionel Hampton and guitarist Charlie Christian to join small groups. In the 1930s, Kansas City Jazz as exemplified by tenor saxophonist Lester Young marked the transition from big bands to the bebop influence of the 1940s. An early 1940s style known as “jumping the blues” or jump blues used small combos, uptempo music and blues chord progressions, drawing on boogie-woogie from the 1930s.

The influence of Duke Ellington

While swing was reaching the height of its popularity, Duke Ellington spent the late 1920s and 1930s developing an innovative musical idiom for his orchestra. Abandoning the conventions of swing, he experimented with orchestral sounds, harmony, and musical form with complex compositions that still translated well for popular audiences; some of his tunes became hits, and his own popularity spanned from the United States to Europe.[111]
Ellington called his music American Music, rather than jazz, and liked to describe those who impressed him as “beyond category.”[112] These included many musicians from his orchestra, some of whom are considered among the best in jazz in their own right, but it was Ellington who melded them into one of the most popular jazz orchestras in the history of jazz. He often composed for the style and skills of these individuals, such as “Jeep’s Blues” for Johnny Hodges, “Concerto for Cootie” for Cootie Williams (which later became “Do Nothing Till You Hear from Me” with Bob Russell‘s lyrics), and “The Mooche” for Tricky Sam Nanton and Bubber Miley. He also recorded songs written by his bandsmen, such as Juan Tizol‘s “Caravan” and “Perdido“, which brought the “Spanish Tinge” to big-band jazz. Several members of the orchestra remained with him for several decades. The band reached a creative peak in the early 1940s, when Ellington and a small hand-picked group of his composers and arrangers wrote for an orchestra of distinctive voices who displayed tremendous creativity.[113]
El SWING

Early swing

As the 1920s turned to the 1930s, the new concepts in rhythm and ensemble playing that comprised the swing style were transforming the sounds of large and small bands. Starting in 1928, The Earl Hines Orchestra was broadcast throughout much of the midwest from the Grand Terrace Cafe in Chicago, where Hines had the opportunity to expound upon his new approaches to rhythm and phrasing with a big band. Hines’ arranger Jimmy Mundy would later contribute to the catalog of the Benny Goodman Orchestra. The Duke Ellington Orchestra had its new sounds broadcast nationally from New York’s Cotton Club, followed by the Cab Calloway Orchestra and the Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra. Also in New York, the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra featured the new style at the Roseland Ballroom and the swing powerhouse Chick Webb Orchestra started its extended stay at the Savoy Ballroom in 1931.[11] Bennie Moten and the Kansas City Orchestra showcased the riff-propelled, solo-oriented form of swing that had been developing in the hothouse of Kansas City.[12][13] Emblematic of the evolving music was the change in the name of Moten’s signature tune, from “Moten Stomp” to “Moten Swing.” Moten’s orchestra had a highly successful tour in late 1932. Audiences raved about the new music, and at the Pearl Theatre in Philadelphia in December 1932, the doors were let open to the public who crammed into the theatre to hear the new sound, demanding seven encores from Moten’s orchestra.[6]
With the early 1930s came the financial difficulties of the Great Depression that curtailed recording of the new music and drove some bands out of business, including the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra and McKinney’s Cotton Pickers in 1934. Henderson’s next business was selling arrangements to up-and-coming bandleader Benny Goodman. “Sweet” dance music remained most popular with white audiences but the Casa Loma Orchestra and the Benny Goodman Orchestra went against that grain, targeting the new swing style to younger audiences.
[ nota all music sweet swing
When swing became popular and the big-band craze first landed in the ’30s, not every American — nor every fan of music — was ready for the hard-swinging style led by Fletcher Henderson and Benny Goodman. The sweet bands, often derided and unfairly compared to those swing bands also active during the 1930s and ’40s, came out of a different tradition entirely. Though similarly influenced by jazz maestros from Duke Ellington to Louis Armstrong, the sound of the sweet band was simply an outgrowth from the society orchestra of the 1910s and ’20s. Based mostly in New York, hundreds of society bands fanned out across the metropolis each weekend, playing easily recognizable versions of the hits-of-the-day for light dances and debutante balls.
]

BENNY GOODMAN

NBC hired Goodman for the radio program Let’s Dance.[8] John Hammond asked Fletcher Henderson if he wanted to write arrangements for Goodman, and Henderson agreed.[3]:114 During the Depression, Henderson disbanded his orchestra because he was in debt.[13] Goodman hired Henderson’s band members to teach his musicians how to play the music.[14]
Goodman’s band was one of three to perform on Let’s Dance, playing arrangements by Henderson along with hits such as “Get Happy” and “Limehouse Blues” by Spud Murphy.[15]
Goodman’s portion of the program was broadcast too late at night to attract a large audience on the east coast. He and his band remained on Let’s Dance until May of that year when a strike by employees of the series’ sponsor, Nabisco, forced the cancellation of the radio show. An engagement was booked at Manhattan’s Roosevelt Grill filling in for Guy Lombardo, but the audience expected “sweet” music and Goodman’s band was unsuccessful.[16]
Goodman spent six months performing on Let’s Dance, and during that time he recorded six more Top Ten hits for Columbia.[8]

Catalyst for the swing era

A crowd of Goodman fans in Oakland, California, 1940
On July 31, 1935, “King Porter Stomp” was released with “Sometimes I’m Happy” on the B-side, both arranged by Henderson and recorded on July 1.[3]:134 In Pittsburgh at the Stanley Theater some members of the audience danced in the aisles.[17] But these arrangements had little impact on the tour until August 19 at McFadden’s Ballroom in Oakland, California.[18] Goodman and his band, which included Bunny Berrigan, drummer Gene Krupa, and singer Helen Ward were met by a large crowd of young dancers who cheered the music they had heard on Let’s Dance.[19] Herb Caen wrote, “from the first note, the place was in an uproar.”[20] One night later, at Pismo Beach, the show was a flop, and the band thought the overwhelming reception in Oakland had been a fluke.[16] [a]
nwide radio broadcasts over NBC affiliate stations. While in Chicago, the band recorded If I Could Be with You, Stompin’ at the Savoy, and Goody, Goody.[16] Goodman also played three concerts produced by Chicago socialite and jazz aficionado Helen Oakley. These “Rhythm Club” concerts at the Congress Hotel included sets in which Goodman and Krupa sat in with Fletcher Henderson’s band, perhaps the first racially integrated big band appearing before a paying audience in the United States.[16] Goodman and Krupa played in a trio with Teddy Wilson on piano. Both combinations were well received, and Wilson remained.
In late 1937, Goodman’s publicist Wynn Nathanson suggested that Goodman and his band play Carnegie Hall in New York City. The sold-out concert was held on the evening of January 16, 1938. It is regarded as one of the most significant in jazz history. After years of work by musicians from all over the country, jazz had finally been accepted by mainstream audiences. Recordings of the concert were made, but even by the technology of the day the equipment used was not of the finest quality. Acetate recordings of the concert were made, and aluminum studio masters were cut.[23] “The recording was produced by Albert Marx as a special gift for his wife, Helen Ward, and a second set for Benny. He contracted Artists Recording Studio to make two sets. Artists Recording only had two turntables so they farmed out the second set to Raymond Scott’s recording studio….It was Benny’s sister-in-law who found the recordings in Benny’s apartment [in 1950] and brought them to Benny’s attention.[3]:366 Goodman took the discovered recording to Columbia, and a selection was issued on LP as The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert.

Charlie Christian

Pianist and arranger Mary Lou Williams suggested to Hammond that he see guitarist Charlie Christian.[24] Hammond had seen Christian perform in Oklahoma City in 1939 and recommended him to Goodman, but Goodman was uninterested in electric guitar and was put off by Christian’s taste in gaudy clothing. During a break at a concert in Beverly Hills, Hammond inserted Christian into the band. Goodman started playing “Rose Room” on the assumption that Christian didn’t know it, but his performance impressed everyone.[25] Christian was a member of the Benny Goodman Sextet from 1939 to 1941, and during these two years he turned the electric guitar into a popular jazz instrument.[26]
JOHN HAMMOND
Hammond recognized jazz music to have originated as an African-American musical genre. When Hammond entered the jazz community, integration had not yet begun. Black and white musicians rarely played together and often the prestigious locations permitted only white audiences. Hammond remembers that before the 1920s, black musicians could always find jobs, even if they were low paying. After the instatement of Local 802, a union of professional musicians within New York City, Hammond saw more white people receiving jobs than black people. However, this did not stop the African-American musicians. Through burlesque and record making, these musicians continued to be a presence.[2]
1933 was a defining year for Hammond. He remembers this year being extraordinary due to his establishment of relationships with British record companies. Hammond was able to secure contracts for various musicians. He was an attractive producer to these companies because he did not desire a profit for himself. In 1933, he helped Benny Goodman receive a record deal with Columbia Records, which at the time was only known as English Columbia. During this time, Goodman was in need of a big break, as he was getting a reputation as being difficult to work with. Hammond proposed that Goodman produce a multiracial record; however, Goodman believed this route would hurt his musical reputation.[1]
In this year, Hammond broke out of the traditional role of a producer and became a talent scout, after hearing Billie Holiday. He remarks that he was astounded to discover that she was the daughter of Clarence Holiday from Fletcher Henderson‘s band. That same year, he was able to get her involved in the Benny Goodman Orchestra.[2] Hammond attributes fate to his finding of Holiday. After hearing her sing for the first time, he wrote, “She weighs over 200 pounds, is incredibly beautiful, and sings as well as anybody I have ever heard.”[1]
Later in 1933, he heard Teddy Wilson, a jazz pianist, on the Chicago radio. While he did not discover him, he was able to provide significant opportunities for him, even some collaboration with Billie Holiday.[2]
Hammond’s work with civil rights came from multiple angles. In 1933, he traveled South to attend a trial regarding the Scottsboro case, a case in which two white girls accused nine black boys of raping them. The testimonies of the two girls did not align with the story. While all nine boys were convicted, Hammond viewed this trial as a “catalyst for black activism”.[1]
Record integration became an important component of jazz music. Starting in 1935, musicians began to record in mixed-race groups. While some of this integration had already taken place, Hammond remembers it as being hidden. However, in 1935, the Goodman Trio began recording. In 1936, the group appeared in a live concert at the Chicago Hot Jazz Society. Hammond fondly remembers this as an innovative moment in jazz history.[2]

FBI inv

1935–1946: The swing era

Main article: Swing era
Benny Goodman, one of the first swing bandleaders to achieve widespread fame.
In 1935 the Benny Goodman Orchestra had won a spot on the radio show “Let’s Dance” and started showcasing an updated repertoire featuring Fletcher Henderson arrangements. Goodman’s slot was on after midnight in the East, and few people heard it. It was on earlier on the West Coast and developed the audience that later led to Goodman’s Palomar Ballroom triumph. At the Palomar engagement starting on August 21, 1935, audiences of young white dancers favored Goodman’s rhythm and daring arrangements. The sudden success of the Goodman orchestra transformed the landscape of popular music in America. Goodman’s success with “hot” swing brought forth imitators and enthusiasts of the new style throughout the world of dance bands, which launched the “swing era” that lasted until 1946.[14]
A typical song played in swing style would feature a strong, anchoring rhythm section in support of more loosely-tied woodwind and brass sections playing call-response to each other. The level of improvisation that the audience might expect varied with the arrangement, song, band, and band-leader. Typically included in big band swing arrangements were an introductory chorus that stated the theme, choruses arranged for soloists, and climactic out-choruses. Some arrangements were built entirely around a featured soloist or vocalist. Some bands used string or vocal sections, or both. Swing-era repertoire included the Great American Songbook of Tin Pan Alley standards, band originals, traditional jazz tunes such as the “King Porter Stomp”, with which the Goodman orchestra had a smash hit, and blues.
Hot swing music is strongly associated with the jitterbug dancing that became a national craze accompanying the swing craze. Swing dancing originated in the late 1920s as the “Lindy Hop,” and would later incorporate other styles including The Suzie Q, Truckin’, Peckin’ Jive, The Big Apple, and The Shag in various combinations of moves. A subculture of jitterbuggers, sometimes growing quite competitive, congregated around ballrooms that featured hot swing music. A dance floor full of jitterbuggers had cinematic appeal; they were sometimes featured in newsreels and movies. Some of the top jitterbuggers gathered in professional dance troupes such as Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers (featured in A Day At the Races, Everybody Dance, and Hellzapoppin’). Swing dancing would outlive the swing era, becoming associated with R&B and early Rock&Roll.
As with many new popular musical styles, swing met with some resistance because of its improvisation, tempo, occasionally risqué lyrics, and frenetic dancing. Audiences used to traditional “sweet” arrangements, such as those offered by Guy Lombardo, Sammy Kaye, Kay Kyser and Shep Fields, were taken aback by the rambunctiousness of swing music. Swing was sometimes regarded as light entertainment, more of an industry to sell records to the masses than a form of art, among fans of both jazz and “serious” music. Some jazz critics such as Hugues Panassié held the polyphonic improvisation of New Orleans jazz to be the pure form of jazz, with swing a form corrupted by regimentation and commercialism. Panassié was also an advocate of the theory that jazz was a primal expression of the black American experience and that white musicians, or black musicians who became interested in more sophisticated musical ideas, were generally incapable of expressing its core values.[15] In his 1941 autobiography, W. C. Handy wrote that “prominent white orchestra leaders, concert singers and others are making commercial use of Negro music in its various phases. That’s why they introduced “swing” which is not a musical form” (no comment on Fletcher Henderson, Earl Hines, Duke Ellington, or Count Basie).[16] The Dixieland revival started in the late 1930s as a self-conscious re-creation of New Orleans jazz in reaction against the orchestrated style of big band swing. Some swing bandleaders saw opportunities in the Dixieland revival. Tommy Dorsey’s Clambake Seven and Bob Crosby’s Bobcats were examples of Dixieland ensembles within big swing bands.
Between the poles of hot and sweet, middlebrow interpretations of swing led to great commercial success for bands such as those led by Artie Shaw, Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey. Miller’s trademark clarinet-led reed section was decidedly “sweet,” but the Miller catalog had no shortage of bouncy, medium-tempo dance tunes and some up-tempo tunes such as Mission to Moscow and the Lionel Hampton composition “Flying Home”. “The Sentimental Gentleman of Swing” Tommy Dorsey made a nod to the hot side by hiring jazz trumpeter and Goodman alumnus Bunny Berigan, then hiring Jimmie Lunceford‘s arranger Sy Oliver to spice up his catalog in 1939.
New York became a touchstone for national success of big bands, with nationally broadcast engagements at the Roseland and Savoy ballrooms a sign that a swing band had arrived on the national scene. With its Savoy engagement in 1937, the Count Basie Orchestra brought the riff-and-solo oriented Kansas City style of swing to national attention. The Basie orchestra collectively and individually would influence later styles that would give rise to the smaller “jump” bands and bebop. The Chick Webb Orchestra remained closely identified with the Savoy Ballroom, having originated the tune “Stompin’ at the Savoy,” and became feared in the Savoy’s Battles of the Bands. It humiliated Goodman’s band,[11] and had memorable encounters with the Ellington and Basie bands. The Goodman band’s 1938 Carnegie Hall Concert turned into a summit of swing, with guests from the Basie and Ellington bands invited for a jam session after the Goodman band’s performance. Coleman Hawkins arrived back from an extended stay in Europe to New York in 1939, recorded his famous version of “Body and Soul”, and fronted his own big band. 1940 saw top-flight musicians such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Don Byas, Charlie Christian, and Gene Ramey, whose careers in swing had brought them to New York, beginning to coalesce and develop the ideas that would become bebop.

1940s: Decline

The early 1940s saw emerging trends in popular music and jazz that would, once they had run their course, result in the end of the swing era. Vocalists were becoming the star attractions of the big bands. Vocalist Ella Fitzgerald, after joining the Chick Webb Orchestra in 1936, propelled the band to great popularity and the band continued under her name after Webb’s death in 1939. In 1940 vocalist Vaughn Monroe was leading his own big band and Frank Sinatra was becoming the star attraction of the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, inciting mass hysteria among bobby-soxers. Vocalist Peggy Lee joined the Goodman Orchestra in 1941 for a two-year stint, quickly becoming its star attraction on its biggest hits. Some big bands were moving away from the swing styles that dominated the late 1930s, for both commercial and creative reasons. Some of the more commercial big bands catered to more “sweet” sensibilities with string sections. Some bandleaders such as John Kirby, Raymond Scott, and Claude Thornhill were fusing swing with classical repertoire. Lower manpower requirements and simplicity favored the rise of small band swing. The Savoy Sultans and other smaller bands led by Louis Jordan, Lucky Millinder, Louis Prima, and Tony Pastor were showcasing an exuberant “jump swing” style that would lead to the postwar rise of R&B. In a 1939 Downbeat interview, Duke Ellington expressed dissatisfaction with the creative state of swing music;[17] within a few years he and other bandleaders would be delving into more ambitious, and less danceable, forms of orchestral jazz and the creative forefront for soloists would be moving into smaller ensembles and bebop. The Earl Hines Orchestra in 1943 featured a collection of young, forward-looking musicians who were at the core of the bebop movement and would in the following year be in the Billy Eckstine Orchestra, the first big band to showcase bebop. As the swing era went into decline, it secured legacies in vocalist-centered popular music, “progressive” big band jazz, R&B, and bebop.
The trend away from big band swing was accelerated by wartime conditions and royalty conflicts.[18] In 1941 the American Society of Composers and Producers (ASCAP) demanded bigger royalties from broadcasters and the broadcasters refused. Consequently, ASCAP banned the large repertoire they controlled from airplay, severely restricting what the radio audience could hear. ASCAP also demanded pre-approval of set lists and even written solos for live broadcasts, to assure that not even a quoted fragment of ASCAP repertoire was broadcast. Those restrictions made broadcast swing much less appealing for the year in which the ban was in place. Big band swing remained popular during the war years, but the resources required to support it became problematic. Wartime restriction on travel, coupled with rising expenses, curtailed road touring. The manpower requirements for big swing bands placed a burden on the scarce resources available for touring and were impacted by the military draft. In July 1942 the American Federation of Musicians called a ban on recording until record labels agreed to pay royalties to musicians. That stopped recording of instrumental music for major labels for over a year, with the last labels agreeing to new contract terms in November 1944. In the meantime, vocalists continued to record backed by vocal groups and the recording industry released earlier swing recordings from their vaults, increasingly reflecting the popularity of big band vocalists. In 1943 Columbia Records re-released the 1939 recording of “All or Nothing at All” by the Harry James Orchestra with Frank Sinatra, giving Sinatra top billing (“Acc. Harry James and his Orchestra”). The recording found the commercial success that had eluded its original release. Small band swing was recorded for small specialty labels not affected by the ban. These labels had limited distribution centered in large urban markets, which tended to limit the size of the ensembles with which recording could be a money-making proposition. Another blow fell on the market for dance-oriented swing in 1944 when the federal government levied a 30% excise tax on “dancing” nightclubs, undercutting the market for dance music in smaller venues.[19]
The war’s end saw the elements that had been unified under big band swing scattered into separate styles and markets. Some “progressive” big bands such as those led by Stan Kenton and Boyd Raeburn stayed oriented towards jazz, but not jazz for dancing. Much of the top instrumental talent of the period were performing in small band formats ranging from R&B to bebop. The hard core dancing niche formerly occupied by hot big band swing was occupied by small “jump” bands and R&B. Popular music was centered on vocalists, and a full-time big band to back up a vocalist was increasingly seen as an unnecessary expense. By 1947 the economics of popular music led to the disbanding of many established big bands. Big band music would experience a resurgence during the 1950s, but the connection between the later big band music and the swing era was tenuous.
L’ERA DEL SWING

MARSHALL STEARNS

Buck dance
Katherine Dunham
Escena de ballet a Stormy Weather
39 Harlem Background p.315
El 17 juny de 1928 va començar una marató de ball al Manhattan Casino, inicialment 80 parelles. Ballaven una hora i descansaven 15 minuts, dia i nit. Això va durar fins el 4 de juliol. quedaven quatre parelles d’empeus, una d’elles George “Shorty” Snowden, amb el número 7 a l’esquena. Les quatre parelles es repartirien un premi de 5000$. A les tardes, els espectadors podien oferir un premi de 5 o 10$ per que competissin alguna de les parelles que quedaven. I en una d’aquestes Snowden diu que va decidir fer un breakaway, enviar la parella com en un swingout i improvisar unes passes. Això va trencar la monotonia de la marató, bàsicament Collegiate, i l’efecte va ser elèctric, tant pel púbic com pels músics. “Shorty havia posat en amrxa alguna cosa”.
p.316
you couldn’t do real lindy to Lombardo
The Savoy
p.140 Dancing became more rhythmic, and jazz drummers were getting ideas from tap dancers
SAVOY
p.325 One event in the development of big-band jazz and its effect on the dance can be dated by the appearance at the Savoy of the Bennie Moten band from Kansas City. This band -with Lips Page on trumpet, Ben Webster on tenor, and Count Basie at the piano-ignited a musical revolution by the sheer power and drive of its playing. Substituting a guitar for the banjo and a string-bass for the tuba, Moten’s band generated a more flowing, lifting momentum. The effect on the dancers was to increase the energy and speed of execution, a necessary preliminary for the acrobatics to come.
In a sense, The Lindy is choreographed swing music. Unlike earlier Dixieland jazz, and the Toddle, which was danced to it, a bouncy, up-and-down style of dancing, swing music and Lindy flowed more horizontally and smoothly. There was more rhythmic continuity. again, swing music and the Lindy were more complicated, for while a LIndy team often danced together during the opening ensembles of a big band, they tended to go into a breakaway and improvise individual steps when the band arrangement led into a solo.
The similarity is conscious and intentional, for jazz dancers follow the music closely. Describing an incident at the Savoy in 1937, Leon James remarks: “Dizzy Gillespie was featured in the brass section of Tewddy Hill’s screaming band. A lot of people had him pegged as a clown, but we loved him. Every time he played a crazy lick, we cut a crazy step to go with it. And he dug us and blew even crazier stuff to see if we could dance to it, a kind of game, with the musicians and dancers challenging eachh other.
Great musicians inspire great dancers -and vice versa- until the combination pyramiuds inbto the greatest performances of both. “I wish jazz was played more often for dancing” sid LEster Young during his lst years with the Count Basie band, “The rhythm of the dancers comes back to you when you’re playing”. One of the reasons for the early development of great big-band jazz at the Savoy was the presence of great dancers.
cita lester young insipració dels músics stearns? p. 325 stearns, p 148 bateries i tap dance