Day: June 27, 2024

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Swing (The development of jazz 2/11)

By the late 1920s, jazz had become commonplace. Jazz became dance music more than before. Besides pubs and speakeasies, the venues shifted to ballrooms, theatres and cabarets. In the 1930s, numerous big bands emerged in the US and in Europe, all trying to gather the best soloists. Even today, the names of the band leaders have a familiar sound: Count Basie, Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman and, of course, Glenn Miller. To get in the mood, you can listen to a swinging Count Basie and his orchestra with the “One O’clock Jump” (1960).

What distinguishes swing from old jazz?

Swing usually replaces of two beats per measure, typical of old jazz (ta – ta – ) with four, with the last beat getting an extra accent (ta, ta, ta, pom).  Beats thus follow each other at a much faster pace. Technically, this was made possible by replacing the sousaphone with the double bass. This makes swing sound more fluidly than Dixieland music. 

The saxophone supplanted the role of the trumpet as a solo instrument. Moreover, the saxophone section often carried the melody, while the (slide)trumpets provided melodic accents. The rhythm section also played a more important role than in Dixieland music. For the first time, there were solos on percussion. Most bands replaced the raw sound of the banjo with the softer sounds of the guitar. Experienced arrangers contributed to the timbre, but experienced band members provided the difference through their improvisations. 

You can hear that here in the swinging performance of “Suger Foot Stomp” by Fletcher Henderson’s orchestra (1926). The difference with old jazz is evident when you compare this recording here with a recording of the same song also by Henderson’s orchestra from 1920.

Dance music

The swing era produced many songs that can still be heard somewhere to this day.  Listen to “It Don’t Mean A Thing” (If It Ain’t Got That Swing) played by ‘Duke’ Ellington’s band and sung by the first lady of song Ella Fitzgerald (1965).

Especially for the younger, swing was dance music par excellence. This also prompted the spread of Lindy hop, a dance style that is still practiced today. The name was derived from the aviator Charles Lindbergh who had taken a solo flight from New York to Paris in 1927, gaining great popularity. The style was somewhere between Charleston and breakdance with a touch of acrobatics. In the following recording of “In The Mood” from the film Hollywood Hotel (1937), you can hear the ‘hot swing’ of Benny Goodman’s band and the virtuoso drumming of Gene Krupa, and you can also admire samples of the Lindy hop.

Between ‘hot’ and ‘sweet’ swing

Gradually, big bands’ repertoire began to include more than swinging dance music. This was because big bands played not only in ballrooms but also in revues and musicals. Also, big bands increasingly became accompanying orchestras of vocalists, such as Ella Fitzgerard, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra, who had a varied repertoire. Besides ‘hot swing’, they therefore played ‘sweet swing’, which was quieter and geared towards the older age group. This group distanced itselves from jazz because of its often complex improvisations, high tempo, wild dancing and sometimes daring lyrics. But several musicians also condemned the commercial and musical excesses of swing and returned to the old jazz. Tension between music as a form of entertainment and art form is something of all times.

Numerous jazz standards

As was the case with Dixieland music, the swing period produced many jazz standards (characteristic songs). Some you have already been able to listen to; a few others are: “Begin the Beguine“, “Chattanooga Choo Choo“, “King Porter Stomp“, “Sing, Sing, Sing“, “Body and Soul” and “Caravan“.  A full list can be found here. There is no point in listing the performers as they have been in the repertoire of many dozens of bands, singers or vocalists.

The imminent end of the swing era….

After 1940, things gradually went downhill for the big bands, many performers had to enlist and, because of war funding, the government increased the entertainment tax for all dance venues. Moreover, the musicians won a long-running case over their share of record sales. The cost of a big band became too high, and bands disbanded. Some of the musicians started looking for new ways.  In their opinion, both the compositions of hot and sweet swing were increasingly driven by commercial considerations. They wanted to restore jazz as an art form. That is what my next post is about. 

….. But not for good

Big bands and swing music made several comebacks. The bands of Stan Kenton and Woody Herman, which advertised themselves as progressive jazz, retained plenty of fans, thanks to their innovative arrangements and high-level soloists such as Stan Getz. Many radio and television stations established their own big bands to accompany singers. In the Netherlands, the Ramblers occupy a special position among these.  Founded in 1926, the Ramblers became VARA’s house orchestra in 1964. After the dissolution of the VARA dance orchestra in 1974, the name Ramblers was reinstated and became the house orchestra of the TROS.  Here you can watch a promo of this almost 100-year-old orchestra, which, like many similar former big bands, has significantly broadened its repertoire.

The renewed popularity of Duke Ellington’s band is partly due to its performance at the 1956 Newport jazz festival. Due to circumstances, the band started hours late. On the programme was Ellington’s composition “Crescendo & Diminuendo in Blue”. A piece consisting of two parts, connected by a short solo by tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves. At the beginning of the solo, a woman started dancing in the aisle, soon hundreds of other audience members followed. Thousands more stood up and began rhythmically clapping along and encouraging the soloist. Ellington let Gonsalves play on for six minutes, which set one of the best improvisations in jazz ever. The audience was delirious and when the song finally ended, a minute-long standing ovation followed and album sales jumped. The ‘Duke’ uttered the legendary words, “Today I was born”. You can listen to the entire performance below; the audience’s reactions are less audible in this filming. For that, you can listen to a radio recording of the entire song here, with textual commentary on the performance. 

Swing into the 21ste century

Gipsy swing or jazz manouche is the only in Europe variant within the genre of swing. Founders were jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist Stéphane Grappelli, and they became famous with the Quintette du Hot Club de France. Interest in this style waned when the swing era came to an end, but from the 1970s d the appreciation returned in full and many French children nowadays often learn to play gipsy jazz at an early age. Incidentally, there are at least a hundred bands playing jazz manouche in the Netherlands, united in the Stichting Hotclub de France.

In the post-1990 period, swing revived worldwide, albeit with fewer personnel on stage. Bands like Royal Crown Revue and Lavay Smith, performed old or new songs in the original style. Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, The Cherry Poppin’ Daddies and Caravan Palace, added a touch of rock and ska to their swing performance. With Caravan Palace – a French group – that’s a good dash of gipsy swing. Each of these bands is worth a listen. 

I invite you to listen to one of the many contemporary bands playing the original gipsy swing, in this case the jazz standard “Minor Swing” composed by Django Reinhardt and performed by the Saint Andreu Jazz Band (2013).

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Old jazz (The development of jazz 1/11)

Drawing by F. Bildstein, cover of The Mascot from 1890. Public domain 

What is now called ‘old jazz’ – still alive and kicking – originated in New Orleans in the late 19 century. Jazz evolved from genres that already came into being within the Afro-American communities, such as worksongs, boogie woogie, ragtime and spirituals. Other genres, par example marches and hymns had primarily a European background. 

To begin with, you will hear the Dixieland classic “One step” played by the Dutch Swing College Band (1974).

In North America and in South America and the Caribbean, contacts between populations originating from Africa and from Europe resulted in a variety of musical style. I limit myself to the first region. In doing so, six genres are highlighted: old jazz, swing, bebop, ‘cool’, ‘fusion’ and free jazz. To this day, they have practitioners and enthusiasts. In addition to six posts dedicated to each genre, you are acknowledged with five leading musicians, bandleaders and composers: Louis Armstrong, ‘Duke’ Ellington, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillepsie and John Coltrane.

Characteristics of jazz

The following five characteristics can be found in almost all genres of jazz, developed to date:

  • Collective participation: While jazz music is often (partly) written out, musicians have a relatively large amount of freedom.
  • Improvisation: Written jazz music almost always allows room for improvisation, sometimes by soloists but often also by other orchestra members.
  • Antiphony: Members of an orchestra respond to each other, either by arrangement, or while improvising.
  • Polyphony: A piece of music combines different, sometimes contrasting melody lines.
  • Polyrhythmic: Sometimes a song consists of several successively or simultaneously occurring rhythmic lines.

The forerunners

From the second half of the 19 century, there are several ‘precursors’, for example the New Orleans-based Louis Gottschalk who composed in 1853 the musical piece “The banjo: grotesque fantasy”. 

New Orleans would become the mecca of old-time jazz from the end of the 19 century. One reason was that many freed slaves settled in in this town after the abolition of slavery. Every café or brothel had a band playing. The first band was called the “Original Dixieland Jass Band”, but ‘jass’ soon became ‘jazz’, which means something like ‘bunch of jerks’. This name came from that part of the population that disliked jazz (see print above). Musicians considered it as a nickname. In 1925 released the first jazz record, the ‘Livery Stable Blues’. Listen to it  here. What this song sounds like 100 years later can be heard here. Better sound quality, but otherwise the same. In 2006, Jelly Roll Morton composed the “Jelly Roll Blues”. You can hear a version from 1926, played by his then band, the ‘Red Hot Peppers’, here. 

Dance orchestras

The instruments you see and hear here can be found to this day in Dixieland bands. ‘Dixieland’ is a nickname for the southern US.  The word is derived from the French word ‘dix'(10), which appeared on banknotes circulating in the area during the Civil War. In time, many jazz musicians from New Orleans moved to Chicago and later New York, or crossed the ocean to Europe, where old jazz also flourished. So did the ‘Original Dixieland Jazz Band’ and it created a jazz craze in Britain. 

Louis Armstrong also began his career in New Orleans, where his virtuosity on the trumpet distinguished him. He did have to scrape together his living, first at the age of 12 as a street musician. Later he played in various orchestras. At the invitation of his mentor King Oliver, he left for Chicago at the age of 22, where he played the trumpet in Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band and earned well. You can listen to the first record of this band (1923)

Young people in the 1920s saw jazz as a means of rebelling against the older generation. Young women dressed in ‘flapper fashion, smoked in public, danced the Charleston and talked freely about sex. The ‘prohibition’ in the US contributed to the spread of jazz also. ‘Speakeasies’, well-hidden pubs and cabarets where live music was everywhere, sprang up almost in every street. For many older people jazz equaled moral decay in the first place. 

Jazz was becoming less and less an exclusive affair for black people. ‘White’ Paul Whiteman became top bandleader in the 1920s and he hired Bix Beiderbecke and brothers Jimmy and Frankie Dorsey, among others; musicians who would go on to make a big name for themselves. You can now listen to a recording of his band from 1925.

The same Paul Whiteman had commissioned George Gershwin to write the “Rhapsody in Blue, which his orchestra would premiere. You can listen to this orchestral work here, in a performance by the New York Philharmonic with Leonard Bernstein (1976)

Marching bands

In addition to the dance orchestras, marching bands graced every celebration. This custom lives on to this day. Whether it was a funeral or wedding, groups of 10 to 15 musicians would move along in the procession at a slow pace, followed by a dancing crowd. This practice was not always appreciated too. Watch a funeral procession with the New Orleans Traditional Band here.

Some of these bands became famous and performed outside New Orleans. For example, the Eureka Brass Band, the Tuxedo Brass Band (1958), the Treme Brass Band (2013) and the Olympia Brass Band (2009). Some contemporary New Orleans Brass Bands, such as the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, and the Rebirth Brass Band combine Dixieland music with influences from funk, hip hop and rap. You can watch and listen to the Dirty Dozen Brass Band during a performance on stage.

Sustained popularity

The Dixieland craze lasted until the early 1930s, but the genre remained popular. In the late 1940s, Louis Armstrong’s Allstars band became a leading orchestra. In the 1950s and 1960s, Dixieland music was one of the most popular jazz styles in the US and abroad. It was a reaction to polished big band swing and complex bebop, which will be discussed later. Musicians were partly older musicians who had started their careers with old jazz. But also young musicians, such as the Lu Waters Band, Ward Kimball and his Firehouse five plus two and Conrad Janis and his Tallgate jazz band. 

Music critics have made lists of all genres of music that include the most listened, loved, covered songs. You’d be amazed at how many songs that almost everyone knows today stem from this period, such as “When the Saints Go Marching In”, “Charleston”, “Tiger Rag”, “Basin Street Blues”, “Sweet Georgia Brown”, “Tea for two”, “Crazy rithm”, “Bye Bye blackbird”, “Mack the knive”, “At the Jazz Band Ball , “I Found a New Baby”, “Ain’t misbehavin'” and many others. A full list of jazz standards from the pre-1930 period can be found here.

I finish with an old hand: Louis Armstrong playing and singing “When The Saints Go Marching In”.