Swing music
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| Swing | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins: | New Orleans jazz, Kansas City jazz, New York jazz |
| Cultural origins: | 1920s |
| Typical instruments: | clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, piano, double bass, drums, keyboards, electric guitars |
| Mainstream popularity: | 1930s and 1940s |
| Subgenres | |
| Swing Revival | |
Swing music, also known as swing jazz, is a form of jazz music that developed during the 1920s 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
African American "swing" is not, as some Eurocentric musicologists would try to characterize in Western musical paradigms, syncopation, nor does it have a "tripleted feel."[citation needed] Rather, it is a hybrid concept of time/pulse and rhythm: the result of the miscegenation between West African triple meter and multiple rhythmic layering with Western European duple meter and singular rhythm. This "3 inside 2" is a fundamentally West African-descended phenomenon, found in all African diasporic musics where more than one time and more than one rhythm coexist. Enslaved Africans in the Diaspora developed unique types of "swing" - in Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Brazil, etc. The first recordings labeled swing style date from the 1920s, and come from both the United States and the United Kingdom. They are characterized by the swing rhythm already at that time common in jazz music, and a lively style which is harder to define but distinctive. 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.
Swing bands tended to be bigger and more crowded than other jazz bands, necessitating 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, 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 one soloist at a time taking center stage, and take up an improvised routine, with her/his bandmates playing support. As a song progressed, multiple soloists might be expected to pick up the baton, and then pass it on. That said, it was common to have two or three band members improvising at any one time.
Swing jazz began to be embraced by the public around 1935. Previously to that time it had had only a very limited acceptance, mostly among African American audiences and cognoscenti. As the music began to grow in popularity throughout the States, a number of changes occurred in the culture that surrounded the music. For one, the introduction of swing music, with its strong rhythms, loud tunes, and "swinging" style led to an explosion of creative dance in the black community. The various rowdy, energetic, creative, and improvisational dances that came into effect during that time came to be known, collectively, as swing dance.
The second change that occurred as swing music increased in popularity outside the black community, was, to some extent, an increasing pressure on musicians and band leaders to soften (some would say dumb-down) the music to cater to a more staid and conservative, Anglo-American audience. In the United States, there was some resistance to the acceptance of swing music until around 1939.
Similar conflicts arose when Swing spread to other countries. In Germany, it conflicted with Nazi ideology (see Swing Kids) and was declared officially forbidden by the Nazi regime. 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. After a long hiatus, though, jazz music was eventually readmitted to Soviet audiences.
In later decades, the popular, sterilized, mass-market form of swing music would often, and unfortunately, be the first taste that younger generations might be exposed to, which often led to it being labeled something akin to 'old fogey big-band dance music'.
Ironically, early swing musicians were often in fact annoyed by the young people who would throw a room into chaos by seemingly tossing each other across the floor at random — thus somewhat nullifying the idea that swing was developed as dance music, when in fact, swing dancing evolved among young aficionados to complement the energy of the music.
[edit] The decline and evolution of swing
Swing music began to decline in popularity during WWII 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. This changed the quintessential swing sound and gave rise to Rhythm and blues, jump blues and bebop. A third reason is the recording bans of 1942 and 1948 because of musicians' union strikes.
The year 1947 saw the pressing of what would turn out to be the last swing records. 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 several divergent genres of art and popular music, including jump blues, rhythm and blues, bebop, rock and roll, country and western, and funk. In general, the shuffle rhythm was replaced in prominence by the backbeat.
[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 1990s there was a short-lived Swing Revival movement, led by bands such as Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Cherry Poppin' Daddies, Royal Crown Revue, Brian Setzer, and Stray Cats.
[edit] Samples
- Download sample of "Begin the Beguine" by Artie Shaw, a surprise hit that turned the clarinetist into a swing star
- Download sample of "Jumpin' at the Woodside" by Count Basie & His Orchestra, a popular swing song by a jazz legend
- Download sample of "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] Famous swing musicians
Band leaders:
Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson Dorsey Brothers|The Dorsey Brothers, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw Gene Krupa, Glenn Miller, Chick Webb
Clarinet:
Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw
Trumpet:
Louis Armstrong, Roy Eldridge, Harry Edison
Piano:
Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Earl Hines, Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Teddy Wilson, Jelly Roll Morton
[edit] See also
[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.
[edit] External links
- Swing era entry at the University of Virginia's Jazz history site.
- About swing (Link collection) at HepTown, a Swedish swing and retro culture site.
Acid jazz - Asian American jazz - Avant-garde jazz - Bebop - Dixieland - Calypso jazz - Chamber jazz - Cool jazz - Free jazz - Gypsy jazz - Hard bop - Jazz blues - Jazz-funk - Jazz fusion - Jazz rap - Latin jazz - Mini-jazz - Modal jazz - M-Base - Nu jazz - Smooth jazz - Soul jazz - Swing - Trad jazz - West coast jazz
Other topics
Musicians - Jazz standard - Jazz royalty - Jazz band - Big band - Origin of the word jazz
