There was very little work, especially for non-essential musicians. The average person wasn’t able to afford to go out for live music or to buy records. The prosperity and carefree times of the roaring 20s were over. “Black Thursday” had occurred on October 24th, 1929 followed by the collapse of The New York Bank of the United States on December 11th, 1931. To many, the appearance of Benny Goodman and his Big Band at the Palomar in Los Angeles in August of 1935 was the start of the Swing Era.Īmerica was still in the grips of a depression. It was the only time in American musical history that the popularity of jazz eclipsed all other forms of music. The Big Band era is generally regarded as having occurred between 19. Through the press, recordings, and live radio remote broadcasts the American public was introduced to the new music. It was at the Savoy that a dance style called the ‘Lindy Hop’ was invented and refined. The Savoy Ballroom in Harlem opened its doors in 1926 and for the next 20 years became a hotbed for swing bands. The popularity of swing increased as people invented new dances to complement its driving rhythm. The big band sounds of The Dorsey Brothers, Fletcher Henderson, Cab Calloway, The Casa Loma Orchestra, and Duke Ellington’s orchestra as well as the vocal styling of The Mills Brothers, the Andrew Sisters and The Boswell Sisters were all carefully arranged, and the easy flowing style of the evolving jazz was becoming known as ‘Swing.’Īs the new swing style emerged in the mid-1930s, it took the country by storm. Improvisation during solos was written into the arrangements, but their location and duration were controlled. The arranger became the focal point of the band. They made their money playing for ballroom dance crowds and radio remote broadcasts into the early 1930s.Īs the jazz orchestras grew in size, the arrangements had to be formalized to avoid mass confusion. Paul Whiteman, The California Ramblers, Ted Lewis, Jean Goldkette, and Vincent Lopez were a few of the successful hotel dance bandleaders of the 1920s. These groups nurtured young stars and future bandleaders like Coleman Hawkins, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Red Allen, Roy Eldridge, Benny Carter, and John Kirby.ĭuring the 1920s, while traveling musicians were playing and spreading big band jazz, hotel dance bands and resident dance hall bands were also playing a role in the evolution of the Big Band era. Duke Ellington, Ben Pollack, Don Redman, and Fletcher Henderson were some of the more popular early big bands. In the 1920s the music of jazz began to evolve to bigger band formats combining elements of ragtime, black spirituals, blues, and European music. Despite the fact that they hadn’t invented anything, their recordings sold over a million copies and introduced jazz to all of America and the world. Mississippi steamboats helped spread the new sound as many New Orleans jazz bands and musicians performed on the boats.ġ917 saw the early recordings of the Original Dixieland Jass Band – white musicians playing the tunes and arrangements of black musicians. It had evolved naturally from the blues and jazz of New Orleans, Chicago and Kansas City.Įarly Jazz developed in New Orleans where Buddy Bolden, King Oliver (a cornet player idolized by Louis Armstrong) and others performed at the turn of the century. The term generally refers to the swing era starting around 1935, but there was no one event that kicked off a new form of music in 1935. The term “Big Band,” referring to Jazz, is vague but popular.
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