What is Swing Music?

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.

Change From Sweet to Swing Music

The dance form of jazz, popular during the 1920's and early 1930's (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 1930's 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.

History

Swing, like several other styles of 20th Century popular music, has its origins in African rhythms. Traditional West African music brought to the United States and elsewhere by enslaved Africans hybridized with western music to eventually create a distinct style. 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 distinctive lively style which is harder to define. 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.

Although swing was performed by small ensembles as well, the quintessential 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, 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. As the music began to grow in popularity throughout the States--as with many new popular musical styles--it met with some resistance from the public, for 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.

Swing revival

Main article: 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 fell out of mainstream popularity before long, but it inspired a revival of swing dancing which is still growing outside of the mainstream.

Samples

• of "Begin the Beguine" by Artie Shaw, a surprise hit that turned the clarinetist into a swing star
• of "Jumpin' at the Woodside" by Count Basie & His Orchestra, a popular swing song by a jazz legend
• 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

Famous swing musicians

Band leaders:

Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, The Dorsey Brothers, Benny Goodman, Cab Calloway, Earl Hines, Artie Shaw, Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich, Glenn Miller, Chick Webb.

Clarinet:

Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw

Saxophone:

Coleman Hawkins, Johnny Hodges, Ben Webster, Lester Young

Trumpet:

Louis Armstrong, Roy Eldridge, Harry Edison

Piano:

Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Earl Hines, Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Teddy Wilson, Jelly Roll Morton

See also

• List of musical genres
• Swing Revival
• Swing (dance)
• Big band
• Continental Jazz, swing of continental Europe

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.California&rft.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. 

External links

• Swing era entry at the University of Virginia's Jazz history site.
• Swing: Last.FM Group
• About swing (Link collection) at HepTown, a Swedish swing and retro culture site.