New Orleans Jazz Band the Big Band Era Volume 1 Album Art

Music ensemble associated with jazz and Swing Era music

Big band
Paul Whiteman and his orchestra in 1921
Stylistic origins	Jazz dejection American marches classical various rhythmic social dances
Cultural origins	1910s
Derivative forms	Swing progressive jazz Kansas City jazz easy listening space age popular lounge

A big band or jazz orchestra is a blazon of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more than musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm department. Big bands originated during the early on 1910s and dominated jazz in the early 1940s when swing was most pop. The term "big band" is also used to describe a genre of music, although this was not the only style of music played by large bands.

Big bands started as accompaniment for dancing. In contrast to the typical jazz emphasis on improvisation, big bands relied on written compositions and arrangements. They gave a greater role to bandleaders, arrangers, and sections of instruments rather than soloists.

Instruments [edit]

Typical seating arrangement for a 17-piece big band

Big bands mostly have 4 sections: trumpets, trombones, saxophones, and a rhythm section of guitar, piano, double bass, and drums.^{[1] [2]} The division in early large bands, from the 1920s to 1930s, was typically two or three trumpets, one or two trombones, three or 4 saxophones, and a rhythm section of iv instruments.^[iii] In the 1940s, Stan Kenton's band used up to v trumpets, 5 trombones (three tenor and two bass trombones), five saxophones (two alto saxophones, two tenor saxophones, one baritone saxophone), and a rhythm section. Duke Ellington at one time used vi trumpets.^[4] While most big bands dropped the previously common jazz clarinet from their arrangements (other than the clarinet-led orchestras of Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman), many Duke Ellington songs had clarinet parts,^[5] oftentimes replacing or doubling one of the tenor saxophone parts; more rarely, Ellington would substitute baritone sax for bass clarinet, such as in "Ase'south Death" from Swinging Suites. Boyd Raeburn drew from symphony orchestras by adding flute, French horn, strings, and timpani to his ring.^[3]

Jazz ensembles numbering viii (octet), nine (nonet) or ten (tentet) voices are sometimes called "little big bands".^[6]

20-first century large bands can be considerably larger than their predecessors, exceeding 20 players, with some European bands using 29 instruments and some reaching 50.^[vii]

Arrangements [edit]

Information technology is useful to distinguish betwixt the roles of composer, arranger and leader. The composer writes original music that will be performed by individuals or groups of various sizes, while the arranger adapts the work of composers in a artistic way for a operation or recording.^[8] Arrangers frequently notate all or most of the score of a given number, usually referred to as a "chart".^[9] Bandleaders are typically performers who assemble musicians to class an ensemble of various sizes, select or create fabric for them, shape the music'south dynamics, phrasing, and expression in rehearsals, and lead the group in operation often while playing alongside them.^[10] Some bandleaders, such every bit Guy Lombardo, performed works composed by others (in Lombardo's example, oft by his brother Carmen),^[xi] while others, such as Maria Schneider take on all iii roles.^[12] In many cases, however, the distinction between these roles tin become blurred.^[thirteen] Billy Strayhorn, for example, was a prolific composer and arranger, oftentimes collaborating with Duke Ellington, just rarely took on the function of bandleader, which was assumed past Ellington, who himself was a composer and arranger.^[14]

Typical big band arrangements from the swing era were written in strophic form with the same phrase and chord construction repeated several times.^[fifteen] Each iteration, or chorus, commonly follows twelve bar blues form or thirty-two-bar (AABA) vocal form. The get-go chorus of an arrangement introduces the melody and is followed by choruses of development.^[16] This development may take the form of improvised solos, written solo sections, and "shout choruses".^[17]

An arrangement's beginning chorus is sometimes preceded past an introduction, which may exist as short equally a few measures or may extend to a chorus of its own. Many arrangements contain an interlude, often similar in content to the introduction, inserted between some or all choruses. Other methods of embellishing the form include modulations and cadential extensions.^[eighteen]

Some big ensembles, like King Oliver's, played music that was one-half-arranged, half-improvised, oftentimes relying on head arrangements.^[xix] A head organisation is a piece of music that is formed by band members during rehearsal.^[20] They experiment, oftentimes with one player coming up with a simple musical figure leading to development within the aforementioned section and then farther expansion past other sections, with the entire ring so memorizing the way they are going to perform the piece, without writing it on sheet music.^[21] During the 1930s, Count Basie's band often used caput arrangements, as Basie said, "we just sort of first it off and the others fall in."^{[22] [23]} Caput arrangements were more than common during the period of the 1930s because at that place was less turnover in personnel, giving the band members more time to rehearse.^{[24] : p.31}

History [edit]

Trip the light fantastic music [edit]

Before 1910, social dance in America was dominated past steps such as the waltz and polka.^[25] Every bit jazz migrated from its New Orleans origin to Chicago and New York City, energetic, suggestive dances traveled with it. During the next decades, ballrooms filled with people doing the jitterbug and Lindy Hop. The trip the light fantastic duo Vernon and Irene Castle popularized the foxtrot while accompanied past the Europe Order Orchestra led by James Reese Europe.^[i]

One of the kickoff bands to accompany the new rhythms was led by a drummer, Fine art Hickman, in San Francisco in 1916. Hickman's arranger, Ferde Grofé, wrote arrangements in which he divided the jazz orchestra into sections that combined in various means. This intermingling of sections became a defining characteristic of big bands. In 1919, Paul Whiteman hired Grofé to utilise similar techniques for his band. Whiteman was educated in classical music, and he called his new band'south music symphonic jazz. The methods of trip the light fantastic toe bands marked a step away from New Orleans jazz. With the exception of Jelly Ringlet Morton, who continued playing in the New Orleans manner, bandleaders paid attending to the need for trip the light fantastic music and created their own big bands.^[3] They incorporated elements of Broadway, Tin Pan Alley, ragtime, and vaudeville.^[1]

Duke Ellington led his ring at the Cotton Gild in Harlem. Fletcher Henderson's career started when he was persuaded to audition for a chore at Club Alabam in New York City, which eventually turned into a job as bandleader at the Roseland Ballroom. At these venues, which themselves gained notoriety, bandleaders and arrangers played a greater part than they had before. Hickman relied on Ferde Grofé, Whiteman on Bill Challis. Henderson and arranger Don Redman followed the template of King Oliver, but as the 1920s progressed they moved away from the New Orleans format and transformed jazz. They were assisted by a ring full of talent: Coleman Hawkins on tenor saxophone, Louis Armstrong on cornet, and multi-instrumentalist Benny Carter, whose career lasted into the 1990s.^[i]

The swing era [edit]

Swing music began appearing in the early 1930s and was distinguished past a more supple feel than the more literal ^iv
₄ of early jazz. Walter Folio is often credited with developing the walking bass,^[26] though earlier examples exist, such as Wellman Braud on Ellington'due south Washington Wabble from 1927.

This type of music flourished through the early 1930s, although there was piffling mass audience for it until around 1936. Upwardly until that time, it was viewed with ridicule and looked upon every bit a curiosity. After 1935, large bands rose to prominence playing swing music and held a major role in defining swing as a distinctive style. Western swing musicians also formed pop big bands during the same period.

In that location was a considerable range of styles among the hundreds of popular bands. Many of the better known bands reflected the individuality of the bandleader, the lead arranger, and the personnel. Count Basie played a relaxed, propulsive swing, Bob Crosby (brother of Bing), more of a dixieland style,^[27] Benny Goodman a hard driving swing, and Duke Ellington'southward compositions were varied and sophisticated. Many bands featured strong instrumentalists whose sounds dominated, such as the clarinets of Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw, the trombone of Jack Teagarden, the trumpet of Harry James, the drums of Gene Krupa, and the vibes of Lionel Hampton. The popularity of many of the major bands was amplified by star vocalists, such as Frank Sinatra with Tommy Dorsey, Helen O'Connell and Bob Eberly with Jimmy Dorsey, Ella Fitzgerald with Chick Webb, Billie Holiday and Jimmy Rushing with Count Basie, Dick Haymes and Helen Forrest with Harry James, Doris Twenty-four hours with Les Brown,^[28] and Peggy Lee with Benny Goodman. Some bands were "lodge bands" which relied on potent ensembles but little on soloists or vocalists, such as the bands of Guy Lombardo and Paul Whiteman.

A distinction is ofttimes made between so-chosen "hard bands", such as those of Count Basie and Tommy Dorsey, which emphasized quick difficult-driving jump tunes, and "sweet bands", such every bit the Glenn Miller Orchestra, who specialized in less improvised tunes with more emphasis on sentimentality, featuring somewhat slower-paced, often middle-felt songs.^[29]

By this time the big band was such a dominant forcefulness in jazz that the older generation establish they either had to adapt to information technology or simply retire. With no market for small-group recordings (made worse by a Low-era industry reluctant to take risks), musicians such every bit Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines led their ain bands, while others, like Jelly Curlicue Morton and Male monarch Oliver, lapsed into obscurity.

The major "black" bands of the 1930s included, apart from Ellington's, Hines's and Calloway's, those of Jimmie Lunceford, Chick Webb, and Count Basie. The "white" bands of Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey, Shep Fields and, later, Glenn Miller were more popular than their "black" counterparts from the centre of the decade. Bridging the gap to white audiences in the mid-1930s was the Casa Loma Orchestra and Benny Goodman's early on band.

Glenn Miller, a major in the U.S. Regular army Air Forces during Globe State of war II, led a 50-slice armed services band that specialized in swing music

White teenagers and young adults were the main fans of the big bands in the late 1930s and early 1940s. They danced to recordings and the radio and attended live concerts. They were knowledgeable and oftentimes biased toward their favorite bands and songs, and sometimes worshipful of famous soloists and vocalists. Many bands toured the country in grueling one-night stands. Traveling conditions and lodging were difficult, in part due to segregation in about parts of the Us, and the personnel often had to perform having had little sleep and food. Apart from the star soloists, many musicians received low wages and would carelessness the tour if bookings disappeared. Sometimes bandstands were as well modest, public address systems inadequate, pianos out of melody. Bandleaders dealt with these obstacles through rigid discipline (Glenn Miller) and canny psychology (Duke Ellington).

The 1000 Cardinal Big Band.

Big bands uplifted morale during Globe War II. Many musicians served in the military and toured with USO troupes at the front, with Glenn Miller losing his life while traveling between shows. Many bands suffered from the loss of personnel and quality declined at abode during the war years. The 1942–44 musicians' strike worsened the situation. Vocalists began to strike out on their own. By the end of the war, swing was giving mode to less danceable music, such equally bebop. Many of the great swing bands broke up, as the times and tastes changed.

Many bands from the swing era continued for decades afterward the death or divergence of their founders and namesakes, and some are still active in the 21st century, often referred to every bit "ghost bands", a term attributed to Woody Herman, referring to orchestras that persist in the absence of their original leaders.^[30]

Modern big bands [edit]

Although large bands are identified with the swing era, they continued to exist afterward those decades, though the music they played was ofttimes unlike from swing. Bandleader Charlie Barnet's recording of "Cherokee" in 1942 and "The Moose" in 1943 have been chosen the first of the bop era. Woody Herman's first ring, nicknamed the First Herd, borrowed from progressive jazz, while the 2d Herd emphasized the saxophone department of three tenors and one baritone. In the 1950s, Stan Kenton referred to his band's music as "progressive jazz", "modern", and "new music". He created his band every bit a vehicle for his compositions. Kenton pushed the boundaries of big bands by combining ambivalent elements and by hiring arrangers whose ideas nigh music conflicted. This expansive eclecticism characterized much of jazz after World State of war II. During the 1960s and '70s, Lord's day Ra and his Arketstra took large bands further out. Ra'southward eclectic music was played by a roster of musicians from ten to thirty and was presented every bit theater, with costumes, dancers, and special effects.^[1]

Equally jazz was expanded during the 1950s through the 1970s, the Basie and Ellington bands were still effectually, every bit were bands led past Buddy Rich, Gene Krupa, Lionel Hampton, Earl Hines, Les Brown, Clark Terry, and Doctor Severinsen. Progressive bands were led by Dizzy Gillespie, Gil Evans, Carla Bley, Toshiko Akiyoshi and Lew Tabackin, Don Ellis, and Anthony Braxton.

In the 1960s and 1970s, big band stone became popular by integrating such musical ingredients every bit progressive rock experimentation, jazz fusion, and the horn choirs often used in blues and soul music, with some of the near prominent groups including Chicago; Claret, Sweat and Tears; Tower of Power; and, from Canada, Lighthouse. The genre was gradually absorbed into mainstream pop rock and the jazz rock sector.^[31]

Other bandleaders used Brazilian and Afro-Cuban music with big band instrumentation, and big bands led by arranger Gil Evans, saxophonist John Coltrane (on the album Rise from 1965) and bass guitarist Jaco Pastorius introduced cool jazz, free jazz and jazz fusion, respectively, to the large ring domain. Mod big bands can be institute playing all styles of jazz music. Some large contemporary European jazz ensembles play more often than not avant-garde jazz using the instrumentation of the large bands. Examples include the Vienna Art Orchestra, founded in 1977, and the Italian Instabile Orchestra, active in the 1990s.

In the late 1990s, there was a swing revival in the U.South. The Lindy Hop became popular again and young people took an interest in large band styles again.

Big bands maintained a presence on American television, particularly through the late-night talk prove, which has historically used big bands equally house accompaniment. Typically the most prominent shows with the earliest time slots and largest audiences take bigger bands with horn sections while those in subsequently time slots go with smaller, leaner ensembles.

Many college and university music departments offer jazz programs and feature big band courses in improvisation, limerick, arranging, and studio recording, featuring performances by 18 to 20 piece big bands.^[32]

Radio [edit]

During the 1930s, Earl Hines and his band broadcast from the Yard Terrace in Chicago every night across America.^[33] In Kansas City and beyond the Southwest, an earthier, bluesier style was adult by such bandleaders equally Bennie Moten and, later, by Jay McShann and Jesse Rock. Large ring remotes on the major radio networks spread the music from ballrooms and clubs across the country during the 1930s and 1940s, with remote broadcasts from jazz clubs continuing into the 1950s on NBC'south Monitor. Radio increased the fame of Benny Goodman, the "Pied Piper of Swing". Others challenged him, and boxing of the bands became a regular feature of theater performances.

Gloria Parker had a radio programme on which she conducted the largest all-girl orchestra led by a female. She led her Swingphony while playing marimba. Phil Spitalny, a native of Ukraine, led a 22-slice female person orchestra known as Phil Spitalny and His 60 minutes of Amuse Orchestra, named for his radio show, The Hour of Charm, during the 1930s and 1940s. Other female person bands were led by trumpeter B. A. Rolfe, Anna Mae Winburn, and Ina Ray Hutton.^[23]

Movies [edit]

Big Bands began to appear in movies in the 1930s through the 1960s, though cameos past bandleaders were often potent and incidental to the plot. Fictionalized biographical films of Glenn Miller, Factor Krupa, and Benny Goodman were fabricated in the 1950s.

The bands led by Helen Lewis, Ben Bernie, and Roger Wolfe Kahn's band were filmed by Lee de Forest in his Phonofilm sound-on-film procedure in 1925, in three brusque films which are in the Library of Congress motion picture drove.

See likewise [edit]

• Listing of big bands
• Swing (jazz operation style), a term of praise for playing that has a stiff rhythmic "groove" or drive

References [edit]

1. ^ ^{a b c d due east} Gioia, Ted (2011). The History of Jazz (2 ed.). New York: Oxford University Printing. pp. 100—. ISBN978-0-19-539970-7.
2. ^ "Big Band Music Genre Overview". AllMusic . Retrieved 6 September 2017.
3. ^ ^{a b c} Collier, James (2002). Kernfeld, Barry (ed.). The New Grove Lexicon of Jazz. Vol. 1 (2nd ed.). New York: Grove's Dictionaries. p. 122. ISBN1-56159-284-6.
4. ^ O'Meally, Robert G. , Brent Hayes Edwards and Farah Jasmine Griffin (2004). Uptown Conversation: The New Jazz Studies. NY: Columbia Academy Press. ISBN9780231508360 . Retrieved 9 December 2021.
5. ^ Wilson, John S. (fifteen May 1981). "Ellingtonians salute swing era clarinets". New York Times. NYTco. Retrieved ix December 2021.
6. ^ Palmer, Robert (5 Apr 1981). "Two "Little Big Bands" offer new jazz". New York Times . Retrieved 9 December 2021.
7. ^ West, Michael J. "JazzTimes 10: Keen Modern Big-Ring Recordings". JazzTimes. Madavor Media. Retrieved 8 Nov 2020.
8. ^ "Difference Betwixt Music Composer & Arranger". BestAccreditedColleges.org . Retrieved 21 December 2021.
9. ^ Thompson, William Forde (2014). Music in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Los Angeles: SAGE. p. 85. ISBN9781452283029 . Retrieved 22 Dec 2021.
10. ^ "What does a Bandleader do?". Berklee . Retrieved 21 December 2021.
11. ^ Studwell, William Emmett and Marking Baldin (2000). The Large Band Reader Songs Favored by Swing Era Orchestras and Other Popular Ensembles. New York: Haworth Press. pp. 175–77. ISBN9780789009142 . Retrieved 21 Dec 2021.
12. ^ Chinen, Nate (24 July 2020). "Composer Maria Schneider Returns, With A Reckoning, On 'Data Lords'". npr . Retrieved 21 December 2021.
13. ^ Abate, Robert (ten February 2015). "Composer vs Arranger". Robert Abate Music . Retrieved 21 December 2021.
14. ^ Effinger, Shannon J. (27 July 2021). "Baton Strayhorn'due south Lush Life Across Duke Ellington". uDiscoverMusic. Universal Music Group. Retrieved 21 Dec 2021.
15. ^ "Big Band Music History". TheMusicHistory.com . Retrieved 8 November 2020.
16. ^ "A Guide To Song Forms – AABA Song Course". Songstuff. 18 Feb 2014. Retrieved ix December 2021.
17. ^ Rogers, Evan. "Big Band Arranging: for composers, orchestrators and arrangers: 16, Solos and Backgrounds". Evan Rogers: Orchestrator/Arranger/Conductor . Retrieved 10 November 2020.
18. ^ Dennis, Tyler. "Inside the Score in the 21st Century: Techniques for Contemporary Large Jazz Ensemble Composition". The Aquila Digital Community. University of Southern Mississippi. Retrieved 11 November 2020.
19. ^ Bowman, Robert (1982). The question of improvisation and head organisation in King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band (Chiliad.F.A. thesis ed.). Toronto: York University. ISBN9780612155411.
20. ^ "Definitions: Timbre, Ostinato, Stride". W.W. Norton. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
21. ^ Simon, 105.
22. ^ Kernfeld, Barry (1995). What to Listen to in Jazz. New Haven [u.a.]: Yale Univ. Press. pp. 90–91. ISBN0-300-05902-7.
23. ^ ^{a b} John Behrens (March 2011). America's Music Makers: Big Bands & Ballrooms 1912-2011. AuthorHouse. pp. 36–. ISBN978-1-4567-2952-3 . Retrieved 31 Baronial 2017.
24. ^ Martin, Henry and Keith Waters (2010). Jazz: The First 100 Years (3rd ed.). Boston: Cengage Learning. ISBN9781439083338 . Retrieved eight November 2020.
25. ^ "1910s Pop Trend: The Ragtime Dance Craze". Pop Song History. 11 June 2014. Retrieved 19 Dec 2021.
26. ^ Schuller, Gunther. The Swing Era: The Development of Jazz, 1930-1945. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. Print, p. 226
27. ^ Wilson, Jeremy. "George Robert Crosby Bandleader, Vocalist, Actor, Radio/TV Host". JazzStandards.com . Retrieved 28 November 2021.
28. ^ Yanow, Scott. "Les Brown". AllMusic . Retrieved 30 December 2021.
29. ^ "Jazz Music: The Swing Era". University of Colorado Boulder . Retrieved 23 December 2021.
30. ^ Epstein, Benjamin (eighteen July 1986). "Sounds of Hot Jazz Stay Warm : Harry James Band to Play at the Mission". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 13 Dec 2021.
31. ^ Hoffmann, Frank and Robert Birkline. "Large-band stone". Survey of American Popular Music . Retrieved xi November 2020.
32. ^ Lawrence, Rick (vi Nov 2019). "Best Higher Jazz Bands in The World". Studio Notes Online . Retrieved seven Nov 2020.
33. ^ Travis, Dempsey J. (26 March 1985). "Where The Jazz Was Super-hot". tribunedigital-chicagotribune . Retrieved 6 September 2017.

Bibliography [edit]

• Russo, William (1973). Composing for the Jazz Orchestra . University of Chicago Printing. ISBN0-226-73209-6. LCCN 61-8642.
• Simon, George T. (1967). The Big Bands. New York: The Macmillan Company. LCCN 67-26643. OCLC 1169701.

External links [edit]

• International Big Band Directory
• State University of New York, Fredonia. Rockefeller Arts Center. Jazz Big Band Arrangements
• Christopher Popa's Large Band Library
• Big Bands After The Large Band Era - Bill Kirchner, faculty at Manhattan School of Music.
• half dozen Steps to Big Band Writing with Steven Feifke. - YouTube video.

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_band

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