Transcript Swing Era Bandleaders

SWING – BANDLEADERS
MUH 271 Jazz History
PAUL WHITEMAN
“Changes”
• Possibly the first pop superstar, called the “King of Jazz”
during the 1920s
• Symphonic jazz – Whiteman attempted to “make a lady out
of jazz”
• Wanted to hire “some jazz musicians, preferably black” in
1926
• Hired vocalist Bing Crosby, who had been influenced by
Louis Armstrong
• Hired jazz instrumentalists such as Bix Beiderbecke and Frank
Trumbauer
• some innovative jazz recordings from 1927 to 1929
FLETCHER HENDERSON (DEC. 18,
1897-DEC. 29, 1952)
• Born into middle-class family, studied music with his mother
• Received a degree in chemistry and mathematics at Atlanta
University, moved to New York in 1920 to establish career as a
chemist
• Song demonstrator for the Pace-Handy Music Co.
• Recording director and composer for Black Swan
• Black Swan “the first black-owned recording company
that sold popular music to black audiences”
• In operation from 1921-23
MORE FLETCHER HENDERSON
• Offered a position at the Roseland Ballroom – initially a dance band
• Brought in Louis Armstrong as a "jazz specialist" in 1924
• Don Redman, the band's music director until 1927, established a basic
format for big band arrangements:
• Sectional writing; interplay of reeds and brass
• Use of call-and-response
• Solo sections interspersed between arranged sections
• good soloists and the ability to make written arrangements swing
• a primary model for big bands until the mid-1930's
“Sugar Foot Stomp”
“Hotter Than ‘Ell”
IMPEDIMENTS TO GREATER
SUCCESS
• Failure to embrace newer modes of marketing
• Although Henderson recruited excellent players, they were frequently lured
away by other bandleaders
• Sold many of his best arrangements to Benny Goodman in 1934
• Worked as a full-time staff arranger for Goodman from 1939-1941
BENNY (BENJAMIN DAVID)
GOODMAN (MAY 30, 1909-JUNE 13,
1986)
• “Classical" clarinet training at the Kehelah Jacob Synagogue in Chicago
and later from Franz Schoepp.
• Familiar with jazz artists of the day through radio
• Joined the musician's union in 1923, and he joined Ben Pollack's band in 1925
• Recorded his first solo with Pollack ("He's the Last Word") on December 17, 1926
• Pollack's band moved to New York in 1928.
• Left Pollack in 1929; a leading freelance musicians until 1934, when he
formed his first big band
AS A BANDLEADER:
• began recording for Columbia in the spring of 1934
• NBC radio series "Let's Dance"
• Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles on August 21, 1935
• Concert was broadcast nationwide
• Considered by many to be the beginning of the Swing Era
• Carnegie Hall concert January 16, 1938
“King Porter Stomp”
“Dinah”
INNOVATIONS
• High standards of musicianship
• First white bandleader to adopt (and popularize) an "uncompromising jazz
style“
• One of the first white bandleaders to feature African American players
(Teddy Wilson, Lionel Hampton, Charlie Christian)
• After 1940, groups tended to assembled as needed, often performed
classical repertory