Swing

This article is about a period of jazz music history and the genre typical of it. For the rhythmic effect, see swung note. For other usage, see Swing

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.

History

The first recordings labelled swing style date from the 1920s, and come from both the United States and the United Kingdom. They are characterised 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 far from uncommon 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 Black 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 begin 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.

The death of swing

Swing music began a slow decline during WWII, and most swing historians believe 1947 to be the year that its popularity went into a tailspin. This was due to two things, both of which are related to the end of the war. One is the beginning of the baby boom, where swing fans were getting jobs, getting married, and having millions of babies—and putting their swing records in the attic. The other is the development of rhythm and blues and jump blues in the black community, after the war, which became popular because smaller 3-to-5-piece combos were found to be more profitable than large swing bands. A third reason is the recording ban of 1948. The year 1947 ended with recordings still being made in the swing genre, and also with the very first rhythm and blues records being pressed. In 1948, there were no records legally made at all, (although independent labels continued to bootleg them in small numbers). When the ban was over in January 1949, and the smoke cleared, swing was dead and in its place was fully-formed rhythm and blues, which, when it crossed over to the white community in the early 50's as rock and roll, finally put swing music out of its misery. The shuffle rhythm was dead, and the backbeat was the new standard.

Interestingly, the short-lived Swing Revival movement of the 1990's, lead by bands such as Cherry Popping Daddies, Royal Crown Revue, and Brian Setzer, was not really swing music at all, but swing orchestration over an R&B backbeat by people who grew up with rock and roll.

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

Famous Swing Musicians

Band leaders:

Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, 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:

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

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.

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.

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