Swing: The Velocity Of Celebration (1937-1939)

The swing era took place from 1935-1945. It took place during a time that the Great Depression was going on. People argue that the time during the Great Depression made a shift from the “hot syncopated dance music to a type of sweeter ballroom dance music. (Star, 2013) In this paper I am going to discuss how the Tin Pan Alley and Swing are similar, how Tin Pan Alley and Swing are different, and lastly why the Swing era lasted so much shorter than the Tin Pan Alley.

The decade of the 1940’s was an important era in the history of jazz. The 1940’s was a transition from traditional jazz into modern jazz. Leading this transition was the introduction of the Bebop period in Jazz. Bebop created controversy in the jazz world for being a contradiction to traditional jazz and was widely disliked by many audiences across America. Despite its controversy, Bebop, also referred to as “Bop,” was one of the most important eras in the history of Jazz. The technical creations by some of Bebop’s greatest musicians influenced future generations of jazz musicians

For this analysis on Louis Armstrong’s West End Blues, I am going to concentrate on Louis Armstrong and how influential he was in the birth of Swing. He was extremely innovative in the way he played his instrument. Louis Armstrong had a brilliant trumpet sound. His power, range, and his rhythmic approach are all trademarks of his playing in the 1920s and 1930s. West End Blues is still considered one of the most influential and classic pieces in the Jazz Industry. I will explain why by breaking down the song utilizing the five elements of music; form, harmony, texture, melody, and rhythm.

Specific Purpose: To inform my audience about one of the most influential music genres in history, Jazz music and it’s influence on society during the great depression.

Harker, Brian. “Louis Armstrong, Eccentric Dance, and the Evolution of Jazz on the Eve of Swing.” Journal of the American Musicological Society, University of California Press Journals, 1 Apr. 2008, jams.ucpress.edu/content/61/1/67. Accessed 13 Apr. 2017.

“JAZZ” is a documentary by Ken Burns released 2001 that focuses on the creation and development of jazz, America’s “greatest cultural achievement.” The first episodes entitled, “Gumbo, Beginnings to 1917” and “The Gift (1917-1924), explain the early growth of jazz as it originates in New Orleans and its expands to Chicago and New York during the Jazz Age. In assessing the first two episodes of Ken Burns' 2001 documentary, "JAZZ," this essay will explore the history of jazz, the music's racial implications, and it's impact on society. In doing so, attention will also be given to the structure of the documentary, and the effectiveness of documentary film in retelling the past.

1. Describe the ways in which swing music and popular culture were interrelated during the time known as the swing era.

From its inception, Jazz has applied both innovative approaches in different degrees and boundless configuration. And has continually amplified, progress, and modify music through various distinctive episodes of growth. So, an all-encompassing denotation of jazz is likely vain. Additionally, jazz as a music whose prime attribute was “improvisation,” for example, revealed to be too regulated and chiefly false. Meanwhile composition, adaptation, and ensembles have also been imperative constituent of Jazz (for most of its backstory). Furthermore, “syncopation” and “swing,” often viewed as important and distinctive to jazz, are certainly lacking the genuineness of it, whether of the 1920s (or of later decades). However, the prolonged perception that swing could not transpire without syncopation was utterly refuted when trumpeter Louis Armstrong often produced vast swing while playing repeated, and unsyncopated quarter notes (Armstrong, L., Fitzgerald, E., & Middleton, V. (1988). Satchmo. Gong.)

During the early 1900’s, a new style of music began to take shape in the colorful city of New Orleans. People from all over the world came to exchange stories, conversation, and music. Although it is a very hard genre of music to define, it is said that Jazz is the combination of European and African music that was brought in via the ports. With mostly an African American population, the musicians shared their music in Storyville - a cultural melting pot, and began to spread the “New Orleans Sound”. They contributed to what would soon be known as Jazz in 1917. The spontaneous nature of Jazz’s syncopation and sound makes it a very humanistic style of music and makes every performance original. Every day we improvise, whether it is in conversation or spur of the moment decisions. These truly unique elements caused Jazz to become a symbol of America, and changed music forever.

Between the two World Wars, jazz and swing were all the rage. Starting in the late 1910’s, jazz, an amalgamation of gospel, blues, ragtime and march, became the popular music of choice for African-American citizens – the descendants of slaves whose music influenced jazz. Jazz quickly caught on, and exploded during the 20’s, spreading to white citizens as well as black. In the 30’s, jazz music was supplemented by swing, a form of jazz which had larger bands, and which tended to focus more on a singer rather than a performer.

Jazz was an important part of we can see in the brass band funerals as well as the music for the picnics in the ball games or parks where jazz is played most. New Orleans has a great tradition of celebration due to the Jazz music that united the people as well as the music used to accompany the spiritual work and the social functions of the citizens in New Orleans (Tanner & David p41). Louis Armstrong played a significant role in the development of jazz music in New Orleans as he was one of the most influential artists in the history of musicians born in New Orleans. He perfected as well as improvised the jazz solo as we all know it today. Swing is the basic rhythm of jazz and swing means being in sync and loving

At the start of the 40's the era of "Big Bands" became very popular and swing dance was easily adapted to this style of music giving that fast percussion beats in this genre. It brought about new styles such as the St.Louis shag and the Carolina shag and even stayed very popular till the end of the 1940's. In the 1950's after WWII brought about the rebellious generation that sparked the creation of Rock & Roll and Rhythm and Blues, swing dance was still popular

Pbs.com Ken Burns states that just like all music jazz went through it trial era of music. The swing era was very popular through the early 1930’s into the late 1940’s. The swing style type of music consist of large number of band member featuring at least three to four saxophones, two or three trumpets, two to three trombones, a piano guitar and a bass violin. Not including the lead vocalist of the groups. Swinging was a life style that lifted anyone

Jazz had an important influence in society during the 1960’s in many ways. In the 1960’s, jazz music was not in his best years, and because of that; someone had to create something that that could be as attractive as the jazz did before. “A Masterpiece by Midnight,” narrates the story of Louis Armstrong, a famous musician that helped The Beatles with “Hello Dolly”. During that period of time, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington passed away, and the loose of those musicians, jazz music seems to die with both of them. A new generation emerges, and many musicians were involved; for example, Dexter Gordon and Wynton Marsalis create new music that starts to gain a bigger audience.

Swing was the dominant idiom of the 1930s and much of the 1940s. Basically, it was a form of dance music played by a large band, and was the medium through which most white Americans first heard Jazz (Schuller,1989). Although the decade 1935-45 was called the Swing Era, swing arrangements had been played by large bands beginning in the 1920s. Bandleader-arrangers Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, and, later, Count Basie, worked out arrangements for their 10 to 12 piece bands, which, unlike traditional jazz bands, were divided into instrumental sections.