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Swing (Continued)


The elusiveness of the term "swing" complicates its historical analysis. Just for starters, swing can operate as a noun or verb. It can refer to (a) a relaxed but propulsive rhythmic quality thought that characterizes a great deal of jazz, or (b) a specific jazz period during the 1930s and 1940s, the so-called Swing Era. See an example of the style can be heard in the video "1930s African American Couple Jazz Dancing in Living Room":

1930s African American Couple Jazz Dancing in Living Room

1930s African American Couple Jazz Dancing in Living Room [ 00:00-00:00 ]

Performed primarily for dancers, big-band jazz was a leading form of popular music in the United States and elsewhere during this time. The first of these meanings has proved resistant to a unanimously agreed definition, partly because swing is present in successive jazz styles. Still, many agree that the swing quality lies in the subtle techniques (of timing, accentuation, intonation, timbre, etc.) that musicians use to express the relationship between their utterances and the fundamental metrical pulse, as a consequence of which the music has a strong and also lilting forward momentum.

1918 promotional postcard of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band

1918 promotional postcard of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band

Historically, swing was a vital element distinguishing jazz from earlier genres such as ragtime and contemporary dance band music. Other critics used the term to draw distinctions within jazz, such as those who conferred the status of “music” on bands such as King Oliver’s in the early 1920s, as against the music of their fellow New Orleanians, and first popularizers of jazz, the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. The momentum in big band development had shifted to the work of Fletcher Henderson and Duke Ellington in New York.

Henderson and his arranger Don Redman began writing material that used the entire section of three reeds as if they were a single improvising soloist, Such as in his piece "Wrappin It Up" , where the brass and woodwind sections alternate in a call and response manner (in this case sectional alternation or more technically antiphonal counterpoint)-with long melodic lines harmonized together, most strikingly in a "choir" of three clarinets. Ellington developed a subtler tonal palette and composed material that would effectively use individual musicians' timbres, both as soloists and as part of the ensemble.

In the 1930s, big bands slowly expanded to include three or four trumpets, three trombones, four or five reeds, guitar, piano, bass, and drums. Substituting the guitar and double bass for banjo and tuba helped the beat shift from a 2/4 to a 4/4 pulse. By studying Duke Ellington and other key musicians, we can better understand big-band music in its heyday.

Fletcher Henderson (1897-1952) and his orchestra in 1925

Fletcher Henderson (1897-1952) and his orchestra in 1925

A-Tisket A-Tasket

A-tisket a-tasket
A green-and-yellow basket
I bought a basket for my mommie
On the way I dropped it

I Must Have That Man

I'm like an oven
That's cryin' for heat
He treats me awful
Each time that we meet
It's just unlawful
How that boy can cheat
But I must have that man