The Swing Era

The Swing Era PDF Author: Gunther Schuller
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199879346
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 1749

Get Book Here

Book Description
Here is the book jazz lovers have eagerly awaited, the second volume of Gunther Schuller's monumental The History of Jazz. When the first volume, Early Jazz, appeared two decades ago, it immediately established itself as one of the seminal works on American music. Nat Hentoff called it "a remarkable breakthrough in musical analysis of jazz," and Frank Conroy, in The New York Times Book Review, praised it as "definitive.... A remarkable book by any standard...unparalleled in the literature of jazz." It has been universally recognized as the basic musical analysis of jazz from its beginnings until 1933. The Swing Era focuses on that extraordinary period in American musical history--1933 to 1945--when jazz was synonymous with America's popular music, its social dances and musical entertainment. The book's thorough scholarship, critical perceptions, and great love and respect for jazz puts this well-remembered era of American music into new and revealing perspective. It examines how the arrangements of Fletcher Henderson and Eddie Sauter--whom Schuller equates with Richard Strauss as "a master of harmonic modulation"--contributed to Benny Goodman's finest work...how Duke Ellington used the highly individualistic trombone trio of Joe "Tricky Sam" Nanton, Juan Tizol, and Lawrence Brown to enrich his elegant compositions...how Billie Holiday developed her horn-like instrumental approach to singing...and how the seminal compositions and arrangements of the long-forgotten John Nesbitt helped shape Swing Era styles through their influence on Gene Gifford and the famous Casa Loma Orchestra. Schuller also provides serious reappraisals of such often neglected jazz figures as Cab Calloway, Henry "Red" Allen, Horace Henderson, Pee Wee Russell, and Joe Mooney. Much of the book's focus is on the famous swing bands of the time, which were the essence of the Swing Era. There are the great black bands--Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Jimmie Lunceford, Earl Hines, Andy Kirk, and the often superb but little known "territory bands"--and popular white bands like Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsie, Artie Shaw, and Woody Herman, plus the first serious critical assessment of that most famous of Swing Era bandleaders, Glenn Miller. There are incisive portraits of the great musical soloists--such as Art Tatum, Teddy Wilson, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Bunny Berigan, and Jack Teagarden--and such singers as Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, and Helen Forest.

Benny Goodman and the Swing Era

Benny Goodman and the Swing Era PDF Author: James Lincoln Collier
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780195067767
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 404

Get Book Here

Book Description
Traces the rags-to-riches career of the clarinetist and his role in popularizing jazz music in the post-Depression 1930s, assesses his elusive personality, and reevaluates dozens of his landmark recordings

Blue Rhythm Fantasy

Blue Rhythm Fantasy PDF Author: John Wriggle
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 025209882X
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 328

Get Book Here

Book Description
Behind the iconic jazz orchestras, vocalists, and stage productions of the Swing Era lay the talents of popular music's unsung heroes: the arrangers. John Wriggle takes you behind the scenes of New York City's vibrant entertainment industry of the 1930s and 1940s to uncover the lives and work of jazz arrangers, both black and white, who left an indelible mark on American music and culture. Blue Rhythm Fantasy traces the extraordinary career of arranger Chappie Willet--a collaborator of Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Gene Krupa, and many others--to revisit legendary Swing Era venues and performers from Harlem to Times Square. Wriggle's insightful music analyses of big band arranging techniques explore representations of cultural modernism, discourses on art and commercialism, conceptions of race and cultural identity, music industry marketing strategies, and stage entertainment variety genres. Drawing on archives, obscure recordings, untapped sources in the African American press, and interviews with participants, Blue Rhythm Fantasy is a long-overdue study of the arranger during this dynamic era of American music history.

Swing Era New York

Swing Era New York PDF Author: W. Royal Stokes
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781566392273
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 220

Get Book Here

Book Description
This text reproduces the photographs of Charles Peterson. The commentary is historical and biographical, with anecdotes connecting the musicians featured in the pictures. The photographs were restored by Peterson's son from the original negatives.

Swing Shift

Swing Shift PDF Author: Sherrie Tucker
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 9780822328179
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 428

Get Book Here

Book Description
The story, based on extensive individual interviews, of the women’s swing bands that toured extensively during World War II and after -- a kind of “League of their Own” for jazz.

Swing Changes

Swing Changes PDF Author: David Ware Stowe
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674858268
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 340

Get Book Here

Book Description
Drawing on memoirs, oral histories, newspapers, magazines, recordings, photographs, literature, and films, Stowe looks at New Deal America through its music and shows us how the contradictions and tensions within swing--over race, politics, its own cultural status, the role of women--mirrored those played out in the larger society.

Simon Says

Simon Says PDF Author: George T. Simon
Publisher: New Rochelle, N.Y. : Arlington House
ISBN:
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 502

Get Book Here

Book Description


When Swing was the Thing

When Swing was the Thing PDF Author: John R. Tumpak
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 336

Get Book Here

Book Description
Fifteen-piece swinging dance bands swept the country in popularity during the big band era of 1935-1946, the only time in America's history to-date when jazz was the most popular form of music. This book provides detailed profiles, many based on personal interviews, of the era's bandleaders, musicians, vocalists, arrangers, and contributors.--Publisher's information.

The Swing Book

The Swing Book PDF Author: Degen Pener
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 0316076678
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Get Book Here

Book Description
Ten years ago a revival of swing took place, originating in San Francisco, snowballing into today's international resurgence. This book presents the complete history of swing music and dancing, then and now.

Waltzing in the Dark

Waltzing in the Dark PDF Author: NA NA
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0312299680
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 281

Get Book Here

Book Description
The career of Norton and Margot, a ballroom dance team whose work was thwarted by the racial tenets of the era, serves as the barometer of the times and acts as the tour guide on this excursion through the worlds of African American vaudeville, black and white America during the swing era, the European touring circuit, and pre-Civil Rights era racial etiquette.