BIg Bands
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Sunday, April 22, 2012
[1]workprint
[1]workprint
Sunday, April 15, 2012
BurnabyBritish ColumbiaCanadanée[7][10]Seaforth Elementary SchoolCariboo Hill Secondary SchoolOprah[12]jazzBing CrosbyWhite ChristmasChristmasWhite Christmas
ice hockeyVancouver Canucks[20][21]Gary LupulPatrik SundstromIvan HlinkaJiri Bubla[20][23]
commercial fisherman[9]
ice hockeyVancouver Canucks[20][21]Gary LupulPatrik SundstromIvan HlinkaJiri Bubla[20][23]
commercial fisherman[9]
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Sunday, April 1, 2012
The Fall of Big Band
The Fall of Big Band
This week I would like to talk about a pivotal moment of the
swing era, its fall from popularity.
As we discussed in class the great depression was the
general begging of the swing era and the general end was around the end of
WWII. Several factors, however
contributed to this fall from grace. First of which being the conditions that
the road and touring brought to the players themselves. With segregation
rampant in almost all parts of the country and since many major bands were
black or integrated, many players faced deplorable conditions on while on the
road. Lodging was sketchy at best, food was sparse and rarely good, and money
was hard to come by. Only the top soloists and band leaders were generally
given good conditions to live in. This poor treatment caused a lot of players
to give up and strike out for home.
Another of the major factors that
lead to the fall of big band were the players themselves. Fights and discord
were quite common in bands. Part of it stemmed from differences in playing styles.
Women and money were also two common things that would drive tension between
the players of a group. Drugs was a huge factor, though in fights between
players. Many jazz musicians were regular users or addicts of illegal
narcotics, anything from marijuana to heroin or cocaine. The addictions, just
like any family that suffers with addict, were ultimately driven apart.
The last major factor leading to
the downfall of big band music was simply the evolution of music. It is human
nature to not want things to be the same for too long. We are creatures of
habit, but more importantly creatures of change. Players began to stretch the
boundaries of jazz and think more cerebrally about what it was that they were
playing, and the fans began to love it as well. Big Band or Swing was all about
a beat and style you could get up and dance to, but bebop, the slayer of Swing,
was a style that you sat and listened to.
Critical Listening
Dinah
Django Rinehardt
32 bar AABA
Small ensemble
All string
Django on lead guitar
Amazing Violin solo halfway
through song
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Frank Sinatra's Late Career
Frank Sinatra’s Late Career
This week, working router in my possession finally, I will
finish my previous topic of the career of Frank Sinatra.
1943 was a landmark year for Sinatra because it marked his
signing with Columbia records, who quickly jumped in behind the artist with
full force. Sinatra was also able to
make waves during the musicians’ strike of 1942-44, although he recorded
nothing new at the time his touring brought him fame. In ’43 Sinatra was also
declared by the government to be unfit for service due to a perforated ear
drum, and was later discovered that the government also denied him on psychological
stand points but covered it up to not strain the record label or draft board.
His lack of serving did make him somewhat of a social pariah and would be
something that would come to haunt him for the rest of his life.
1945 Sinatra stared in Anchor’s
Away and was also given a golden globe for his role in the short film The House I Live In, a film about racial
equality. In 1948 Sinatra fell in the rankings to the number 4 position while
Bing Crosby took the number one spot. ’49 Frank was treated to a resurgence when
he starred in Take me Out to the Ball
Game and On the town. In 1950
Sinatra made a return to the concert change, that same year he suffered vocal hemorrhaging
at the Copacabana. In his 30’s now
Sinatra’s star began to fall and by 1952 he was dropped from Columbia’s label.
He was then picked up by Capitol records in 1953 after appearing in a number of
films and began to reinvent himself with some more dark and emotional material.
Over the next four years Sinatra released songs like Where are You? And Frank
Sinatra sings for Only the Lonely. This time he also showed a bit of his
hipper side when he released tracks such as Come
Fly With Me and Swing Easy! He
was back on his way to the top.
In the 60’s Sinatra left Capitol Records and formed his own
label, Reprise Records, which would bring him some good success. In 1961
Sinatra was able to form The Rat Pack, a name known to all who enjoy the late
swing style and smooth lounge singer voice. The group included Sinatra, Sammy
Davis Junior, Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop.
Although the members did change with Sinatra’s moods at time The Rat
Pack made appearances in movies and really brought Las Vegas into its hay day.
At their shows you could not get in if the man was wearing anything less than a
tuxedo and the lady a formal gown. Sinatra would spend the next decade
performing various gigs with The Rat Pack.
In 1971 Sinatra announced his retirement and returned in
1973. He returned to Vegas in 1974 and made a televised appearance in Madison Square
Garden in the same year, and in 79 was awarded the Grammy Trustee’s Award for
40 years in show business. Sinatra
continued touring and making various television appearances until 1995. Frank
passed away on May 14, 1998.
Truly a man that saw just what being an icon meant.
Lisening
One of Franks most notable songs.
New York New York
Later in Frank’s life
Vocal and Instrumental Intro
AABA
Chorus
Trumpet Intro
Upright Bass, piano, drum set rhythm section
Breakdown toward end
Joke by Frank
Slow to the end
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Early Frank Sinatra and Big Band Music
Early Frank Sinatra and Big Band Music.
This week I intend to cover information on one of the
biggest front men of Big Band music, Frank Sinatra and his early carrer.
Frank Sinatra was born December 12, 1915 in Hoboken, NJ. The
son of Italian Immigrants he was raised as an only child and was given a decent
amount of opportunities as a child. His mother ran a home abortion clinic from
her home, which was illegal at the time and was even convicted a couple of
times, but it gave Frank’s family a majority of their money. His father was a
captain of the Hoboken Fire Department. Frank was thrown out of high school
only 47 days after starting due to rowdy conduct and he never finished. In 1938 Frank Sinatra was arrested for having
relations with a married woman which was a crime at the time. He got his early
work as a newspaper delivery boy and riveter for a construction company. These
are some humble beginnings for a man who was about to become one of the biggest
stars of the century.
Frank began to sing on bar tops for tips when he was eight
and a teenager began to sing on street corners and small gigs. In 1935 his
mother convinced him to join a boys singing group known as The Three Flashes
and with the addition of him they became the Hoboken Four. The group won a
contest early on and toured the country playing shows and performing on the
radio but never really took off. In 1939 after some exposure by Henry James
Sinatra caught the attention of Tommy Dorsey and was asked to join his band, this
was a major turning point in his career. Frank’s public debut was on January
16, 1940 with Dorsey’s band and that kicked off a 40 song year with a 12 week
chart topper “I’ll Never Smile Again”
In 1941 Sinatra was a chart topper and male media icon. He
had a large appeal to Bobby Socksers or teenage girls of the time which was at
the time a mostly untapped market. 1942 brought with it the infamous rumor of
Sinatra getting out of his contract with Dorsey in which Dorsey maintained
one-third of the lifetime earnings of Sinatra. The story is that Sinatra had
assistance from the mafia to get out of his contract for only a few thousand
dollars. This story was also dramatized in the movie The Godfather. Sinatra saw great success in his early solo
career during the 1942-44 musicians strike. His career trended upward until about
1948 when it stalled.
That takes us to about the midpoint of Frank Sinatra’s career.
Next week I will cover the latter half of Sinatra’s career and even a brief
introduction to the Rat Pack.
Critical Listening
As it was mentioned in this article I will listen to Ill
Never Smile Again by Frank Sinatra
AABA
Introduction with chorus in the background – The Pied Pipers
Intro by the band
Slow and melodic with an overall sad feeling
Fade out
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