Big Band is Born
This week I intend to
take a look at what is to be considered as the start of the swing or big band
era. During this I will mention some of the starting dates as well as
influences and some of the early large artists or groups when it comes to this
amazing genre.
According to our book the start of the swing era began in
the 1930’s. The major shift in the style of music was from the small ensemble
groups to big bands, full or part orchestras with sections. Big band brought
along with it some structure to jazz so that members could keep with each
other, but the basics and free form of jazz was still maintained. The
influences are some of the same as the earlier jazz musicians where classical
and folk music are two of the large contributors.
Two events can be directly linked to the birth of the swing
era. One is the Great Depression or the crash of the stock market in October of
1929 and the economic down turn that followed over the next decade. Swing
benefited from this in one way, it was a distraction to the people who were in
hard straights. It was flashy and powerful, bringing a much welcome change of
pace into otherwise bleak existence. The Second major historical event which
boosted the popularity of swing was World War II. The reason for this was the
turn of the country to fight fascism. It was uniquely American music, patriotic
to some, and again offered that release from the mundane of factory work and
hardship.
Critical Listening
Rudy Valee “You’re Driving Me Crazy” 1930
Format: Intro aabaacb outro
In this I treated the string interludes as the A section
while Rudy singing is the B and C sections.
In C he changes his range to bring a change of pace to the song. This is a great slow song in which you can
almost see the couples waltzing in slow time to this sadly funny ballad.
The material on the big bands is far too sketchy. It should be material that's not in the text, and goodness knows there's a lot to say about the swing era. Your listening selection is great--Valee was a huge star and he also played saxophone, though he was most known for this type of crooner tune. The tune itself is just an aaba, 32-bar tune, with the band playing the first chorus, Valee singing all of the second, and on the third, the band plays the first two a sections and then Valee sings the tune out.
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