Major Changes

·       Big band preferred ensemble

·       Saxophones more common; surpassed clarinet

·       Upright bass (stand-up bass)

o   Acoustic bass

o   Which is not dependent on breath to play

o   Emergence of walking bass

·       More high-hat in drums

·       Overall a smoother rhythmic feel

o   Made swing more attractive to dancers than pervious jazz period

Now incorporating arrangements into performances

Four of each instrument in section:

• Trumpet Section
• Trombone Section
• Saxophone Section

Rhythm Section (Upright Bass, Guitar, Percussion)

Instrument Style

• Rhythm Guitar – dominant style

o Strums percussively 

• Piano played syncopated chords

o Less busy than early jazz

o No stride piano in big bands

• Bass

o Later, played all four beats

o Bass primarily a background   instrument, not solo

• Drums

o Main purpose of the drums was to keep a steady beat for the dancers

Trombonist, but usually conductor; Put clarinet at the top of chord “Glen Miller sound” but did not invent it

· Jack Teagarden:  Playing evolved to consist with the music of the swing era

·Tommy Dorsey: Band leader and featured soloist in band and Made trombone a melody carrying instrumet (Previously, trombones just filled in the gaps)

· Lawrence Brown: Lead trombonist/soloist in Ellington’s band

· Bill Harris: Woody Harrison Band

Trumpet

o   “Little Jazz”

o   Link between swing and modern jazz

o   Most notable swing era trumpet player

o   Powerful high register

o   A lot of agility and control

o   Ability to vary his tone and vibrato

o   Great improviser

o   Most influential piano players, dazzling

o   Amazing technique

o   Incorporating spontaneous reharmonization

§  To change something

o   He could this on the spot

o   Best for consistency of performance

o   Black

o   Did not play in nice concert halls

o   Blind!!!

o   Pre-performance ritual

§  Play key by key

§  In that time, he memorized all the keys that were not right and avoided them all night

o   “Elegie”

• Teddy Wilson: Lighter touch; Goodman's sextest
• Nat King Cole: in his trio (bass, guitar, piano), he had a softer sound because no drums. HORN-LIKE PLAYING
• Erroll Gardner: considered as swing/bebiop player; best known for jazz standard "misty"
• Mary Lou Williams: boogie-woogie piano, modern styles (hard bop, avant garde)
• Milt Buckner: created block chording: left played chord everything right did --> made melody thicker 

• Cole Hawkins: "Chugging Sound", Big robust sound
• Don Byas: Greater harmonic sophistication, liked double time, reharmonization: give a boost to creativity
• Benny Cater: graceful, light style
• "Prez" Lester Young: Held sax sideways, light/airy/floating sound

• Charlie Christian: pioneer of electric (amplified) guitar; long swinging, single note melodic line --> allowed for improv; altered role of guitar
• Django Reinhardt: acoustic guitar; "hot club" type music, incorporates guitar, violine, accordion, acoustic guitar, reduced drums; played guitar with 2 fingers

• Bille Holiday: conveyed emotion unlike other vocalists; embellished melodies; iunique interpreations; sang with delayed phrases and cadences (laying back); sang with Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman
• Ella Fitzgerald: horn feel / swing feel; allows for improvisation
• Nat King Cole: commercial success; studio orchestra
• Frank Sinatra: Tommy Dorsey started his career 

·       Bucked the trend

·       Big orchestra

·       1920s, Paul Whiteman gave him the nickname “King of Jazz”

·         Sidemen: Bix Beiderbecke, Frankie Trumbaeur, Jack Teagarden, Bing Crosby

·       Pianist, composer, arranger, band leader

·       Original stride piano style player

·       Led band for about 60 years

·       Impeccable swing feel

·       Relentless tempo and laying back

·       All-american Rhythms Election

·       Freddie Green – rhythm guitar (“Father Time”)

·       Walter Page – bass

·       Jo Jones – drummer, loose feel (Comfy, not stiff)

·       Lighter use of bass drum, not 4 on floor

·      High hat, wire brushes

·       Tenor sax – Lester young

1. Neil Hefti: Part of Old Testament; Lil Darlin
2. Benny Cater: swing era alto sax player: wrote 1 album entirely: "kansas City Suite"
3. Frank Foster: most do do with changing Basie sound (Old --> new; complex harmony); biggest contributor to Basie Book
4. Wild Bill Davis: played in Basie Band as tenor sax soloist
5. Thad Jones: stretched harmony
6. Quincy Jones: incorporated Sinatra in 1960s
7. Billy Byers
8. Ernie Wilkins: Spans both old testament arrangement and new testament
9. Sammy Nestico: more published jazz writers

• Most prolific American composer

• 200 Piano compositions

• As a band leader: Duke Ellington in choosing his sidemen always chose virtuoso musicians

o Different with Ellington in that he chose musicians with distinctive musical styles and personalities

o Most unique personalities

o Used it to foster his own creativity

o Took different personalities and posed it to himself a challenged to write for all of them to blend and for an interesting composition

• Band is the most interesting of the swing bands

oNot most commercially successful though

o Different level of complexity

Part of Duke Ellington Band

o Significant because first bass player to play solo on the bass

o Blanton-Webster Era when two musicians were in the Ellington band

• Considered to be the best of the Ellington band

• Orchestral type playing
• Played from high to low (extreme)
• Unusual (dissonant chords)

• Portraits: describe person/place
• Tone Poems: European classical
• Suites: aka extended works, multiple movements
• Stage Shows: sometimes on TV like with Strayhorn
• Film Scores (also with strayhorn)

Barney Bigard 

Jimmy Hamilton

• Bubber Miley: plunger mute (growling)
• Cootie Williams: plunger
• Ray Nance
• Shorty Baker
• Rev Stewart
• Cat Anderson: lead, high notes

Walter Page, bass; Jo Jones, drums; and Freddie Green, guitar

Duke Ellington's Classic Saxophone Section

• Legendary one was:
• Johnny Hodges: lead alto
• Russell Procope: alto (+Clarinet)
• Jimmy Hamilton: tenor (+clarinet)
• Paul Gonzalves: tenor
• Harry Carney: Baritone (and bass)

• Joe "Tricky Sam" Nanton: plunger
• Juan Tizol
• Lawrence Brown: lead soloist
• Britt Woodmen

• Drums start to get used; snare drum (European, once used for cadence), bass pedal, "contraption" --> trap set (drum set)

• Drummer; bass on every beat; more modern snare; aggressive