A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of
musical ensemble of
jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections:
saxophone
The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...
s,
trumpets,
trombones, and a
rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and dominated
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
in the early 1940s when
swing
Swing or swinging may refer to:
Apparatus
* Swing (seat), a hanging seat that swings back and forth
* Pendulum, an object that swings
* Russian swing, a swing-like circus apparatus
* Sex swing, a type of harness for sexual intercourse
* Swing ri ...
was most popular. The term "big band" is also used to describe a genre of music, although this was not the only style of music played by big bands.
Big bands started as accompaniment for dancing. In contrast to the typical jazz emphasis on improvisation, big bands relied on written compositions and arrangements. They gave a greater role to bandleaders, arrangers, and sections of instruments rather than soloists.
Instruments
Big bands generally have four sections: trumpets, trombones, saxophones, and a rhythm section of guitar, piano, double bass, and drums.
The division in early big bands, from the 1920s to 1930s, was typically two or three trumpets, one or two trombones, three or four saxophones, and a rhythm section of four instruments.
In the 1940s,
Stan Kenton's band used up to five trumpets, five trombones (three
tenor and two
bass trombones), five saxophones (two
alto saxophones, two
tenor saxophones, one
baritone saxophone), and a rhythm section. Duke Ellington at one time used six trumpets.
While most big bands dropped the previously common jazz clarinet from their arrangements (other than the clarinet-led orchestras of Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman), many Duke Ellington songs had clarinet parts, often replacing or doubling one of the tenor saxophone parts; more rarely, Ellington would substitute baritone sax for bass clarinet, such as in "Ase's Death" from
Swinging Suites.
Boyd Raeburn drew from
symphony orchestras by adding
flute,
French horn
The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...
, strings, and
timpani to his band.
Jazz ensembles numbering eight (
octet
Octet may refer to:
Music
* Octet (music), ensemble consisting of eight instruments or voices, or composition written for such an ensemble
** String octet, a piece of music written for eight string instruments
*** Octet (Mendelssohn), 1825 com ...
), nine (
nonet) or ten (
tentet) voices are sometimes called "little big bands".
Twenty-first century big bands can be considerably larger than their predecessors, exceeding 20 players, with some European bands using 29 instruments and some reaching 50.
Arrangements
It is useful to distinguish between the roles of composer, arranger and leader. The composer writes original music that will be performed by individuals or groups of various sizes, while the arranger adapts the work of composers in a creative way for a performance or recording. Arrangers frequently notate all or most of the score of a given number, usually referred to as a "chart". Bandleaders are typically performers who assemble musicians to form an ensemble of various sizes, select or create material for them, shape the music’s dynamics, phrasing, and expression in rehearsals, and lead the group in performance often while playing alongside them. Some bandleaders, such as
Guy Lombardo, performed works composed by others (in Lombardo's case, often by his brother
Carmen),
while others, such as
Maria Schneider, take on all three roles. In many cases, however, the distinction between these roles can become blurred.
Billy Strayhorn, for example, was a prolific composer and arranger, frequently collaborating with
Duke Ellington, but rarely took on the role of bandleader, which was assumed by Ellington, who himself was a composer and arranger.
Typical big band
arrangements from the swing era were written in
strophic form with the same phrase and chord structure repeated several times. Each iteration, or chorus, commonly follows
twelve bar blues form or
thirty-two-bar (AABA) song form. The first chorus of an arrangement introduces the melody and is followed by choruses of development. This development may take the form of improvised solos, written solo sections, and "
shout chorus
A refrain (from Vulgar Latin ''refringere'', "to repeat", and later from Old French ''refraindre'') is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in poetry — the "chorus" of a song. Poetic fixed forms that feature refrains include the vi ...
es".
An arrangement's first chorus is sometimes preceded by an introduction, which may be as short as a few measures or may extend to a chorus of its own. Many arrangements contain an interlude, often similar in content to the introduction, inserted between some or all choruses. Other methods of embellishing the form include modulations and cadential extensions.
Some big ensembles, like
King Oliver's, played music that was half-arranged, half-improvised, often relying on head arrangements. A head arrangement is a piece of music that is formed by band members during rehearsal. They experiment, often with one player coming up with a simple musical figure leading to development within the same section and then further expansion by other sections, with the entire band then memorizing the way they are going to perform the piece, without writing it on sheet music. During the 1930s,
Count Basie's band often used head arrangements, as Basie said, "we just sort of start it off and the others fall in."
Head arrangements were more common during the period of the 1930s because there was less turnover in personnel, giving the band members more time to rehearse.
History
Dance music
Before 1910, social dance in America was dominated by steps such as the
waltz
The waltz ( ), meaning "to roll or revolve") is a ballroom and folk dance, normally in triple ( time), performed primarily in closed position.
History
There are many references to a sliding or gliding dance that would evolve into the wa ...
and
polka.
As jazz migrated from its
origin to
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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and
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, energetic, suggestive dances traveled with it. During the next decades, ballrooms filled with people doing the
jitterbug and
Lindy Hop. The dance duo
Vernon and Irene Castle popularized the
foxtrot while accompanied by the Europe Society Orchestra led by
James Reese Europe.
One of the first bands to accompany the new rhythms was led by a drummer,
Art Hickman, in San Francisco in 1916. Hickman's arranger,
Ferde Grofé, wrote
arrangements in which he divided the jazz orchestra into sections that combined in various ways. This intermingling of sections became a defining characteristic of big bands. In 1919,
Paul Whiteman
Paul Samuel Whiteman (March 28, 1890 – December 29, 1967) was an American bandleader, composer, orchestral director, and violinist.
As the leader of one of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s and early 1930s, W ...
hired Grofé to use similar techniques for his band. Whiteman was educated in classical music, and he called his new band's music symphonic jazz. The methods of dance bands marked a step away from New Orleans jazz. With the exception of
Jelly Roll Morton, who continued playing in the New Orleans style, bandleaders paid attention to the demand for dance music and created their own big bands.
They incorporated elements of
Broadway,
Tin Pan Alley,
ragtime
Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that flourished from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers such as Scott J ...
, and
vaudeville.
Duke Ellington led his band at the
Cotton Club in Harlem.
Fletcher Henderson's career started when he was persuaded to audition for a job at Club Alabam in New York City, which eventually turned into a job as bandleader at the
Roseland Ballroom. At these venues, which themselves gained notoriety, bandleaders and arrangers played a greater role than they had before. Hickman relied on Ferde Grofé, Whiteman on
Bill Challis
William H. Challis (July 8, 1904 – October 4, 1994) was an American jazz arranger, best known for his association with the Paul Whiteman orchestra.
Early life
Challis was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He played piano and saxophone and w ...
. Henderson and arranger
Don Redman followed the template of
King Oliver, but as the 1920s progressed they moved away from the New Orleans format and transformed jazz. They were assisted by a band full of talent:
Coleman Hawkins on tenor saxophone,
Louis Armstrong on cornet, and multi-instrumentalist
Benny Carter, whose career lasted into the 1990s.
The swing era
Swing music began appearing in the early 1930s and was distinguished by a more supple feel than the more literal
of early jazz.
Walter Page is often credited with developing the
walking bass, though earlier examples exist, such as
Wellman Braud on Ellington's ''Washington Wabble'' from 1927.
This type of music flourished through the early 1930s, although there was little mass audience for it until around 1936. Up until that time, it was viewed with ridicule and looked upon as a curiosity. After 1935, big bands rose to prominence playing swing music and held a major role in defining swing as a distinctive style.
Western swing musicians also formed popular big bands during the same period.
There was a considerable range of styles among the hundreds of popular bands. Many of the better known bands reflected the individuality of the bandleader, the lead arranger, and the personnel.
Count Basie played a relaxed, propulsive swing,
Bob Crosby (brother of
Bing), more of a dixieland style,
Benny Goodman a hard driving swing, and Duke Ellington's compositions were varied and sophisticated. Many bands featured strong instrumentalists whose sounds dominated, such as the clarinets of Benny Goodman and
Artie Shaw, the trombone of
Jack Teagarden
Weldon Leo "Jack" Teagarden (August 20, 1905 – January 15, 1964) was an American jazz trombonist and singer. According to critic Scott Yannow of Allmusic, Teagarden was the preeminent American jazz trombone player before the bebop era of the 1 ...
, the trumpet of
Harry James, the drums of
Gene Krupa, and the vibes of
Lionel Hampton. The popularity of many of the major bands was amplified by star vocalists, such as
Frank Sinatra with
Tommy Dorsey
Thomas Francis Dorsey Jr. (November 19, 1905 – November 26, 1956) was an American jazz trombonist, composer, conductor and bandleader of the big band era. He was known as the "Sentimental Gentleman of Swing" because of his smooth-toned trombo ...
,
Helen O'Connell
Helen O'Connell (May 23, 1920 – September 9, 1993) was an American singer, actress, and hostess, described as "the quintessential big band singer of the 1940s".
Early life
Born in Lima, Ohio, O'Connell grew up in Toledo, Ohio. By the time ...
and
Bob Eberly with
Jimmy Dorsey,
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, in ...
with
Chick Webb
William Henry "Chick" Webb (February 10, 1905 – June 16, 1939) was an American jazz and swing music drummer and band leader.
Early life
Webb was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to William H. and Marie Webb. The year of his birth is disputed. ...
,
Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop s ...
and
Jimmy Rushing with
Count Basie,
Dick Haymes
Richard Benjamin Haymes (September 13, 1918 – March 28, 1980) was an Argentinian singer and actor. He was one of the most popular male vocalists of the 1940s and early 1950s. He was the older brother of Bob Haymes, an actor, television host, ...
and
Helen Forrest with
Harry James,
Doris Day with
Les Brown, and
Peggy Lee with Benny Goodman. Some bands were "society bands" which relied on strong ensembles but little on soloists or vocalists, such as the bands of
Guy Lombardo and Paul Whiteman.
A distinction is often made between so-called "hard bands", such as those of Count Basie and Tommy Dorsey, which emphasized quick hard-driving jump tunes, and "sweet bands", such as the
Glenn Miller Orchestra and the
Shep Fields Rippling Rhythm Orchestra,. who specialized in less improvised tunes with more emphasis on sentimentality, featuring somewhat slower-paced, often heart-felt songs.
By this time the big band was such a dominant force in jazz that the older generation found they either had to adapt to it or simply retire. With no market for small-group recordings (made worse by a Depression-era industry reluctant to take risks), musicians such as Louis Armstrong and
Earl Hines led their own bands, while others, like Jelly Roll Morton and King Oliver, lapsed into obscurity.
The major "black" bands of the 1930s included, apart from Ellington's, Hines's and Calloway's, those of
Jimmie Lunceford,
Chick Webb
William Henry "Chick" Webb (February 10, 1905 – June 16, 1939) was an American jazz and swing music drummer and band leader.
Early life
Webb was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to William H. and Marie Webb. The year of his birth is disputed. ...
, and Count Basie. The "white" bands of Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey,
Shep Fields and, later,
Glenn Miller were more popular than their "black" counterparts from the middle of the decade. Bridging the gap to white audiences in the mid-1930s was the
Casa Loma Orchestra
The Casa Loma Orchestra was an American dance band active from 1929 to 1963. Until the rapid multiplication in the number of swing bands from 1935 on, the Casa Loma Orchestra was one of the top North American dance bands. With the decline of the b ...
and Benny Goodman's early band.
White teenagers and young adults were the principal fans of the big bands in the late 1930s and early 1940s. They danced to recordings and the radio and attended live concerts. They were knowledgeable and often biased toward their favorite bands and songs, and sometimes worshipful of famous soloists and vocalists. Many bands toured the country in grueling one-night stands. Traveling conditions and lodging were difficult, in part due to segregation in most parts of the United States, and the personnel often had to perform having had little sleep and food. Apart from the star soloists, many musicians received low wages and would abandon the tour if bookings disappeared. Sometimes bandstands were too small, public address systems inadequate, pianos out of tune. Bandleaders dealt with these obstacles through rigid discipline (Glenn Miller) and canny psychology (
Duke Ellington).
Big bands uplifted morale during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
. Many musicians served in the military and toured with
USO troupes at the front, with Glenn Miller losing his life while traveling between shows. Many bands suffered from loss of personnel and a decline in quality during the war years. The
1942–44 musicians' strike
Year 194 ( CXCIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Septimius and Septimius (or, less frequently, year 947 ''Ab urbe c ...
worsened the situation. Vocalists began to strike out on their own. By the end of the war, swing was giving way to less danceable music, such as
bebop. Many of the great swing bands broke up, as the times and tastes changed.
Many bands from the swing era continued for decades after the death or departure of their founders and namesakes, and some are still active in the 21st century, often referred to as "
ghost bands", a term attributed to Woody Herman, referring to orchestras that persist in the absence of their original leaders.
Modern big bands
Although big bands are identified with the swing era, they continued to exist after those decades, though the music they played was often different from swing. Bandleader
Charlie Barnet's recording of "
Cherokee
The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, th ...
" in 1942 and "The Moose" in 1943 have been called the beginning of the bop era.
Woody Herman's first band, nicknamed the First Herd, borrowed from progressive jazz, while the Second Herd emphasized the saxophone section of three tenors and one baritone. In the 1950s,
Stan Kenton referred to his band's music as "progressive jazz", "modern", and "new music". He created his band as a vehicle for his compositions. Kenton pushed the boundaries of big bands by combining clashing elements and by hiring arrangers whose ideas about music conflicted. This expansive eclecticism characterized much of jazz after World War II. During the 1960s and '70s,
Sun Ra and his Arketstra took big bands further out. Ra's eclectic music was played by a roster of musicians from ten to thirty and was presented as theater, with costumes, dancers, and special effects.
As jazz was expanded during the 1950s through the 1970s, the Basie and Ellington bands were still around, as were bands led by
Buddy Rich,
Gene Krupa,
Lionel Hampton,
Earl Hines,
Les Brown,
Clark Terry, and
Doc Severinsen. Progressive bands were led by
Dizzy Gillespie,
Gil Evans,
Carla Bley
Carla Bley (born Lovella May Borg; May 11, 1936) is an American jazz composer, pianist, organist and bandleader. An important figure in the free jazz movement of the 1960s, she is perhaps best known for her jazz opera '' Escalator over the Hill'' ...
,
Toshiko Akiyoshi and Lew Tabackin,
Don Ellis
Donald Johnson Ellis (July 25, 1934 – December 17, 1978) was an American jazz trumpeter, drummer, composer, and bandleader. He is best known for his extensive musical experimentation, particularly in the area of time signatures. Later in his li ...
, and
Anthony Braxton.
In the 1960s and 1970s, big band rock became popular by integrating such musical ingredients as
progressive rock experimentation,
jazz fusion, and the horn choirs often used in blues and
soul music
Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the African American community throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It has its roots in African-American gospel music and rhythm and blues. Soul music became ...
, with some of the most prominent groups including
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
;
Blood, Sweat and Tears;
Tower of Power; and, from Canada,
Lighthouse. The genre was gradually absorbed into mainstream
pop rock
Pop rock (also typeset as pop/rock) is a fusion genre with an emphasis on professional songwriting and recording craft, and less emphasis on attitude than rock music. Originating in the late 1950s as an alternative to normal rock and roll, ear ...
and the jazz rock sector.
Other bandleaders used
Brazilian and
Afro-Cuban music with big band instrumentation, and big bands led by arranger Gil Evans, saxophonist
John Coltrane (on the album ''
Ascension'' from 1965) and bass guitarist
Jaco Pastorius introduced
cool jazz,
free jazz
Free jazz is an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventions, such as regular tempos, tones, and chord changes. Musicians duri ...
and jazz fusion, respectively, to the big band domain. Modern big bands can be found playing all styles of jazz music. Some large contemporary European jazz ensembles play mostly
avant-garde jazz using the instrumentation of the big bands. Examples include the
Vienna Art Orchestra, founded in 1977, and the
Italian Instabile Orchestra, active in the 1990s.
In the late 1990s, there was a
swing revival in the U.S. The Lindy Hop became popular again and young people took an interest in big band styles again.
Big bands maintained a presence on American television, particularly through the late-night talk show, which has historically used big bands as
house accompaniment. Typically the most prominent shows with the earliest time slots and largest audiences have bigger bands with horn sections while those in later time slots go with smaller, leaner ensembles.
Many college and university music departments offer jazz programs and feature big band courses in improvisation, composition, arranging, and studio recording, featuring performances by 18 to 20 piece big bands.
Radio
During the 1930s,
Earl Hines and his band broadcast from
the Grand Terrace in Chicago every night across America.
In Kansas City and across the Southwest, an earthier, bluesier style was developed by such bandleaders as
Bennie Moten and, later, by
Jay McShann and
Jesse Stone. By 1937, the "sweet jazz band" saxophonist
Shep Fields was also featured over the airways on the
NBC radio network in his ''Rippling Rhythm Revue,'' which also showcased a young
Bob Hope
Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was a British-American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer and dancer. With a career that spanned nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in more than 70 short and feature films, with ...
as the announcer.
Big band remote
A big band remote (a.k.a. dance band remote) was a remote broadcast, common on radio during the 1930s and 1940s, involving a coast-to-coast live transmission of a big band.
Overview
Broadcasts were usually transmitted by the major radio networks d ...
s on the major radio networks spread the music from ballrooms and clubs across the country during the 1930s and 1940s, with remote broadcasts from jazz clubs continuing into the 1950s on NBC's ''
Monitor
Monitor or monitor may refer to:
Places
* Monitor, Alberta
* Monitor, Indiana, town in the United States
* Monitor, Kentucky
* Monitor, Oregon, unincorporated community in the United States
* Monitor, Washington
* Monitor, Logan County, West ...
''. Radio increased the fame of
Benny Goodman, the "Pied Piper of Swing". Others challenged him, and
battle of the bands became a regular feature of theater performances.
Gloria Parker had a radio program on which she conducted the largest all-girl orchestra led by a female. She led her Swingphony while playing marimba.
Phil Spitalny, a native of Ukraine, led a 22-piece female orchestra known as Phil Spitalny and His
Hour of Charm Orchestra
The Hour of Charm Orchestra was an American musical group led by Phil Spitalny. Popular in the 1930s and 1940s, it was an all-female orchestra in an era when most orchestra members were male. The group was also known as Phil Spitalny's All-Girl O ...
, named for his radio show, ''
The Hour of Charm
''The Hour of Charm'' is an American old-time radio music program. It debuted on CBS on May 18, 1934, and had its final broadcast on CBS on May 2, 1948. The program also was broadcast on Armed Forces Radio, and after its network broadcasts ended, ...
'', during the 1930s and 1940s. Other female bands were led by trumpeter
B. A. Rolfe
Benjamin Albert Rolfe (October 24, 1879 – April 23, 1956) was an American musician known as "The Boy Trumpet Wonder" who went on to be a bandleader, recording artist, radio personality, and film producer.
Biography
He was born on October 24, ...
,
Anna Mae Winburn, and
Ina Ray Hutton.
Movies
Big Bands began to appear in movies in the 1930s through the 1960s, though cameos by bandleaders were often stiff and incidental to the plot. Fictionalized biographical films of
Glenn Miller,
Gene Krupa, and
Benny Goodman were made in the 1950s.
The bands led by Helen Lewis,
Ben Bernie, and Roger Wolfe Kahn's band were filmed by
Lee de Forest in his
Phonofilm sound-on-film process in 1925, in three short films which are in the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...
film collection.
See also
*
List of big bands
*
Swing (jazz performance style), a term of praise for playing that has a strong rhythmic
"groove" or drive
References
Bibliography
*
*
External links
International Big Band DirectoryState University of New York, Fredonia. Rockefeller Arts Center. Jazz Big Band ArrangementsChristopher Popa's Big Band LibraryBig Bands After The Big Band Era– Bill Kirchner, faculty at
Manhattan School of Music.
6 Steps to Big Band Writing with Steven Feifke.– YouTube video.
{{Authority control
Types of musical groups