It Don’t Mean a Thing
Jazz swings onto center stage.
Swinging on the Seine
Swing was an American thing, but no one ever played the music with the flair and finesse of Gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt. The charismatic Reinhardt was the first European jazz star and the first overseas jazz musician to become a major influence on the American scene. With Stephane Grappelli providing virtuoso violin work, Reinhardt scattered scintillating swing guitar lines in all directions, energizing a “hot jazz” scene in Paris while inspiring fellow fretmasters worldwide.
The Ascension of Swing
Like jazz itself, swing is instantly recognizable, yet impossible to define. The dance-happy sound, combining a livelier tempo with a propulsive rhythmic emphasis, is “two-thirds rhythm and one-third soul,” according to bandleader Chick Webb. The ever-articulate Duke Ellington declared swing was “that part of rhythm that causes a buoyant terpsichorean urge,” an unquestionably evocative definition that still left the topic less than totally explained.
However it was defined, swing was the biggest musical sensation the country had seen. Its popularity gave 30,000 to 40,000 musicians profitable employment, and its nonstop string of hits literally saved the recording industry. But swing was much more than just a temporary musical fad. Swing, like rock and rap in their time, ruled its era, but it also defined a generation and its sensibilities, reaching far beyond music into fashion, language, and overall attitude.
Figure 6-1: From left to right: Teddy Wilson, Lionel Hampton, Gene Krupa, and Benny Goodman. The Benny Goodman Quartet, live at the Paramount, 1937.
Upbeat, Optimistic Energy
Inherently optimistic, the celebratory sound of swing was the perfect antidote to the memories of the not-so-distant days of the Depression. With the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, the celebrations increased in intensity as the alcohol that had flowed freely before at nightclubs could then do so legally. And it did, fueling one of the most prolonged parties in American history, and swing was front and center throughout.
Duke Ellington, whose big band flourished before, during, and after the swing era, remained above the faddish excitement, but he did provide the movement with its musical motto, courtesy of his classic “It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing.” Fans took the title to heart, and musicians took the money to the bank as jazz hit its high point, becoming America’s most popular entertainment form.
Lady Day: A Voice Above the Crowd
The energetic optimism of swing might have dominated the music scene, but there were a few dissenting voices, none more individual and influential than that of Billie Holiday. “Lady Day,” as saxist Lester Young named her, was the most important female vocalist in jazz history. The hard-living Holiday projected a worldly, yet vulnerable image and used her limited voice, but unerring jazz instincts, to redefine jazz singing. Making her voice an instrument equal to the others in the band, Holiday pioneered enlightened phrasing and singing behind the beat while performing serious, decidedly non-swing compositions like the anti-lynching masterpiece “Strange Fruit.”
Figure 6-2: She made each song her own, and she never sang it the same way twice.
Ebony and Ivory
Teddy Wilson didn’t look like a revolutionary. But decades before professional sports successfully erased the color line, the Texas-born pianist played a high-profile role in rubbing out racial restrictions in the entertainment world. The highly educated Wilson was a disciple of the forceful piano style of Earl Hines and a perfectionist like bandleader Benny Goodman, who hired him in 1935. As an integrated combo, they tore down walls using nothing but jazz as their tool.
Legends on Every Bandstand
It was hard for a big band fan to go wrong during the supremacy of swing. Every hotel ballroom, every nightclub, and every dance hall was swinging to the sounds of high-quality big bands under the leadership of genuine jazz giants.
The best-known names in big band history, including such historic heavyweights as Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, and Artie Shaw, were engaged in head-to-head competition for the attention and loyalty of swing fans. Fortunately, there were more than enough swing fans to go around, and almost every major big band was playing to a packed house every night.
If It Ain’t Broke . . .
With swing being the mandatory cornerstone of every big band concert, jazz had an atypical uniformity of style during this period. For a music that always prided itself on its individualism and eclectic range, the sameness of the swing era sound was somewhat surprising, although there were extenuating circumstances. Many of the second tier, as well as a few of the first tier, of swing bands were outright commercial enterprises that were actually just dance bands playing music that was marginally jazz.
But there were also conspicuous and noteworthy exceptions from both the reigning jazz swing bands and their imitators. Pianist Earl “Fatha” Hines led his orchestra through a decade-long engagement in Chicago at the mob-controlled Grand Terrace Hotel, while the charismatic Cab Calloway held forth at the Cotton Club in Harlem. Woody Herman, leading what he called a “blues band,” began his long tenure on the jazz scene, and Jimmie Lunceford, leader of one of the most commercially successful of all African-American big bands, had his period of fame and glory before disappearing a decade later.
Jazz Plugs In
Benny Goodman’s refusal to consider race when assembling his bands enabled him to use the unique talents of several jazz innovators. Among the barrier-breakers Goodman introduced, vibraphonist Lionel Hampton was undoubtedly the most successful. Texas guitarist Charlie Christian, however, might have been the one with the most enduring influence. Christian established the electric guitar as a solo jazz instrument, a breakthrough that would ultimately benefit the likes of Wes Montgomery, Pat Metheny, and thousands more.
Benny Goodman: The King of Swing
The swing craze made stars of many jazz musicians and careers for many bandleaders, but no one benefited more from the music’s phenomenal popularity than clarinetist Benny Goodman.
Goodman, as surprised as anyone when events transpired to make him the “King of Swing,” wore the crown well. A featured spot on the national radio program “Let’s Dance” brought the Benny Goodman Orchestra, barely a year old, to widespread public attention — and the bandleader did the rest. The band had attracted a radio following of immense proportions, particularly in California, but it was in live action that Goodman earned his royal title.
Girls Scream, Crowds Rush
Goodman’s concerts, complete with adolescent girls screaming and swooning, were previews of the fan frenzy that would accompany the arrival of the Beatles. In the summer of 1935, the band’s first major California tour resulted in near-riots at several concerts before out-of-control teenagers turned the show at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles into the first recorded swing riot.
The excitement came from the music, not Goodman. The perfectionist bandleader was a brilliant clarinetist, but he wasn’t especially interested in showmanship or, for that matter, anything that didn’t directly relate to improving his music. Goodman was absolutely obsessed with playing jazz from childhood. He turned professional at age 14, served several stints with big bands, and became a studio star before starting his own big band and capitalizing on the swing thing.
Color Blind
Goodman was so totally focused on taking his music as far as he could that even his historic integration of his group, one of the first high-profile mixed-race performing bands, was possibly a byproduct of his dedication to elevating his sound. Or so pianist Teddy Wilson thought, saying, “Goodman was so excited about the music we were making that he probably just didn’t notice I was colored.”
Ch-Ch-Changes
Every year of the swing era was exciting, but 1939 was especially blessed with historic happenings. Saxist Coleman Hawkins returned from his self-imposed European exile to record the classic “Body and Soul.” Fellow sax star Ben Webster joined the Ellington orchestra. Drummer Chick Webb died; vocalist Ella Fitzgerald took over his band. Benny Goodman lost Harry James, who later hired a skinny New Jersey kid named Frank Sinatra as the vocalist for his big band.
Basie Brings the Blues East
Having conquered the wild and woolly Kansas City jazz scene, Count Basie was looking for new challenges for his boisterous big band. The Big Apple, overstocked with big-name bands claiming to be the best in the business, looked like the greatest challenge available. Basie, with help from radio and talent scout John Hammond, naturally decided to take his self-described band of “country boys” to the big city turf of his rivals. The East Coast jazz scene would never be the same.
Fresh Daily
The Basie band, infamously undisciplined both on and off the bandstand, included some of the most memorable soloists in jazz history, such as saxist Lester Young. They used all of their enormous talent in every song, usually making up the group arrangements on stage. As a result, the music was fresh and exciting, if admittedly a bit ragged, every set of every night.
And while you could take the Count out of Kansas City, you couldn’t take the blues-based Kansas City sound out of the Basie band. On a New York scene where slickness and a sort of formulaic swing sound ruled, the introduction of Basie’s loose, impolite, and unpredictable approach offered an intriguing alternative. The sheer physicality of the music Basie’s band made, as well as the inspired intensity with which it was made, immediately set the group apart from its peers.
When Basie’s band tore into a tune, it energized and emphasized the beat so forcefully it was like hearing swing on steroids. This aggressive and unrelenting approach created a fan base more interested in soul than sophistication, and Basie would maintain it for another five decades in one of jazz’s most lengthy and illustrious careers.
