Download 1930s Swing and Big Band

1930s Swing and
Big Band

Things we’ll be
looking at today…
• The Great Depression as
background
• Dichotomy between rural
and urban culture
• Impact of Harlem
Renaissance on music and
culture of African
Americans
• Development of the Big
Band
The Great Depression

 Caused great migration
within the U.S.
 Urban unemployed
moved to rural areas
for farming
 Rural farmers move to
the West Coast for jobs
Urban vs. Rural

Urban life represents complex
or “blurry” existence
“Authentic” or real rural
experience
Dichotomy

 City culture vs Country culture  big split in Anglo
Amer identity since 18th century and to this day
 Dichotomy or split between the two has been
portrayed in values across music, lyrics, and
marketing of products
The Harlem Renaissance

 Gravity of Great
Depression forces
people to turn
“inward” towards their
own communities
 African Americans
begin to demonstrate
their own cultural
importance with music,
art, literature
The Harlem Renaissance

 The mix of rural and
urban black folk shows
up in different forms
 Poems by Langston
Hughes
 Lyrics and music begin
to show this cultural
mix
 1930s takes all this to
the next level
The Radio…

 Begins to connect
people from all over
country culturally
 Black musicians and
performers are starting
to get known across the
whole country
What were white people
listening to on the radio…

 This was the voice that
white mainstream
audiences were
listening to in the 1930s
 Fred Astaire- a singer,
dancer, actor, all
around performer
 "The way you look
tonight"
Big Band Origins

 African American bands of Bennie Moten (with
Count Basie on Piano) begin to play “Kansas City
Style” swing
 Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway
develop Big Band style swing in New York’s Cotton
Club in Harlem
 Improvisation (spontaneous) performing was
usually planned ahead
 Louis Armstrong and later Benny Goodman use
“improv” as compositional expression of music
Bennie Moten’s Kansas City Orchestra 1927
(8 members)
Count Basie Orchestra 1935 (19 + members)
"One O'Clock Jump"
Duke Ellington Orchestra
"It Don't Mean a Thing..."
Cab Calloway
"Minnie the Moocher" from the Cotton Club Movie
"Some of these days"
Louis Armstrong
"Dinah"
Ella Fitzgerald
"I'll Chase the Blues Away"
Benny Goodman Orchestra
"Sing Sing Sing"
Glenn Miller Orchestra
"Chatanooga Choo Choo"
Components of Big
Band

Winds
 – 5 trumpets: "1st trumpet" playing highest notes,
 "2nd trumpet" playing tunes and improvised
 solos.
 – 4 trombones (one "bass trombone" with a darker
 tone quality than the others)
 – 5 saxaphones (2 altos, 2 tenors, and 1 baritone),
 some players play clarinet and flute solos
Components of Big
Band

"Rhythm" section
 – piano, guitar, contrabass, and drum set
Reed Instruments

Swing Dancing

 Swing became so popular in the 1930s it travelled all
over the world
 This is a scene from the movie Swing Kids (1993)
about teens in Nazi Germany
 Swing Kids Dance Scene