Monday, March 06, 2006

Swing Music


I was helping my brother research a paper on swing music and I played some of my swing music CD’s for inspiration. By the time he was done I was dancing all over the place. It’s hard to listen to swing music and not dance. One of my all time favorite songs is Benny Goodman’s Sing, Sing, Sing simply because of Gene Krupa’s wicked drumming on it. Gene Krupa by the way was the first drummer to ever have a recorded drum solo(1937).

For those of you not familiar with swing music here’s a little bit of it’s history.
Swing music was born in New Orleans during the 1920’s,however Kansas City and New York City contributed extensively to its sound as well. Swing music was also known as swing jazz and later on as Big Band Music but we’ll get into the Big Band thing in the next paragraph.During the 30’s and 40’s Swing Music’s popularity spread to Europe. In Germany, it conflicted with Nazi ideology since it was “black music” and “played by Jews” it was declared officially forbidden by the Nazi regime. In Germany they even had a movement of high school kids called Swing Kids that opposed Hitler. They were a group of jazz and swing lovers that would hold dances and festivals and mock the Nazis, the military and Hitler. They coined the phrase "Swing heil!",mocking the infamous "Sieg Heil!"


Even though Swing Music was at the height of its popularity in the 1940’s it was a watered down version of the music that had been growing in popularity during the 1930’s.As swing music got popular it began to have an influence in culture. The music with its strong rhythms, led to an explosion of creative dance in the African-American community, known as swing dancing.

The second change that occurred as swing music increased in popularity with white people was that racism took over and the musicians were pressured to soften the music down for the white audience who felt the music was “too black” this despite the fact that a lot of the orchestras such as Benny Goodman’s were racially mixed this is when it became Big Band Music.

Eventually Rock and Roll took over and Swing Music/Big Band Music was seen as senior citizen music but good music is hard to forget and during the 90’s swing music began getting popular again with bands like Brian Setzer Orchestra, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy ,Cherry Poppin' Daddies and Squirrel Nut Zippers . All of whom I have seen in person by the way and if you’re into swing music do yourself a favor and check them out.I dare you not to dance when The Squirrel Nut Zippers play "In The Aferlife"

One of my favorite childhood memories involves Swing Music, Cab Calloway to be exact. I was around 5 years old and he was preforming in a local venue. At the time one of my favorite songs was Minnie The Moocher. Don’t ask how I knew the song because even my mom doesn’t know, she figures I probably heard it somewhere and retained the lyrics. My mom had a friend who was some bigwig and scored us VIP seats. I was inches away from the stage. When Mr. Calloway came out and launched into Minnie The Moocher I lost my freaking marbles! As Mr. Calloway did his thing he noticed me singing along with him and dancing and he came over to me and started singing to me. It was sublime!

For your listening pleasure…
Sing, Sing, Sing :: Benny Goodman w/Gene Krupa on drums


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Minnie The Moocher:: Cab Calloway



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In The Mood:: Glenn Miller



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Labels: music

Posted by @ 1:55 AM
8 comment from:  2 Second Club ®,  Just Jane,  Mia,  christina/ohio,  Emory Mayne,  Mr. Khurram,  Emory Mayne,  Mia,