HOME ESSENTIALS NEW MUSIC CLASSIC JAZZ BIG BAND/SWING TRADITIONAL JAZZ
The Big bands started with Paul Whiteman's Orchestra in the 1920s and many future bandleaders and entertainers came out of that organization; the Dorsey brothers, Bix Biederbeck, Adrian Rollini, Joe Venuti, Jack Teagarden, Johnny Mercer, Bing Crosby, Mildred Bailey, and Frankie Trumbauer. Isham Jones, Jimmy Lunceford, Woody Herman, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Claude Thornhill, Glenn Miller, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and many others brought this brand of dance music to popular music through the radio. Remote broadcasts and relays brought notoriety to band ballrooms thousands of miles away. The Aragon, Meadowbrook, Trininon, Roseland, Cotton Club, Glen Island Casino, Steel Pier Ballrooms were famous, but the Big Bands of up to 27 musicians were on the road for much of the year, bringing swing music to cities and town, big and small. The Second World War would indelibly imprint generations of Americans.
True music must repeat the thought and inspirations of the people and the time. My people are Americans and my time is today.—George GershwinLife on the road is murder. It's as though life begins and ends when you have your horn in your mouth.
—Gerry Mullligan
A trip to the record shop to buy the latest tunes by your favorite artists was an important event. The old, brittle 78s wore out if you played them too many times with the old steel needles and would require surgey to fix rounded out spindle holes or chipped edges. The albums
of the day would hold up eight 10 inch records and some 12 inch jazz 78's were also produced. Humidity and poor storage would make the shellac-based material deteriorate and it is amazing to see some that have survived over fifty-some years. The 78 would survive into the 1950s, because most of the jukeboxes had that operating speed and even Elvis Presley Records
were produced at that speed.
Downbeat Magazine.
