Big band is the common term for a group of about 10 to 20 musicians who typically play jazz. Big bands may also play dance music. Big bands began to form in the United States in the 1920’s. Shortly thereafter, the idea spread to Europe. However, big bands are most often associated with the decades of the 1930’s and 1940’s.
The beginnings of the Big Band Era.
Fletcher Henderson was one of the earliest big band arrangers. In 1923, he became the first bandleader to organize jazz musicians into what became the big band format of brass, reed, and rhythm sections. Another major arranger of the early 1920’s was Don Redman. Both artists were influential in the early development of big band composition, which featured the instrumental sections as well as some improvisation. As a result, Henderson bands of the 1920’s and 1930’s attracted such great jazz soloists as the trumpeter Louis Armstrong, popularly known as the “father of jazz,” and the saxophonists Benny Carter and Coleman Hawkins. The pianists and composers Duke Ellington and Count Basie began their own big bands and continued to perform in that format into the 1960’s and the 1970’s. Many important jazz musicians played in the Ellington band for decades, notably the saxophonists Johnny Hodges and Harry Carney.
The Swing Era.
Big bands especially flourished in the United States from the mid-1930’s to the mid-1940’s, during a period also known as the Swing Era. “The Duke,” as Ellington was generally called, composed and recorded many songs that became popular with the general public, including “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)” (1932), “Prelude to a Kiss” (1938), and “Take the A Train” (1941). Ellington often collaborated (worked together) with the jazz composer Billy Strayhorn. One of the distinct aspects of swing was its emphasis on four beats to the bar, a rhythm that contributed to its popularity as dance music. The great clarinetist Benny Goodman was very popular during this time, leading both big bands and small combos (groups). Goodman’s success on radio broadcasts, in live concerts and dances, and on recordings was primarily responsible for launching the nationwide popularity of big bands. Many big bands also employed individual singers, some of whom—such as Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra—went on to have solo careers.
During the 1930’s, hundreds of big bands played throughout the United States. Many were “regional” or “territory” bands that played only in a certain section of the country, especially the Midwest and the South. The bands in Kansas City, Missouri—such as the Count Basie band, for example—had a distinctive swing style. These bands often used the traditional 12-bar blues form with riffs (repeated simple melodies). Some of the bands depended less heavily on written arrangements, allowing more leeway for hard-driving rhythm and extended solo improvisations.
Many bands developed national followings by the late 1930’s. These bands included those led by Benny Carter, Bob Crosby, Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, Woody Herman, Earl Hines, Andy Kirk, Jimmie Lunceford, Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, Chick Webb, and, toward the end of the Swing Era, Stan Kenton. Some European bands also gained success playing jazz, such as the Ted Heath band in the United Kingdom from the 1940’s to the 1960’s.
The decline of big bands.
During and after World War II (1939-1945), the popularity of big bands declined for several reasons. Touring bands, with their large payrolls, became too expensive to maintain. Many ballrooms and night clubs, which provided bands with a regular source of income, closed. Finally, the rise of bebop in the mid-1940’s drew many jazz fans away from big bands and toward smaller ensembles. The new music lent itself to close listening rather than dancing. Bebop allowed musicians to truly make improvising an art form. They experimented with more complicated chord patterns and melodic ideas than big band musicians had. Such musicians as Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker “stretched out” (improvised) for longer periods during solos, instead of following the shorter, more scripted, big band format.
In the 1950’s, the rise of rock music led to many big bands’ losing recording contracts, a critical source of income. Some groups tried to survive as “ghost bands,” playing the music popularized by leaders who were no longer living, such as Count Basie and Glenn Miller.
A number of big bands that formed during the later 1900’s played original and creative music rather than simply reviving the music of the Swing Era. These bands were led by such modern jazz stars as the saxophonist Gerry Mulligan, the pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi, and the arranger Gil Evans, who wrote for trumpeter and bandleader Miles Davis. The trumpeter Thad Jones and the drummer Mel Lewis cofounded a distinctive new band in New York City in 1966 that has continued to perform as the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, long after the deaths of the two leaders. In Europe, the American drummer Kenny Clarke and the Belgian pianist Francy Boland led a band from 1960 to 1973 that included top jazz musicians from both the United States and Europe.
