The American ‘swing’ scene. Large, virtuosic bands, dressed from head to toe in the finest of uniforms, constantly battling for musical supremacy and striving to be the best. This new style of jazz was ‘hot’, and the fiery competitive spirit of the music set the continent ablaze in quick succession. 1930’s America saw the swing stye dominate ballrooms, clubs and theatres as it rapidly spread across the states during a time when Americas active segregation laws were at their height, enforcing that black and white persons should not mix especially in public spaces. Therefore, the inherent diversity in performance means that the swing style is not easy to define, but it does have some features that are aurally obvious for each and every listener. Swing is slick, large ensembles playing written arrangements and with a strong emphasis on showmanship. The showmen were the bandleaders, both black and white, who would often compose much of the bands set list and direct when solos would occur and who should take them. In 2017, we can look back and analyse this era, we can watch black and white films of historical performances by the jazz greats; Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Artie Shaw, Count Basie. Through doing this we get a sense that the musical landscape was just that, black and white, if we examine band composition and segregated venue divides. However, this is arguably not entirely true. Throughout this paper I will attempt to colourise the picture, to see far beyond the footage, to give a sense of the real battles that were taking place in the ‘swing’ era and how many of the musicians did not support the apparent black and white divide. Instead some sought to destroy it.
On the 1st August 1939 Glen Miller released “In the Mood”, the now jazz standard settled in the US Billboard charts for 30 weeks and lead him to becoming the best selling recording artist of 1939-1943. Miller, a white bandleader was one of the forefathers of the swing style. After examining the charts of the 1930-40s, there is a clear dominance of white bands. There are many reasons for this, but the most prominent are stylistic, contextual and economic reasons. Stylistically, bands such as the Artie Shaw orchestra were playing the music that typical white audiences wanted to hear, they were desirable. “Begin the Beguine”, a Cole Porter classic, was covered many times by Artie Shaw and his Orchestra as one of their standard songs and one that Shaw would grow to detest. Miller, Goodman, Shaw and Dorsey all had valuable recording contracts to distribute their music to the masses. Because of this one could argue that these white bands therefore had the largest influence on the swing era’s development, these hard facts work to discredit Stowe’s claim. The white bands won the most awards and were continually booked to perform at the most prestigious venues. However, some white band directors saw swing as an opportunity to promote integration. Benny Goodman had multiple subsidiary bands aside from his main orchestra, the most notable of these bands was the “Benny Goodman Trio” featuring Goodman, Lionel Hampton and Gene Krupa. Here Goodman was making a statement for equality. Clive James, a historical arts analyst and broadcaster, writes that “Goodman used his power to break the race barrier…the music they made was the emblem of a political future.” (Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories From History and the Arts: 2007). Lionel Hampton of the trio would eventually feature in his orchestra, such instances prove Stowe’s claim could indeed be true.
Whilst white bands soared with success during the period, a new ‘hotter’ style of swing jazz was uprising. Black bandleaders began to make a name for themselves in the 1930s. Count Basie and Duke Ellington worked tirelessly to become two of the most influential people in the American music industry, promoting equality through their work amongst their respective audiences. Lewis A. Erenberg’s chapter titled ‘News from the Great Wide World’ in his book “Swingin' the Dream: Big Band Jazz and the Rebirth of American Culture” (1998) follows the musical lifetime of these infamous swing composers. Erenberg continually creates stark contrasts between the swing styles of Basie and Ellington, exploring how they both followed the “hot style” of jazz, but developed it in different ways throughout their careers. Basie’s style was performed predominantly in front of black audiences, at a time where Duke Ellington was the “king” of jazz, performing to the class driven white audiences of the Cotton Club (Erenberg, 1998: page 100). These Cotton Club performances portrayed Ellington to be what Erenberg describes as “the epitome of black urban sophistication – he was what men dreamed of becoming, and women dreamed of possessing.” (Erenberg, 1998: page 97). When watching Ellington's orchestra performing live at the Cotton Club, playing pieces such as “Freeze and Melt”, it is easy to imagine at first that you are watching Shaw’s orchestra. A clean cut sophisticated group of musicians playing entirely from memory with Ellington there in the forefront directing the group. However, Ellington’s band has a ‘rawer’ feel to it, sitting and smiling at the keyboard. Ellington does not conduct his band, the follow him precisely from each and every articulation. His players are not a group that have come together purely to play what is on the score, they feedback from each other and listen closely to Ellington. His swing compositions also fundamentally differ from Shaw’s as he “built a band style on the "growling" or speaking nature of the instruments, he was including blacks in the tradition of "speaking" instrumentation that went back to Africa, whether blacks knew it or not.” (Erenberg, 1998: page 99). This inclusion of African-American heritage would captivate the minds of the swing audiences both black and white and is seen clearly in Ellington’s hit “Cotton Tail”. “Cotton Tail” features everything you could ask for in a piece of swing music; a fast moving walking bass line with a clear theme that alternates from free solo episodes across the band to full thematic statements. When I look back at Shaw’s recording of “Begin the Beguine”, freedom of expression is not something that comes to mind. Ellington contributed a new soul to swing music that would later influence Count Basie creating something that would later become known as the ‘Jungle style’.
Basie’s personality was represented by his “modern, improvising, free-spirited band rooted in the blues” (Erenberg, 1998: page 98) a style which he only learnt whilst living as a musician working in Kansas City. However, on stage ‘swing’ bands such as Basie’s formed omniscient relationships with their vibrant dancing audiences, where arrangements would set the audience alight with ‘hot’ improvisatory solos that seemed to ‘let the audience loose’ from the hardship of modern life. Basie’s ‘style’ had developed from his desire to lift the Black community in Kansas city from oppression and later sought to provide a sense of optimism against the woes of the Great Depression, standing firm in his upbringing throughout his life “(making) music part of a larger process of building cultural solidarity” (Erenberg, 1998: page 99). Through practicing equality through music, these bandleaders were becoming household names amongst the black community. The likes of Basie and Ellington were not men of misfortune, their careers flourished when others failed, including Fletcher Henderson’s band during the Great Depression. Erenberg reenforces that Basie and Ellington had the cutting edge that other bandleaders were not so blessed with, during a time when the music industry wallowed in its ‘make or break’ persona. This cutting edge enabled them to mix with the likes of Goodman, men of the established musical hierarchy, and through this achieve fame amongst these classes aswell. It was therefore not uncommon for white musicians to travel uptown/downtown to watch Basie and Ellington perform, of course it was not possible for this to happen the other way around but changes were in motion. To paraphrase Stowe, the melting pot was well and truly ablaze.
To conclude, we must accept that historical attitudes and laws in America during the 1930-40’s would never allow for Stowe’s claim be completely true, this is fact. However, in the art world an eclectic mix of passion and forward thinking will always test the boundaries prejudices and public conceptions. After analysing the historical and musical facts from this period, I would like to agree with Stowe and there are many factors that support the idea that swing brought people together, but the swing era to me was just the seed. The 1930-40’s saw a large change in political discourse in America and music played a grand part in that, but if we want to experience true integration we must keep on swinging, into the 1960’s.