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Why do people go to NYC:

Spheres of influence:
- Commercial (Tin Pan alley, Carnegie hall, label)
- Sociological: European immigrants coming (their take on jazz)
- Musical sphere of influence (rise of ballroom dancing)

Harlem Renaissance:
- Venues
- Race issues
- Mobsters financing nightclubs
- Gentrification

Fletcher Henderson:
- Augmented the size of the band by adding saxophones
- Because there’s no prohibiton venues get bigger and bands get bigger
HIS BAND:
- Don Redman (chief arranger) Alto sax
- Louis Armstrong trumpet
- Coleman Hawkins on Tenor sax

DUKE ELLINGTON:
- Gets to NYC in 1923
- Born in 1899 in DC and moved to NYC in 1923
- Art scholarship for Pratt
- Studied stride piano at 14 and wrote his first song
- Creates his band, The Washingtonians
- One of the first writers to combine brass and reeds
- Most important in jazz composer in the US, significant in all decades of his life
- He wrote pop, blues, ballets, operas, theater, film, TV, suites, concertos, symphonies,
Public dedications, big band music
- Clarified nature of big band jazz
- Solidified influence of stride jazz
- Showed adventures jazz writing can be used in pop
- Violated the assumptions about jazz being uncultured music
- December 4th 1927 first show at the Cotton Club

Ellington’s cotton club experience:


- Jungle music
- Worked with dancers and directors
- Live shows (radio), became a celebrity
- Racial pride in music
- sensual melodies
ELLINGTONIANS:
- Harry Carny – BARITONE SAX
- Cootie Williams – TRUMPET
- Bubber Miles – TRUMPET
- Johnny Hodges – ALTO SAX
- Joe “Tricky Sam” – TROMBONE
- Barney Bigard – CLARINET
- Wellman Braud – BASS
SWING ERA:
- Hot = dancing, improve
- Sweet = lush harmonies, slower tempos
- Benny Goodman had been playing sweet and the last show he plays hot swing and
becomes a national praise (time difference)
- Swing = pop music
- The great depression, art provides relief
- Dance: Lindy Hop, Charleston, Jitter Bug, Fox trot
- Amplified guitars instead of banjo
- Record sales went down but they go back up with the jukebox
- Music is a skill craft accessible to blacks
- SAVOY
- String bass replaces tuba
- When Ellington would write for someone in his bands (combination of musicians’ unique
voices and emotions that Duke heard in his head)
- 1956 Ellington goes to Newport jazz festival and it becomes the best selling album
(Diminuendo) crowd starts to dance.
- Chief arranger for Duke Ellington (Billy Strayhorn) ‘Take the A train’, ‘Satin doll’, ‘Chelsea
Bridge’.

KANSAS CITY:
- Territory bands (band specific to a region)
- Territory band that Count Basie is the part of (Blue Devils)
- Benny moten is replaced by Basie
- Basie adds Lester Young and goes on tour
- Most of the arranging was stored on their heads
Basie:
- Adds Freddie Green (Create all American rhythm section):
- Freddie Green (guitar)
- Papa jo jones on drums
- Walter page on bass
- (John Hammond is his prodcer)
BASIE BAND:
- Walter Paige on bass
- Papa jo jones on drums
- Harry Edison, Snooky Young and Clarke Terry, Thad and Quincy Jones on trumpet
- Vic Dickinson, Grover Mitchell, Bill Hughes on trombone
- Marshall Royal (Alto) and Frank Foster (alto), Lester young, Gene Ammons, Eddie
Lockjaw Davis
- Freddie Green on guitar
- More improve than Ellington’s band, Basie bands lacked creativity on tadios so
they’d go to jam sessions @ Minton’s Playhouse
- LESTER YOUNG (LINEAR) COLEMAN HAWKINS (ANGULAR)

ELLINGTON BAND:
- Jimmy Blanton, Oscar Pettiford on bass
- Sony Greer on drums
- Ellington, Strayhorn, Mary Lou on piano
- Bubber Miley, Cootie Williams, Rex Stewart, Cat Anderson, Clarke Terry on trumpet
- Barney Bigard (clarinet), Johnny Hodhes (alto), Ben Webster, Paul Gonsalves, Harry
Carney (bari)
- Ivie Anderson, Al hipler, Ella fitzgerald
- Tricky “Sam” Nanton, Juan Tizol
- Billy Strayhorn

Johnny Hodges: Bending of notes

Paul Whiteman:
- Commercial music
- Called himself the king of jazz
- Hired
Bix Biderback who:
- used extensions
- Influenced by Debussy and Ravel
- “The wolverines” his band
Canadian version of Paul Whiteman: Guy Lombardo (Royal Canadians)
- Maru lou Williams (Taught monk, tadd dameron, miles davis, Charlie parker, composer
and pianist)
WHITE BANDS:
- Glenn miller (In the mood), clarinet playing lead, tenor
- Radio connects us to the world
- Harry James
- Glenn Miller
- Artie Shaw
- Tommy Dorsey
- Benny Goodman
- Helen Forrest was the singer in white big bands
- Harry James (discovered Frank Sinatra)

Artie Shaw:
- The music business drove him crazy because he didn’t feel like the art and the business
went together
- “Nightmare”
- FIRST PERSON TO INTEGRATE A BAND with Billie Holiday (originally Helen Forrest)

Tommy Dorsey:
- Hired Frank Sinatra and Buddy Rich
- Good with money
- Jimmy and Tommy hosted the stage show and one of the first guests was Elvis

Benny Goodman:
- Great artistry and vision as entrepreneur
- Fully integrates his band
- ‘King of swing’
QUARTET: Lionel Hampton (percussion), Teddy Wilson (Piano), Gene Krupa (Drums).
- First PLAYING JAZZ IN CARNEGIE HALL: January 16th, 1938

Style characteristics of Coleman Hawkins:


- Wide fast vibrato
- Hard Sound
- Metal mouthpieces
- Vertical Playing
Style characteristics of Lester Young:
- Linear Style
- Softer – rubber mouthpiece
- Small/ no vibrato

BILLIE HOLIDAY:
- 13 she becomes a prostitute
- abused by men her you nger life
- becomes an alcoholic, heroin user
- John Hammond (Producer – Brunswick records), civil rights activist
- 1936, signs Billie: put out records w/ Teddy Wilson
- Signs with Basie band: gets fired bc too demanding segregation
- Gets deal w/ Columbia Records
- Abel Meerepol – Strange fruit poem
- Recorded pop songs – not getting paid royalties.
- Delivery of lyric
ELLA FITZGERALD:
- Norman grand
- Starts VERVE records
- 1956 – 1964 records 8 albums of composer based records:
1. Cole porter songbook
2. Rogers/Hart songbook
3. Duke Ellington songbook
4. Berlin songbook
5. George/Ira Gerswhin
6. Harold allen
7. Jerome Kern
8. Johnny Mercer
9. Jobim songbook

BASIE BAND SINGERS:


- Jimmy Rushing
- Big Joe Turner
- Joe Williams
- Billie Holiday
- Diane Schur
- Carmen Bradford

Prominent Arrangers:
- Sammy nestico
- Neal Hefti
- Frank Foster
- Thad Jones
- Quincy Jones
- Billy May

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