Big band facts for kids
A big band is a type of musical group that plays jazz music. These bands were very popular in the 1930s and 1940s. A big band usually has between 12 and 25 musicians. They often include a singer and people who play instruments like saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and drums. Some famous big band leaders were Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Cab Calloway, and Count Basie.
Big bands first started to play music for dancing. Unlike other jazz groups that focused a lot on musicians making up music on the spot (improvisation), big bands used written songs and arrangements. This meant the bandleaders, people who wrote the music (arrangers), and different sections of instruments had a bigger role than individual solo players.
Contents
Instruments
Big bands have four main sections of instruments:
- Trumpets
- Trombones
- Saxophones
- A rhythm section, which includes guitar, piano, double bass, and drums.
Today, some big bands can be much larger than older ones. They might have more than 20 players, with some European bands using 29 instruments and some even reaching 50!
History
Dance Music and Early Big Bands
Before 1910, popular dances in America included the waltz and polka. As jazz music moved from New Orleans to cities like Chicago and New York, new, energetic dances came with it. In the years that followed, dance halls were filled with people doing the jitterbug and Lindy Hop. The dance team Vernon and Irene Castle helped make the foxtrot popular. They danced to music played by the Europe Society Orchestra, led by James Reese Europe.
One of the first bands to play for these new dances was led by a drummer named Art Hickman in San Francisco in 1916. Hickman's arranger, Ferde Grofé, wrote music that divided the jazz orchestra into different sections. These sections would play together in various ways. This mixing of sections became a key feature of big bands.
In 1919, Paul Whiteman hired Grofé to use similar ideas for his band. Whiteman had a background in classical music. He called his band's new sound "symphonic jazz." These dance band methods were different from the older New Orleans jazz style. Most bandleaders started to create their own big bands to meet the demand for dance music. They added parts of Broadway, Tin Pan Alley, ragtime, and vaudeville music.
Duke Ellington led his famous band at the Cotton Club in Harlem. Fletcher Henderson became a bandleader at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City. At these popular places, bandleaders and arrangers became more important than before. Henderson and his arranger Don Redman changed jazz from its earlier New Orleans style as the 1920s went on. They had many talented musicians in their band, like Coleman Hawkins on tenor saxophone and Louis Armstrong on cornet.
The Swing Era
Swing music started to appear in the early 1930s. This music grew in popularity through the early 1930s. However, it didn't become widely popular until around 1936. Before that, some people didn't take it seriously. After 1935, big bands became very famous playing swing music. They played a big part in making swing a special and well-known style.
There were many different styles among the hundreds of popular big bands. Many of the well-known bands showed the unique style of their bandleader, main arranger, and musicians. For example, Count Basie played a relaxed, driving swing. Benny Goodman played a strong, energetic swing. Duke Ellington's songs were very varied and complex.
Many bands featured amazing solo musicians. These included the clarinets of Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw, the trombone of Jack Teagarden, the trumpet of Harry James, the drums of Gene Krupa, and the vibes of Lionel Hampton. The popularity of many big bands grew even more because of their star singers. These included Frank Sinatra with Tommy Dorsey, Ella Fitzgerald with Chick Webb, and Peggy Lee with Benny Goodman.
By this time, big bands were so important in jazz that older musicians had to change their style or stop playing. Because there wasn't much interest in small jazz groups, musicians like Louis Armstrong led their own big bands. Others, like Jelly Roll Morton, became less known.
Major "black" bands in the 1930s included those led by Ellington, Jimmie Lunceford, Chick Webb, and Count Basie. "White" bands like Benny Goodman's, Artie Shaw's, and Glenn Miller's became more popular than their "black" counterparts from the mid-1930s. The Casa Loma Orchestra and Benny Goodman's early band helped connect white audiences to this music.
Teenagers and young adults were the main fans of big bands in the late 1930s and early 1940s. They danced to recordings and radio music and went to live concerts.
Big bands helped lift spirits during World War II. Many musicians joined the military and toured with USO groups to entertain soldiers. Glenn Miller sadly died while traveling between shows. Many bands struggled because they lost musicians during the war. By the end of the war, swing music started to be replaced by other styles, like bebop, which was less for dancing. Many great swing bands broke up as times and musical tastes changed.
Modern Big Bands
Even though big bands are mostly known for the swing era, they continued to exist after the 1940s. The music they played often changed from swing.
As jazz music grew in the 1950s through the 1970s, the Basie and Ellington bands were still playing. Other bands were led by Buddy Rich, Gene Krupa, Lionel Hampton, and Les Brown. New, experimental bands were led by Dizzy Gillespie, Carla Bley, and Don Ellis.
In the 1960s and 1970s, "big band rock" became popular. This style mixed progressive rock, jazz fusion, and the strong horn sections often found in blues and soul music. Some famous groups included Chicago, Blood, Sweat and Tears, and Tower of Power. This style slowly became part of mainstream pop rock and jazz rock.
Today, modern big bands play all kinds of jazz music. In the late 1990s, there was a "swing revival" in the U.S. The Lindy Hop dance became popular again, and young people became interested in big band styles once more.
Big bands have also stayed present on American television. Late-night talk shows, for example, have often used big bands as their house bands.
Movies
Big bands started appearing in movies from the 1930s to the 1960s. Sometimes, bandleaders would make short appearances that weren't very important to the story. In the 1950s, movies were made about the lives of famous bandleaders like Glenn Miller, Gene Krupa, and Benny Goodman.
The bands led by Helen Lewis, Ben Bernie, and Roger Wolfe Kahn were filmed in 1925 by Lee de Forest. He used his special "Phonofilm" process, which recorded sound directly onto the film. These three short films are now part of the Library of Congress film collection.
Images for kids
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The United States Navy Band Northwest (NBNW) Big Band plays at a concert held in Oak Harbor High School.
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See also
In Spanish: Big band para niños
